Words of Wisdom
Three months in, I was getting impatient. I wanted to see faster results, bigger breakthroughs. During our lunch break one day, Mike could probably sense my frustration.
“You know what your problem is, Emily?” he said, unwrapping his sandwich. “You’re thinking like a human.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Elephants don’t live in our timeline. When they love, it’s for life. When they remember, it’s forever. And when they’ve been hurt…” He paused, watching a family of visitors laughing at the penguin exhibit. “When they’ve been hurt, healing happens on their schedule, not ours.”
He turned to face me directly. “But here’s the amazing thing about elephants—once they decide to trust you, really trust you, it’s the most powerful bond you’ll ever experience. Worth waiting for, don’t you think?”
Those words became my mantra. Every time I felt like we weren’t moving fast enough, I’d remember: Worth waiting for.
