Daughter-ism: Keep trying the key…

Sometimes wisdom is handed down from elders. Sometimes it is caught as a part of living. Other times it is taught by observing those we are entrusted with teaching.

We have a door that a young child inserted a branch in to years ago. As a result we could not get a piece of the branch out and the lock was jammed. It was not essential to enter in to that door from the outside so it had been long ago put on a backburner and left. Recently we had a need to gain entry through this door on a regular basis. A locksmith had installed the lock when we moved in and we made plans to call so he could match the keys as he had done before. At this point our daughter says, “The key worked when I tried it again yesterday.”…

Say what now? We tried and sure enough it now opened without issue. The only thing I can figure is that so much time passed that the branch deteriorated to the point that the lock was no longer jammed. Who knows how long ago we could have opened the door. The thought struck me immediately:

We had determined in our mind years ago that the lock was irretrievably jammed and the door would never open again until we did something. We believed this so thoroughly that we never tried the lock again. It would not open because we needed to do something. After enough time passed the lock was no longer jammed, but we never realized it because we stopped trying the key. In her youthful optimism my daughter tried the key again without hesitation and the door opened.

Keep trying the key.

I immediately found this revelation useful in my life. Often times action is required in life but it is also true that time is a crucial element for change. There are times where doors will not open for no other reason than the fact that it is not time yet. It does not mean the door will not ever open. It does not mean that there is something we did not do. It does not mean there is something we need to do. Sometimes the best solution is having the patience to not force the lock and permanently break it (as I almost did initially), but instead simply wait for the blockages to clear when and as they were meant to so we can open the door without forcing it or adding unnecessary expense. In the grand scheme the door not opening was not even an issue because we did not need to use it when it was jammed. The only issue would be the jam itself if we chose to obsess on that alone. In the end the only thing required of us was to wait until we needed to get through the door and then try the key.

-ELW