Sharpening Our Tools

I was sitting stock still in the hair stylist's chair. Not moving a muscle, and certainly not saying anything. Everything was completely fine, but I always have the fear that if my head is moving around or I'm talking to the stylist too much, I'll hear a sudden gasp followed by a distressed, "Oh no!", and I'll have a huge bald stripe from the clippers or a huge gash in my ear. Anyway, in this awkward silence, as I'm doing my best to make life easy for the hair stylist, she filled the conversation gap by saying that she was going to have to ship her scissors to Florida to be sharpened. That pinged my curiosity radar. I asked why she didn't just sharpen them herself or use a local sharpening service. She said, "Well, when you have scissors as expensive as these, you can't take chances on someone doing it wrong. I only trust the person who made the scissors. They cost too much to risk having them ruined." Well, now my curiosity was really piqued. How expensive could scissors be? So I asked. My initial guess was nowhere close. Her best pair of scissors cost $800.00! Her "okay" scissors cost only $300.00. Apparently, cheap scissors or dull expensive scissors lead to a lot of split ends, uneven haircuts, and loss of clients and income. So making sure that the tools of her trade were sharpened by the most trustworthy source makes a lot of long-term sense.

It makes me think that perhaps the best thing we can do for ourselves is make sure all of our life tools are sharp. By "life tools" I mean the things at which we already excel or would like to excel. It's easy for things to become a little dull. Compassion fatigue can set in and cause us to lose our sense of caring for others. We can become distracted by things that don't matter to the point that relationships with family, friends, and loved ones become dull and lifeless. Or maybe we have skills and talents that we take for granted, don't use for a while, and allow to become rusty and dull. The problem is, too often we don't realize how quickly our set of life tools can start to get a little nicked up until it's too late. Then the sharpening takes more work than it would have if we'd paid attention a little earlier.

Of course, as with most things, a lot of reflection and self-examination is the best way to determine what our best tools are and whether or not they could use a little sharpening. Are you a good spouse or a good friend? How could you be better? Are your parenting tools as sharp as you would like them? What about those talents that you have? Are you keeping them at the highest level you can?

If you think an $800.00 pair of haircutting scissors is expensive, consider the cost of you. It's priceless. There is only one of you, one life to live, and you have unique set of attributes and talents that are special to those that love you. They're special to the entire world, really. It just makes sense, and is a gift to everyone, to keep them as razor sharp and useful as you possibly can.