Five Minute Friday: Stuck

Five-minute free write, no editing, no hesitating, just WRITE!

STUCK

When I moved to California in 1990, I was introduced to the amazing new world of ATV's(all terrain vehicles) and the Imperial Sand Dunes near Glamis, CA. As a midwestern girl who grew up thinking brown was dead and green was alive to find this desert oasis was incredible.  It was as though I was dropped in a whole new world and I couldn't wait to explore it! My 1986 Honda 250r and I explored every inch of those dunes after a very steep learning curve. There was no place like being out in the middle of those dunes riding as fast as I could, I loved every minute of it.

When I arrived in California, I had never ridden an ATV in my life, however, I had ridden With my dad on his dirt bike as a kid and I was assured by the much more experienced riders, that riding an ATV was "close" to riding double on a dirt bike. For the record it was not at all the same!  The only real "DON'T" I heard again and again was : " Whatever you do, don't get stuck!" It was made clear to me that "stuck" was a place I never wanted to be. I asked what to do if I felt like I was getting stuck and the response was always the same: "When in doubt, gas it out!"

Isn't this what we all do? Who wants to be stuck in a rut? It is basic human instinct to NOT become stuck and to keep moving forward. So much of my own life has been trying to "gas it out" of stuck situations. I feel them approaching and I go into overdrive doing whatever it takes to avoid what is happening or force things in the direction I need them to go. I'm a "gas it out" kind of girl, I always have been. The last place I want is to to be stuck in the middle of the dunes, the deep sand, the emptiness of everything looking the same, where there is no end in sight, and no clear path out of "stuck".

When I reach a road block or a crossroads, I try and resist this urge to control the situation and instead, allow things to happen as they are meant to be. I  SLOW down and pull my hand OFF the gas. This is never easy, you'd be amazed at the impossible situations I thought I could control by attempting to force and get my desired result. When I do get stuck, I try to stop, I Pray and I know that I am not alone, this is all I need to know, the rest will happen as it is meant to unfold.

Stuck is not always a bad place to visit. The times I've been the stuck in life, were when some of  the most quiet and amazing things occured. When I'm successful at shutting everything down and just listening, it makes weathering these seasons a bit easier. When life stalls or stops abrubptly, I  try to resist the urge to jump into action, instead I slow, look around and plan a course of action. Each time I'm a little more successful at this technique. Just as in learning to ride an ATV, the better I got, the less I worried I was about being stuck. I had learned a little more, I had more skill and each time I got stuck in the sand, I was better at knowing what to do.

 When I encounter stuck seasons, I don't always panic as much as I used to. I feel more like I'm waiting and waiting can be okay. Waiting isn't stopping forever, it implies a pause in motion, a slow down or stop with the expectation of something happening next. I go back to just what I did in my early days of ATV riding, I don't gas it, I stop.

Because, sometimes in life, as in riding, the only choice we have is to stop and wait for help.