As a family, we enjoy the occasional visit to a local buffet, usually a Chinese food buffet. However, we usually avoid them at all costs. Why? Overindulging. Too much of a good thing. Everything looks, smells, and tastes so good, it is hard to stop. Even when we are so full that are bellies hurt, we seem to want more and more and more.
How many of us view our lives this way? Not enough, in my opinion. I don’t think that there are nearly enough people as would satisfy me, who view life as one big buffet table. Where overindulgence is not only encouraged, but celebrated.
Think about it: How many times in your life, heck, even in the last few months or year of your life, have you denied yourself an opportunity to really have a feast of life? To really just take in a variety of delicacies, and to savor each and every one? And, to go back for more or different parts of life, even when you may already be full?
For me, when it comes to a life buffet, my appetite is never satisfied. I never feel like I have experienced or embraced or taken in too much of life experiences to be full, with no more room. My appetite is insatiable. I want to experience all that I can; I keep dreaming my dreams and then even dream new ones; I want to try new things as often as possible; I want to challenge myself with the unfamiliar or the unknown.
Now, we all know that another reason to avoid buffets is the danger of germs, of the nonsanitary way that food sits around for hours at a time. So, as it is with food, with the life buffet, there are dangers. Things go wrong. We make poor decisions. Maybe we put more on our plate than we are ready for, or maybe we are just afraid to try new delicacies.
The thing is, life is no fun from a distance. If we find ways to be afraid of embracing our lives, if we talk ourselves out of just jumping in and enjoying it, then we cut ourselves short on what it can really come to mean to us.
And, it doesn’t always mean that we will get it right. There will be delights we choose from the life buffet that we absolutely detest; choices that turn out to not be for us; new adventures to embark on that we know we won’t be able to finish. Some parts of life are just not our cup of tea.
Yet, if we had never tried, we would never have known, right? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Life is always there for us, waiting, like that Chinese food buffet. It is in the wings, but we cannot fully partake of it unless we actively go to it and make our choices. Take a few different selections, try items one at a time, sample something new. Fill up your plate and eat until you are satisfied, and then eat some more.
Whatever you do, don’t miss out.
