“Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavour.”
-William Cowper

Living a full life is like eating a delicious meal of varied foods made up of many different colors, textures and flavors.

Imagine this, you have before you a meal with one kind of food. It is a food you like. It is filling and warm. But that’s it, nothing else.

Now imagine you have before you a meal made up of many foods you like. You see lots of different dishes, fresh green, enticing reds and pinks, comforting yellows and whites, delicious looking purples. There are crunchy foods and soft foods, warm and cool, salty and sweet, sour, and even bitter to set off the other flavors. All your favorites. Which meal would you rather eat?
 
If you’re like me you’ll go for the variety every time. So why do we tend to eat the same foods most of the time?

More importantly why do we do the same thing in our lives? Why do we fill up our days with just a few, familiar repeated activities, day after day?

We are busy, busy, busy, doing the same things over and over.

Perhaps it feels safer. We opt for the known rather than the unknown. We choose to do what we know we can do rather than trying something new.

What happens when we do try something new? It can be scary.

Recently I signed up to take a tap dance class. Something I’ve always wanted to do. Not surprisingly, I did my own emotional tap dance beforehand through all the what if’s my fear brought up.

What if I feel silly and awkward? Especially at first. Who hasn’t trying to learn something new?

What if I injure myself? I’m 64 years old and not in great shape.  Realistically, I might injure myself walking down my own familiar stairs. In fact, I have, more than once. I still go up and down stairs every day.

What if I feel shy meeting new people? Yup, probably will at first. After one lesson of stumbling around together, I probably won’t feel that shy anymore.

What if I don't want to give up the time?  Really, what would I be doing otherwise? Chances are it would be something that I do every day, not something new and energizing.

What about about spending the money on the class and dance attire?  I have to ask myself, “Is it a priority to energize my life?” Yes, it is.
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As it turned out, it was worth it. I walked out of the first class with sore legs and buoyant spirit.

Some of my what if's came true. I was the only beginner in the class and felt awkward and shy. My feet were not on the same page as my mind for most of the class.

But it didn't matter. Each time I managed the steps in rhythm felt like a small victory. The members of the class were welcoming and I’ve got a video to practice with. I know I’ll do a little better with each class. Best of all, it was fun.

Variety and learning something new are energizing. Learning something new expands who we are. That’s definitely worth making a priority.
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We can have the mind-set that it is better to stay with the same old, same old. Or we can have the mind-set that invites us to look for ways to add interest, color and variety to each day as we choose to live a full and balanced life.  

Surround yourself with what you love and allow it to feed you.
                                                                                                           
A few years back, my husband and I had just finished replacing the old mailbox and post that sat out at the front of our yard gradually falling apart. It was no surprise that it looked much better. We painted the post grey and bought a dark green mailbox, so that it matched the grey of our Victorian farmhouse and the green of the shutters. I found myself looking for excuses to drive by the house or gaze out the window, just so I could admire the mailbox.
 
It reminds me of when I bought a new teakettle. I wanted one that looked old-fashioned to fit the look of our home. I wanted one without that annoying whistle that so many of the newer models have, and I wanted it to be stainless steel so I wouldn’t be scrubbing off its painted surface every time I cleaned it. I took the time to go to several stores and finally found the perfect tea kettle, stainless steel, no whistle, with a gracefully curved spout and shape. After I brought it home and placed it on the stove, I would walk through the kitchen, ostensibly on some other errand and glance casually at the stove. There sat the tea kettle, shining in the sun coming in our South facing windows, sitting ready for duty on the back burner. When I heated water for tea I would sit enthralled by the steam wafting up from the shiny spout in curling, white tendrils.
 
Lest you think I have several screws loose as I soliloquize about mail boxes and teapots, I believe there is a deeper meaning to the pleasure these bits and pieces of our lives give us. That is, these small pieces of our homes add up to become the whole, just as the small moments of our lives add up to become our whole life. They are in fact, a microcosm of the macrocosm, each bit being representative of the whole. Love invested in these bits and pieces is returned, over and over again whether those bits are a mailbox, a teapot or this moment right now in which we find ourselves.
 
How important is a mailbox or a teapot? How important is one moment of our lives? Is it worth putting the love, the focus and attention into this moment to make it the best it can be? This moment is fleeting, why bother? Because the love invested stays, though the moment passes by, and the love is harvested over and over.

​Love invested never stops giving back. 

​Photo by Emily Rudolph on Unsplash

Soul Doors will be taking a brief hiatus as I'll be traveling to Iceland on a spiritual journey.  Look for our next post on Tuesday, March 26th. See you then!