Welcome to my writer’s block.
Usually, I have so many words I cannot catch them all. I love the telling of wonderful stories. I often offer to you long nuggets of wisdom delivered to me by life and the lessons taught by all of its crazy twists and turns. Today, I sat staring at a blank page, frustrated that the trinkets of story running through my mind were only small bursts of random . . . well, just random. Cute snippets of humor from Sunday’s sermon. Fun facts produced by my can’t-help-but-click-a-link-about-history addiction. Great quotes from the latest read beside my chair. All good for memes and quick social media posts but nothing I could sink my teeth in. No aha moments inspired by my prayers or guided by my faith. Just temporary, quick contemplations with no mind-blowing revelations worth expounding upon.
I was marking this situation, as well as many other problems that were circling outside my wagons this week, as failure. I often do that. If it is not a total win, I count it a loss. It is a pattern that stands atop my all-or-nothing thinking like a banner for perfectionism—a trait that has not brought me as much happiness as I would like to claim. And because of it I think I often miss the beauty of a band-aid fix.
Let’s talk about band-aid fixes. At least with me, they often get a bad wrap. My opinion is why waste time with something that won’t stay. In the end, you are still left with a sticky situation. (Okay, sorry for all the band-aid humor, couldn’t help myself.) But seriously, I actually have never been a fan of “making do” until later. I am a fix it right and fix it right now kinda girl. Today, as I started aimlessly writing words to you with no plan, I started to wonder if I had missed some things up here on my high horse.
What if a band-aid fix is better than none at all? When I start letting down my guard and really examining it, band-aids may be temporary solutions, but they do hold some ground in the helpfulness category. Think about it. They stop the bleeding. The keep an open wound clean while it heals. They protect from more damage. They buy you time.
Hmmm, there may be something to this band-aid fix thing, as evidenced by my decision to start writing to you anyway with nothing life-changing to write about. Here we are with all these words. So, who am I to say that there is no benefit to at least trying to do something in the absence of everything?
Like me, you may be looking for a forever solution to this battle you are facing. A forever solution that you just cannot find right now. My normal path would be to refuse to do anything until that solution comes along. But what if I am wrong?
What if half a story I did not write could have changed a life? What if a quick call when I didn’t have hours to talk could have lifted someone’s spirits? What if paying just the part of something you can for someone helped them get closer to the goal? What if my band-aid fix was enough to heal someone else?
So today, I raise my coffee cup to the band-aid fix in all its glory, with newfound respect from an all-or-nothing girl becuase at least for today, a quick fix worked out. I thought it would be hard to pull off, but it wasn’t. Hearing all of those jokes might have been painful, but at least it was over quickly. Ba dum bum. You’re welcome.
