Enjoy the Last One
During the holidays I get gifted chocolate covered cherries. Not only because of the price, but because they are one of my favorite candies. I can eat these non-stop. However, the supply of chocolate covered cherries tends to dwindle starting the first of the year. So, I usually have to pace myself on the consumption of the cherries.
There is though, the last one, the one cherry that tends to get saved for longer than normal time. Why? Because I personally want to savor the last piece and I don’t want to hastily eat it, and then be deprived for who knows how long. I did this years ago, and I ended up saving the last cherry for too long. In fact by the time I decided to eat the cherry, the chocolate was faded. I decided to break the shell open before eating it, because, well, I did not trust the edibility of it. Once opened, the cream was all dried up and the cherry was less than desirable. So, this last one, the one I had waited on for a long time to enjoy, was wasted. I threw it away. Because I did not want to deprive myself of the yummy goodness, I ended up depriving myself by holding on too long.
We all have these types of experiences and situations. It could be the last bite of a great steak, the first last kiss, the last day/night of a great vacation. For the steak you may keep cutting and the steak loses its temperature, and in the process the greatness that you had enjoyed with the previous bites.
What should you do to savor the last bite? Should you hold on to it for as long as possible or bite into it? I say bite into, get the most out of it and move on to the next. You do not want to hold on to something for too long that by the time you bite into, the taste is horrible.
Savoring the last bite as soon as possible, at first, was difficult. But after the bad cherry experience, I quickly adapted, now, when it is time, I eat the last cherry, savor the taste, and move on. I am comforted by the fact that this was the last one, but that there will be more.
Knowing that life is full of lasts is hard to take sometimes. However, just because one thing ends, it does not mean that we are done living. Know that there will be more!
Savor the bite.