Barry was used to Nettie complaining about his indecisiveness. It was a standing joke that if she hadn’t proposed to him all those years ago he’d still be getting around to it. It had been unusual at the time, but these days those societal norms were less important. Most days he knew that he would have asked her, eventually, but it was one of the many traits that appealed to him about Nettie, her absolute conviction in every decision that she made.

It would have been easy to simply succumb to her judgement in all aspects of their life together, and Nettie would have relished this, he knew, but there were times when he stood his ground and insisted that more time was needed before a decision was made. Nettie would resist any delay, calling out his habit of stalling and letting opportunities pass them by, but even she had to admit that exercising caution at times had been the best option.

Nettie was like quicksilver, zipping here and there, jumping ahead to a place or decision that he hadn’t even considered. The reality for Barry was that he needed time and space for his mind to think through matters, and there were occasions when he’d been able to come up with a better solution or outcome. Those were magic moments to Barry, though he’d learned not to bring them up during their more animated discussions about big decisions, as Nettie tended to focus more on the time that it took (‘wasted’, she liked to say) rather than what had been accomplished.

As he’d gotten older, Barry had realized that his mind simply worked in a different way to Nettie’s. He could hear her talking at him, trying to move him to agreement, but he’d learned that it was necessary at times to step away and have time alone. He could think things through at his own pace, and it wasn’t laziness or simply putting off a decision. It was approaching something from different angles, finding a way through the maze. And the feeling that came over him once he’d reached a decision was, for Barry, worth the journey that it took him to get there.

I’m participating in this blogging challenge for the month of January, which supports starting the year on the “write” track. You can find other posts with #bloganuary and join in the challenge.

Photo: a knitted message spotted wrapped around a pole in Lane Cove – “You can do hard things”