Reality with a dash of imagination

Life is a cocktail, we add the various component parts, then mix it up to get our reality. We can add imagination, our dreams, wishes, hopes, aspirations, ideas, et cetera; we can throw anything we decide into the melting pot, any combination of things that we desire; then just mix it all up to see how things turn out.
If we did this for a cocktail for example, it would be hit or miss; perhaps drinkable, perhaps not; maybe we don't want to waste it so we drink it anyway rather than throwing it away and starting again as we should. To get a good, drinkable - drinkable being the focus - cocktail it is easier to follow a formulae at first, the gradually experiment until we can create an original drink on our own. Perhaps the finished drink is modeled on some other famous well tried recipe; or perhaps the final creation is our own creation; it could even be a bit of both.

So it is with life; to follow the success of others is always the easiest route; we can even follow the well trodden path that society lays out for us from cradle to grave. The road less travelled however, the one we create ourselves, could be much harder as we struggle to find the correct combination of factors to make the life as we truly desire. But if we avoid the pain that may be involved with this life course we also will miss the dance, the dance of life; those things that give life its mystery, joy, excitement, a sense of 'I did it my own way'.

So when you drink from the cup of life what will your drink be; the well tried recipe, or something original, exciting, with a twist of something brand new?

© 2009 Steven Redhead
www.stevenredhead.org