November Days of Gratitude #10

I'm sitting here trying to get myself to focus on some work. But I don't really want to. I took last night off and nothing collapsed around me today, so it is sort of easy to justify doing it again. But I know I have more meetings tomorrow, which means less desk time to actually accomplish any actual shuffling of papers back and forth (or actually the attaching of files to emails).

But . . . while I might be grateful for either the wonders of the modern electronic office place, or I might feel gratitude toward the dawning realization that every night off doesn't spell doom . . . today I think I am grateful for seeing a challenge and then choosing to accept that challenge.

(Credit: freegreatpicture.com)

For, you see, today I tried eating an apple the "horse-approved" way. I pulled out the stem and just started eating. And when I was done, there was nothing left by a single solitary seed. It wasn't even hard (except for the part where my lunchmates were making me laugh and the fact that I'd already eaten lunch when the challenge was placed, so my stomach was already a bit full).

Experiencing this did make me think about the nature of the "core" of the apple, which I do believe is nothing more than psychology at this point. There was only a small bit of fibrous, stalky stuff as I ate through the middle of the fruit, and in combination with the (so-called) regular flesh of the apple, there was no discernible difference in taste.

While my witnesses acted horrified at what I was doing, it felt entirely normal. So, why is there some sort of psychological rejection of eating an apple this way? It must be only a state of mind, right? So I guess I just need to learn to take all of my preconceptions about the world and just throw them away, leave them behind, leave no trace of them . . . just like I left no trace of that apple by eating it like a horse.

Now, I know that I can do anything. Now I know that the world is my oyster. And when I eat that oyster, I might just eat the shell too.