Last school year, I went to the kids' school to see them in a
presentation. When I got there, I found Elijah on the stairs crying. He
was so distressed that it took him a while to talk. It ended up being
the result of some kerfuffle on the soccer field. After he was all cried
out, his solution to the problem was what grabbed and twisted my
heart.
He said, "It doesn't matter mom, because I'm not even going to be at this school next year."
After moving 15-20 times in my 12 years of marriage, I have that same attitude about my kerfuffles:
the pesky neighbor
the fluorescent white walls
the one-sided friendships
the teacher who doesn't appreciate my child's brilliance
the toilet handle that spits water every time it flushes
the drama between the youth in the ward that I can't quite wrap my brain around nor alleviate
the language I so desperately want to master, but mainly just feel like a fumbling fool
the
dilemma of do I really have to kiss you every time I see you and say
goodbye? even if I don't know you and I have horrible halitosis?
The
good news is that there's a solution. A proven remedy. It erases all of
my problems. Not just a few. It wipes them all clean. 100% Mr Clean
approved. And it happens every 1-2 years:
I MOVE.
Then I don't have to solve any of the problems. I just leave them. Of
course I inherit a new set of problems in my new location, but it takes
me a few months to discover them, a few months for them to settle in and
tickle the fringes of my nerves, and maybe only a month or 2 when they
really nag me. And then **WHALA**, they disappear, because
I MOVE.
That last week or two before I leave, I drive down the road
(because that's what I'll miss the least) thinking, I'm not going to
miss this challenge or that problem or that butthead over there who drives
like a blind grandma who has spent her life as a privileged, overdosed
druglord because
I'M MOVING.
So, I've come to the conclusion that I'm a wimp.
I'm not a problem solver, I'm a problem escaper.
It works for me.
BECAUSE HERE WE GO AGAIN...
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ReplyDeleteMoving is its own brand of hard. I've been glad to have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean, but starting over is also terribly exhausting.
ReplyDelete