Unrefined Chocolate
Have you ever taken a bite of unrefined chocolate? If you have, what was your experience with it? What did you like? What surprised you? What did you not like? Did you try it straight from the Cocoa Pod off of a tree, had it been broken down and the beans or seeds laid out to dry? Was it from a pouch of cocoa nibs you picked up from the store? Was it Cocoa Liquor? Do you remember how your other senses responded to what you were eating? Were you embodied while you were trying something new?
How often do you take the time to live and be totally in the moment? Not thinking of the past, or your to do list, or how soon you have to go. But really just being present. And when you were, was it with food. So many questions. So much to reflect over. I like to think that I’m not alone in thinking about these things. However, I have to admit, doing what I do gives me a lot of time and space to think about these things. Like how much of my self, that is not facing customers, thats not being a host or having to be mindful of another’s experience, gets to really be present in the moment with the simple yet very real lived moments that I have. The little things, the temperature of the room, the comfort of the seat my backside rests in, the sounds, fully immersed in my environment, aware of everything around me.
I don’t get to have moments like that very often and I like to create those opportunities to do so while eating. Where I get to be myself unaffected by anyone else. I allow myself to be still and find deep pleasure in the moment of my awareness. To just be. Like Unrefined Chocolate. Not manipulated or changed to anyone else’s taste. Not in the shape or flavor of a preferred way of being. But just is… unrefined, not additional sweetness, no milk solids, not even broken down or crushed and powdered.
Being unrefined chocolate. I especially like to explore just being with the few other people who don’t ask me to be anything other than unrefined chocolate. It feels good to exist in that state every so often surrounded by others who get it. To get to experience and be experienced without anything extra. The complexities, depths, and flavors of yourself all being able to be present, observed, experienced. It feels like a loss at how little time were are afforded to do that. Do you purposely get to do that, be all of yourself like unrefined chocolate? Do you enjoy it? Do you find it to be strange to exist in your unrefined state? Do you do it all the time or only in certain environments? I wonder if the world would be a much more peaceful, creative, and humane place if we all just decided to be still and true as ourselves. Just a thought.
