Notes from Creekside: How to eat an elephant

What happens when you have to count on someone else to do something that you can’t. It’s kind of like the question, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I was about 11 or 12 when I asked my dad, who did masonry work, if I dug a goldfish pond, would he pour concrete in it for me. He was pouring the front porch the next day. He said if he had concrete left over that yeah maybe he would do that. So I stayed up till 2am digging a hole. I am sure it was comical for them to peek out and keep checking on me. At least I hoped they would. My sister wanted to go in and go to bed. Me being the brave person I was and given how dark it was with only the porch light, I asked her to just lay down on the dirt pile and go to sleep. Thankfully she did. The hole seemed big to me, but in reality it was only 10 to 12" deep and maybe 5' wide. It seemed like it was huge by the time I finished digging. My sister wanted to go to bed and I begged her to just lay down on the dirt pile and I’ll do all the digging. She didn’t have to do anything, I just didn’t wanna be in the dark by myself. I was digging by the front porch light. The next morning I was gifted some concrete and a borrowed trowel and went to work. The concrete was a little dry and pretty rough. But I did it and they let me. I think that set the foundation for goal setting and knowing all things are possible. Yes it was dug under a walnut tree and goldfish would not live long in it. But that did not matter to me. That little act I think probably set the foundation for knowing I can do things and challenge myself, even if sometimes it can be hard.