A Tractor in a Tree

When I was a little girl, I drove my grandpa's tractor up a tree.

And here's the proof.

That looks pretty scary!

This is one of the kids favorite stories about what a naughty little girl I was. 

Aaron was in charge of the steering wheel, I was in charge of the brake, but it turned out that the ancient pine tree we failed to maneuver around was the real boss of this adventure!

As soon as the tractor started driving up the tree we both bailed off of it and went running while my grandpa's new riding tractor was crumpled and resting in a tree!  

I knew my life was officially over.  I don't know where Aaron went but I ran down to the "doll room" (my mom's once childhood bedroom, I believe), stuffed myself into the cedar-lined closet amongst my grandmother's real fur coats and her fanciest dresses and hats that were carefully contained in hat boxes from decades gone by and told my sister Heather to bring me some grapes and a slice of bread to eat because there was no way I was ever coming out of that closet again!

Despite my plan, I was eventually discovered and guided out to the shed, where my Grandpa Gardner was pounding out the crumpled hood of the tractor.  It wasn't ruined or permanently broken after all, it just needed a little bit of fixing.  

So Aaron and I stood there while the wind blew and and the doors of the shed tried to bang closed on us and the farm dust swirled up and around the ramp that led into the shed.  Grandpa probably let us swing the rubber mallet a time or two, but for the most part we just had to stand there and suffer in silence while he took care of our mistake.  

And that feels a lot like repentance.  We can try our best to do our best, but we are going to mess up a time or two (dozen... every day) but the important thing is that we correct our mistakes when they do come.  That we own them, and that we keep trying a little harder to be a little better when the next time comes... not that Grandpa ever let us drive his tractor again!