What I Learned From Knots

Untying Knots

I remember as a four year old child my mother saw that I was able to untie knots. So she would tie strings into knots to see if I could untie them. I quickly learned which part of the knot would slip first and which part would loosen first. For a long time looking back on this, I thought of it as mean spirited. I also thought maybe it would just give her a kick just to observe me do it.

When my daughter was about 2 years old, I could give her a package that was very hard for an adult to open. She would look at it. She would bang it on the floor. In about 5 minutes or less she would have the package open. I don't know if I was getting a kick out of seeing her successfully open the package or I was totally amazed at the ingenuity of a child.

About a year ago my friend was talking to my cousin, and my cousin gave my friend the key to my childhood personality and why my mother did some of the things she did. So I call my cousin who grew under the tutelage of my mother. My cousin said that my mother knew the difference between the personalities of my brother and I. We both had inquiring minds and it was very hard to keep us still. We were always exploring. Mother began giving us problems to solve sometimes to keep us occupied and sometimes to see if we could solve them. For me, no matter what problem she gave me I could solve it very quickly. She was always amazed at my ingenuity also. For many years a string of knots was my problem to solve.

In my adult life I have been given many knots to untie, philosophically of course. None the less, I don't know if I have solved them like the knots my mother used to give me.

I still strive every day to be what God would have me to be,  even if it means I still have to untie knots.