My dad once said, “honestly, I cannot wait to retire so I can buy my myself a giant excavator and dump truck. I could dig great holes all day, and fill them back up. I could do that ALL DAY LONG. Nothing better than a well dug hole.”
Context: my dad was a general contractor in the corporate sector. He built a business, lost it all, then built a career again. He was 3 inches shy of 7ft tall. No one messed with Big Barney.
Through all his work, he found the most satisfying part of a job was digging the foundation. It’s what the whole project hinged on. He could handle the complicated jobs, so they always sent him. Most of the time, he insisted on being present and if not doing the digging being there for this most important part. The whole of his work relied on the perfection of this hole.
When I said I wanted to play basketball ( I was terrible), he took me after work to practice with who he thought was the best coach around. To this day, my best coach ever. My dad took me to every practice & every game for that first season and stayed, making sure I was learning the right things. I had to walk all around the neighborhood carrying that dumb ball. Dribbling it, carrying it, trying not to get it knocked out of my hands by a sneak attack. Why? Because it’s the foundation of the skillset. It’s the base you work from, where our kids confidence stems and grow.
Make sure you dig a good hole today.
steelemommy 