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The Price of a Big, Meaningful Life
A thought exercise that started with a mushroom growing out of a bathtub
At least once a day, every day, for over two decades, I’ve pictured a mushroom sprouting out of the grout in the corner of a bathtub in the Florida Keys. It sits right between the bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
“Not just mold, but an actual mushroom,” was how my friend described this flora that flourished in the bathroom of her childhood home. “There was a real cap!”
My friend’s mother is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 books. (She will remain nameless, as I did not ask her for permission to discuss her bathtub hygiene.) The reason I think of the mushroom so often is that when I first heard this story at age 23, the idea that someone so accomplished was not similarly together across every facet of her life was a true game-changer for me. It presented me with a critical lesson: Often, the price of engaging in what’s important requires a strategic disengagement with what is not. In her case, that included the things that grew in her grout.
Now, years later, every time I pass by a pile of laundry in my home that still hasn’t been folded, or when I realize I forgot to add money to my daughter’s school lunch account, or when I see a bag of compost…
