There's an elephant in the room. I don't know how it got there without being noticed or invited, but it did. It must've been small enough to enter through the front door but perhaps while no one was looking, he was eating off of plates left unattended, candy bowls left unguarded and and leftover cookies on a platter. He's grown so big, he can't leave the same way he entered. I once had an elephant in the room that even a mouse couldn't send him running. That elephant was a person that I trusted as a friend. We were as close as two sisters yet, the elephant crept in. It started when she began to tell hurtful jokes. The elephant grew. Then she turned the conversations into opportunities to put me down, while lifting herself up. The elephant plumped up some more. I cringed my way through conversations with her and avoided confrontations with her. Finally, the elephant became destructive enough that I knew it had to leave. I let her know that something had changed i...