Eyeing some meat in the freezer didn’t require much consideration the other day as I thought out the weekly menu ahead. I pulled out a package from the bottom. Although I was unable to read a “use-by” date, I used my intuition that it didn’t look off color and would proceed with grilling the product.
Have you ever had a near encounter of what you know I am about to say? While the meat wasn’t spoiled or green or gray, I seasoned it as always and prepared a basic dish as I normally would. However, when I finished cooking it and digging in, it was a bit unsatisfying.
You see, while I wasn’t sure of quality by sight, it certainly lacked in its taste. And isn’t that sometimes true in life? We have done things enough times routinely that somehow now, they’re kind of breeding discontent in our daily living.
No doubt this is not a culinary blog where you get negative exampling in how ‘not to’ cook, but you do get a “how to” live. So that you don’t have to make the same mistakes – even though you may not have recognized the discontent we all can experience, is purposeful. Let me explain.
You and I both seek satisfaction and consume our experiences as if they were a culinary feast. And, as I am about to show if we are not careful, we become connoisseurs of life wanting to try out the latest fashions and fascinations of this life without really understanding its underlying menu.
We encounter almost daily difficult, annoying people, trials and testings, as well as disappointments. All these, designed with you in mind.
Not for your destruction. But perhaps for me and you to get built up. Eating bad food will gnaw away at your stomach with aches and pains. Eating bad experiences will eat away your heart, and making bad choices will erode your character and undermine your integrity. These impressionable moments do have a lasting effect that will leave a bad taste in our mouth for years to come.
So do these annoyances and difficulties have a purpose for us? To improve our outlook and give a healthier perspective? Of course you as the reader, think ‘yes’ wholeheartedly, for why else even write such an article? “So, can we get past this and get on the good stuff? Like dessert? Just tell me how to feel better?” And we all want to get past the soured stomach and be fixed. Don’t we?
I get it. Ever notice that after a meal as I’ve described, or when food was off-temp, you still felt hungry? I mean when that unsatisfying situation left you hungrier for a better outcome, you felt restless and unsatisfied. The pleasure that you’d hope for wasn’t there. Maybe he or she wasn’t what you thought. Or maybe that new position wasn’t described properly. Or you found mold after moving into that brand-new home.
Looking back at those times were nightmarish, and hope seemed quite bleak. Because those experiences were not designed to be the dessert in mind, but reminders that life is to be lived with a hope through the mire, yet, the mire has to be walked through as part of the pathway.
We often want to be removed immediately from bad experiences and not feel the lingering effects of our overlooking things with an eye on “delight”. Being disgruntled and embittered may not seemingly have much value in the present, but did, and do offer a time to reflect on how this particular situation is working to effect greater purpose more than just giving you and I a good time.
So as I leave off here to go get some more food out of the freezer, and I need to appreciate the former experience I had and reflect on the fact that good or bad, I can enjoy knowing this afforded me a time to write and maybe help you with your soured experience to see better days ahead.
