Some of you didn’t know my husband could dance.
My husband had heard of a haunted house down by the Kankakee River and we drove down to check it out. Found the two story, boarded up house and ran into the owner while we were trespassing on his property. As it turned out he was willing to sell the house and 35 acres. (That in itself is a story of it’s own) So, now we have a farm, we need a tractor. The only one we could afford was an old Allis Chalmers WD 45 narrow front end tractor. Then we got a little plow, and we were in business. Now this tractor had a crank start, but if you pulled it a few feet, it would pop right off. My husband always tried to do three days work in one day, before he had to go to his job that actually paid money. This particular morning he wasn’t watching and ran the tractor out of gas. After he gassed it up he came into the house to get his pregnant wife to get into the old duel axle farm truck to pull start the Allis. Being short, I had to pull on the steering wheel in order to press down on the clutch and shift the truck. He told me to go slow and get the slack out of the chain then go for it. I did it gingerly, and killed the truck. Time ticking away and his time of getting things done slipping by, he appeared next to the truck and told me for the third time to give the *** truck some gas! So, wanting to please my husband, did exactly what he told me and was so pleased when I felt the truck gliding through the field! Success, I thought, he will be so happy. Instead my reverie was interrupted by my husband, out the truck window flapping his arms up and down screaming and yelling. I really didn’t know people could turn that shade of red! “You pulled the *** tractor in half!” I stopped the truck and looked behind me, and sure enough, it looked like the tractor just fell out of the sky, and behind the truck I had been pulling the front axle and the radiator. The fan blades were buried in the dirt. My husband had stomped into the old shed where we stored our stuff and threw his 200 pound tool box out the window. To me this was a gauge of how angry he was, so I took my little pregnant self into the house post-haste! Hearing him yelling that I was going to help him fix this before his friends could see it!
You are wondering why I have put this in the blog? It is this simple, bad things happen everyday to every one, but we live through them. And as it happened in this case, my husband knew there was a crack in the front axle mount and had already bought a replacement. Of course digging it out of the dirt added to his labour’s, but in the end, no one was hurt and all was well in our little farm world. (I finally came out of the house when I knew he cooled down) To this day it is seared in my mind’s eye, seeing him outside the truck window, doing what I lovingly call the, funky chicken dance. Funny the dance never caught on, at least I never see it at weddings!
As parents we need to teach our children to keep our tempers in check, as nothing is accomplished by getting angry to the point of loosing control. Everyone gets mad, but teach them how to channel that anger’s energy into something positive. Easier said than done I know, but living by example is the key.
We as authors have been known to never make the hero lose his or her temper. It is okay to get angry, but use that energy to split firewood or bake bread in the story. Then something positive and productive can be garnered from that angry energy. Busy hands are also a good way to think. So when we get frustrated because we have writers block, go do something positive.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
I Corinthians 10:13
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I Corinthians 15:58
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Colossians 3:23
Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
Romans 2:6
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:9