What the “Drains Man” Taught Me

It’s not often that I talk to you about drains, rather than personal development. But this time, it’s worth it, because the two became strangely connected this week.

I’ll be honest, I was not looking forward to the “Drains man” and his visit. We live in a property with several flats, and someone else had kindly organised it all. Which was just fine by me. I’m a cyber kind of girl, and the more “virtual” life can become, the happier I am. Especially when it comes to drains.

Anyway, the drains man was here longer than we thought he would be. Meaning that walking past the whole process, in order to get out the gate and to my next appointment, become unavoidable. Coming face to face with your own s*** in a personal development context is one thing…I wasn’t looking forward to its physical equivalent one bit.

Marching smartly out the door, being me, I still couldn’t just walk past the drains man and his mate without saying, “Hello”. And being me, this turned into an irresistible extra comment of the kind that always just seems to fall out of my mouth whether I want it to or not.

“Thank you so much for doing this, ” (So far, so good). “I’m so glad that I don’t have to”. (Another  heartfelt comment, but did I need to say it? I made an attempt to hurry away).

At which point, the drains man, with perfect sincerity, delight and charm said,

“It’s a great job…I love it. You get to make a real difference to people’s lives…I just love it when there’s been a big blockage, and we can take it away.”

Oh drains man, I really, really wished I could have stopped longer, found out more about you, and thanked you for what I learnt from you. Which was:

Coaching and drain clearance are much more closely related than I thought. People in both professions get to clear blockages, and to make a difference.

But one of us was scared to go near the dirt…and yet learnt more than she could have imagined by doing so.