Sitting in traffic sandwiched between two buses I couldn’t help but notice their emergency exit signs. Emergency exits are everywhere when you actually take notice. All there of course for our safety and cleverly thought out and planned. As I sat there in the bus sandwich, I thought how great it might be if we each had a Personal Emergency Exit for life that we could use at anytime, anywhere. Something that we could use for those times when have all thought “God, get me out of here!”
Then I realised how many of those moments I have had in my life. I thought about how I have actually spent years looking for my Personal Emergency Exits. I have searched for them at the bottom of countless tubs of ice cream. Didn’t find one there! I tried the bottom of chip packets, even right in those tiny tight corners. Not there! I tried the biscuit tin over and over and over again. I tried partners, though not as many as the biscuits! Nope couldn’t find one there either! And no matter how hard I tried...and I had the determination of a saint on this one...I just could not find a Personal Emergency Exit at the bottom of a bottle of wine. Believe me, I looked for years.
I’m sure you too, have at some time looked in all the wrong the places for answers, for a painless and quick exit from a problem or situation that you can no longer bear. Maybe you still are? It has taken me years, decades actually, to realise that it is no good taking an exit when there are unresolved, uncomfortable life challenges to be faced because they don’t go away. Sometimes those uncomfortable life challenges sit and await our return. Sometimes, by the time we are ready to face them they have morphed into something else, but they will always follow us until we recognise them and put them to bed.
So as the buses began moving, I decided that I don’t need a Personal Emergency Exit to escape from uncomfortable life experiences anymore because the buck stops with me. I could exit here there and everywhere but I would always be carrying the answer in me anyway. I am the one who makes the decisions and the choices. I am the one who turns my attention to what I want, good or bad. So I’ve stopped looking for my Personal Emergency Exits at the bottom of ice cream tubs, chip packets, biscuit tins, in partners and in wine bottles. I realise that after what seems like a lifetime of searching for something or someone to provide an exit for me, I have actually been holding my own PEE in my hands all along, and so have you! What a fabulous revelation!