By Helen Huntsman

I was trapped in the bathroom.

Okay, "trapped" might sound a little dramatic—but when you're staring at a bathroom door handle and realize you physically can't pull hard enough to open it, well... trapped is exactly how it feels.

And not even in a fancy bathroom! Honestly, it was pretty meh.

This was a first for me—being stuck in a bathroom. And maybe ironically (please forgive me if I'm misusing that word again), it happened in a hospital. The place people go to get help. And yet, there I was. Help-less.

There was no red emergency cord, no nurse button, no magical door fairy. Just me, alone, in the middle of a physical therapy appointment, realizing: Well. This is going to be a story.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was smack in the middle of a capital-L Life Lesson.

A Life Lesson on the Law of Gestation.

Standing there, staring at the handle, I had this quiet, unshakable knowing come over me. Out loud, I said:

"Eventually, some woman in this building is going to need to pee. And when she does, she’ll open the door. I’ll get out of here."

And guess what?

I was right.

The Law of Gestation

The Law of Gestation is a universal principle that says: everything comes in its own due time. You can't rush it. You can’t force it. And even if you try to schedule it neatly into your calendar… life tends to have other plans.

When I first learned about this law, I heard the usual analogies—pregnancy and carrot seeds. But honestly? They didn’t land. I scheduled all three of my (beautiful) children’s deliveries, and I’ve always been great with plants. I was used to things happening on my timeline.

So the Law of Gestation? It felt... irrelevant.

Until the bathroom.

The Bigger Story

Here’s what made the bathroom moment even more meaningful:

I was supposed to have gone back to work after surgery on both of my elbows—one after the other, spaced about a month apart. The official “return to work” plan was 6 weeks.

It had been 8 months.

And that day, the very day I found myself stuck behind a hospital bathroom door, I had a call scheduled with HR to discuss my return.

I was frustrated. I was tired. I had done everything “right”—but the timeline I had planned on simply wasn’t the one unfolding.

And that’s when the lightbulb went off:

"I’ll be healed when I’m done healing."

No amount of willing, wishing, or white-knuckling was going to rush it. All I could do was trust the gestation period—trust that what needed to unfold would unfold at the right time.

So What’s the Takeaway?

You’ve probably had your own “bathroom moments”—times when a small inconvenience turned into a big revelation. Times when you realized the only thing left to do was wait… and trust.

Maybe this story will come back to you the next time you’re in it—waiting for a dream to manifest, a goal to come to life, or a hard season to finally shift.

Because here’s the thing about the Law of Gestation:

It’s not passive. It doesn’t mean you sit around twiddling your thumbs. You still do the work (hello, physical therapy!). You still water the seed, tend the soil, and pull the weeds. But you trust the timeline.

As Leslie Householder says in Hidden Treasures:
“Everything has an appointed time.”

We don’t plant a carrot and then dig it up two weeks later, yelling, “Why aren’t you a carrot yet?!”

We plant it. We nourish it. And we let it grow.

Same with your goals. Your healing. Your business. Your dreams.

They’re growing—even when you can’t see them yet.

So, friend, if you’re stuck in a metaphorical bathroom right now, just remember:
Someone’s going to come open the door.
And you’ll walk out stronger than when you walked in.

I’m rooting for you. 🌱

With love,
Helen Huntsman

📲 Come say hi on Instagram: @PivotYourLife

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