things i really like.

I'm about to fall asleep reading an article in Psychology Today about Procrastination (I'll finish it later ;) and the lobby is so quiet....so....quiet. The loudest thing in here is my thoughts, first my reading voice, then that voice gets tired of the article so I stare out the window and think about what I want for dinner. I realize at this point that I'm not really hungry, I'm just bored and I should probably have my snack so that I don't eat the entire contents of my fridge when I get home. I have all the ingredients for the soup I've been wanting to make and I'll be damned if I stop to get a hamburger and derail myself.

The hallway is so quiet when I go to get my snack, everyone must be really busy as it is the last full week before the end of the year. Also, I think some of the guys quit smoking because they have been going out less today. I message my friend upstairs to see if she is coming down, but no response, so I decide to have my snack at my desk. I eat my banana and my little peanut butter snack bar, think about what the scale said on Saturday, then re-focus on the wonderful banana that I am consuming. That is part of the new way of thinking. I stop for a moment before I eat to bow my head and thank everyone who produced my food from the farm to the table, then I meditate on eating. Truly enjoying the moments of chewing and swallowing and taking the time to notice how my body feels before and after I have put the nutrients in my body. This doesn't happen every time, but when I remember, I do it.

I start to think about all the things I like in this world and challenge myself to a little game. A list, alphabetically, of nouns that I find delightful. Some letters are harder than others, because the first word that comes to mind is not always something I find truly delightful - applesauce, for instance, or appliances. I like applesauce, I appreciate appliances, but I don't really enjoy them and have a hard time imagining my world without them.

A - atmosphere
B - butter
C - cats
D - dharma
E - eggs
F - fried food
G - guides
H - Henry
I - ice cream
J - jack o'lanters
K - kickboxing
L - lovemaking
M - manicures
N - nonsense
O - ocean
P - people
Q - quality control
R - restaurants
S - service
T - timing
U - understanding
V - violins
W - water
X - X-Ray
Y - yoga
Z - zucchini