It all started with an earring that got dropped down the drain. In order to retrieve it, I went ahead and removed the trap from the below the sink and began to empty it. Now, if you’ve ever done this, you know this can be a slimy, smelly task. Thankfully, I found the earring. And then I think to myself, I might as well clean out this trap while I have it off—which is what I went ahead and did. A few minutes later, I’m getting ready to put it back on, and realize that I now have a different problem. There is now a noticeable hole at the bottom of the trap.

I realized that this hole had probably been there for some time, but it never leaked because all the gunk on the inside of the pipe had effectively sealed it up. The hair, the grease, the slime, all of it had created a goopy ring on the inside of the trap that kept anything from leaking though this hole at the bottom. But, now since I had cleaned it out, I realized that this cleaning had brought another problem to light.

The same thing can happen in other areas of life. We deal with one issue, and then realize that it was actually masking a deeper issue. And once the superficial one is dealt with, we now have other things to address. And although it may seem easier to just not deal with any of it, that doesn’t make the issues go away. Better to go ahead and get started on the things we’re aware of, even if doing so ends up exposing other issues, than to let them all sit there and get worse, knowing that we’ll still have to deal with them eventually.