First let me start by saying if you have never eaten an aritchoke you have NO IDEA what you are missing! Those of you who share my love for artichokes already know what an absolute treat they are! Ahhh….it is the simple pleasures in life that can bring us the most joy! Anyway…..the other day I was preparing my artichokes for cooking when it occured to me…artichokes are like life!
Let’s start with the artichoke. First you buy the artichoke. Then you have to decide how you want to cook it (after all everyone has their favorite method…baking, steaming, stuffing, roasting…). True artichoke lovers will tell you that the best way to prepare an artichoke for cooking is to first cut off the pinchy edges of the leaf. However, regardless of how you choose to cook your aritchoke the work really begins when you start to eat it. Eating an artichoke is not for the faint of heart as it takes time. You eat one leaf at a time working your way to the center where the best part of the artichoke is. However, just when your pruny fingers have battled their way to the middle you find little horrible pointy leaves that are unedible…UGH). You need to carefully scoop out all the unedible leaves so you can get to the very best part of the artichoke the heart! Yum! The heart….that is your reward for all your hard work and patience!
Now lets look at life…remembering that the true goal is happiness:
First you buy the artichoke. If you truly want to be happy then the first thing you have to do is allow yourself to “buy” or believe that you are deserving of having the life you want! Hum? Where have I heard that before?
Deciding how to cook the artichoke. There are many different paths you can take in life and quite frankly what may bring one person happiness just may not be the same thing that brings you happiness. YOU need to decide for yourself what makes you happy. You need to decide how you want to live your life. Just like choosing the way to cook your artichoke, you need to choice which direction will make you the most happy!
Cutting off the pinchy edges. Now we all know that sometime life can have those “pinchy” moments. At times we all experience people or situations that are not good for us. That is when we have to make a conscious choice to “cut out” the things that are not working.
Eating one leaf at a time. Now those who get what “true happiness” is will all tell you the same thing. They will tell you that you HAVE TO TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME. Just like you need to eat one leaf at a time! Patience….patience….
Getting rid of the unedible stuff. And sometimes just when you think you have reached your goal you come across more unedible stuff. Those things in our life that we just can’t take/digest. Once again we are forced to “scoop” what is not working out of our lives.
Getting to the heart! Of course when we finally take responsibility, follow our heart and make the right choices we reap the rewards! Just like finally reaching the center of the artichoke (called the heart)! It is when we feel deserving, we make the choices that are best for us and we are patient that we find our center!
Oh and ps….just incase you are wondering I prefer my artichokes roasted with lots of garlic! 🙂