Garden-hose to Fire-hose: a story about opportunity
My wife and I moved into our new house recently and when they laid the sod it was the dead of summer. Our grass turned yellow immediately which meant we had to water like crazy, which meant our typical apartment water bill (which was covered by the complex) was going to be high because we had a house now, and now it was going to be way high because I had to give my grass a bath everyday.
Anyway, one of my sprinkler setups for my front yard has three little spouts that flower water out across the yard. Its great, it just takes a while to soak the yard, and I have to move it a couple times to make sure I cover the whole yard. One recent Saturday morning I set my sprinklers up and sat down on the couch to read and drink my coffee. All of the sudden I hear a loud noise from the house under construction next to us. It sounded like metal being sprayed with bb’s.
Because I pride myself on living a curious life, I sprang to my feet, ran out the front door, and over to the next door house to see what the construction crew was doing. I immediately grew as excited as an eight year old on Christmas when I recognized what was happening. The grass had just been put down at that house as well and they had sent someone out there to water it. But he wasn’t using a tiny hose like me, he had a fire hose hooked up to the fire hydrant. The noise I heard was the water spraying the gutter.
As I noticed this, the man watering that yard noticed me, as he jammed out to his headphones! As we locked eyes, coffee mug in my one hand, I cultivated my free hand into a pointing motion, waved it back and forth over my lawn, while giving him my best dad face that was a gentle head nod, smile-frown kind of look that clearly indicated I was asking a question.
Without hesitation he took out one of his headphones, stopped the hose, and asked, “Do you want me to water your yard too?”, with a smile. I then gleefully responded with, “I’d be flattered, let me just turn off my dinky hose.” And just like that, as I stood and watched, he drenched my yard within forty-five seconds. What a gift.
The moral of the story is this: Create opportunities for yourself - or maybe it’s to Ask for things; idk you decide. But I know that for me it only strengthened my asking muscle. It made it clear to me that life is good using your own little sprinkler, but that its freaking awesome using a firehose. I might not always have access to a big fire hose, but when the opportunity arises, you better believe I’m using it.
Every single one of us on earth has been given the precious gift of life. In the meantime most of our days our consistent and steady like my sprinkler system, but sometimes we have days that can be as exciting as a firehose watering a small yard. Lean into opportunites, ask for more of them, be curious, looking for ways to take your live to the next level, and strive to turn the mundane into the extraordinary.