Darkest before the light

Today I decided to do a little spot carpet cleaning with my "little green machine." I filled it with soap, and started to work. I tried to use the little sprayer nozzle but no water would come out. I decided this would not de-rail my plan so I began to trouble-shoot. I took apart the nossle, I cleaned out the hose, I cleaned the little hand-tool brush and still, no shampoo would come out of the sprayer. I was getting frustrated. I had tried everything. I wonderd outloud, " Is the little tank filled with enough soap?" I took it off the machine and all of the water poured out on to my leg and the carpet. To an idle observer you might think that the water pouring out was the final straw. But it wasn't.... not really.

Upon closer inspection I realized that I had filled the intake tank with water not the sprayer tank. The sprayer could not spray because there was no water or shampoo in it. A lot of trite sayings have been penned regarding this exact kind of situation. Things like " It is always darker before the light" and "When a door closes a window opens". When people say these things to us, we get mad. After all they are not sitting in a puddle of carpet cleaner and a shampooer in pieces. But.. I have to say this, sayings become sayings because they are often true. Sometimes things have to go really wrong before you begin to realize that you have missed the obvious solution. It was there from the start. You were not ready yet.

Sometimes I have days like this. Not isolated incidents but one thing after another. This was especially true during my kid raising days. I got so bogged down and discouraged. Overwhelmed.

All of us go through these times. Times when we feel the deck is stacked against us. We question every single decision we have ever made and feel hopeless. We cannot see a way out. Working so hard and going nowhere. But the answer does come. Sometimes after a night's sleep, sometimes after a good cry, sometimes after we kick something, hard. The answer appears and we realize. It was there all the time. Life is funny.