HANDS FOR THE JOB
by Claudette J. Young
Loriann ran very fast. She could skip and jump, too.
She loved music and wanted to play the piano. Her heart and mind took flight when music played. But, alas, her fingers moved too slow to learn the quick light notes.
Loriann knew her fingers would never be fast like her feet. This made her very sad. Loriann’s mother baked her cookies. Still her sadness remained.
“Your hands were made for careful work,” her mother said.
“What kind of careful work?” asked Loriann.
“Let’s see,” her mother said.
First Loriann tried sewing with a large needle and yarn instead of thread. Then she tried stringing beads to make a necklace. Next Loriann tried cooking with her mother. Her talent did not shine with any of these tasks.
Finally one day, Loriann found a flower in the garden that had been pulled out of the ground. She quickly put it back into the soil. Then she watered it as her mother always did.
Loriann’s mother watched her and said, “You are a careful gardener, Loriann.”
“I didn’t want it to die,” she said. Loriann looked at her dirty hands.
“You will be a very good gardener. You care and you go slowly. Well done, Loriann.”
“Sometimes it’s good to be slow,” Loriann said and smiled up at her mother.
©2010 Claudette J Young
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Hands for the Job
