Right In Front of You

By Tommy Leung on 03/26/2010 in Life

I went to the gym tonight like most Tuesday nights. I’ve been to this gym for a while and have become accustomed to their layout. Gyms don’t often rearrange equipment; it’s heavy.

The gym had recently bought some new equipment so they had to rearrange some things to make room. There is a weight rack that holds 2.5lb plates. On nights that I feel extra strong and decide to push myself more, I add two 2.5lb plates and go another set or two–slow and steady.

I turned towards where this weight rack has been situated for months at the end of the room and it wasn’t there. I quickly scanned to the left and to the right; wasn’t there. I looked behind me. Not there either.

Now, did I really look in a different place? Is looking to the left, right, and behind me really looking somewhere I wasn’t already looking? Or was I just looking at a slightly different spot in the same place?

If we were on a sinking ship and just walked to the other side of the ship where we can’t see the leak, is the ship now not sinking? No.

We always seem to be looking for something and we just can’t seem to find it. Maybe we can’t find that solution, that great idea, that special someone, that perfect someone, that great job, the great life, or whatever because we are just looking at a different deck board on the same sinking ship.

So where do we look? A Canadian pop star did say it was right in front of you all along. Well, maybe it is right in front of you.

There I was at the gym, trying to find this weight rack. I realized it made no sense that anyone would move all that weight very far. I turned back towards where it used to be situated. This time, I saw it. It was four feet in front of me.

It was right in front of me.

By Tommy Leung