Greetings!  

Since it's summer, my teacher friend and I start our morning run a little later than during the school year. Unfortunately, on Thursday's our summer schedule coincides with the garbage pick up schedule. On one particular Thursday, the garbage route and our route were the exact same.

Jogging and chatting - can't run too fast or you can't tell stories - we heard a roar and rumbling behind us. The smell got to us before the truck so we didn't need to turn around and confirm our suspicion - garbage truck.  We figured it would pick up a can or two and then speed off down the street. Not so. The truck lingered and paced us for about two blocks. "That's it! Let's go back the way we came," said my friend. "But, we'll miss our favorite scenic part of this route," I shot back.

The trash receptacles - small and large, grey and army green and even pink - stood by the road at attention saluting us as we dashed past. Through the waft of smell they seemed to be trying to tell us what their owners had disposed of this past week. No way could we discern from the cloud of stink the remnants of a family dinner, old shower curtain tossed out to make way for a fresh, new one, or an emptied cat pan. If "Name That Smell" were a game show, we would lose. It all smelled like garbage to us.

My friend smartly noted that we were downwind from the truck and this nasal assault could continue for the rest of the route. Turn around was her vote. But, I didn't want to. So, we tried plan B: walk and let the truck get far ahead of us. Didn't work. Darn thing seemed to slow down and we stayed neck and neck. Okay. Plan C: run faster than said truck and get in front of it. Sprints are good for you so we put it in our highest gear and bolted past the truck (by now the driver is watching and wondering what the heck we are up too). We kept up our Olympic pace for as long as we could - I think about 5 minutes - and then resigned to slowing back to our little-faster-than-a-turtle's-pace speed. Back in sync with the truck it's perfume wasn't any sweeter. Plan A - turn around - was no longer an option as we were more than 1/2 way into our route and Plans B and C were failures.

Move on to plan D, which was ... well, it was ... nothing. We didn't have a plan D. So we took a break from problem solving, paced the truck and kept to shallow breathing to reduce our toxic inhalation. During our stinky stalemate - us vs. garbage truck route - we laughed about the good workout from our sprint and how we actually did some crosstraining between running, jogging and walking. We also laughed about our problem solving and how the driver of the garbage truck looked confused by us. 

"Hey, where did it go?" my friend asked. "What?" I asked. "The truck, where did the truck go? It's gone," she announced. The garbage truck was gone. No sign, no sound, no smell. "Weird. As soon as we stopped trying to get away from it, it went away!" she noted. We had stopped trying to change what was happening and it worked itself out. This got me to thinking about other problems that solved themselves when I took my foot off the proverbial gas. When all of our cars broke down at about the same time my husband and I frantically searched for a new car and couldn't find one. As soon as we stopped looking, we found two! The conflict at home around roles and responsibilities that we have been having with our young adult children (will they ever move out?) solved itself after we talked it out and let it go.

A couple of weeks ago I dropped my laptop computer and sent it back to the company to be fixed. After a week of no word from them I called and - after transferring me several times -  they said they had no recorded of my computer! I talked to several departments until I felt my brain would explode. Then I just stopped and decided to be done - completely done - for at least awhile because I wasn't getting anywhere. As soon as I decided to stop fighting - within an hour - a FedEx truck showed up with my fixed computer! When it begins to feel like a fight, problem solving has stopped happening. Struggle is not helpful. Stop.

There are definitely some problems that require solution and/or planning but, not every problem needs to be - or can be -handled. Some problems or conflicts just need to solve themselves. Sometimes there is nothing more to do than tell the truth - this stinks! - and let it go so whatever it is can evolve.

"That was a great run, I think one of our best," said my friend when we got to her house and started to stretch. "I laughed so hard," I added. "Interesting that the stinkiest run we've ever had would be one of the most fun," she laughed. Sometimes happiness just stinks.

Wishing you a fragrant rest-of-the-summer,

Erika :)

P.S. You know, now when I see a garbage truck, I smile. Funny how something so ordinary and not so pleasant could have been one of my three good things from a beautiful summer day.