Sometimes I don't think ahead – especially where this involves a question of maintaining the status quo. It bores me. This means that I often run out of basic things I need. At that point, I realise I need to make provision! Suddenly, I get motivated to take action! None too clever, but I'm content to be me – and I'm unlikely to change in that respect.

Toothpaste is a common example – I run out regularly. But, when you're ready, there's a lesson even in toothpaste.

I have a cavalier attitude to a new tube of toothpaste. I squeeze with gay abandon, brush, rinse, repeat – for surely the paste will last forever?

But when it gets down to the end of the tube, and I realise there is no replacement, it truly seems to last forever. It would appear that there is more toothpaste in the last part of the tube than there ever was at the top end.

My life is toothpaste.

At the beginning of the tube, I wasted paste. I didn't care. I had all the time in the world.

Even in the middle of the tube, I still felt like there was plenty of toothpaste – so I still wasted time.

Now I sense my end! I may actually have decades left – I don't know, but I do sense a conclusion to this tube of toothpaste!

My response is a good one. I am finding more paste in the little that is left than in the abundance I began with. Every day is a bonus. Every sunny day is to be appreciated. Every rainy day is to be received with gratitude for the life-giving water it supplies. Every smile is to be reciprocated. Every kindness remembered and cherished.

I live more in the moment now than ever before. Yes, I look back with regret at the waste, but I don't waste much of my time left doing this. I notice it and come back to the present. Yes, I worry about the future, but not for long. Today is the day to squeeze every last drop of value from this day's portion of the tube!

Fancy a squeeze? Or just a hug?

Lex

A Moodscope member.