When there's a wall
On Tuesday morning the kitten threw up on the floor. In four different spots, all of them on the living room carpet. I told the cat that I hated him and the boys begged me not to sell him. Of course I would never sell him; the cat stays. He stays in spite of puke, litter box messes, couch scratching, screen climbing and everything else that one little five pound fuzzball can dish out. But in that moment I felt as though I'd run face first into this brick wall called life and my will wasn't going to carry me one step further.
It might have been the rushing about to get children ready for school, feeding them breakfast, finding clothes, checking backpacks, hoping that this would be a morning that left me enough time to eat breakfast.
It might have been the looming knowledge of my husband's foot surgery. (Nothing dire, he only broke it. Twice. In one week. I know that it probably violates wife code to mock him in his infirmity, but such is the relationship that we have. When we mock, we mock in love.) I'm staring down at least four weeks of him being underfoot while he recuperates. Four weeks of me shouldering All The Tasks and I am being a bit of whiny baby about it. Although four weeks of just me and my computer sounds a little bit heavenly and so I am jealous.
It might have been the stress of work, suddenly a staff without a pastor, the fear of not knowing if we will be up to the task of carrying on the vision. Of being certain that something will get forgotten, or dropped, or a million things that could go wrong. On day one I already called animal control on the sprinkler guy's dog. Although in my defense, unless it is a special, sprinkler problem sniffing dog, it should not be digging unattended on the corner of our building. And so the dog became a metaphor for all of the things that I SHOULD know about but am now worried that I don't know about.
And yes, it might have been that sometime that morning one of my best friends would be hitting the interstate heading east, and it is entirely possible to be excited for someone's new adventure and heartbroken all at the same time.
And so, on Tuesday morning I knelt on the floor sponging up cat puke with tears running down my face.
I don't know what your cat puke is, but I know that sooner or later all of us feel as if we've run into a wall.
Maybe it's a sick child, a job change, family difficulties, changes in your life that you just didn't sign up for. And so you pull up the chair and you sit down and stare at the wall because quite frankly you don't know what else to do. There doesn't seem to be a way around it, over it, through it or under it.
Pull up a chair next to mine, we'll sit here and stare at our walls awhile together, ok? We've been here before, against the wall, with tearstained cheeks and tired bodies. And do you know what I think? Sometimes a wall isn't so much an obstacle as it is a marker, a resting place. It's the place where we finally have to stop all of our trying and our fixing and our worrying because there's a wall there and we can't do a blessed thing about it right now.
So I'm just going to sit here for a bit, in the midst of everything that is in my way and I'm not going to try to change a thing. I'll place my hands on the wall and trace the cracks, find the stains, the green of moss and the smell of damp earth. I will go toe to toe with this wall and feel how it cools in the dark and warms in the light.
And one day...one day when I have rested long enough I will push back the chair and I will stand to my feet. I will place my hand against the wall and I will trace my way out. Step by step, I will discover where the wall is pointing me. Through darkness, towards light, I can't really say. But I'll be ready to move again, no matter what is waiting at the edge of the wall.
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| Cute, but pukey. |
It might have been the rushing about to get children ready for school, feeding them breakfast, finding clothes, checking backpacks, hoping that this would be a morning that left me enough time to eat breakfast.
It might have been the looming knowledge of my husband's foot surgery. (Nothing dire, he only broke it. Twice. In one week. I know that it probably violates wife code to mock him in his infirmity, but such is the relationship that we have. When we mock, we mock in love.) I'm staring down at least four weeks of him being underfoot while he recuperates. Four weeks of me shouldering All The Tasks and I am being a bit of whiny baby about it. Although four weeks of just me and my computer sounds a little bit heavenly and so I am jealous.
It might have been the stress of work, suddenly a staff without a pastor, the fear of not knowing if we will be up to the task of carrying on the vision. Of being certain that something will get forgotten, or dropped, or a million things that could go wrong. On day one I already called animal control on the sprinkler guy's dog. Although in my defense, unless it is a special, sprinkler problem sniffing dog, it should not be digging unattended on the corner of our building. And so the dog became a metaphor for all of the things that I SHOULD know about but am now worried that I don't know about.
And yes, it might have been that sometime that morning one of my best friends would be hitting the interstate heading east, and it is entirely possible to be excited for someone's new adventure and heartbroken all at the same time.
And so, on Tuesday morning I knelt on the floor sponging up cat puke with tears running down my face.
I don't know what your cat puke is, but I know that sooner or later all of us feel as if we've run into a wall.
Pull up a chair next to mine, we'll sit here and stare at our walls awhile together, ok? We've been here before, against the wall, with tearstained cheeks and tired bodies. And do you know what I think? Sometimes a wall isn't so much an obstacle as it is a marker, a resting place. It's the place where we finally have to stop all of our trying and our fixing and our worrying because there's a wall there and we can't do a blessed thing about it right now.
So I'm just going to sit here for a bit, in the midst of everything that is in my way and I'm not going to try to change a thing. I'll place my hands on the wall and trace the cracks, find the stains, the green of moss and the smell of damp earth. I will go toe to toe with this wall and feel how it cools in the dark and warms in the light.
And one day...one day when I have rested long enough I will push back the chair and I will stand to my feet. I will place my hand against the wall and I will trace my way out. Step by step, I will discover where the wall is pointing me. Through darkness, towards light, I can't really say. But I'll be ready to move again, no matter what is waiting at the edge of the wall.
"I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me." Psalm 3:5 (NIV)
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