The Source of the Smell

Have you ever had something rotting in your refrigerator? You open the door and... "WHOA!" You are almost knocked over by a foul odor. It happens to all of us.

Sometimes the cause of the smell is quite apparent. Other times, it requires a bit of sleuthing to uncover the offending item.

This past week, I had a horrible smell coming from my refrigerator, and I couldn't readily identify what was causing it. There was nothing 'obvious' that would create such a strong and offensive smell!

One thing was for sure. Until I got to the root cause of the odor, it wasn't going away. I could have sprayed room deodorizer for the rest of my life! But if I didn't remove the source of the smell, it would not go away.

I have 2 open boxes of baking soda in my fridge. That helps to 'absorb' odors on the fridge. It wasn't TOUCHING this bad boy!

Sometimes we have thing in our lives that are as smelly as the things that rot in our refrigerators. Relationships that are toxic, jobs that we allow to destroy our health, habits that are destructive and behavior patterns that hurt us. We can self medicate until the cows come home, but as long as we refuse to deal with the SOURCE of our pain, and just focus on trying to 'cover' or 'mask' the symptoms (the bad smell) we will not find a solution.

I had to take a bunch of things out of my refrigerator. It took a while before I found the offending item, which interestingly enough was a 'past it's prime' avocado. I was kind of shocked that something that looked so good on the outside could be creating such an unpleasant and powerful stench!

Lots of times, in our lives, we *think* something is good for us in our lives, when it is actually creating pain and hardship. It's kind of amazing how we can convince ourselves that something is harmless, or even good for us, when it's actually destructive!

Bottom line, if something is 'off' in your life, it is important to look for the root cause or causes and address them directly. My fridge (and kitchen) would still stink if I hadn't removed and tossed the rotting avocado. No amount of room deodorizer or baking soda would have made it stop rotting and stinking up the place.

Got any good looking, but inwardly rotting avocados in your life? Open that fridge up and clean house! Fix the real problem, and stop wrestling with the symptom!