spice of life

This is a photo of a Spice Shop taken by a friend traveling in the Middle East. Amazing colors and display. How long would this last in your local Trader Joe’s? Consider our tiny little bottles of spices in the cabinet and then take a good look at these big bags.

Let’s think about “the spices of life” as we embrace a New Year!

Variety is the spice of life. Diversity makes life interesting. This phrase comes from William Cowper’s poem, “The Task” (1785): “Variety is the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.”

This phrase is said to emphasize that doing many different things, or often changing what you do, makes life interesting. Hmm…I have certainly given that a try! Or have I? No matter how much variety we experience, we all settle into a routine of sorts. It’s the different things we do or the changes we make. How much of this is healthy?

Can things be “too spicy”? Can you have too much of a good thing? This year, I am going to cut back on these “spices of life” and see how bland living feels. My calendar is full of nothing.

I have no plans. To fully embrace bland, do I need to plan a blank slate or just add fewer things to my calendar? Is that how everyone gets settled in to a quiet, uneventful, easy to accomplish day? I am a classic overbooker. I asked a wise woman who accomplished much about this, “Betty, do you ever overbook?” She said, “well yes, honey, I do, but I don’t enjoy any of it then- so I try real hard not to”.

So, is there a balance? A bland and colorless lifestyle that is simple and nontaxing. This does not look appetizing or sound appealing. On the other hand, neither does a crisis lifestyle where there are too many things to manage every day and you don’t enjoy yourself. Where is the middle ground? That’s my New Year’s resolution- find the balance in living. A dash of spice blended with a slower pace. That may be the key to balancing what I value with what I do. I want to have a more thougthful approach to how I spend the next year.