In Plain Sight

When I was a lad, I was interested in Indians, Indian lore, and Indian artifacts. There was a generous and knowledgeable man in our neighborhood who was an amateur archaeologist and knew where to go and how to look for arrowheads, pottery, and spearheads. I was constantly urging him to go hunting for them with me, and he'd say, "We'll wait until after the second rain when the farmer has done his spring plowing. Then the arrowheads and other things will be lying in plain sight. All you'll need to do is pick them up." To me, it was like magic. In sobriety, the thought came to me that I might be able to use this knowledge in making my inventory. All I had to do was lay it out. I took seven blank pieces of paper, labeling each one from the list of defects in the "Twelve and Twelve": pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. After my morning prayers and meditation, I would set out to work in my job as a salesman. When I started to feel one of those emotions rise, I could see my defect just lying there "in plain sight," and inevitably, it fit one of my labeled pieces of paper. After several months of doing this, I was able to penetrate my self-constructed walls and come face to face with me.