Lately I've been feeling stuck. It's not a new sensation, but rather one that visits now and again, and I keep running into others who are feeling the same way. Because I've learned to recognize the feeling of "stuckness", it no longer scares me, but rather invites me to go... nowhere. It is an invitation to stay put awhile longer. Since I have nowhere else to go at the moment, I decided to dust off this piece, first posted on Matters That Matter in February 2016.  It helped me to read it. If  you're feeling stuck, maybe it will help you too.   

Stuck.

Who hasn’t felt that way at one time or another?  Everyone gets it.  No one likes it. We all know that feeling of being stuck, unable to get out, hemmed in, trapped.  There are times when we find ourselves trapped between a rock and a hard place, and when we do, our first reaction is usually to try to get out.  Now!  Alarm sets in and the flailing begins, as we look for any and every way out of the place in which we are wedged.

But.  

What if we aren’t stuck at all? What if we are lodged in tight so that we might stop and ponder rather than  struggle and panic? What if it is a resting place to gather our strength and prepare ourselves for what comes next? And when ready to move forward, what if the rock is that against which we can steady ourselves? What if it prevents us from backsliding and losing hard-won ground? What if when ready to move forward, that rock, hewn from our experiences and lessons learned, is that against which we are able to lean as we push against the hard place in front of us.

And.

What if that hard place is exactly the strength training necessary to equip us for that which lies ahead? As we push into the hard, steadied by the rock, we make our way. Onward and upward.  Which is the opposite of stuck.