Plantain Chips and Ketchup

I've always had an unholy attraction to fried things. Crispy things. The Almighty Crunch. The satisfying feeling of annihilating a flavourful object, daring to resist my will. (Perhaps overreaching in that description, but the others are on point. ) Today I 'skipped' breakfast, which here simply means I postponed it to an hour which may vaguely reclassify it as brunch. As is customary, my thoughts began to wander mid chomp fest. Mindless eating galore, sadly.
Mid nibble, the thought of self medicating came to mind. Stress eating, with no shame in gluttonous feeding. Perhaps triple the portion of chips being downed. Greed. A security blanket. An invisibility cloak. Or a metaphor for the burgeoning box of suppressed emotion hidden out of sight.

Of late I've been doing quite a bit of unpacking. A necessary plan, considering my health is dependant on both emotional and physical stability. Autoimmune diseases are no joke. In earlier times, I could simply ignore the symptoms, and all would rectify itself. Not anymore. Laundry needs to be aired out, bags unpacked, Pandora's box opened.

I had a beautiful conversation with a lovely soul - Carla - about the beauty of experiencing moments in their truth, and not resisting the feelings they inspire. Here's something she said.

It is so important to accept the challenge of feel our emotions whatever they are and cry for sadness and joy in order to release and let go the emotion otherwise it will create the Pandora box!!! It is a slow process but with time it becomes a good tool for us and for dealing with our lives ...

 Don't be hard or judgemental to yourself! By being only a keen observant we remain in a neutral zone and we can watch our behaviour patterns. With love and compassion with time and patience we discover the best way to heal ourself....life can become more and more interesting  as we become more and more aware of opportunities that we were not aware before or that we were to scared to grab! Meeting people like him is a blessing as the tornado shakes, and obliges a quantum leap  within  oneself!

Such beautiful truth. I've realized that in this year more bags are popping out of theshadows, more patterns of behaviour are being revealed. Perhaps its self awareness, or the elusive thunderbolt of adult wisdom finally hitting. Whatever the cause of this introspection, I'm open to all lessons to be learnt.

And I'll tell you, travelling lighter is an amazing feeling. Settling into acceptance and love of self, creates an ability to give of love to others.

And in giving, it is received.
Xo.