On the beach one day, I watched a hermit crab ditch her old home and try out a couple different shells until she found a new one. It struck me suddenly that I spend way too much time on trying to improve and maintain my house and not nearly enough time trying to improve and maintain my body and my mind. OMG, I thought, I can always move to another house or apartment, or even a tent! I cannot, however, move out of my body or my mind. So if I am going to have this mind and this body for my entire life time, it seems to me that I should be spending a whole lot more time and energy on exercise, meditation, prayer, daily walks, time in nature, sunshine, nourishing meals, and learning new things - and a whole lot less time on dusting, cleaning, polishing, decorating and yard work. How often have I said I don't have time for counseling - or for hiking, or for yoga classes or for a retreat? And yet I spend hours and hours every week improving upon a pile of bricks and wood that someone else is going to eventually end up living in. I hereby resolve to start putting the things that improve and nourish my body and my mind ahead of the things that improve my house on my TO DO LIST. The value of my body and mind far exceeds the value of any house I will ever live in, even if that house is a mansion.