Being stuck is something I know very well. I felt stuck in my living environment for 11 years.
I was a country girl growing up, and wasn't used to all the hustle and bustle on the streets, loud sirens, and stacks of smoke filling my starry sky.
I craved surroundings slightly more green, where the limbs of trees seemed to stretch to the sun, spilling through the air like varicose veins.
Even though I had a few things I enjoyed about living in the city, my heart really longed to live in an Anne of Green Gables-esque environment.
I was very distraught trying to figure out how I would get "back home" to that kind of living. I jotted down notes, and connected the dots, but nothing ever really got me to where I wanted to be.
Then, it became clear to me that I had existed in the city for so long, and that I wasn't probably going to get the chance to live in the country any time soon.
At first, it was denial. I kicked and cussed, and stomped my foot. "It wasn't fair!" I thought, to be stuck like this, living somewhere you don't want to be.
When I came to my senses, and my analytical side took over, I found a surprising bit of hope to cling to.
After Googling on the topic, I found a few blogs that knocked some sense into me, and I knew that what they were saying applied to me.
Instead of trying to get away, and escape what I had, I had to accept what I had.
Not only did I have to accept it, I had to genuinely embrace it, and become involved in it with an excited spirit.
I had to fall in love with the city.
What did this mean for me? It meant, relief first of all.
Relief that I wasn't failing in fulfilling what it was that I really wanted.
I didn't have to beat myself up over that anymore, because I was allowing myself to be where I was.
I had welcomed the idea to wanting what I had.
Gradually, I have grown closer to the city, and closer to my husband who loves it here, and has great success here.
I started looking for ways to fall in love with what was. And, in the pain of letting go of my prized ideas of happiness, I found that I really did like it here after all.
In being stuck, when I decided to welcome it, and observe it, and allow it to be as it was, I let go of my stress and failures, and am happy I did.
When we are stuck, we can stop, and feel the situation.
Is there something that your life is trying to tell you?
What is it that you need to do or stop doing?
What kinds of things can you learn from being stuck?
I'm stuck now, and let me tell you... It's a very painful process, but with the pain I can let it move through me.
I can watch it leave me.
And I can watch for what is coming next.
We can learn from being stuck, if we let it speak to us.
