Yesterday Jared and I were out running errands after his orthodontist appointment. It was just after noon when pulled into the parking lot at Whole Foods and it was chaotic. I’d forgotten that they have just expanded their prepared food area into the next storefront, and I think that we definitely hit the lunchtime crowd.
As we drove up and down the parking lot looking for a parking space, we saw something interesting. A large Cadillac SUV had apparently pulled into (or tried to pull into) one of the spaces along the main road that are (clearly) marked for compact cars. I’m not sure how she ever got into the space, but she was having a terrible time getting out of it. A passing stranger had stopped to give her help, and he stood behind her car motioning to her to pull back, to turn a little, or to pull forward again.
To make a hard situation even worse, her car was almost too long to get out of the space without hitting the car behind her. It was the kind of parking mess that I try to stay far away from, and I’m still not sure how she eventually got out, though I know she did.
I realized as I was walking through Whole Foods that her situation feels like a metaphor for my life right now. I thought that when Russ got a job the stress would be over, but instead it feels like it has been doubled or even tripled. He leaves next week—and while I can handle an occasional separate vacation, the thought of months apart is terrible. The house needs to be ready to go on the market by the end of February, and that brings boatloads of stress. I feel like that great big suv, trying to get out of a too-small spot and not entirely sure that I will be able to succeed without smashing something around me.
I know that everything will work out, I really do. This is just one of those moments where I really can’t see how we’re going to manage to get from point A to point B, even though I have total confidence that we will.
In the meantime, I will just have to pray harder. And pack more boxes.
And this is how I dealt with my stress this morning. 
The last bit of Russ’s birthday cake—the tall chocolate cake from Costco. It seemed a better option than yelling…or crying…
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We all like those cakes from Costco. Maybe you just need more cake? Well no, then you would have lots of trouble with space as you tripled in size. ;p
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This post actually reminds me exactly of an insight that I had Sunday during Sunday School. We (and probably you too?) were talking about Nephi building the boat, and the teacher was making special note of Nephi's response to the Lord's command - asking where to go to find ore to make tools. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe Nephi felt like I feel a lot of the time when the Lord gives me a prompting: Sort of like, "Okay, I know that I can do this, but I don't know HOW I am supposed to accomplish it! WHERE will I go to find the material to make tools?" I'd never thought of that scripture quite like that before, but I've had a lot of experiences in my life before. I think it goes back to the "one step at a time" thing... maybe what you need to do right now is go to the Lord and pray about getting through the next step, and how you are going to do that.
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