Your Life is a Banquet – and guess what – You are the head chef!

As we head into 2015, it has struck me that we really are the creators of our lives……but for so many people this creation is set in motion with very little thought or true reflection. So ask yourself these three questions:

Are you sticking to a plan even if the plan has proven unpalatable previously ?

Are you simply following a routine – even though you do not really enjoy it and are dreading the year ahead ?

Are you heading down the same road even though you know it will lead you to a year of misery and unhappiness?

If so – be careful what you are cooking up in that kitchen of yours. Because whatever you cook up is going to land fairly and squarely on your plate come dinner time.

So as you go into the New Year perhaps be cognisant of what you are planning for the year ahead and be sure that it is really what you are wanting.

It really is what you want to stomach for the year.

When you go out to a restaurant, you would not dream of ordering a meal that makes you feel ill, or to which you are allergic and yet in life we can find ourselves doing this all the time without even giving it a second thought.

So imagine your life as a huge banquet – and you are the head chef.

Your job is simply to select all the foods that you really love preparing and that you enjoy eating, and then to cook them up into this splendid feast.

If you are allergic to oysters for instance, it would not make a lot of sense to fill your menu with dishes containing this seafood delicacy. Yes – of course other people may love oysters – but if you have a severe distaste for them or allergy to them – it just does not make sense  for you to spend so much time sourcing them, preparing them, dishing them up to yourself  - and then even worse still –  actually eating them.

And yet this is  exactly what you can sometimes find yourself doing in your own life. …….for all manner of reasons. Spending hours and hours cooking up meals that you actually have no real desire to eat.

But everyone else loves oysters. I should try to eat them too – you may justify to yourself.

But we always eat macaroni – every Friday – it is what we do.

But liver and bacon is not so bad in a pie – I can eat it.

And before you know it you have a Life’s Banquet full of all the things you really do not wish to eat.

So be careful just what you are putting into your figurative saucepan.

Is it full of ingredients that will add delicious flavours to your banquet?

Is it full of foods you love?

Is it going to be a dish that you will love eating once it is finished and ready?

Our life is meant to be a sumptuous feast – full of all we can digest easily and happily. Full of delightful flavours and taste sensations. It is not meant to be full of things that really are hard for us to swallow. So if you are choking on what you have most recently offered up for your own consumption, perhaps look at the ingredients in your bowl, where you got them, your current tastes and how you cooked it all up, to find where the problem lies.

You deserve to tuck in to your meal with a smile on your face and a song in your heart ready to savour each and every bite………not be waiting for someone to leave the room so you can spit each horrible mouthful into a hanky hidden in your bag ha ha.

Also remember that our tastes can change considerably as we go through life.

For instance – as a child you may have loved coco pops and milk for breakfast. But now as an adult you are quite partial to some lovely scrambled eggs, with roast tomatoes, avocado, bacon and a latte on the side. So be ready to accommodate those same changes when cooking up your life’s banquet.

Just because you have enjoyed something for the past 20 years, does not mean that you still have to like it now. It is OK to move on.

In the same instance – if you loved ice cream with milo when you were ten years old and you still love it – then keep it in the menu and settle in with a grand old bowl of chocolatey goodness whenever you feel the need.

So I guess my message here today is – be careful what you are putting into your bowl when mixing up your life’s banquet, because you truly are the chef and master of what you are preparing.

Give attention to the ingredients, the cooking time, the source of all produce, the amount you then eat and the friends you share the meal with……you can control all of these elements.

Forrest Gump may have said: ” Life is like a box of chocolates” – but I am taking it  even further.

Life is a grand old banquet and you my friend are head chef of every course in your extravagant feast.

So make it a feast to remember.

Take it at the right pace so as to avoid over consumption and bloating.

Choose the ingredients wisely to suit your taste and cook them to perfection in a style that suits you.

Stir well and add seasonings to taste and revel in all you have cooked up.

And finally – lay your table with the finest silverware available, pack a picnic with a small rug or sit quietly on your couch to enjoy your feast – whatever works for you. The eating will be of just as much importance as the preparation.

Whether this is a banquet for one or a banquet for many – it is your banquet.

Your Creation.

Your Feast.

Your Life.

So enjoy.

Discover You. Love You. Be You.

Christine