STUCK

I hate asking for favors.  I rarely ever do.  I guess historically when things have been given, they came with strings attached.  Recently, I asked a buddy that owns a Bobcat skid steer how much he’d charge to level a twelve by twenty-four-foot area of my back yard for a metal building I’m getting installed.  He laughed and said he needed the practice with his machine and since it would take him longer to drive here from his house to do the job, he figured a tank of gas would cover it.  A win for us both.  That was what we thought anyway. 

On his way to my house, a tire on my friend’s trailer blew.  He had to get someone to bring him a floor jack so he could change the blown trailer tire on the side of a busy highway.  That postponed us by about an hour, but no big deal.  A minor setback.  If we only knew what was coming next.

My yard holds water like some people hold grudges.  Even in the higher areas, the soil is soft.  Ten minutes into the twenty-minute (we thought) project the skid steer’s tracks began to spin in place.  My buddy tried to go back, forward, side to side, only miring himself deeper and deeper in the mud.  He got it to the belly of the machine, cut the engine, and hopped out.  “Well, looks like I’m stuck.”  He left and said he’d come back with a friend who is an expert on running these machines and get his advice on how to free the bobcat from its imprisonment in my yard.

When the friend of my friend arrived, he took one look and shook his head.  “We’ve got to wait until the yard dries up a bit—or freezes—before we can attempt to pull this thing out” he said.  Many thoughts raced through my mind, the first of which being that possession is nine tenths of the law and I now “owned” a brand-new bobcat.  Once my delusions subsided, a wave of anxiety flowed over me.  You see, this project was the first of three that all relied on the completion of the one prior before moving on to the next.  The idea was we would level the lot, cut a huge tree next to it, pour gravel, and install the building I recently paid for.  We can’t do any of those other projects until the bobcat is moved and the ground is leveled.  Logistics…I hate them.   

We waited until the ground froze solid before we made a second attempt at liberating the bobcat.  The temps have been down in the teens for a few days, so we assumed the ground would be hard enough for the tracks on the bobcat to gain purchase.  After ten minutes of trying, we realized that my yard doesn’t give up her treasures easily, or at all. 

A few hours later, my wife asked if it’d be ok if her boss and another guy from the shop came and gave it a try.  I cleared it with the owner of the machine and an hour later they were in my yard.  We crammed pallets, rail road ties, logs and other boards under the tracks so that it could find something solid to gain purchase on.  We fought for an hour with tow straps and trucks, shovels, and sheer determination.  Finally, after digging it even deeper and my anxiety finding new heights; the bobcat crested the mound and lurched forward.  It was free.  Thank God and thank everyone that came to help out.  Whew!  I am now the proud owner of a crater, but we will sort that out another day.

The irony of this whole situation is that I often feel EXACTLY like this skid steer.  Just spinning my wheels, creating ruts, and feeling stuck.  Something about the best laid plans of mice and men going awry.  My creative projects often make me feel mired in the muck, making no visible progress.  I guess the beauty of this whole analogy is the inverse.  What does it take to free yourself from a rut?  Community!  It seems that’s that big take away here.  Despite how little traction I can make on my own, I can go further with help from friends and family.  Whether that be literally having friends offer helping hands, reading books to progress in my given creative ventures, or even like I’m doing this week; taking a writing class to hone my skills.  It’s all about identifying deficiencies and arming yourself with the tools and/or people to help you get unstuck.

I’m leveraging heavily on last week’s post and trying to find both the good in this, and the lesson.  It's easy to focus on the problem while trying to find a solution.  In focusing on the rut, we also find ourselves mired in the mud.  The resolution comes when, after not giving up, you realize your limitations and humbly accept help for your deficiencies.  That’s where growth comes.  Whether it’s a piece of heavy machinery stuck in the mud, or an article you just can’t write, once you’ve been in the mud before, you know how to get out.  Each obstacle becomes easier as you overcome them.

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