The Toothpaste Lesson

V, our facilities manager, was the Man Friday at my workplace — you needed a home to rent, a tenant for your place, something broken down to fix; Hey, I know he even helped my friend get her pet a certificate. 
No job was too menial, no effort was unnecessary. Getting him on board could be tricky now and then, but if he said he’d take care of it, you could trust him to. 

We got speaking one day years ago and he told me a little something. 
“My mother, was particular about not wasting anything. And even today, even if it’s toothpaste, I am fussy about when I throw it out. Every drop counts. I know it can be irritating. My wife gets really mad at me but that’s how I was raised. To value what we have and to use it the best that we could.”


So the other day, when my son folded up the paste and told me it was time to get a new one, I called him close and squeezed out what he needed. A week later he still hasn’t thrown the paste out. 
It’s funny, how the tooth paste lesson has stayed with me. It reminds me to hold on, and see if something can be used or not. Is it really over when we say it’s over or are we just tempted to get on with the new one. 

It makes us pause at the little things, the details of our life that we tend to sweep over and ignore. Take a notice of the one’s that we usually rush past. 
And think about it, if we are careful with something as irrelevant as toothpaste at home, will it not reflect on our bigger decisions and purchases.
Possibly yes.
Maybe not. 
But it’s worth a try, isn’t it? 

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