Life is Beautiful

So it’s about time for a life philosophy calibration. Every few years or at marked moments, I go through this process. It’s never a dramatic change but rather an adjustment or an opportunity to try something new. Like the time in high school when I ate French fries and potato chips with chopsticks. Like I was saying, it’s a process rather than some sort of samurai code etched into my skin with acupuncture needles. The core remains similar but the manifestation of the life philosophy takes different forms like transformers. Yes, it’s equally as cool and fun to figure out.

For a while, I’m going to eliminate free radicals and boost antioxidants. It seems like a health plan, which it is, but I can extend this into the metaphysical. It’s proven that stress increases free radicals so I’ve been eliminating my stress triggers. I got out of a relationship. Emails from an ex-ex girlfriend are routed to spam now. I’ve switched to basic cable with eradication of TV in the near future. Also, I’ve been grocery shopping at Fairway and Chinatown (value and quality). Everything else I buy online (no crowds and value). Oh, and never taking anything for granted. Taking ownership of my happiness through positivity and only laughing occasionally at the less fortunate. Plus, I’m getting rid of refined sugars. This means no soda, bitter coffee, no nestle crunch bars, no twix, lots of water, and the same amount of scotch.

Almost forgot the big one - no grits (cigrits). It’s been a while now. I’m not into counting days (three) because I feel that choosing not to smoke is one of those rare black and white instances in life. You’re either a smoker or a non-smoker unless you’re a pot smoker. Fook! I guess a really pale grey. Anyway, I find myself telling myself in a slow and deliberate manner that

• It’s not that addictive. Heroin is worse. You don’t have the shakes or wake up immediately craving it.
• You’re taste buds are growing back. That sensation in the mouth is not desire but rather healing.
• Nothing quite hits the back of your throat like the satisfying inhalation of good pull of a grit. That’s just the truth.
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the monk from Shunryu Suzuki’s biography have great quitting grits stories.
• Don’t be in a situation where you say to yourself that you wish you had given up one cigarette sooner for one more day or one more special moment with __________ (insert daughter, granddaughter, mom, or other loved one). I know. The dramatic is motivating.

On a related note, I've been craving synthesized music lately.