DISCOVERING AN ELEPHANT

April 10, 2019
               This morning, I finally saw an elephant that’s been in my room – my life – for most of my life. The elephant’s name is “good friends”. Here’s how it happened . . .
               I had been planning for a week to take our car in for service and just wait at the dealership for most of the day, until the car was ready. We have just one car, and I had forgotten to make an ahead-of-time appointment, so my only choice (I thought) was to just wait for the car until the service guys could fit it in to their schedule, even if it meant 6 or 7 hours of waiting.
               What happened this morning, however, was that I finally saw the elephant. For some reason, it suddenly occurred to me that I have many friends nearby who could help me in this situation. Sitting in the early morning light in our sunroom, I realized – duh! – that I have friends who not only could help me but would be happy to help me in this situation. I thought about this unfamiliar, newly uncovered fact for a few minutes, and then decided to take action. I sent messages by email and text to several friends, and within 30 minutes I had replies, and was all set to drive to the dealership in a few minutes, picked up there by a friend and driven home, and then picked up at home in the afternoon by a friend and driven back to the dealership. It was a rather astonishing change for me, an abrupt vision, you might say, where I was able to see what had been right there – in the room – all the time: good friends.               
               I wonder … what other elephants that I can’t see are in the room of my life?