We arrived in Paso Robles on Wednesday and will be here a week. The weather has been cool and of course rainy most of the time. We are learning to go with the flow.
Today we woke up to sunshine and 65, so immediately the windows were opened to air out our house. Judy still has her Portland cold and of course felt I needed to share in the experience. So far only Mollie shows no signs of a cold.
We went to Cambria today and to a little Seafood restaurant on the water we discovered on our last visit here. We sat outside, it was cool but the sunshine did both of us good. We could just feel our vitamin D levels being restored.
We also stopped at a avocado farm, so I think fresh guacamole will be on the dinner menu soon. Life is good and we are enjoying even the cloudy days.
I read a story on another blog that I'd like to share with you.
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups-porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite-telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you are drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate the Creator has provided us. The Creator makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate."
In closing, I think somewhere along the way I started believing if I only had a different cup I'd be happy. So you go through life worrying about the cup and forget how good the hot chocolate tastes. And that a different cup will make our hot chocolate taste even better. It never does, but we keep trying different cups. I guess the answer for me needs to be to just enjoy the hot chocolate and quit worrying what cup it's in.
