The lady walked into the bathroom and looked around. It looked like something you’d find in a third-rate truck stop. And smelled worse. Even flies gagged when they entered it. But over in the corner was an air freshener. It was placed there to try to cover up the mess. It was an olfactory bandage on the fact the room had not been properly cleaned. It took 30 seconds to place the air freshener on the counter. It would’ve only taken a few minutes more to clean the room.
She thought about how many air fresheners she had in her life. How many messes had she just covered up? Then she thought about the stress that all of those messes were causing. She was putting a lot of air fresheners on the counter.
She went back and sat at her desk. She looked at the loose piles of papers. The unanswered e-mails. The things she procrastinated about. She thought of her closet. It was a mess. She just closed the door — an air freshener.
She thought about all the messes in her life. And she made a list of ways to start cleaning them up.
No more bandages. No more air fresheners.