Getting Around Your Block

Two problems I face in life are writer’s block and reader’s block. I am sure you have heard of writers block before: the dumbfounded condition associated with writing in which the author loses the ability to come up with something new to write. For me it is usually temporary, but it is annoying if I have some kind of deadline.

My reader’s block is a different matter. I usually blame my attention deficit disorder for the problem, but whatever the cause, I rarely get past the first few pages of any book. It isn’t because I don’t think the books are outstanding, I have supported authors and bookstores, for years, by intentionally purchasing their reading material: I just never get it read.

The truth is my blocks are usually no big deal, but sometimes they are produced because of adverse circumstances in my life: health issues, stress, anxiety, depression, relationship problems, financial pressures, and sometimes even a sense of personal failure. The pressure to accomplish a task usually contributes to a block, especially if I feel compelled or expected to do something. I like to read and write, but in my own way and at my own pace.

We live on blocks, play we with blocks, and (here is an interesting one) some people quilt with blocks, but like a writer’s block or a reader’s block, we all may face certain “blocks” in our life. We may face things that hold us back in our beliefs or in our relationships. These belief blocks or love blocks block our progress and our happiness.

So what are your blocks? What are the things holding you back from having the career that you want, the relationship you long for, or the happiness you desire? It would be so easy to say that we just need to manifest more often, or with more intensity, but the truth of the matter is that the greatest reason why we have blocks is that we don’t realize that we have them.

Half of the problem of our getting to greatness is getting a clue that we have problems we don’t recognize we have.

Sometimes it takes a life to learn that we are wrong about something. Sometimes it takes just as long to admit it and fix it.

Recently I attended a Sunday School class in which the teacher brought in an interesting item for an object lesson: an old tree stump. In the middle of the tree stump was something unique. In the middle of the stump was a large brick. The tree had grown around the brick and it looked as if the brick was a natural part of the tree.

The teacher explained that he was given the stump from a gentlemen who owned a small store in Northern Utah. He said he had wanted the stump for quite some time, because every time he went into the store, it reminded him of an old tree he had growing up. His old tree was one of the largest on the farm. It was very tall and had lots of branches. He then described an ice storm that occurred on an early fall day that drenched all the trees on the farm including this big one. Because the limbs were loaded with leaves and ice, it caused damage to the tree. The tree literally broke in half.

When my teacher was finally able to go out, after the storm, to examine the tree to determine what had happened, he discovered that the reason the tree broke in half, instead of breaking off at the limbs was that at the center of the tree, a large cinderblock had been wedge for quite some time, going undetected for decades. Only when the weight and strain of the storm beat down on the tree, did the tree finally buckle under the weight and break in two.

Then our teacher told us of a talk he had heard years ago by President Spencer W Kimball about hidden wedges. Our teacher explained that the hidden wedges in our lives, that go undetected, eventually destroy the fabric or the core of the marriage and when outside influences weigh down on the individual or the marriage, the marriage cannot survive.

The teacher then explained that addictions, pornography, money issues, infidelity, and other wedges would rot the strength of a marriage until there was no foundation and the marriage would fall apart.

When got home I looked for the talk by President Kimball. I found a talk by President Monson quoting President Kimball who was quoting Samuel T. Whitman. President Monson’s talk was called “Hidden Wedges”:

“In April 1966, at the Church’s annual general conference, Elder Spencer W. Kimball gave a memorable address. He quoted an account written by Samuel T. Whitman entitled “Forgotten Wedges.” Today I, too, have chosen to quote from Samuel T. Whitman, followed by examples from my own life.

Whitman wrote: “The ice storm [that winter] wasn’t generally destructive. True, a few wires came down, and there was a sudden jump in accidents along the highway. … Normally, the big walnut tree could easily have borne the weight that formed on its spreading limbs. It was the iron wedge in its heart that caused the damage.
“The story of the iron wedge began years ago when the white-haired farmer [who now inhabited the property on which it stood] was a lad on his father’s homestead. The sawmill had then only recently been moved from the valley, and the settlers were still finding tools and odd pieces of equipment scattered about. …

“On this particular day, it was a faller’s wedge—wide, flat, and heavy, a foot or more long, and splayed from mighty poundings [—which the lad found] … in the south pasture. [A faller’s wedge, used to help fell a tree, is inserted in a cut made by a saw and then struck with a sledge hammer to widen the cut.] … Because he was already late for dinner, the lad laid the wedge … between the limbs of the young walnut tree his father had planted near the front gate. He would take the wedge to the shed right after dinner, or sometime when he was going that way.

“He truly meant to, but he never did. [The wedge] was there between the limbs, a little tight, when he attained his manhood. It was there, now firmly gripped, when he married and took over his father’s farm. It was half grown over on the day the threshing crew ate dinner under the tree. … Grown in and healed over, the wedge was still in the tree the winter the ice storm came.

“In the chill silence of that wintry night … one of the three major limbs split away from the trunk and crashed to the ground. This so unbalanced the remainder of the top that it, too, split apart and went down. When the storm was over, not a twig of the once-proud tree remained.

“Early the next morning, the farmer went out to mourn his loss. …

“Then, his eyes caught sight of something in the splintered ruin. ‘The wedge,’ he muttered reproachfully. ‘The wedge I found in the south pasture.’ A glance told him why the tree had fallen. Growing, edge-up in the trunk, the wedge had prevented the limb fibers from knitting together as they should.”

The blocks and wedges in our lives usually go undetected but are often the cause of so much pain and sorrow. These are stumbling blocks.

Sometimes it takes a lifetime to learn what the blocks are. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to learn that we are wrong about something. Sometimes it takes just as long to admit it and fix it.

Consider the slight change in the following scripture:

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their stumbling blocks. I give unto men stumbling blocks that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make stumbling blocks become stepping stones unto them. (Ether 12:27 changes added)

Writing about stumbling blocks “which prevent our seeing ‘things as they
really are, and things as they really will be’ (Jacob 4:13; see also 1 Ne. 14:1), Elder Neal A. Maxwell said this, “When stumbling blocks are removed, we see the purposes of life clearly. We see ourselves differently, clearly, and correctly.”

But we usually need to discover the block and the breakthrough on our own. Sure there are lots of authors with lots of books full of lots of advice on marriage, parenting, self improvement, etc. But sometimes, just because someone else has been somewhere first, doesn't mean we shouldn't try and find our own way there too. Just because someone has seen a new movie before you, and wants to tell you all about it, that doesn't mean that the words or advice, from the other party, is the best way to discover the movie for yourself. Usually you just need to go see it for yourself.

And, more often than not, you will find a way to find your way around your block.