Think of a rich chocolate cake or a warm duck curry on a cold winter’s night, rich with flavour. That’s my vision of a rich life. It’s a life full of beautiful sensual details and deep awareness. It’s a life full of experiences and colours and flavours.
Sometimes I can get too worried about the do’s and don’ts. I get very interested in health and the best way to be well but too many rules can make for a bland experience.
On a TV show I watched recent two experts were asked about sugar. How bad is it really? The first expert called it a dangerous toxin. He looked pale and anxious. The other said it wasn’t quite so bad. He had rosy cheeks and an easy laugh and he made the comment that life would be diminished without a few treats.
The first expert may well be right but give me that caramel slice, damn it! Hand it over. Or else!
Sugar addiction aside, I do have to wonder whether anxiety and worry may well cause greater damage over time.
How much is too much?
I am very drawn to simplicity. I love the idea of keeping it simple, of not over-committing to too many things. Of concentrating on those things that really matter. But it really is possible to par your life down to very little of anything. It can all get a bit bland.
It’s a dance
So maybe it’s useful to think of life as a dance. It’s a movement of energy. Expansion and contraction in natural waves. For me, it’s time to expand again, to try new things. To go back to rock-climbing, writing groups, dancing, song-writing. It’s time to allow myself to grow fast and messy and in many directions at once.
After a fallow period it’s time to soak in the details, to wake up.
What about you?
What stage are you at? What do you want next in your “one wild and precious life“? Is it time for messy growth or a little pruning? If you were a garden, is it time for wild overgrown delight or will you tidy up the hedges and pull out the weeds? Or maybe it’s time to turn over the soil in quiet contemplation and solitude. Prepare and ponder what to plant again, when it’s time.
In your rich life, what comes next? What does the dish need? A dash of spice or is it perfect as it is? Do you want the wild orgy of ingredients in a chocolate mole, or the just a simple pot of homemade vege soup. Both are good, just different.
miss yardley 