One of the things that’s been ignored on a shelf is a dragonfly wind chime. It had become all tangled up, and I just hadn’t bothered to get to untangling it… until today. Some extra-hot days have meant the dogs and I have been inside a lot. While I’m not bored and looking for things, it caught my eye today and I decided to tackle it.
And tackle I did! I had it hung up at eye-level, so I could master the knottedness and get it done.
It took quite a bit of time, and careful work to gradually re-adjust the strings (whilst pondering how they got that jumbled in the first place!). Releasing one set of strings added a new challenge, as the weight dispersal shifted and everything moved. There were times when two hands were not enough. A few times I started to feel frustrated, so I simply left it as it was, and returned later.
However, after the care and effort (and an ice cream bar), the wind chime was hanging as it ought, with dragonflies floating carefree and reflecting the light beautifully. I’ve hung it at the window I had intended. This makes me happy!
As I worked on this, I reflected that this affair is not unlike human interactions. At times we get tangled up, and it feels like more of an effort than we’re willing to make: the process of straightening things out may feel overwhelming and hardly worth it.
Sometimes, that may be the case.
Yet we can recognise that other times, we do want to experience the untangled outcome: and so we commit to the actions necessary to unscramble the confusion. It doesn’t mean there will be no setbacks, or that it will be without frustrations. It doesn’t even mean that it will be a successful endeavour.
What it does mean, however, is that the goal to straightening things out is a priority. That the desire for clarity overtakes the easier road of giving up. And it means that the potential reward of beauty and appreciation is just on the other side.
Which means, to my thinking, that it’s worth at least considering. How many relations have been tangled, that might yet be waiting on the shelf? How many opportunities do we have to right wrongs and re-connect? How often do we simply give up when the other tangled strings are wanting to try and sort it all out?
Life is messy, and entanglements are inevitable. For me, the freeing the trapped dragonflies is time well spent.
There are times that a certain thing gets used for an unintended (but effective!) purpose: things like the ubiquitous cookie tin that becomes the sewing kit; or the stack of books that becomes the computer riser.
These aren’t wrong; they’re a work-around.
Finding workarounds in other aspects of life is common; we’re faced with opportunities to view things from a different vantage point, to consider alternatives approaches to a task, and consider what other avenues we might go down.
For some, however, they see the world with rigid or unmovable stance: we do things the way we do things, and that’s that… if you need a sewing tin, you buy a sewing tin (and not enjoy the cookies); if you need a computer riser then your books stay on the shelf, etc. This can backfire if a new purchase is not viable, or a product is unavailable. Thus, function is impeded.
Similarly, to try and go forward without respecting the framework can also lead to increased challenges. We need to have certain parameters for our lives, especially when we interact with each other. There can be a benefit of flexibility, but without communication and agreement, a lack of structure leads to a mess.
Hence: the work-around. Life presents us with enough challenges that often we need to find an alternate way of moving forward. It’s finding a solution to a minor hiccup that will respect the boundaries, allowing for creative re-thinking of the circumstance.
The work-around is never meant to reject or ignore the established parameters or rules, but to be open to new and different ways of using the gifts that we have.
As people who are called to love other people, the workaround gives us the chance to help others, the make things better for them, without causing any harm to us. Maybe it’s as easy as adjusting a schedule, or re-formatting a meeting to be accessible through technology. It can be asking for help, or extending timelines.
Some of the work-arounds we find are from a creative idea; others are from necessity (like diminished budgets or changed staffing) One of the things COVID taught us was that we do have the ability to be flexible, and to find a workaround; it wasn’t easy, nor preferable, and often it wasn’t successful; but we did what we did, all of us, to do our best.
I wonder what what could happen if we commit to that spirit of solution-finding this week; to seeking ways to connect, to assist, to overcome the obstacles in our lives, that we might live the full life that God wants us to.
What’s your workaround?
There was a fly at my window this week. All week, buzzing insistently at the screen. The weather had been lovely, and the window had been open a lot of the time – and the fly was so focused on getting back outside, that it would not leave the window, even when it was closed or when I tried to shoo it away. (The screen simply would not come out for me.)
The fly died this week, on the windowsill; from dehydration or starvation or heat exhaustion – who knows. But dead it is; I noted one morning the silence at the window and hoped it had moved to a different part of the house.
Alas; I was wrong.
We often hear the expression “when one door closes a window opens” (or similar adage); and this is meant to bring us comfort and hope. Doors close in our lives on a regular basis; our childhood aspirations change as we grow, our experiences mould us in one direction (and not another), our desires shift as we grow and find our ways in the world.
Sometimes these closed doors feel like an offense or an insult; at other times we are grateful as they protect us from a path that is not ours.
Yet we trust that some other window will open; another door is waiting for us, our journey is not over just because one door has closed.
I think the sadness comes when we can perceive an opening, but are unable to breach through it – like the fly and the window screen. So focused was this fly on getting outside, it did not recognise that this window was not the opening it needed. How often have we continued in one path, with blind determination, even when we know deep down it is not the path for us? How often have we exhausted ourselves going in a direction that does not lead to a life-giving existence?
This is of course the experience of discernment, trying and failing; trying and succeeding; trying and trying. And it is a process that continues, as we have the pleasure of experiencing more and more of life’s adventures.
My prayer is that as we discern what windows God has opened for us, that we honour them for what they are; sometimes a pathway, sometimes a vantage point, sometimes a pause as we continue on our way. May we not get stuck in one space, such that it prevents us from the full life that God is calling us towards.
