She came to my shop with a broken hula hoop.
"Can you fix the diameter?" she asked. She was maybe 7 years old, with dust on her knees.
I laughed....... "I'm a welder, not a toy maker, but let me see"
The hoop was bent, not round anymoreee. More like an egg. She told me her brother sat on it.
I tried to make it round again. I measured the diameter with my old rusty tape. 28 inches. I bent it, hit it, sweated. But every time I fixed one side, the other side bent(sigh).
"You can't fix it,"she whispered.
I was about to say sorry, but then she took it from my hands....... She stepped inside the bent hoop, not round at all, and started to spin it around her waist. It wobbled, it was ugly, but it spun. And she was laughing so loud, the whole workshop was ringing...>🔔<
"It doesn't have to be perfect to spin," _she said.
I haven't forgotten that. That was 12 years ago.
Now whenever my life bends — when Hive doesn't pay, when Fiverr has no order, when my designs get rejected — I remember her. My diameter is bent, but I'm still spinning.
Some circles don't need to be perfect to keep moving.
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