Stressed or “Desserts”?

Life is uncertain…

 eat dessert first!

 

I’m a firm believer in desserts first!

What else would you expect from a previous chocolate store owner?

(My sister and I were smart enough never to hire the applicant who said “I’d give anything to work in a chocolate store!” for we knew we couldn’t afford the loss of inventory that would result!)

 

Surely we’ve all heard the dictums to take pleasure when and where you can:

• Don’t worry-BE HAPPY!
• ENJOY LIFE NOW- This is not a Dress Rehearsal
• LIVING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE
• GO FIRST CLASS or your heirs will
• We’re driving around enjoying our children’s inheritance!

 So…

why this sudden focus on enjoyment?

( Not so sudden since poets and philosophers have long wrestled with the subject!)

And on the other hand, we’ve certainly been bombarded with media dramatizing the good life, having more, living it up, having it all, but…

• after we graduate…
• after we lose that twenty pounds…
• after we find the perfect mate…
• after we get that promotion…
• after the kids leave…
• after we retire…!

This all equals a postponed life with our shoulder to the wheel and nose to the grindstone, uncomfortable and hard work.

• The American work-ethic is alive and well.
• The human procrastination gene is alive and well.
• The hidden (?) belief that we don’t deserve it is alive and well.

To enjoy life more fully we must increase our ability to gladden our moment-by-moment and day-to-day experiences. We…

• can either live this day as if it were our last (and connect, love, enjoy the moments) or
• we can live this day as if it were our first (and anticipate our good, know that this day is a clean slate, and start as we mean to go on)

Since a heavy heart is the most serious form of overweight, eating dessert first may well be the ultimate lighten up message!  Will we be called to account for every permissible and enjoyable thing we could have done but did not?

 A person

will be called to account

on judgment day

for every permissible thing

he might have enjoyed

but did not.

— The Talmud–

 

There’s a message here somewhere! Give a quick comment below and let me know what resonates with you!

Do you think that maybe “dessert” should be eaten first?