My partner and I were on holiday in London during Thanksgiving week, 2018. The hotel where we stayed was incredibly charming and homey, and provided full-size shampoos, conditioners, shower gels and body washes: ten to choose from in all. As we were getting ready to stroll the city on day one, Pete took an unusually long shower. When he emerged from the steamy bathroom, I asked what took so long and he quickly replied:
“I had to use all the soaps.”
As Pete and I wandered our way through the rainy city, “use all the soaps” ran through my head over and over as I realized what a great metaphor it was for how I want to live. I’ve been blessed with so many talents, skills and gifts that could serve a great purpose in this world, and like Pete using all the soaps in the bathroom, I want to use them all.
In addition to the usual attributes most people associate with gifts or blessings – financial stability, health, friends and family, etc. – I include other, sometimes less conventional things as blessings such as curiosity, determination, intelligence, kindness, generosity, fearlessness, physicality – essentially the things that make me uniquely me. Every experience and relationship, characteristic and attribute are all soaps on my shelf just waiting to be chosen, engaged and exhausted to make life more beautiful.
Unfortunately, we often find ourselves asking for a new or different kind of soap before using what we have been given, often overlooking the variety we already have to choose from. We focus on what’s easiest to grab or the one that others acknowledge us for – or worse, we go out and buy a new bottle before using up what we’ve already got. We tend to leave the other bottles on the shelf to collect that weird, sticky dust one finds in damp locations.
But what would happen if instead of reaching for the same bottle daily, we reached passed it and grabbed one of the bottles collecting dust? Or instead of relying exclusively on intelligence we opted to reach for our ability to build relationships? What if instead of trying yet another new hobby, we went back to that instrument we learned as a kid and dusted off that talent? Better yet, what if we acknowledge the myriad ways we’re inherently gifted and figure out how to use them all at once to be completely who we are meant to be in this world?
How would it feel to start each day choosing to use all our soaps? What difference could we make? Would we finally feel like we’ve found our purpose? Or could we simply go to bed at night with the sense of accomplishment and quiet confidence that comes from knowing we gave the day everything we had to give?
Choosing to use all the soaps takes a great amount of self-awareness, humility and gratitude. It also takes courage. It’s not easy to leverage dusty, old talents and unused skills. It takes a great deal of effort to squeeze that last bit of soap out of the bottom of a bottle and hope that it makes an impact. But honestly, when I reflect on the abundance in my life, I simply can’t imagine asking for more before I use everything I’ve got. It just feels greedy, ungrateful and a bit arrogant.
So this year, I’ve committed to being more aware of what I have and ensuring as much as possible, whenever possible, that I use every last soap. Because the good Lord knows I want more!
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