Toothpaste

  This morning I cleaned out an old bathroom drawer.  Some of the things in it had been moving with me since I was in college...and perhaps before.  I threw away a tube of toothpaste that expired in March of 2006.  I don't know what happens to toothpaste when it expires, but it seems like if bad things were going to happen, they would have happened by now, so I went ahead and trashed it.

  How many things in our spiritual lives have been sitting around, collecting dust, avoiding our attention?  I wondered how many times I'd moved that tube of toothpaste, from apartment to condo to condo to house, without ever bothering to examine it.  I wonder the same thing about some spiritual habits--how many times have I promised to start ___________ (meditating, journaling, etc.) and never bothered to begin.  How many old promises do I have lazing around my life, not helping, not harming?  Do we think of doing spring cleaning with our spiritual life, setting everything we do and don't do on the table, to examine it all and see what fits us today, and what promises or habits are just taking up space, not helping us grow?  I imagine doing so would help us grow, moving forward as a vibrant people, having spiritual practices that fit our lives today, rather than just dragging onward because they've always been there.

Take a few minutes this afternoon, this evening.  You might be fascinated at what you find.