I’ve noticed that many people here in Evansville have had difficulty driving in the ice and snow over the past few weeks. Around my home, the streets were an ice rink. There wasn’t room for a plow or salt truck to pass, so the accumulation on our side street was thick. Still, it could be navigated by resisting the urge to speed forward, knowing that that would only result in spinning tires and no actual forward motion.
Instead, progress could be made by letting the weight of the vehicle, the engine, and the tires all work together gradually and slowly. A little momentum made the difference and built a little more and a little more. Taking time. No quick changes. Judging yourself by where you were now with ice rather than where you could be without it. Using those techniques, you could reach a main street that had been cleared through plenty of traffic, and the rest of your trip was easy.
The approach to driving on accumulated ice and snow reminds me of our approach to our work at Patchwork. I thought of it this week after Jill, our Associate Health Minister, was filling John in on her progress on various Sozo Health Ministry cases. She’d spent the afternoon providing one-on-one case management for her clients and felt she had nothing to show for it.
There was a doctor’s visit that resulted in a prescription that was being tried yet again when it hadn’t helped in the past. There was a prescription pickup for another client that couldn’t be completed because there was no agreement among the doctor, the pharmacy, and the client about what was supposed to be happening. There was a court date with no advocate to be there for a client. These things added to a list of no shows, dead ends, limited options, and frustration.
John reassured Jill that there was progress, even if it was small. We all need this reassurance sometimes, because sometimes it’s very hard to see. But like driving on snow, sometimes it’s the slow progress that makes the difference. Sometimes it’s our staff’s consistent and continued presence that helps to apply just a little forward momentum that works together with everyone else to slowly move the case forward. Hopefully, this gradual movement will eventually bring it to the clear path and everything will be better.