Which stick would you pick?

It was a Saturday evening,the kids and myself were playing a game of “pick up sticks”. In this game you drop a handful of sticks at one go on the floor or any flat surface and then with the help of one another stick you have to pick up each stick one by one making sure you don’t disturb the other.

As easy it may sound it requires a hell lot of patience and hand eye coordination to master each pick up. Some are easy picks while the others tricky.

We were all trying to grab as many sticks as possible taking turns. Some sticks remained parallel to one another while the other crisscrossed in a maze.

At that moment my older one pointed to two parallel sticks and said “This is you and that is dad, mom”. “And the ones crossing are bhaiya and me” chuckled Anaya, my younger one.

I spontaneously asked them why they say so? “Because we always fight”, Anaya added instantly and “ you and papa are always there to support us like pillars”,concluded Sparsh.

I was taken back by the observation of these two budding minds. And then asked “So which one is a better pair, cross or parallel?”

After a few minutes they said in unison “none,It’s better to be like a circle” While their answer was random, it makes complete sense to me.

Sometimes relations run parallel to one another, like railway tracks they remain together side by side but never meet. They give structure to oneself supports the other and compliments each other too. It’s an irony they never meet. Sad! But it’s worse if they crisscross at a certain point and drift apart forever.

My life lesson learnt over a simple game with kids. What did you learn today?

Happiness and sunshine

Nidhi

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