Image courtesy of brookes-bearnecessities.blogspot.com
Well!
I knew it. Of course I knew it. But somewhere along the line it slipped from my awareness again.
And yet, there it is once more, confronting me with such glory and such delight that it dizzies me.
Do you want to know?
Here it is:
Food enjoyed – and I mean, really enjoyed, with that close-your-eyes-and-experience-the-taste-to-the-full kind of intensity – almost a Capital Letter Enjoyed! – oh, such food is how one should eat most of the time. That’s not the principal discovery, though.
It is this:
When food is truly Enjoyed like this, you need only a little to satisfy you completely.
This week I lunched at a restaurant and had an aubergine vegetarian stack: aubergine, tomato, feta, mozzarella and … hmmmmm! basil pesto – and I swooned with pleasure. I ate both little stacks on my plate, but afterwards realized just one would have sufficed. So little!
There are probably tons of research about this phenomenon, but I don’t need research to figure that when you enjoy food with all your senses, your brain just gets that message so much more completely that you are actually nourished.
This is the second time in as many weeks it has happened to me, and I realize that contrary to my normal belief, I really enjoy eating truly good food.
I used to have my nose in the air about haute cuisine. All those large plates with tiny morsels on them, surrounded by curlicues of some sauce, I said. Served in seven courses combining to less than a full plate of homecooked food, I said. How pretentious! I said.
And then, one single time in my life, I enjoyed such a meal. And I learned, much to my surprise and my eternal delight, that eating small, beautifully prepared portions enabled me to really appreciate what was on my plate. To fully experience the food with all my senses! It was one of the times in my life I felt the most nourished, the most replete.
It made me pause.
After this week’s experience, I’m converted.
Do you realize the implications? What would happen if ALL our food was served beautifully, delighting the eye and the nose as much as the palate? What if ALL our food was a wonderful combination of complementing fragrances and tastes?
I dare say we would have a world full of thin, healthy, happy people.
Could anything be more wonderful than really enjoying food the way you really enjoy moving your body or drinking in a breathtaking view? They’re all the same. They speak of living with passion. They speak of LIFE.
It needs to be fully enjoyed.
Oh, and I do!
move towards your goals every day by deliberate thoughts and actions!
There are two celebrations you won’t find in South Africa: Halloween and Thanksgiving. Which means less temptation to overeat, from all I gather off the web. =)
found this symphony of water and light the other night
Nonetheless, this is a good time of the year to remember what I am grateful for. I find that a worthy practice.
A dear, dear friend recently gave me a gratitude journal, and I’ve started jotting down the things I am grateful for. And of course, I know from the experience: the more you open up yourself to a spirit of gratitude, the more your eyes are opened to the beauty and wonder in your life.
That is certainly the case for me.
I enter this day with a deep and engulfing sense of gratitude for all the myriads of blessings in my life. It’s a good place to be.
Thank You, Beloved.
Well, if you’re looking for a zippy, zesty report on the Hot 100 – Going Out With a Bang! front, especially if you’re looking for the BANG! part, go over to South Beach Steve’s, because sadly, here on The Porch, you’re not going to find much more than a fizzle. Well, as far as this past week goes, anyway.
What with the depression, my current scale-less-ness (still) and a more-than-2-weeklong Headache from Hell, I haven’t looked at ANY goals except to get through the week in one piece. That’s a goal, right?
Serious lack of BANG! right now, but you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.
I’ve ate, though for the life of me I can’t really remember what. Raw, it wasn’t. I’ve tried to exercise, but it was so minimal, it doesn’t even count. Creativity has flown the coop. This migraine is driving me NUTS, truth be told.
I am so sick and tired of pain killers, and I’m so sick and tired of moving slowly – with the world in a blur around me – I could happily die.
Here’s the thing, though: I am SO not going to let this get me under.
So, I’ve had a week of performance which ranges more towards the black holes of the stellar spectrum. But:
- I also know that I’ve been dealing with heavy emotional stuff which pulled the focus off all else in my life.
- I’m still learning how to keep that focus when life seems to be falling apart at the seams, both emotionally and physically, or at least to regain it as speedily as possible.
- Enough of me has changed during these past weeks of goal-reaching that I’m NOT allowing this blip to destroy my progress or my vision. (And for Pippa that’s huge progress.)
And I’m going to beat this blip. I just have to figure out how.
First things first: If you’re in need of inspiration, go and watch Steve’s Word of the Day: Half-heartedness – it is bound to motivate you right out of your socks.
Second, until I’ve figured out how to conquer these terrible migraines, I’m simply setting myself the goal of going back to raw living this next week. Let’s see if that helps. When I can see clearly again, I’ll write a longer post, exercise again, and generally be the little energizer bunny.
Sometimes one step at a time is the best way forward. Scrap that: one step at a time is always the best way forward. Even if it is little baby steps.
Let’s make it a great week!
happy Pippa feet =)
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I heard
Was the song outside my window
And the traffic wrote the words
It came ringing up like Christmas bells
And rapping up like pipes and drums
Won’t you stay
We’ll put on the day
And we’ll wear it till the night comes
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtains
And a rainbow on my wall
Red, green and gold to welcome you
And crimson crystal beads to beckon
Won’t you stay
We’ll put on the day
There’s a sun shower every second
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey
And a bowl of oranges too
And the light poured in like butterscotch
And stuck to all my senses
Won’t you stay
We’ll put on the day
And we’ll talk in present tenses
(Joni Mitchell)
There is nothing like this song to get me UP, UP, UP again. Oh, the imagery! The beauty! The vibrancy!
And it is very applicable to where I am right now.
These past two weeks I’ve been down, struggling to lift my head. Everything in my life seemed so heavy. I am SO very grateful for friends like you who lift me, who keep me in prayer and light – it makes a DIFFERENCE, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind.
So, let me tell you a bit about what’s been happening and what I’ve learned.
Weekend before last Zee expressed the wish to move to his dad. Though I expected this to happen sooner or later, it was – at 13 – a LOT sooner than I had thought, and right now where I am – feeling that I’m losing my parents – it simply felt as if I’m losing my son as well. My antenna tuned into LOSS as the main theme of my life. (Let’s not go into the self-recrimination of “Oh, what am I doing wrong?” etc. which assaulted me as I struggled with this new development in my life.)
And it took me until some time this week to realize that there might be a different perspective. Duh! (I know, I know, blondies can be slow.)
Seriously though, just imagine how it could be viewed differently. Not as loss, but as simplification, as freedom!
All the things happening in my life right now… what if there’s a different way of looking at it? What if God weren’t taking people away from me, but rather streamlining life in and around me to fit His bigger plan?
Imagine my parents going to Heaven within the next year, finally released from this challenging life (and country) because their work here on Earth is complete. What a party that’s going to be!!
Imagine Zee connecting with his dad on a deeper level these next few years – and from 13 onwards that sounds like an excellent plan to me – giving me the opportunity to become the weekend parent? =)
Imagine me having extra time in the evenings to exercise, write that novel I’ve been incubating for years, plan fun stuff for weekends, actually visit more blogs and touch lives the way you’ve been touching mine …
Imagine life becoming this rich, healthy thing of beauty … a Chelsea Morning, where light pours in like butterscotch … and we talk in present tenses.
I’m back.
And I’m alive.
And I’m so blessed.
