The Moving Garbage Can

It occurred to me this morning that, in the course of making breakfast and packed lunches for me and my children (my husband does his own thing), I moved the kitchen garbage can no less than ten times.
 
Now, it could be that this just means we have a small kitchen (which we do). It could mean that I am working far too hard on breakfasts and lunches if I have to be in so many parts of the kitchen in such a short time. (Perhaps true, but I like people, including myself, to be well-fed, including snacks!) It could mean that we need a smaller kitchen garbage can that wouldn't be a constant obstacle. (Again, perhaps true, but then I'd spend half my life putting garbage bags down the compactor chute).
 
What I choose to make of the constant movement of the garbage can (often without my conscious realization that I am doing it) is that I refuse to let small obstacles get in the way of my doing what needs to be done. Let's face it--most days, there are lots of obstacles--late trains, annoying co-workers, computer glitches, missing ingredients for what we are trying to cook. Any one of these things could stop us in our tracks, and in combination, they could make us want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers up over our heads.
 
But mostly, we don't. We face the obstacles, we work around them, or in the case of me and the garbage can, we make adjustments to do the things we want to do. We refuse to let the too-small kitchens and too-large garbage cans of life get in our way. We've got meals to make (and eat!) and things to accomplish.
 
And how ridiculous it would be to let a trash can--or anything else--get in the way of any of that!