Why is it so delicious?

My wife had served us a delicious meal and my thoughts flashed back to my mother.

I had gone to meet my mother as I often did. As always with folded hands, I bowed to mother and touched her feet. Gripping me by the shoulders she picked me up and  embraced me. The glowing delight on her face was all encompassing.

After a brief update, she stood up and said, "You must be hungry? Let me get you some lunch. It's hot out there, you must be thirsty, what would you like to drink?"

Mothers are always happy to see their children. After they see them, all they think of is feeding their offspring. They see their child, and instantly they want to stuff food into their child's mouth.

Love and food. Two of human beings very important nutrients. Delicious served unconditionally with a smile and for free. All they want is our time and attention.

Mother darted into the kitchen asked her maid to help her and shooed me out of the kitchen. In a little while, the aroma of the cooking tickled my nose and palette.  Presto! there was some irresistible and delicious food for me to eat. I simply wolfed it down and then some more. 

Whatever mother cooked, it was so tasty, even the most common of dishes were transformed into something delicious. My wife Mohini too is a fantastic cook, particularly when she is cooking for her sons. 

I couldn't but help think, 'Wow! Mother's are so special. They love and respect us even when our behaviour makes us unworthy of their devotion'.  

I recalled one evening, when I was a young man, our mother had served our father and all of us a tasty meal. After dinner my father asked us," Did you ever think about,  why your mother's cooking is so delicious?"

The questioned gnawed at me. So whenever I ate my mother's cooking, I thought about it. I nagged mother to tell me, but she just laughed it off. I tried to study what it was that she was doing, and try to understand the secret. After a year I gave up and asked Dad. 

His explanation was life changing. "Your mother adds a secret ingredient, and its called love. Whenever someone prepares food with love which inevitably a mother, and often a lover, wife, daughter, sister, granny or aunt do, the food is always delicious".

To the modern mind preoccupied with materialism, and the compulsive need to count and measure everything, the concept of love and friendship appears rather naive and old fashioned. 

Love and friendship are anything but matters of fashion, they were, they are and they will remain the essence of a meaningful life.

I have learnt through these experiences that, 

Anything done with love, passion and commitment is bound to be extraordinarily and rich.

Savouring Life

We all need challenges to enjoy life. 

Challenge gets our adrenaline flowing enabling us to either fight or take flight, and this in turn creates stress. Some level of stress is in fact healthy and even essential for  us to live exciting and interesting lives. However stress can often become addictive. As with all addictions we need greater and greater doses of excitement to get the same high.

One of the greatest stress creators is modern man's, need for speed. Our lives are running faster and faster, yet rarely do we arrive anywhere meaningful. 

Time is money we are told. Money for whom and what will you do with that money if you have lost your health, your sanity, and your self? We often have no time to enjoy life, nature, our families, our friends and precious moments we live. If we ever do realise our folly, it is often too late in life to do anything about it.

Life is not only to be lived, it has to be savoured. Unfortunately we have come to believe that only through money and power, can we enjoy life and be happy. That too if we have lots of it.

Many things in life can be enjoyed which money cannot afford to buy,  The love and company of family, friendship, sound sleep, good health, mother's cooking, wisdom, etc. etc. 

The sounds and smell of nature, the sun, rain, the breeze, the song of birds and the mischief of youth, the joy of play, music and dance, all these and many other things we increasingly miss in our lives.

When we travel fast we hardly ever notice the scenery and therefore can never admire it or the company of our co-travellers in life. When we zip through life we journey from cradle to the funeral pyre or grave, we hardly get to live. Mere existence is not living, its just existing.

Many years ago I went through a catastrophic personal and business setback. I struggled and I struggled and I struggled, until there was nothing more I could do. 

When all worldly doors close we seek a higher self within our own being. Through the doorway of our soul we seek to find answers and solutions. Eventually, exhausted, I surrendered to God's will. I stopped struggling and that led an awakening.

Now I had time to look within. I now had time to do all the things I should have done all my life, and somehow forgotten to do because I was 'too busy'.

I found I had time to reflect, meditate, pray, go for walks, spend time with my loved ones. I learnt to chew rather than swallow my food. Help out at home, guide and play with the children, read, listen to music and hymns, share stories and fantasies and a hundred other things. I had done many of these things before but grudgingly or almost robotically. Now I savoured them.

I do not regret the years I spent working very hard, for I learnt many things,  achieved some spectacular results, numerous setbacks and  discovered my potential, my flaws and essentially myself, but it was always to be greater, reach higher, move faster. It was always more and more of everything.

I met many fascinating people and worked with amazing colleagues who taught me much. Many liked me and some even loved me but I was too busy and oblivious of their affection.

I still work hard. I teach, consult, and mentor individuals and organisations,  and many other things, but all with greater meaning. No issue is too minor, nor is any relationship too demanding.  A joy fills my being, for I no longer live life but savour it.

____________________

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” 

 - W.M. Lewis