All The Cream Cheese
So lately I’ve decided to enjoy my food. Not that I hadn’t enjoyed food up until recently but rather I’m following a new rule, and here’s the rule — if I’m not gonna enjoy the food, (or limit myself) then what’s the point of eating the food? In honor of this new rule, which I’ve ridiculously named “all the cream cheese,” I wanted to let you in on what I mean.
To do this, I want to go back to December and a conversation I had with my mother. As you may already know, or should, I talk to my mother pretty much about everything.
One afternoon, we were enjoying lunch at home and I watched as she prepared herself a snack. A snack of tuna and crackers. She’s already served me some chicken noodle soup, so I am completely free to judge as I slurp my soup. I’m imagining this lump of tuna falling away from a can, to plop into a bowl. I say to myself, oh please do something with this tuna mom.
You see the cream cheese wasn’t the beginning, and the tuna wasn’t the beginning, in fact I can’t really pin point when the beginning began but recently I’ve been wanting to enjoy life more. And something as simple as tuna with crackers should be enjoyed. Don’t you think?
Let me break away from my mother and her tuna (and my soup) for a bit because most people don’t reflect over the mundane things that they do. More importantly we all do these mundane things and don’t stop to question whether we are enjoying them. Or if they can be enjoyed even more.
Okay, back to the story…before I can allow myself, to allow my mother, to eat bland tuna and crackers, I stop mid slurp (of my chicken noodle soup, remember) and call out, “Mom, don’t just eat it like that! Season it, add something. Make it special.”
And there it was. Make it special.
My mother agreed. Bland tuna with crackers was nothing to rave about, so she got some seasonings from her cabinet and went about mixing her tuna in a bowl. Then she retrieved her special crackers (multi-grain and delicious) and placed both of them appetizingly on a plate. My mother was already rolling with the new rule. She went the extra mile to not only elevate the food but also her place setting. Let me tell you, dear reader, that that was thee best tuna and crackers she had ever shared with me.
Fast forward to the all the cream cheese…
I hadn’t mentioned this up until now but a few days a week I take a coffee break during work, to sit down with a coworker and relax. Most of the time I order a bagel with cream cheese. Maybe you can guess the rest of the story but just in case, read on…
One of these regular mornings, with the memory of my mother and her tuna behind me, I’m sitting down with my toasted bagel from the coffee shop at my job and open the little container of cream cheese. I almost never use the whole thing. Not because I don’t like cream cheese or because it’s too much cream cheese, but because of self-limits. Do you ever limit your fun or enjoyment? Well I noticed I used to do this. It’s as if we’re not supposed to have too much of a good thing because that would be bad. Well I decided to toss all of that out. I took the packaged knife, stared at the small container of cream cheese, and thought, why the heck not. I used all of that little cream cheese that morning and enjoyed my bagel all the more.
Now before I go, I must end this by saying (because I am person that is conscious about food and nutrition) that the point of this story wasn’t to overindulge. It isn’t even about food at all. Not the tuna, crackers, (chicken noodle soup), bagel, or cream cheese. This story is about making it special. Is there anything that you’re doing daily, weekly, yearly, that could bring you a little more enjoyment if you tweaked them? Is there anything that deserves…all the cream cheese?
Thank you and be blessed my friends.
