Friday, February 29, 2008

Patience lesson for the day

My son loves animals more than people. I do too on certain days. Having worked in retail most of my life. So on this new visit he came with his Yorkie and his tank with hermit crabs.

Yup, a large tank with hermit crabs. You would think these are easy to take care off, think again,
they need a certain food without chemicals, spring water, salt water a change of housing (hence many shells around the tank ,) net to for the acrobatic acts and so forth.

Hermit crabs are throw away pets for the most part. Kids at a beach visit will beg the mom for one and have not a clue what to do with them. Soon they die.
And then there are people like my offspring who keep them for years. Yes, they can live very long lives in their tanks.

Today I learned a lesson from one of them. I learned that one should never give up.
That patience is indeed much needed in my situation.

One hermit crab decided to climb up to the top of the tank on a slippery small plastic tube.
I watched it for about 30 minutes, it would climb a few inches and slide back down.
Then reach half way and oops slide back down again on the slippery plastic.
I got sleepy watching the enormous struggle this little animal had in making it to the top
but after an hour he indeed reached the top and hung upside down on the mesh top.

Not once did he give up, no matter how many times he was sliding back to the base.
He decided to reach that top no matter how long it would take, no matter how hard it would be.
He showed me perseverance and patience.
I will keep his message in mind, well ....at least for this evening

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