The best teriyaki I've ever had

Today while I was at a restaurant I tried something.

I had just taken my first few bites of teriyaki when I had a thought.

What if right now, was my last hour to be alive, and I had no choice to do anything but what I'm doing RIGHT NOW?

So I played pretend.

I began to notice things. In the teriyaki I ate I became acutely aware of every flavor present (the slight charred taste with the flavor of the tender chicken and sweet teriyaki sauce. Sometimes I throw away the salad, but not this time. I ate it and with each bite appreciated more and more the fresh feeling I got when eating salad. The appreciation that something was (essentially) alive, and lived out its life, had grown from something young, just to make it onto my plate so I could enjoy it in this moment. Every shred of carrot and cabbage I could appreciate for what it was, its flavor, color, texture.

The posters on the wall I noticed were all very well designed. I could appreciate all the hours and work that was put into making this single sheet of glossy paper look this unique way. All of them were works of art. I then thought of the amount of work and time that these people had to go through to organize the event for each poster. Looking at their sponsors, and the work that went into that, the work that went into distributing the posters. What it took to organize everything... So much time and effort. I sat there and realized how often we do hard work and how much of it's not recognized. And to those who created the posters and organized the events, I'd like to take this sentence and dedicate it to all your hard work.

Anyways, afterwards I thought...what if I practiced this other places? What if other people practiced this? what could we open our eyes to if we could just appreciate the moment that we're in? The things around us, the sounds, the smells...everything? What new gratitude could we find?

So I invite you to take that on. Wherever you're at now, or elsewhere today, take a moment to think... "what if this were my last hour that I had the gift of being alive." (also important to note that while it being your last hour, you must be doing what you're doing right now, otherwise if you ran off and did something else, there wouldn't be a point to the exercise).