Well, Dear Ones …

Ever had a taste of something new? Maybe you went out to a new restaurant and ordered the ‘sampler’ platter to try this and that to see which of the foods you might find yourself enjoying. Perhaps you accepted the little paper cup of some tiny morsel of a product they’re promoting at the grocery store this week. A friend may have made a new recipe and wanted you to be one of the first guinea pigs … I mean ‘fortunate recipients’ of her creative cooking skills.

When it comes to food, new can often be – yet is not always – a positive experience. Our taste buds over time, and with maturity, may add to the list of foods that we accept into our bodies. However, there may also be some things that your mouth just will not tolerate! It may be that the simple thought of oysters (or replace oysters with any food you may abhor) may have your nose twitching with disgust and your salivary glands racing in the opposite direction – causing a strong gagging reflex from the mere mention of the word – even as dramatic as nausea when the smell of it is nearby.

When it comes to any new life experience the same may apply. Some new experiences might get the adrenaline pumping and, once the challenge has been met and overcome, have you standing taller with pride and giggling from the headiness of the encounter. Other new opportunities and endeavours may have you fleeing back to a place of personal safety before you get a chance to even try them out!

Words such as: risks, challenges, opportunities, personal expansion, personal growth, and others, may mean wonderful things to some, and fill others with dread. Do you fall into the excitement or the terror category when confronted with anything new?

From my own personal challenges, I have to admit there have been times when I have run for safety. Yet there have been more times in my life when I intentionally stepped off the edge of a cliff. Here’s what I have found for me: when I take that risk, the headiness of the adrenaline rush, the relief of overcoming fear, the joy and pride in accepting and tackling what may have seemed like an impossible task and turning it into a new skill – these all add to who I am in my own eyes.

Notice I said: in my own eyes. It doesn’t matter what others think. I’m often found to quote Terry Cole-Whittaker:

“What you think of me is none of my business.”

I’ve learned to take challenges and risks – for me. It is my growth that suffers or benefits from my decision to run for safety or to step out and take those risks. What my partner, children, colleagues, friends or neighbours think doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. They aren’t the ones looking into the mirror through my eyes. As much as they love me, they can not know what I truly think, feel and know at the depth of my being – who I am at my spiritual level. If what they think matters to me, then I am valuing their opinion over my own. If I value their opinion above my own, I devalue my own worth in my own eyes – disempowering myself. This is a gift I give myself. And in loving each of  them fully, it is important for me to honour them the same way in return – by not being hurt when what I think of them is none of their business either!

Now, I’m not an adrenaline junky. I don’t take unnecessary risks for the high of the experience. I take the risks when I am drawn with inspiration and excitement to learn something new, to add to my skill set, to become more of who and what I know myself to be. When opportunity comes my way – and I accept that it comes my way by Source-guided inspiration at the request of my own dreams and desires – then I reach out to take the biggest bite I can – to savour and taste it!

Ever wonder how to recognize true desires versus mere wants? Contrasts in our life are like that sampler platter at a restaurant. We have a chance to try new things and say: well, I like the taste of this; I don’t like that at all; ooooh, that seems like something I’d really want in my diet regularly! That was sweet. This is sour. Yuck, that was bitter. How about this savoury one!

Simple enough when it’s food. How about when the sampler platter gives you life options? When we experience something new, we either have a positive or a less than positive response to the outcome. Should the outcome be less than appealing, then we can recognize this as a contrast – a knowing at the gut level that this is something you do not want to have as a regular part of your life. This realization contrasts with the things in life we know we would love to do, have, or experience – our desires. Knowing first and foremost what it is we don’t want helps us to comprehend truly what it is we do want! And we can’t know what we don’t want unless we give ourselves permission to taste life to the fullest!

Abraham often discusses the benefits of contrasts (italics are mine…):

“There is not something you’re supposed to do. There’s not something that you should do. There is only that which you are inspired to do. And how do you get inspired except by the contrast? It’s the life experience that gives you the idea of the desire, and then as you focus upon the desire, the Energy flows.”  Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Tuesday, April 14th, 1998 #339

Also relating to today’s topic of ‘taste’, here’s another Abraham quote:

“Be easy about it. Don’t rush into things. Savor them more. Make more plans and be more deliberate and specific about the plans that you are making, and in all that you do, let your dominant intent be to find that which pleasures you as you imagine it. Let your desire for pleasure, your desire for feeling good, be your only guiding light. As you seek those thoughts that feel good, you will always be in vibrational harmony with the Energy that is your Source. And under those conditions, only good can come to you, and only good can come from you.”  Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Tuesday, April 14th, 1998 #344

So may I suggest that you look around you at the sampler platter of life you’ve given yourself to taste. Try them all – the various challenges and opportunities for growth and laughter and love and the further development of your intellect, your instinct and inspiration and the expression of your gifts and talents. Explore. Sample. Try. Be fearless! And once you know what you like and what you don’t like, then you can choose to have more of the delicious aspects of life that feed and nourish your spiritual being as well as delighting every one of your senses. Taste life. Live it to the max!

And just before I close, here is one of my favourite Abraham quotes:

“There isn’t anything that I cannot be or do or have, and I have a huge Nonphysical staff that’s ready to assist me, and I’m ready.”  Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Boca Raton, FL on Sunday, January 12th, 1997 #341

Exciting concept, don’t you think? It’s even more exciting to actually live life in that fashion. Reminds me of a dear woman Mike and I had the privilege of knowing well, and always at the dining table filled to overflowing with her incredible cooking. Mamma G. would often be known to say in her bold Italian accent, emanating from her tiny 4′ 10″ frame, as she poured more food onto your plate: “Mangia! Mangia!” Eat! Eat!

In Light and Laughter,

Marcia

(BTW: It was my friend Samantha Standish‘s post on Twitter this morning that prompted this topic today. Samantha wrote: “If someone holds an opinion you find distasteful, don’t engage it. Let it be. Instead, find the taste in your own opinion.”  Thank you, Samantha! I merely took a different slant in the primary approach while retaining the beauty of your closing statement…M)