Finding Happy

"Finding yourself happy in the place where you are is the best way to know where you're supposed to be." 

--From the Guest Book in the Ladies Room at Thrive

There is a new restaurant in Seattle that I absolutely LOVE. It is called Thrive and the food served there is organic, vegetarian and raw.

Many of you are probably thinking, "Ew!" But you have no idea how wrong you are.

Friday night I had one of the best meals of my life: a Coconutty smoothie (their signature smoothie) and Awaken, a warm grain bowl of steamed Bhutanese red rice and quinoa tossed with marinated kale, avocado, toasted nori, scallions, seasonal veggies, and dressed in their house-made sesame-ginger sauce. They describe it as, "cliff-jumping for your taste buds." I call it the perfect meal.

Tasty and filling, without being too much food, my whole body felt ALIVE after eating. I wanted to eat more, and at the same time I was utterly satisfied in a way I hadn't been by a meal in a very long time - maybe my entire eating life.

As I do, I started to think about how I could make this kind of eating a permanent part of my life and the life of my family. I fantasized about serving my children raw, home-made granola with strawberries and almond milk for breakfast, warm brown rice with heaps of veggies and a special sauce for dinner with homemade raw, date-paste and carob cookies for dessert. We would all be so healthy!

Later that night we went to a movie. I was determined to sip water and eat the date-paste, chocolate and walnut granola bar I had in my purse as a snack, right up until the point where we swung open the doors of the movie theater and I could smell the popcorn.

Popcorn! It's a definite weakness of mine and I didn't pause for even a second to consider the raw, chewy goodness waiting for me in my purse before walking right up to the counter and ordering a large buttered popcorn and a Sprite.

Sitting in the dark movie theater, watching a new Aaron Sorkin project come alive, and eating the warm, buttery kernels one after another was an entirely different kind of bliss, but a kind of bliss just the same.

My body didn't feel as alive after eating the popcorn as after eating the veggies and rice, but on some level, I did. 

Sometimes happiness is a healthy meal, and sometimes it's an unhealthy snack, but hopefully it's always right where you are.