Low Impact Lingers On

Low Impact Week certainly had an impact on me. Some new insight pops up two or three times a day. I see how I could do something differently, just some small thing. For example, last night I set a pot of water on the kitchen stove and turned on the heat. I needed the water to come to a boil before I dropped in some shrimp to cook. (More about that tomorrow.) Remember the saying that a watched pot never boils? I was impatient, waiting for the boil, when a voice in my head said, “Put a lid on it, for Pete’s sake!”

And there you are, an insight. Keeping a lid on the pot hastened the boil and I had saved both time and electricity usage.

It happened again today when I tried to open a little drawer in the bathroom. Something was caught, so I began to pull things out in order to find the obstruction. Gadzooks! No wonder the drawer wouldn’t open. Where did all this stuff come from?

It’s true I had three different facial moisturizers in there, but after I sorted things out, the real culprit emerged. When I have my teeth cleaned the hygienist always hands me a plastic bag full of dental supplies – a small container of floss, a toothbrush, gum stimulators, and a little tube of Crest toothpaste, a brand I never use. Actually, I never use any of these things.

Here’s the insight: I don’t have to accept the dental goody bag. (What is it about human beings that causes us to accept things just because they are free, even if we don’t need or even like them?) If I say “No, thank you,” my bathroom drawer will remain orderly and I’ll have less trash to dispose of. 

Maybe I’ll go a step farther and ask that the cost of the things in the goody bag be deducted from my cleaning bill. I wonder how that will go over?

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer