Eating

Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness—if you had little time left to live—you would waste precious little of it! Well, I’m telling you…you do have a terminal illness: It’s called birth. You don’t have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason—or you will never be at all. ~Dan Millman


I mused over this brilliant quote today as I shoved an Eat-n-Park "grilled stickie" (i.e., a delectable sticky bun heated in the oven in order that all its syrupy, sugary, doughy goodness flow eternally) into my mouth. It proceeded to melt into my tongue and teeth, punching joy and life into every taste bud.

You know how you smile when you eat something with amazing flavor? It's because in that moment, you're truly happy. As Millman points out in his thought above, you don't even have to possess a reason for happiness...but today's food joy was a simple, yet pure way for me to be consumed by it.

The grilled stickies weren't the only wonderful part of the meal my stomach happily digested, either; other manifestations of bliss included blueberry buttermilk pancakes, potato pancakes, and egg whites (yes, even I wondered in an afterthought why I bothered to skip out on the yolk for this feast). My sister and I sipped on matching cappuccinos.

It can be said with certainty that calories consumed during this time were simultaneously astronomical in numeric value and derived from the least healthy of sources. Then, there is the other piece: happiness, in every single second.

I have been somewhat, if not very, neurotic in the last few months about what I'm eating, and today I forgave myself and allowed my spirit to soar into the culinary heavens--and I still feel good, even great, about myself. That's the most important part, and a big lesson learned: if I'm working so hard most of the time to be healthy and then never taking time to allow a reward for the hard work, what's the point? The journey is about happiness, not just the end result. There are rewards to be had the entire time, not just in one moment.

I don't regret any of today, and I will do it again.

MANGIA!