Life Lessons from an All-You-Can-Eat Restaurant

/ Steve Lakey / 2 Comments

indian-food Photo: Indian Food by Jm Verastigue

 

Last night, together with my wife and a couple of friends, I had a meal in an All-You-Can-Eat Restaurant. In the UK, it’s not that common to have an all-you-can-eat-buffet, outside of breakfast or lunch-time specials.

It was a huge Pan-Asian restaurant, and there were sections for Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese and many more types of food. Even British-style fish and chips (maybe that’s what the ‘Pan’ part meant!)

The selection seemed almost infinite. And when one food tray was starting to run low, it was soon replaced with a full one. A small army of staff kept everything running smoothly. As soon as you had emptied your plate, it was whisked away, and you were free to help yourself to another, and fill it with whatever you wished.

Not being used to the idea, it was very tempting to overdo it. And I did. Each time I went back for another helping, I thought, I’ve got to get my money’s worth!

By the end of our two hour table reservation, I was completely stuffed, to the point of being uncomfortable. But why?

Apart from the obvious answer being ‘Greed’, a part of me must still be focusing on a ‘lack’ mentality. That I’ve got to ‘get it while I can’, and if I don’t it will be taken away from me. Instead of stopping when I was comfortably full, I had to take more than my fair share.

And yet, like Universal Supply, I knew my own supply of food wasn’t going to run out. There was clearly more than enough to go around. And me taking whatever I wanted wouldn’t result in someone else going without.

Maybe I should go there more often, until finally I ‘get it’! Or maybe I should make more of an effort to ‘get it’ in practice, rather than just in theory.

Sometimes, ‘self-help’ and ‘helping yourself’ can mean the same thing.

More of My Twitter Fiction

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Mac Mouse

© 2014 Steve Lakey

 

  • All the feedback from our house viewings is consistent. Nobody sees “Here be Dragons” as a positive feature. Too much a fire risk!
  • Ignoring the rising tide of Global Warmers, he kept his head deep in the sand.
  • Is reincarnation the ultimate makeover? Or is it a Make-over by the Ultimate?
  • He wore purple laces at the club, and was always first on the dance floor. But he just couldn’t find the nerve to ask her out.
  • Jim sifted through the divorce papers in the hope of finding a mistake. After a fruitless search, he sadly put pen to paper.
  • All Jim’s siblings dutifully came to his viewing. Which was more than they had done while he was still alive.
  • Fleeing persecution, she sits behind cold steel bars. Awaiting her fate, trapped between two countries.
  • The great day had arrived! The Boss who had made their working lives a misery was finally about to retire. What? Leaving? Do!
  • The lads are up for back-to-basics camping. No beds? Cool. No water/electric? That’s OK. No phone charger? Dad, come and get us!
  • Chess champion Ivan thought he had the supercomputer on the run. But when the program attacked, the Grandmaster became its pupil.
  • “If you want to hand out sunbeams, you got to deal with the occasional hailstones” – Weather Presenters’ Handbook
  • Companies of tragic heroes, under Flanders fields. Hidden from our sight, a Century ago.
  • Today was a sad reminder: the number of International Happiness Days left in his life was slowly, but surely, running out.
  • Jim thought that going busking every day would drastically improve his finances. But it only made a small change.
  • He loved it when the girls said “Ciao!” He could pretend, just for a moment, that they were saying “Hello!” and not “Goodbye!”

Zen You Least Expect It

/ Steve Lakey / 6 Comments

 

Zen Garden

Photo: © Al Forbes

Bob and Jim weren’t having the best of days. The sandstorm had come out of nowhere, and now they were completely lost.

Visibility was still low. The hot, dry sand seemed everywhere, pulling at their ankles, and making every breath painful. Occasionally, huge boulders would appear menacingly out of the dust, only to disappear again, just as quickly.

Heads down, they kept moving forward. But forward to where? Even as they moved, Time appeared to stand still.

“Hey, Bob. I’ve seen that boulder before. I think we’re going round in circles!”

“It’s worse than that, Jim. We’re out of energy drinks and chocolate. Only a miracle can save us now!”

They pushed on, for what seemed like hours, until they could go no further. Finally, the game was up. They sank to their knees in despair…

It was Jim that saw it first, or it may have been Bob – they couldn’t be sure.

Lush greenery amongst the sand. An oasis? No, it’s only a Garden Centre! With Easter holiday Discounts. Yay!

After recuperating in the café, with Mars bars and fizzy drinks, Bob and Jim needed to seriously chillax. They headed to the Zen garden and quickly lost themselves in the moment. Time appeared to stand still.

“Hey, Bob. I’ve seen that boulder before. I think we’re going round in circles!”

 

This is my contribution to Sunday Photo Fiction, April 20th 2014, hosted by Al Forbes.

Click  the logo for more details. 

spf

To view the other stories, click the little blue frog!

Law of Attraction or Law of Perception?

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magnet-illustration Magnet Illustration by K Whiteford

You may have changed your car and noticed soon afterwards that you see a lot more of the same vehicle on the roads. It’s nice to be a trendsetter! But deep down, we know something else is happening. It’s actually that we’re noticing the cars that look like ours a lot more, rather than an actual increase. This is known as observational selection bias.

Now, what if the Law of Attraction was us actually noticing the things that we focus on, rather than attracting the things we focus on?

Instead of the Universe having rearranged itself to do our bidding, what if our changed perception can now see opportunities that were not clear to us before, despite always being present?

If we cultivate the sort of positive outlook that finds us ready to take advantage of our circumstances, do we really need to wait for the Cosmos to align in our favour?

There does seem to be an implicit question of faith with the LOA. If you’re not getting the results that the gurus get, do you believe strongly enough? Are you being positive enough? Maybe their latest book or audio program will help to boost your belief. These products can give you a short-term positivity boost, but in my experience, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. I know, because I’ve bought many of them myself.

It’s neither possible nor desirable to think positively all the time. Imagine being chased by a wild animal and not bothering to run, because you believe ‘It will all work out fine, in the end.’ I still think that we each hold the key to our own destiny, but I now accept that Life will always have uncertainties. Maybe that’s why we signed up in the first place.

Whatever our life circumstances, we can still choose how we view them and how we react to them. That is about us changing how we see ourselves, and our world.

Beyond St Peter’s Gates

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churchyard-gravestones-13381909518Dl Photo: Churchyard Gravestones by John Luty 

 

I’ve learnt a lot about my extended family, from Sunday morning visits to St Peter’s churchyard. To be honest, I’d never been much of a one for churches or gravestones before.

‘Once you’re gone you’re gone – Life is for the living!’, that’s what Ma used to say. That’s before she ended up in St Peter’s herself. Now it’s a different story. She doesn’t still believe that. I know, because I sit and talk to her. I understand that she’s not physically there, but it’s where I feel the closest to her.

Without being morbid, you can learn lot from being in a graveyard. Each gravestone has a tale to tell. A few brief words encompassing a whole life. And there’s a kind of honesty that people have, in talking at a grave-side. It’s really opened my eyes, so to speak.

I’d like to think my relatives have been drawn together in the six months since I’ve passed away. Their visits to my grave have now become a weekly family tradition. And I’m a lot closer to them than they realise.