New Year Food For Thought

Bought ”The Sex Life Of Food,” by Bunny Crumpacker as a Christmas stocking stuffer for a foodie friend. The title reached out and sucker punched me while wondering through a Barnes and Noble bookstore. Great title. Better reviews.

Cracked open the introduction page to check it out.  Liked what I read.  Talks about the “magic in a good sandwich, the most potent magic: the magic of food. Simple basic food.” The author goes on to say after eating a simple club sandwich ordered at a restaurant, she feels better, just . . . by how it was made. This is one of the concepts of the book, the effect of food on every part of us. Makes sense. We make our own magic potent. Or not.

This idea got me thinking. What about the effect of our thoughts? What potent magic or not do they make on us and for us? And what about the actions we cook up and often wind up get stewed in and burnt out from as a result of our thoughts? If a perfectly made simple sandwich can make us feel better, which we all know it definately can, wouldn’t the same apply to the thoughts our minds continually dice up, cut up, spice up, prepare and serve to ourselves and offer to others? Wouldn’t the mental, emotional and spiritual thoughts our mind’s cook up each and every second make us feel more magically potent or less, especially if we keep serving ourselves the same mental diets, recipes and dishes over and over again in the course of an hour, a day, a week and a life?

So here’s some food for thought, especially for a new year. Nothing new. Nothing fancy. Just simple and basic. Choose a thought diet of wholesome and organically natural ideas. Treat yourself to think and hold potent thoughts that are lovingly and richly nutritious, kind to your own digestion and with an aroma so attractively palatable to others that they’ll want come closer and taste it for themselves.

If what you’re reading smells appetizing then try keeping your life simple. Act accordingly. Sandwich your actions around high minded and ennobling ideas. If as the popular saying goes, that we are what we eat, wouldn’t it be also right to say that we are what we think? If we watch what we eat so as to consume only the best, to look, feel and act our best, wouldn’t it make sense to watch our thoughts to get the same result?

So for this new year, watch your mental diet, stay away for high fat, low protein junk thoughts. Avoid highly processed negative emotions like anger, fear, worry and bitterness. Shop only where you trust the quality. Watch what you put in your shopping cart. Don’t fall for a sale item just because it’s discounted alot. Watch the company your keep. Take silent time to prepare yourself especially if you’re looking for a life with more flavor and taste to it. Choose a tasty mental diet that makes sense and doesn’t make you sick .

If a perfectly made simple sandwich can bring real pleasure then the simple basic thoughts we prepare in our minds should become satisfying food for thought. After all, regardless of our many differences, we’re all looking to satisfy our hunger.  We’re all looking for the magic to return back into our lives. Being attentive and taking the time it takes, to feed ourselves well on all levels, simply makes sense. Do you read me?

In Order To Really Hear You Have To Really Listen

Major fashion mag. Thick, slick, glossy, monthly. One page shouts out. Tucked away between couture fashion, luxury chocolate, designer vodka and timeless watches. Shows me a hot recording artist enraptured by sound. The page asks me if I can hear the world. Reminds me I can’t. Tells me about a global initiative to raise awareness about the importance of listening. The advertisement calls attention to the consequences of hearing loss, that supposedly effects 10% of the world population. The initiative supports projects dedicated to helping hearing impaired people.

I’m one of them.  I’m losing my ability to hear. I need help. And I’m convinced it has to do with my inability to listen. My intolerances. My selfish attention focused only on me and my concerns. My reactions and my fears. I have no problem listening to the justifications for my self enclosure. My concentration is on me and my sounds. My preoccupation is on the sounds I make as they ricochet and multiply off the hollowed walled emptiness inside me.

In order to really hear what others have to say, I’d have to stop listening only to myself. In order to listen to the music around me I’d have to stop dancing only to my own rhythms and embrace life as a whole as my dance partner.

But for as boring as it gets, this only listening to myself, it’s safe. While it keeps me locked in - it keeps others locked out.

Be the problem. You’ll be the star of the show.

Problems. Solutions. They’re the superstars in our lives. Everything revolves around them. They can’t get enough press. We can’t read enough about them. Or give them enough of our attention. They’re all we think about. Take them away and what interest would our tabloid lives have? We’d be nothing. Nothing to ourselves, we suspect. Definately nothing to others, we’re convinced.  Who wants to be nothing? We need to be everything. Afterall a bad show is one thing, it can be turned around. A quick fix. A new plot. New characters. Re-drafted. Re-crafted. Re-funded. Re-promoted. But a nothing of a show, is a no show. No one shows up to a no show. A non-event is not life, it’s death.

What life would we have without our dramas? Dr. Suess’s cat without a hat? A rhyme without a verse? A verse without meaning? A meaning without reason? A reason without a cause? A cause without a purpose? An stage without a theather? A performance without an audience? No reason to even turn the lights on. No electricity. Death.

In most sought after high paying scripts, problem is the hero. Big time producers know one problem after another draws the audience. Problems are superstars. A great problem sell tickets. Generates electricity. Turns the lights on.  She, He, They, are the life of the party. The star. And the show must go on. We need our stars. Our hero’s. We need our audience. We need to the feel noise of applause on our skin and the heat of it in our ears. We need a cause. Our audiences need a reason to come back.

Solution. An afterthought.  A minor part waiting in the wings. An anti-hero. Or more likely the villian. Write solution a major role, give it a prominent voice and the problems go away. As do the bored audiences.

Our audiences have to have a reason to come back. Otherwise what value do we have? An empty hall ain’t no good to nobody. Everything we have, everything we’ve invested in, all that we are and all that we hope to become, we owe to the ever new problems we have to create.

We have to play to a full house. Our audiences have to have a reason to come back. We’d be nothing without them.

Hello world!

She is responsible for this hello. She suggested. Directed. Encouraged. He is responsible for this hello. He inspired. Pushed. Pulled. She and He moved me into saying hello. Not pushing. Or pulling, But by allowing. He and She know not to shout but rather to whisper.  She and He know how to say “hello” in such a way as to remind me how to say hello back, back into myself and out into the world. Hello.