It's a NEW Day!!

April 12, 2003 11:36 AM

A tiny moment . . .

I'm dogsitting at my mom's house. I'm hungry. I crave a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I find four kinds of jam in the fridge, but no peanut butter. I look everywhere . . . cupboards, drawers, pantry . . . no peanut butter.

I give up my craving, and settle instead for some beef & vegetable soup. As it's heating up, I turn and notice a big jar of peanut butter, sitting in plain sight in the middle of the kitchen counter.

Now, in the days when I was less aware of how the universe works, I would have been frustrated by this. I would have criticized myself for being so stupid as to not notice the peanut butter in the first place. And because I couldn't possibly waste the soup once it was prepared, I would have eaten it bitterly, constantly aware that I had been forced to settle for my second-string food choice due to an unhappy string of random events that proved the universe was ultimately out to get me. Guilt, self-denial, self-criticism, pessimism, paranoia, anger at the world and at my own incompetence . . . all over a jar of peanut butter.

As a psychic, though, I get to see what's REALLY going on. I get to see that my body really wanted the warm, savory soup at that moment to help it stay healthy, not the oily semi-sweetness of the PB&J. The original craving was not in my own best interests. I didn't find the peanut butter, because finding the peanut butter was not the best thing for me at that moment.

To take it a step further . . . I have absolutely no proof in my reality that the peanut butter was even there before I started heating the soup. I wanted peanut butter . . . there was no peanut butter . . . now there's peanut butter. I created what I wanted out of thin air. And now I'll have a tasty, satisfying PB&J second course to follow my soup.

I can't say which story is more "objectively real" (whatever that means). But the "creating peanut butter from thin air" story is a lot more fun than the "I'm a stupid blind idiot" story. Given the choice to make, why would I choose the unpleasant option?

TRACKBACK (54)


	April 12, 2003 11:36 AM A tiny moment . . . I'm dogsitting at my mom's house. I'm hungry. I crave a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I find four kinds of jam in the fridge, but no peanut butter. I look everywhere . . . cupboards, drawers, pantry . . . no peanut butter. I give up my craving, and settle instead for some beef & vegetable soup. As it's heating up, I turn and notice a big jar of peanut butter, sitting in plain sight in the middle of the kitchen counter. Now, in the days when I was less aware of how the universe works, I would have been frustrated by this. I would have criticized myself for being so stupid as to not notice the peanut butter in the first place. And because I couldn't possibly waste the soup once it was prepared, I would have eaten it bitterly, constantly aware that I had been forced to settle for my second-string food choice due to an unhappy string of random events that proved the universe was ultimately out to get me. Guilt, self-denial, self-criticism, pessimism, paranoia, anger at the world and at my own incompetence . . . all over a jar of peanut butter. As a psychic, though, I get to see what's REALLY going on. I get to see that my body really wanted the warm, savory soup at that moment to help it stay healthy, not the oily semi-sweetness of the PB&J. The original craving was not in my own best interests. I didn't find the peanut butter, because finding the peanut butter was not the best thing for me at that moment. To take it a step further . . . I have absolutely no proof in my reality that the peanut butter was even there before I started heating the soup. I wanted peanut butter . . . there was no peanut butter . . . now there's peanut butter. I created what I wanted out of thin air. And now I'll have a tasty, satisfying PB&J second course to follow my soup. I can't say which story is more "objectively real" (whatever that means). But the "creating peanut butter from thin air" story is a lot more fun than the "I'm a stupid blind idiot" story. Given the choice to make, why would I choose the unpleasant option? TRACKBACK (54)		Your Words