Stuckness For Sale

Walking our ridiculously small dog last week, my husband and I talked about the attitude of puppies. He is learning his role on the leash, and in his collar, (the dog…not my husband) but that doesn’t stop him from lunging at the birds who flit from branch to branch miles above his head.

“Buddy, you’re never going to get them, you know,” my husband laughs at him.

“He’ll figure that out…someday,” I say sadly, “But if he stops believing he might have a shot at ’em, he’ll turn into a bitter, old dog,” I said.

Silence accompanied us for a while. We both know we are more like old dogs than we are like bouncy puppies.

It happens to people, too, you know. We start with these grandiose ideas, riding on possibilities and dreams, and then, as time goes by, we realize the dreams  may not happen the way we imagined they would. We stop jumping and sadly mope as we trudge along.

That’s the feeling today.  Trudging through sticky (and snow-covered) mud.

We’re all stuck between winter and spring.

The dog is stuck inside.

Middle Sprout is stuck wearing the one approved skirt that actually fits her appropriately.

Little Sprout is stuck home because she’s not quite big enough to go to school with the big sprouts.

Big Sprout is stuck between being a kid and a teenager.

Pappa Sprout is stuck having to leave us for work next week.

And I’m stuck…helpless to do anything about any of it.

It’s my job, you know.  As the emotional leader of this family I am in charge of how we get through this stuckness.

So, I’ve had it! This overwhelming and stifling stuckness is officially for sale.

It’s really a good buy…honestly.  You can be stuck in this fine house at the end of a friendly cul-de-sac. You can be stuck with the maintenance of a beautiful lake cabin that is fun both winter and summer. Our stuckness includes good health, busy schedules, lots of laughter, and …well, when you put it that way…it’s really not that bad.

Yes, there is impending separation, and a hope to be doing something else, something bigger, with our lives, but where we’re stuck is not so bad.  And even better, it’s not permanent. Life moves, things change and we will find ourselves in another kind of stuck very soon.

No matter where we move, what we do, how we sit, there is a stuckness there.

It’s easy to look around, and think, I want their life.  But, you know what?  They are stuck too. We buy and sell and trade and negotiate for a different kind of stuck.

There are people who would give everything they have to feel as “stuck” as we do.

Stuck happens, but it isn’t a real place. It is a state of mind, and if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go change mine.