“Too old to learn; just be good.”

If we learn, 

but don’t practice, 

we’ll end up forgetting.

Early early on, we learned an invaluable lesson: if we don’t put our keys in a designated place, we’re doomed to be perpetually searching for them. This turns frantic when our appointment was five minutes ago.

And so, whether at home, work, or running errands, keys now have their place. On the hook by the door, in our bag, our pocket. Essentially, we have learned that we don’t enjoy looking for our keys. To know where on earth (literally) they will be, we found a logical place for them. We then made it a habit to place them in “their” place. 

If we had not acted on the fact that we dislike losing our keys—had not put what we learned into practice—those missing keys would still be a problem.

Anything we learn related to good behavior needs to be put into practice and repeated until it becomes a habit. Whether it be finding our keys, cultivating to be a better person, or chanting the buddha-name.

“How we do anything 

is how we do everything.”

Flitting like a hummingbird on a nectar high, our mind alights one second on the news we are hearing on the TV, the next to what we’ll have for dinner tomorrow, then quickly on to what on earth is our neighbor doing to produce such strange noises. All these are going on as our computer beckons—while the work we are supposed to be doing remains untouched. Then our spouse fumes and frets because we are not helping to clean the house.

The saying “How we do anything is how we do everything” cautions us that everything we do does indeed matter. Procrastination and delays will get us nowhere. Literally and metaphorically. The needed action still requires us to do something about it and we need to work on it.

And so we would do well to ask ourselves, Do I honestly want to stay this way, the way I am? And what about the rest of my life? Do I have good habits? Am I a good role model? Or a repeat time-waster? Hopefully, we’ll prudently choose the way we want to spend our next few minutes.

And the years to come.