Think of life as a tasting plate. A finger-food, hors d’oeuvres life. The key task is not to try everything per se, but to skim the experiential surface and take but a taste of all the good things the world has to offer, back to our sensual minds—for peaceful consideration; for appreciation, in all senses of the word; for gratitude.
It takes significant courage of wisdom to live this sampling life today. Especially in this post-postmodern world, there are missiles of distraction, a plethora of convenience, and an abundance of compromise everywhere. It takes courage, balance and self-control to say, considerately, “no!”
The sampler is joyous not by virtue of things they have or would have, but simply in the matter of purified hope beyond the sensual experience itself. This is a hard place to get to, even for the most spiritual of persons.
It speaks, again, to the poorness of spirit of the person embracing lack; less being considerably and fundamentally more.
It sounds utterly ridiculous. Surely life’s chief aim is taking what we can get while we have it. Yet not so fast! Those who live the longest find pleasant routines in moderation, sipping the favour of health and quaffing happiness, day in, day out, one-day-at-a-time. It’s a slow life these have.
Samplers simply learn through their self-discipline ways to enjoy true success and genuine joy—because they bring into sharp conscious effect, simplicity, resolve and sustainability.
The trouble with the vast majority of us is we expect results in life by doing the wrong things. We buy an “Ab Circle Pro” because we get hooked in by the seven-minute television infomercial and we abhor that extra poundage we put on over the festive season. We don’t think about the work involved; we think only of the vision of success. We get it and use it with a “strong” 3-day resolve and wonder why nothing’s shifted—least of all our girth—as it then gathers dust and cobwebs during the intervening months. We struggle to commit. We’ve typically got all our priorities upside down.
The sampler takes only enough food to fuel the functional body. They remain active without becoming fitness Nazis. They bank on results via the same tried-tested-true method, every day. They are consistent. They find a sample of treats and they enjoy themselves without gorging. They’re satiable.
This eating metaphor is sufficient to illustrate the thinking and application of the sampler, and it truly fits in all aspects of life. How many people bordering on work/life overload gorge on time, not tasty morsels? And how many people hording “stuff” defile themselves over the possession of things?
Time comes when we must sense Life saying to us, ‘You can’t have it all.’ Tasting good things yet never pining after them is the way of the sampler.
Give yourself a three-month money-back guarantee. You’ll (finally) be amazed at the results. It costs nothing (but a little hard work and creativity) yet gives everything.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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