Letter From The Heart

Oleg Doukhnevitch

“You have been created in order that you might make a difference. You have within you the power to change the world.”

Dear Friends,

Something happened recently. It made me realize how important it is not only to know someone but know who they are. I talked to my son the other day, and he told me about a great book “The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters” written by Andy Andrews. The butterfly effect is the concept that small causes can have large effects. “A butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air— eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.”

This reminded me of a chainsaw story. Please don’t be scared, this is going to be a Washingtonian chainsaw story, a good one. A few years ago I bought a nice chainsaw in Home Depot and it’s been laying in the garage for a long-long time. Back in November 2016, we had a really bad storm. One of the trees in our yard broke. It was a huge tree about 30ft tall with about 20 branches. I called a lot of companies who said it cost over $1000 to cut the tree. Then one of my neighbors highly recommended me to call on a guy who did a job for him. I called this guy and left a message, no one got back to me. A tried calling again within next few days. Finally, he called me back. He said he would come over tomorrow. The next day we met. He was a 60-70 years old man wearing cheap and old tattered clothing. The clothes from Goodwill that you can buy for a couple dollars was much better. He looked at the tree and said that he would charge me only $150… I was surprised because it was at least a day of work. So I decided to help him and brought my nice chainsaw from a garage. He said that my chainsaw is not good for this particular tree and showed me the collection of about 15 chainsaws in his truck. We worked hard all day.

I decided to pay him $400 because the guy did a great job. In thanks, the guy made a chair from the stump and offered me to come over to his shop to adjust my chainsaw for free. When we were done my girlfriend invited us for a dinner.  Then we heard a wonderful story of his life from our guest. His parents moved to Washington state in 1930th and bought 10 houses on the lake. At that time the land cost about $10,000 and now it costs millions. He doesn’t have a cell phone and his clients call to his home phone. Every evening he listens to voice messages and calls back to the first few clients to make appointments. People know him very well and he always has a lot of calls from customers. He can afford not to work but he loves his job. His 90 years old mother is still doing accounting for his company. I felt confused and ashamed because I wanted to donate him my used clothes and he was a millionaire as his parents still have these waterfront homes mostly paid off and rented out.

At that time I realized how superficially we judge people based on appearance sometimes. We need to know each other better. I’d like to know who you are you better and want you to know me too.  And who knows… what if “You have been created in order that you might make a difference. You have within you the power to change the world.”

I will be happy to hear from you and your stories, what impressed you or changed your life.

P.S. if you need a referral to reach my guy you know where to find me.