A Shovel at a Time

One day, some time ago, my teenage daughter came bounding into the house, breathless and with a huge smile,  "Mom," she said, "I heard the best quote today. Do you want to hear it?"  After an amused nod from me at her obvious eagerness, she repeated the words, "By the yard, it's hard, but inch by inch, it's a cinch."  She was even more thrilled to find that I had actually heard the quote before.  I had to chuckle inside at her enthusiasm for a quote that for me had lost its appeal after being repeated so often over the years.  I had to wonder how at the age of 15 she had somehow missed hearing these simple words.  To her this quote was completely amazing and had even sparked in her a new wonder and zest for life.

I've thought about this quote since then. The message given is straightforward, but valuable.  If we try to solve a really big problem all at once, it may seem impossible at times, but if we break it down into little pieces the problem becomes much easier to overcome, bit by bit.  

Photo Courtesy of Oleksandros via Flickr

I am reminded of an experience I had a few years ago.  My husband was just recovering from an unexpected heart attack.  We'd had an especially large amount of snow that year, just like this year.  After several large storms, there was literally a mountain of snow on both sides of the driveway, but there was also a mountain of snow in front of the mailbox due to repeated passes by the snow plows.  We'd received a message from the postal service telling us that we needed to clear the area around the mailbox in order for the mail to be delivered.  I remember looking at that mountain of snow and ice that was almost as tall as me and wondering how in the world was I ever going to be able to move it.  I was tired from taking care of five kids and a husband.  I'd already been shoveling snow for days and was really sore.  The task seemed especially daunting to someone who was definitely not the epitome of upper body strength, but I knew this was my mountain to move.  There was just no one else to move it.  I remember thinking of the Lord's words about faith and moving mountains.  His words encouraged me because I knew then like I know now that we don't have to have the faith to move mountains all at once, we only need to have the faith to move mountains a shovel at a time. Eventually after many shovelfuls, some large and some wimpy, I was able to shovel my mountain down to nothing. 

All of us have challenges in life, some as large as mountains, but they all can be overcome a shovel or an inch at a time.  Whatever the challenge may be, whether it be weight-loss, debt, addiction, or depression, we just need to have the faith to take one shovel and then another until our "mountain" is removed.  If the shovel seems too heavy, we can break down our challenges into even smaller bits if we need to. 

A wise man, Garth Toone, once said, "I have learned that success is often measured in millimeters... Rather than expecting miracles overnight, I have learned to repeat the words, 'Have I done any good in the world today?' and if so, count that as success."

Sometimes our progress does come in millimeters, but even if we are working in millimeters we are moving in the right direction and we are bringing good to the world.  Louisa May Alcott has said, "Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.  I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead."  

Let us set our sights on our own aspirations!  Let us follow where they lead, bit by bit.  We can do it!  Someday our "mountains" will be removed with a little faith, a shovel at a time. 

Stuck in a Rut?

Have you ever had a rut problem?  Well, lately I've been having one.  And it is about time I stopped being stuck in it.  Living in Utah in January during an inversion is pretty much like living in dry ice smoke.  It's bitter cold, hard to breathe, and lacking in sunshine. It's rather depressing actually.  I think it's part of my rut problem, but definitely not all of it.  I'm feeling sluggish after the holidays, crazy in the head, and a bit downhearted.  In fact, I didn't realize just how bad I was stuck in my preoccupied rut until this last Sunday when I discovered that I'd entirely forgotten something very necessary.  I'm embarrassed to say that I became so scatterbrained getting my family ready for church that I actually forgot to wear a bra.  And to make matters worse, for 6 full hours I had no clue that I was even without one.

Photo Courtesy of Christopher Sessums via Flickr

 

Now to some of you this might not seem like a very big deal, but I've never gone outside without a brassiere since I was in fifth grade. In fact, I absolutely shouldn't. I can't even explain to my own brain how it even could have happened unless I tell myself that DownEast must put a lot of spandex in their t-shirts.  Other than that, I think I've completely lost it and gone out of my mind.  I actually don't remember having such a tough time overcoming feeling so out of it not since I was nine years old.

The favorite activity for all of my friends when I was a kid was riding bikes.  Packs of kids would race through the neighborhood having a great old time.  But I couldn't participate in this joyous freedom because, much to my embarrassment, I didn't know how to ride a bike.  And by the age of nine this had become a huge, humiliating problem.  It meant that I got left out and left behind.  Well, one day I decided that I'd had enough.  I decided that I was tired of being left out and left behind.  I vowed I would teach myself to ride a bike no matter what the cost. And so I wheeled my hand-me-down purple bike out of the garage and down our steep driveway. 

I lived on a street that had deep gutters and I found that if I put my bike in the gutter, I could push along with my feet on each side of the gutter all the way around the block back to my house.  That is exactly what I did for several days until I found my balance.  After I learned to balance, I learned to put one foot on the pedal and push.  I wouldn't even pedal all the way around at first.  I would just push hard on the pedal and coast as far as I could.  It was not without misfortune, however.  There was one place on the block where the gutter was especially filled with silt and mud.  I got stuck there often and actually fell in once, covering my legs with the awful mucky stuff.  It was hard to keep going after that, but I wanted to learn so badly.  I wanted to be free and with my friends and out of that restrictive rut. 

Eventually I learned to pedal all the way around with both feet and I found that if I just kept pedaling, it was easier to keep going all the way around the block.  I still fell sometimes, and I fell hard.  Riding around in a gutter wasn't the safest place to ride a bike.  There was a lot of stuff in that gutter that got in the way.  Steering helped eventually.  Once I learned to put the pedaling and steering together, I could avoid most of the sand, the rocks, and other junk.  Not much time passed before I realized I was ready to leave the gutter.  One day I pedaled super hard right out of the rut and I found that I was completely free with the wind in my hair and a thrill in my heart. 

While I was contemplating this morning on freeing myself from this annoying and depressing January rut, I realized that I'd taught myself years ago some important truths when I learned how to ride a bike:

1. First, decide that you've had enough and you are going to get out of your rut, no matter what!  Focus your energy on gaining freedom from whatever is that is keeping you stuck.

2. Find your balance.  Sometimes it take a few trips around the block using the sides of the rut for needed support.  It's impossible to get your balance with just one try.  Make little changes.  If something isn't working, try something new.  Whatever you do, do something that will bring a lasting change to get you out of your hum drums.

3. Put your foot on one pedal and coast.  Go easy on yourself.  Things are not going to get better all at once.  It takes work and it takes time.  So if there are bumps and messes along the way, don't get discouraged.  It will all turn out alright eventually with just a little practice.

4. Don't stop pedaling.  Keep going.  Someday you'll look back on this and be glad that you didn't give up.  In the words of Martin Luther King, "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

  

5. Get a grip and steer.  There will always be obstacles to leaving your rut.  Do your best to steer clear of them.  If you keep pedaling and keep steering, eventually you'll find your way out, no matter how deep.

6. Pedal hard when you're ready.  There are much better roads ahead!  As soon as you leave your rut there will be wind in your hair and a thrill in your heart and the knowledge that you can overcome anything!

Choosing a Better Ending

Did you ever read those "Choose Your Own Adventure Books" when you were a kid, where you could take on the role of the protagonist and make choices that would determine the main character's actions and eventually decide the conclusion of the exciting tale?  One of the reasons I love writing so much is that I can choose amazing endings for all of my own character's stories.  It's like my own "Choose Your Own Adventure Book" where I can follow my character's development all the way to the story's satisfying end.  It's too bad that I sometimes forget that I am also living my own, "Choose Your Own Adventure" story and I can also direct and redirect my own life's experiences.  In the midst of a particularly bad week, I read this amazing quote.  "At any given moment you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end."  

How glad I was to internalize these words.  This last week has certainly brought many challenges that I would definitely like to free myself from.  Sometimes life gets hard and we get mired down in the toughness of it and forget that ultimately we have the power to look for a better solution in living our own life story.  All of us experience hardships and disappointments along life's journey.  But even if we are bogged down in a lot of crud and muck we can change life into something beautiful. 

A few years back I had the amazing opportunity of visiting Switzerland and hiking in the gorgeous Swiss Alps.  As my husband and I were hiking along at the base of the Matterhorn one afternoon, I came across a curious sight.  The mountainside was dotted with the occasional goat pie from those wonderful, happy, hairy, bell-clad, Swiss goats, but right in the middle of the trail was a splendid dried specimen that was crowned with stunning purple flowers.  The fact that something so beautiful could arise from something so dire was frankly inspiring to me, and so I took a picture.  Those little flowers taught me a lesson:  even if you are surrounded by crap, you can still turn your face toward the sunshine and become something noteworthy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson has said, "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

  

No matter where we are on the road of life or what kind of muck lies in our way we can change our direction.  I'm ready to be done with the "nonsense" of this week and choose a different adventure, one with a much better outcome, one with an inspiring view at the end of the story.  I hope we can all remember that it's never too late to choose a better ending!  

In the words of Jeffrey R. Holland, "Don’t give up. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”  

"Imaginations in the Basement"

When my daughter, Jessica, was just six-years-old, she would not go down into our unfinished basement alone.  She would say, “Mom, I don’t want to go downstairs.  My imagination is down there.”   She even had her four-year-old brother, Jonathan, saying, “I don’t want to go down there alone.  Jessica’s imagination is downstairs.”  They made this “imagination” into such a huge scary boogeyman that the two of them missed many fun filled hours that they could have spent playing in the basement.  Their missed opportunities have made me reflect upon my own life. How often have I missed an opportunity because I let my own imagination get the best of me?  

Martin Luther King, Jr. has said, "To take the first step in faith, you don't have to see the whole staircase: just take the first step." 

For dozens of years I've been writing, but always I've been afraid to put myself out there, to risk rejection and judgment.  Honestly, I've completed three novels and only sent out two query letters.  One for each of the first two novels.  I sent them both to the same top literary agency in New York and each rejection letter that came back was enough to send me cowering; even though both letters were complimentary and full of praise.  I admit it, I'm not incredibly courageous, at least not in opening myself up to the world, and yet here I am expressing myself on the World Wide Web. 

One of my favorite books is The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson.  He writes a lot about how our dreams always live outside our comfort zone.  He tells us, "Courage is not the absence of fear; rather it's choosing to act in spite of fear."

The Lord tells us, "Fear not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am the God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee..."  I believe this to be true.  God cares about even the simple things that matter to us, especially those things we are trying to overcome.

We all have “imaginations in the basement” that we need to be rid of in order to follow our dreams.  I have discovered many times that fear can dissipate when we face it squarely and put our hand in the hand of God.  We just need to take that first step down the stairs, so to speak. And so I'm choosing today to live outside my "imaginations in the basement" and act in spite of fear.  In the next few days I will be posting some excerpts from each of my novels.  I hope you will enjoy them.  Please let me know what you think!