Be Kind to Yourself

A few years back I dropped in on X L Nunnburt and found him out in his workshop. I was surprised at how neat it was. We talked while he was working on a wood project and as he finished with a tool he put it in its proper place. I remarked on his habits and he said he learned this a few years before when he was working in a friend's shop to use a special saw. Before he left he put all the tools back, swept up, and left the place looking better than he found it. It got him to thinking why he would do that in a friend's place and had a practice of leaving his shop in a mess. He figured it was so his friend would not thing ill of him and then thought it might be important for him to think well of himself too. He began to clean up as he went along and discovered he no longer had to look around for the right tool and stumble over scraps of waste to get to his work. Suddenly he was able to finish a job much faster and his work was of higher quality. He said his wife caught on too. She found that cleaning the house for herself and her family was just as important as cleaning for company. Since X L (whose nickname was Forty) told me his little story I have tried to be kind to myself. It sorta catches on with a fellow and I believe makes him kinder to others in the process.