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Eat Dessert First!
Posted by Pat on August 12, 2012 in Uncategorized | ∞
Life is uncertain…eat dessert first!
Just the message you would
expect from a previous chocolate store owner! (My sister and I were smart enough never to hire the applicant who said “I’d give anything to work in a chocolate store!” for we couldn’t afford the loss of inventory!)
expect from a previous chocolate store owner! (My sister and I were smart enough never to hire the applicant who said “I’d give anything to work in a chocolate store!” for we couldn’t afford the loss of inventory!)We’ve all been inundated with a glut of message-bearing novelties-buttons, aprons, T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, posters, greeting cards, bumper stickers-all sporting some version of the dictum to take pleasure when and where you can:
- Don’t worry-BE HAPPY!
- ENJOY LIFE NOW- This is not a Dress Rehearsal
- LIVING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE
- GO FIRST CLASS or your heirs will
- We’re driving around enjoying our children’s inheritance
Why this sudden focus on enjoyment? (Maybe not so sudden since poets and philosophers have long wrestled with the subject) We’ve certainly been bombarded with media dramatizing the good life, having more, living it up, having it all…
but our culture provides us with the dreams, fantasies, goals that someday we think we will deserve. So
- after we graduate…
- after we lose that twenty pounds
- after we find the perfect mate…
- after we get that promotion…
- after the kids leave…
- after we retire….
This all equals a postponed life with our shoulder to the wheel and nose to the grindstone, uncomfortable and hard work.
- The American work-ethic, alive and well.
- The human procrastination gene, alive and well.
- The hidden (?) belief that we don’t deserve it, alive and well.
To enjoy life more fully we must increase our ability to gladden our moment-by-moment and day-to-day experiences. We can either live this day as if it were our last (and connect, love, enjoy the moments) or we can live this day as if it were our first (and anticipate our good, know that this day is a clean slate, and start as we mean to go on)
Since a heavy heart is the most serious form of overweight, eating dessert first may well be the ultimate lighten up message!
A person
will be called to account
on judgment day
for every permissible thing
he might have enjoyed
but did not.
— The Talmud–
Did you know that “stressed” is “desserts” spelled backwards?
There’s a message here somewhere! Give a quick comment below and let me know what resonates with you!
2 Comments
The “Art of Living Joyfully”….I don’t know if that’s a book title or not, but if it is, I may need to get a copy! Living successfully was never presented to me as being something “dessert-like”. More like, “bitter Brussels Sprouts- like”! It has taken becoming a parent for me to realize that the greatest achievement is “Joyful Success”….or should it read, “Successful Joy”? 😉
Ouch! The bitter brussel sprouts life sounds depressing. Isn’t it great, though, that we can choose our own definition of success? And whatever definition we choose, we are responsible for. So…let’s remember that we can choose joy and peace and love and wisdom and…
And I know that being a parent can be an opportunity for making these good choices.