I’m in my basement, an overwhelming musty smell making me crinkle my nose. Arms and head hanging, I inspect the puddles of water that are slowly creeping from one wall out across the floor. As you would expect, water in a basement — except, perhaps, for those rich enough to have a pool or hot tub down there — is not a good thing. In fact, it kind of ruins my day.
I march myself back upstairs and gather up an armload of old towels (the upside to having two dogs? There is no shortage of towels around the house…) and head back down to sop up the water that’s already there and put up a barrier against the water that continues to drip in. See, a week ago we had the 5th biggest snowfall in Chicago history. And today? The temperature is nearing 40 degrees and the ice dams in my poor gutters are drip drip dripping down the house and magically seeping through to my basement.
After reining in the puddles, I go back outside and look at all the ice that’s formed in my gutters, on my roof, attached to my downspout and even simply frozen directly to the side of the brick wall. This is certainly not what I wanted to be dealing with this weekend. Curses! I wanted to enjoy the unseasonably warm temperatures rather than shaking my fist at their consequences.
It’s still so hard to figure, though — we also get torrential rain storms during the summer and does the rain get into the basement? Nope — dry as a bone. This water is just dribbling down the wall, looking a whole lot like the coming of Spring (it isn’t, by the way, just wishful thinking on my part) but it’s persistence does what the torrential rain storm cannot: seep through my foundation and end up pooling around my workout equipment (hey! reason #26 not to workout!).
So, yea, this kind of sucks, but maybe I should look on the bright side, right? What’s the moral of this story? That slow, steady movement can really go a long way in breaking through barriers, even brick walls. Where raging strength fails, persistence can succeed. There’s a life lesson for you. And now? The only ice I’m going to deal with are the three cubes clinking around in my glass, helping to end the day better than it started.
Ooh, I love this! You really got me in the end. It reminds me of this river I saw in Peru where the stones were beautifully smooth and rounded, worn down by the constant flow of water. A great reminder that slow and steady can win the race.
Oh no! You poor thing. We discovered a leaky area in the foundation of our home when we moved in almost fifteen years ago and I still remember how traumatic that was. I love how you find the metaphor even in these rather trying circumstances: “slow, steady movement can really go a long way in breaking through barriers.” I’m going to take that thought with me into the day and see if I can tackle my to do list with a little more grace, beginning with some movement!