Stuck. Spinning. Going Nowhere.

These days, I see the same scenes over and over.

Bundled souls standing on mountains of filthy and icy snow, trying to dig a car out, trying to free a vehicle that is stuck. Going nowhere.

A person in the driver's seat. Pumping gas. Wheels whirring. Tires spinning. Going nowhere.

Stuck. Spinning. Going nowhere.

Sound familiar? Maybe. Because this is not a post about snow and its pestering aftermath. This is a post about life. Adulthood. You.

Yes, you. In the past several weeks, I have had the same conversation with two different people. Two very different people. In these particular exchanges, I played the role of listener. And though the circumstances and stories these individuals told were different, the gist was the same. And that gist?

I feel stuck. As if I am spinning. Going nowhere.

And so. It occurred to me that maybe there is something about adulthood or parenthood or personhood that makes us feel as if we are trapped and trying, but making little progress. Is it that for so long we crave safety and security and stability but when these things come they stifle us? Is it that the older we get, and the more responsibilities we take on, the harder it is to walk away, to break free, to live change? Is it that we learn to commit - to people, to places, to professions - and then these commitments feel like shackles, like impediments to freedom we once enjoyed?

I don't know. But there is something here. Something elusive and important. Because I have felt it. Stuck in a rut of snow and life. Spinning my existential and emotional wheels. Going nowhere.

Stuck. Spinning. Going nowhere.

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Are these things, these feelings and facts, avoidable? Or are they part of life? A part of life that makes us savor and celebrate those times when we are free and moving and getting somewhere? When we are stuck and spinning, how do we dig ourselves out?