Plumbing and Letting Go

For those of you who haven't been following my facebook groanings, our recent dips into the teens played havoc with our plumbing, and my husband's injured back combined with the temporarily tight quarters in the shed made me the chief plumber--a job I would gladly relinquish, although now it seems I'm a pro.

Long story short, we had to replace a lot of shattered PVC pipe, only to discover that our check valve had a split in it, and when we replaced that, we somehow did not get a good connection between the metal elbow and the plastic-type pipe that goes into the ground, allowing air to get into the line between the check valve and the submersible pump. The effect of this was that when the pressure tank got empty (i.e. no water to the house) and the pump kicked on, it took 3 to 5 minutes for the pump to refill the pipe between the well and the pressure tank. This wouldn't normally be a big deal, unless you happened to be brushing your teeth and had to stand there with a mouthful of minty toothpaste for several minutes; had just lathered your hair and had to stand in the shower all soapy and unable to see for several minutes; or had just gotten your hands really yucky dirty and the last cup of water in the tank was not enough to cleanse them, and you had stand there for several minutes contemplating hiring someone else to clean up any unfortunate accidents (where ARE Thing One and Thing Two when you really need them?)

I kept thinking I just needed a clamp that would fit tighter around the pipe. But the tighter I clamped the pipe, the bigger the leak got. In frustration, I loosened the clamps to the point of the least leak and gave up, at least temporarily, realizing this was actually a livable circumstance and hoping for inspiration in the meantime.

I was sitting in church today and I realized there was a lesson in this. (Sorry, Gordon, I can't even recall what you said that sparked this realization!) My motivation and my attitude about my recent water crisis was "Fix it!" And I tackled each new challenge with an "I can fix this!" mentality. And frankly, I think that's pretty much how I approach problems. I put my head down and boar into it. Once I know what I am supposed to do and have a plan in place, my stress level goes down immensely. I don't deal well with situations that I have no concept how to fix. My mind goes round and round and round until I at least have a plan, or have a plan to talk to someone who might help me make a plan. I'm not good at waiting....

I was trying to verbalize this to G on the way home from church today and he said, referring to Mark McCoy's recent sermon, "Oh, you mean you have trouble letting go?" Mark's sermon was about a man who was trying to get to this really interesting person of light, but the shadow in him kept pulling him back. Every time he would try to approach this interesting person, his shadow fought him. Finally, the person of light said to him "Let go," and he realized it was not the shadow that was holding onto him, but he who was holding onto the shadow.

I would like you to know that in the intervening weeks when I have been pondering my water problem and "letting it go" so to speak, it has improved itself. I don't know if this is "divine intervention" or if loosening the clamps allowed the joint to vibrate into a more optimal angle, if our well has suddenly become semi-artesian, creating enough upward pressure to counteract the air leak, if slugs have crawled into the gap and sealed it for us, or ????. But now the wait is 3 to 10 seconds for the water to come back on, and that is almost unnoticeable.

I'm not saying that we need to let go of all our problems. There is a time to attack them. But there is also a time to let go...and wait. The challenge is knowing the difference!