17. The Wind is blowing
Summer camp and Debbie was the counselor for the four-year-olds. There was a line for the bathroom and suddenly the little four-year-old boy who would be next started to cry loudly. Debbie came over quickly and said, “Tony whatever is the matter?” Tony said through his tears. “I don’t want to wait. I want to go to the bathroom NOW.” Debbie assured him it would just be a few minutes.
The bathroom door opened, the other child came out, and Tony went in. Debbie stood, waiting for him, and suddenly his tears started again. She opened the door and he stood there crying and crying. Debbie said, “Tony, you’re having your turn now. What’s the matter?”
Tony looked up at the open window in the bathroom and the curtain that was blowing in the breeze. He said, as he continued to cry, “The curtain is blowing. The curtain is blowing.”
Debbie knelt down and said, “Tony, the curtain is blowing because the wind is blowing. We can’t stop the wind from blowing.”
Tony’s crying accelerated as he sobbed, “But I don’t like the wind blowing. I don’t like it at all!”
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I so identified with this four-year-old. I have recognized all the times when I have suddenly wanted something NOW. Or the other times when something is happening and I do not like it at all. Those are the times when I need a gentle camp counselor. And I have learned that sometimes I’m lucky and I have someone like that counselor, and sometimes I don’t and I just have to deal.
