This morning I very carefully measured my burr-ground coffee into the portafilter on my espresso maker. I raked off the top, tamped it down, twisted it into the machine and ran the hot, pressured water through for 21 seconds.
In contrast to that, yesterday, I pretty much stopped using peppermint bark. On my last bite — the day before — the chocolate had been too warm, the chocolatey bite too bitter, the pepperminty mintlyness too minty, and so I had enough, then too much. Done! I’m done snorting chocolate peppermint bark this Christmas!
“Ah,” dosage, timing — the start, the stop — measuring, exactitude — it matters.
The coffee this morning from the espresso machine came out dark, rich, creamy, chocolatey, not bitter — perfect on my tongue, perfect, sliding down my throat — excellent! After that shot, I sat in silence for three hours, reading, reflecting, praying; it was the perfect amount of coffee, but the hours, I had to stop too soon to take my daughter to work, approximately 0.10201 hours to soon — about.
We dose.
We all do.
And we get dosed constantly, by life, with hits of love, sleep, violence, caffeine, power, cat fur, sex — perhaps– a lot of TV. It matters.
They say that the number of combat tours military personnel serve has a huge influence on how much they suffer from PTSD, and how severe it is. The higher the dose the greater the danger of psychological harm, the longer it may take to recover.
Dosage, think about it. It is at the essence of the summum bonum, the good life, of aponia, the Greek thing about the absence of pain. But, consider this also, dosage is at the very core, the very essence, the very brutal quintessence of every, horrible, heart-breaking harm and addiction.
The more, more, more — creates what we abhor! The ones who can’t stop complaining, or those trapped inside of an opioid, or the ones who can’t stop liquoring up or sexing up or beating themselves down or dominating the rest of the world — this is hell for them and us!
There are important questions regarding this issue:
Who can control intake?
Who can’t?
Who thinks they can, but they can’t?
Who is wisely enjoying the good things life has to offer?
Who is blitzed by these same things?
Some thoughts:
The whole subject needs a great deal of personal honesty.
Portions work.
Floods, binges and overdose don’t.
Corpses don’t work.
So, what to do?
Dose up, with the best things of life. Try contact with children, hard work, time with people loved.
For me, I want to tank up more on God, friends and healthy food, working smart, writing — also stillness and silence.
But limit yourself. I’m trying to also.
Measure. Rake. Evaluate.
Fine tune. Use moderation.
And some things, and I think you know this; some things need to be stopped, and completely avoided, forever.
Like what?
You know.
Don’t you?
Thrive! 