Food Poisoning

I recently went out to eat at a Chinese buffet. Everything looked so good, and there was a huge variety. I ate my fill, came home and felt fine but later the next day it hit me. My belly said nope you’re not going to do this. The next night was even worse. And after a couple days of the yucks if you know what I mean I’m starting to feel better. But it got me thinking. Life can be this way sometimes, especially in relationships. We get so enamored at first and everything looks so good. We fill our plate with little regard of any consequences. We never set out having a meal thinking it will make us sick, but we do the same thing with relationships around us. It’s almost impossible to see that food is going to be bad and we just trust in the process because we all have to eat. And we all have different types of relationships as well. The people we meet don’t wear a sign of things to come, sure would make it a lot easier.

How many good friends, best friends, those 2 am friends will a person have in their life? One, maybe two. And how many people will be in our lives that we call “friend” but really in the truth of it they are just one of the many acquaintances we have, and most of those we hardly even associate with. But we do it anyways, just like going out to eat. We order, we eat but do we really think about the meal? Is it a great meal, is it something you rave about and can hardly talk because it’s so good? Not very often. We just mindlessly eat to fill a void of a hunger that we don’t even really understand. I think to a large extent we do this with people in our lives. We mindlessly go through the motions of relationships in order to fill time or an empty space. I see it time and time again. We don’t eat to bless our bodies as a whole, and we don’t get into relationships to bless our souls.

So, getting sick this last meal out it made me realize not to take food for granted and be a little bit more careful in what I choose to eat. I am also in a place in my life where I am a bit choosier in who I spend my time with. We all have a choice to eat the sushi and shrimp that may look good in the moment but is secretly hiding the runs. I encourage you to be more selective in who you give your time and energy to. We have such a short time on this planet and although we may learn valuable lessons through the people we meet. It doesn’t mean we have to be engaged in the first piece of sushi that we see, no matter how good it looks. I know that if you’re a person that likes sushi, you may see it and even eat it and think oh this is pretty ok but in the next day, or in the next year of a relationship, you may say, well that really sucked.

Great food is something you remember and want to seek out again. I had lau lau in Hawaii and I will forever remember that meal, one of the best of my life. I had a best friend for 17 years and that too I will remember for the rest of my life. But I can also tell you that those I thought were 2 am friends are long gone. My circle is small and that’s ok because I know those in that circle are tested, tried and true. I spend a lot of time sharing space, talking and eating things that really have no benefit but sometimes make me sick. It doesn’t matter how good the food looks or how hungry we are, if it’s bad and makes us sick. It doesn’t matter how euphoric we think the relationship feels when it’s not harmonious and we do it just because that’s what we think we’re supposed to do. Be selective in what you eat, be selective in who you spend your precious time and energy with. It’s important or else you may find yourself puking away your guts or your soul if you’re not careful.