What is Spice?

Well, dictionarially (new word) speaking, spice is an additive used to bring flavor or color to a recipe…or used as a preservative for food.

Is it necessary?

I’d say YES! Not only necessary but REQUIRED! I can’t imagine pizza without oregano, or tacos without chili powder, poultry stuffing without tons and tons of sage, snickerdoodles without cinnamon…or even oatmeal without salt! (Okay, salt is technically a “seasoning,” but I think you get my general drift.)











But why am I looking for the spice in “life?”

Well, unfortunately I was a card-carrying member of the “The Glass is Half-Empty Club” for a long time. (In fact, it’s often not only empty, but dirty and cracked as well!) And then for a while I resigned my membership…but it seems I’ve been staying in the Clubhouse again a lot lately. It’s not that I have a blah life (well, sometimes I do), I often careen from one crisis to another…but do I have enough “spice” in my life???

If life is a journey, I think I’ve been sitting in a corner of the train station…either asleep or distracted and not realizing that trains have come and gone and I might have had many more adventures and seen many more places and met many more people than I have.

In other words, I have not been experiencing the flavor and color of life as I should. I have not been living an abundant life. And it’s not just a matter of having a lot of money or a lot of THINGS, the poet John Petit-Senn said:

“Not what we have but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance.”

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions anymore…I’ve broken too many of them. But I try to make little changes in my life instead, through a change in mindset. This year I would like to organize and simplify more. I started on that over the holidays, and will be sharing some of that soon. But I’d also like to experience more joy this year…and give more gratitude for what I have, for every blessing no matter how large or small.

I’m going to taste more flavor, see more color and hop on more trains! And even though it’s halfway through February already, I don’t think it’s ever too late to start!