The Grace of Wrong Turnings

Fateful Detours

“The right way to wholeness is made up of fateful detours and wrong turnings.”

                                                                                    Carl Jung

“Human beings figure out somewhat more of their true direction, not by the high starts, but by stubbing their toes on things stuck in the mud that they are slogging through.”

                                                                                    Carolyn Gratton

            I have stubbed my toes on many things while slogging through the mud.  Usually I don’t appreciate it one bit---another aggravating inconvenience in an already bad day.  It is often difficult to see that one has stubbed one’s toe on a diamond in the rough, or a golden nugget buried in the mud.  After much cursing and complaining, after a great deal of 'why me' and 'it’s not fair', I hold the offending object up to the light, take it to the kitchen sink and rinse the mud off, and then begin to “hmmm, huh!” discover the possibilities.  I still don’t like slogging through mud to find it,  but what I do like is the tendency of the human spirit to move on, to make the most of a bad situation, and to discover a new course of action that becomes the next great passion. 

            I have now lived long enough to know there will always be ‘a pearl of great price’ in the mud.  But, here’s the other nasty little trick the gods like to play---if you look for it, you won’t find it---the pearl that is.  If you wade up to your waist determined to sort through every square inch of that mud for the treasure, it suddenly grows fins and swims away.  You have to stumble and fall, get mud in your armpits, hair, and eyes; you have to give up being in control of the search.  Then it will swim up and prettily inquire, “Oh, were you looking for me!?”

            When I march into the sewing room determined to create something of lasting beauty, what I make is invariably only fit for use as a paint drape the next time I tackle that peeling bathroom wall.  What I have to do is approach backward, whistling to fend off the darkness, and say aloud to myself, “I wonder what wants to be created today.  Let me step into the mud and see what trips me up.”

                                                                                    Thanks be to God,

                                                                                    Jane