I was trying to print out something, but I didn’t hear it printing in the next room. Since it was a new program, and I had already judged it to be “behind the times,” I figured it was the program and didn’t check the printer.
It took two days and multiple tries before I checked the printer and realized it jammed because two pages were stabled together.
Huh, I muttered to myself. Two things stuck together that don’t belong together is the problem, not the program.
And then, I asked myself, “What else is stuck together that I haven’t noticed?”
I asked myself that question because I personally felt like the program that wouldn’t print. I was doing everything I knew to make things “work” within a few areas of my life, but without apparent results.
For the next few days, I uncoupled things I thought went together: like the cold water pressure was maybe why the dishwasher wouldn’t work, and the upstairs toilet wouldn’t fill?
You know what? They weren’t related.
The toilet was because a hose had popped out of the tank.
As for the dishwasher, there was a huge metal spring-type thing in the dishwasher’s innards that wasn’t supposed to be there. It looked almost like a big slinky.
The repairman had seen nothing like it. He said it happened at the factory. He took it with him to show his colleagues because it was so weird.
It surprised him that the dishwasher worked at all for the first few months.
Minor problems, I know. But it’s been a problem strewn couple of months, maybe years, for almost all of us. So while I was dealing with mine, I made a list of nine ways to solve problems faster and easier.
- 1. Stop assuming you know why something isn’t working.
- 2. Don’t confuse the symptoms of a problem with the problem.
- 3. Uncouple problems from each other. Take one problem at a time.
- 4. It’s not always hard to fix a problem, but you won’t know until you start.
- 5. Problem fixing always involves being willing to look at it.
- 6. Fixing a problem usually takes less time than worrying about it.
- 7. Ask for help from someone that can help and wants to help. They are not always the same thing.
- 8. Remember that often things don’t work, not because of something you did, but because weird things fall into the machinery of life.
- 9. Most of all, remember that problems are part of small r reality but not within big R Reality. In that Reality, all Life operates within the Principles of Omnipresent Love.
When we begin with this premise, even the most difficult of problems has no place to live, and any action we have to take becomes easier.
If our intention is to dissolve the problem and not get buried in the drama, we will see the always present solution faster.
We are still working on the cold water pressure. But now, I have called someone who will know the answer and can fix it. In the meantime, a sink drain has sprung a leak. So isn’t it great that the plumber is already coming to our house?
It’s big R Reality leaking into the illusion of the small r reality, fulfilling this promise: “Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24
BECA LEWIS coaches, teaches, writes blogs and books, plays with art, and is addicted to reading. She lives in Ohio with her husband and has kids and grandkids scattered across the country.
