The Day I Bought an Elephant

By Vickie G. Paver

A few months ago I bought an elephant and kept it around for a few days. What a mistake! I wish I had left it where I found it. I paid entirely too high a price for the thing anyway. I don't even like the color gray. Gray isn't really a color; it does nothing to cheer things up. When I sit on the couch, the elephant also sits and makes the whole couch sink. When I go to the refrigerator, suddenly all kinds of food is missing. I can't even enjoy time with my husband, because the dumb thing is hanging over me. BOY! The day I bought that elephant was the worst day of my life. Who could have known it would demand so much time, food and energy! The story has a happy ending, though. One day I had just enough. Everything in my life was being put on hold, so my choice became simple: it was the elephant or my sanity. I threw him out! I just couldn't take it any more. I feel better now and life has gone back to normal. I hope he doesn't come begging around here again because I can't really afford him.

 

Now, before you get too hard on me for bringing an elephant into the house, I have to tell you it really wasn't an elephant I bought, but depression. Depression over the way life was going for me. Sort of a "pity party" if you will. I found that it took up too much time and energy. Besides, I ate like an elephant, too. The cost was way too high. You see it robbed me blind. It robbed me of joy, peace, a clear mind, hope, love, and companionship with my husband. It left me brooding, sullen, negative, and wanting to close myself off from the world around me, including friends. The weight of it all was as big as an elephant, but I bought it anyway. I looked it right in the face and lived with the thing. I knew I didn't want it, but I deliberately fed and petted it, knowing full well that it would just hang around. I bought into the idea that all things in this world should be equal, meaning they should all go my way. I believed that somehow I should be the best liked, and have the most friends. I thought that my husband should not have diabetes, that I should not get sick, or have any trials. Boy! That was a real pity party wasn't it? But let me ask you this question: Have you ever been there? Most of us have at one time or another and maybe more than once. We are human and should not whip ourselves, but instead throw the elephant out. We can't afford the price of ongoing depression. Life is too short. Besides, no matter what, life always has a bright side. I don't have all the answers, but I have a few suggestions.

1. Try to find a little humor in each day, and laugh a little.

2. Think about others who are worse off than you are.

3. Help someone. Even the little things count, like a phone call or a note.

4. Work on a project, such as a hobby.

5. Exercise if you can, even if it is your toes and fingers.

6. Talk to someone.

7. Don't shut yourself off from others.

8. Love and forgive yourself.

9. Love others

10. Last, but not least, let God help you. He loves you.

 

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