Live life like you eat a delicous meal!

“Live life like you are eating a delicious meal. Devour and enjoy every course so that when you are finished you are full, having enjoyed every mouthful but aren’t too sad there is no more”. The Impossible Life, Matt Haig

It is a strange thing to say in relation to death, but this phrase was in a book I recently read and it got me thinking. What a great way to describe life, with a starter, main and a dessert. The starter could be considered childhood, was it delicious giving a feel of excitement about the next course? A life of stability, security and promise. The next course is exciting and anticipated.

Or was it more bland or not even to your taste – the sad truth is childhood can be difficult and even cruel, without love and often insecure. But we eat the course without choice, looking at the next stage main course with weariness rather than anticipation.

The main course can follow the same patterns, sometimes a continuation of the starter experience and sometimes the experience flips. Life’s main course is like the mixture of meat and vegetables, some are delicious and others “we could do without”! Somehow we eat our way through the meal, we may was it down with something to make it more palatable or to enhance our enjoyment. Whatever we do, the main course is the central part of the meal.

It's on to dessert, and who doesn’t look forward to that? We should, it is sweet and can be savoured, or so you would hope. But this is where my analogy becomes unstuck for many. The opportunity to look forward to our older slower years has been denied us. We don’t get to enjoy that sweet dessert, after all sugar is bad right? Aging is now a scourge, not a time we welcome. For me, I say let’s eat dessert! I am relishing the change, I think it is like feeling full after a main course. I now slow down and enjoy every mouthful.

And when this meal is done. I will leave the table and say thank you and feeling full.