Sometimes you need a different perspective.
Thankful-Grateful-Blessed
Who doesn’t need to be reminded of that daily
Who would have thought that something as goofy as losing a piece of jewelry would turn into a learning lesson?
As I was getting ready for work on Tuesday morning, I managed to drop my diamond ring - well, actually, it was on the bathroom vanity I picked up a towel, and it went sailing. I knew it fell on the floor and most likely slid under the vanity. As I am searching on my hands and knees, seeing nothing, I started to panic. I vacuumed underneath the vanity with no luck. The next move was thinking it went down the sink drain, so I cleared out under the sink, we took off the joint in the water pipe, and…..no ring. The panic started to increase.
The bathroom is directly above our family room and the bar. We decided to remove the ceiling, thinking it may have fallen through the hole in the vanity where the water pipes go through. Do you know how heavy it is holding up a wooden panel, so it doesn’t crash onto the bar and break? Anyway, the only thing I found in that area was dust and…..no ring.
At this point, I figured I had two options: call the plumber to remove the vanity (the water lines would have to be disconnected) or give up. Since I am not a “give up” kind of person, and the ring had value (and not just the cost), I called the plumber.
Chris, the plumber, came and looked under the vanity and was convinced it wouldn’t be there (yup, more panic) and asked to go look in the ceiling where we had removed the panel. As he looked, he said the sink lines were farther over, so it wouldn’t be in this ceiling area. He walked into the laundry room, followed the sink lines, and started to remove some rugs I had placed on top of the refrigerator. The next words out of his mouth were, “Is this what you are looking for?” The ring had traveled down the hole around the water lines, fallen through a crack in the sub-flooring and landed safely on top of a rug!
I would have never even thought to look in that area and never would have followed the water lines because I was so focused on where I thought the ring would be. And this is where the different perspective comes into play. Sometimes, during times of high stress, or in my case, panic, you need to rely on someone else’s perspective and expertise. Stress and panic will narrow your focus and close you off to different perspectives. When you feel the stress starting to rise, take time to step back, breathe, and think bigger and broader. Ask for help, open your mind to another perspective, and solutions will appear.
Not only did I recover my ring, but I have a shiny, clean bathroom and bar area with all the clean-up I ended up doing!
