* "Whine" Selection - What Do You Mean You Want More

Bread?

* Appetizer - Inspirational Thought

* Main Dish - The "Never Enough" Syndrome

* Dessert - "Be Here Now"

Welcome to our 7th issue of Food for Thought! The

momentum is building!! After the last issue, we

received a tremendous amount of positive feedback. It

was greatly appreciated! It tells me that we are on

the right track! Feel free to keep sending your

comments. We welcome any and all suggestions! Please

forward to others you feel may benefit from this

information. Help spread the word! FYI- This issue

is coming out a week late due to a much needed

vacation. I decided to practice what I preach, go

with the flow, and not force it! Sit back, relax, and

enjoy!

What Do You Mean You Want More Bread?

By Bill Shade

Ever have one of those nights when the simplest

request from a patron releases that desire to choke

the life out of all living creatures? Last weekend I

had that feeling about every thirty seconds!! Someone

would ask for more bread, the check or maybe have the

audacity to ask for more water and my insides would

boil and I would want to scream, NEVER!! CAN'T YOU SEE

I AM BUSY!!! Through divine intervention, in the form

of a good friend (which is the way this type of

intervention usually takes place in my life), I took a

much needed two days away from email, telephones,

customers and clients and went sailing. Well I was not

like Stella in the movie; I did not get my groove

back! What I did get back was my balance!! I am sure

that none of you can relate to this, but I have a

problem with balance in my life! I have a tendency to

OVERDO!! I work too much, I worry too much, and

sometimes I play too much!! Anything that makes me

feel, I will most likely do to excess at some point in

time. Lately it has been the work deal. Working at the

restaurant and developing my clientele for my

consulting and training business have taken about 90%

of my time for the past few weeks. I had become very

difficult to live with, just ask anyone around

me-including myself!! When I get to this stage of

being out of balance, everything, and I mean

everything, irritates the hell out of me! I know what

is wrong and yet I have a difficult time in changing

the behavior that is causing the unrest. Often I

increase the amount of time spent in the behavior and

the results are less than pleasant for everyone

around- including again, me! Thus the need for

intervention and taking time away from all that is

stimulating me!! Sailing works! The only thing in the

world that you can do at five miles an hour and feel

like a hawk soaring through the sky!! Sleeping in a

marina listening to the halyards- works! Taking time

to talk for hours with an old friend- works! Watching

the sun come up on the ferry ride home- works!! All

these things return me to balance with the universe.

Maybe I am like Stella, I do have my groove back and

life is again pleasant and peaceful!

The opposite of craving is saying I accept the here

and now fully-right at this moment!!! Ram Dass

The "Never Enough" Syndrome

By Suzie Dawson

Something has occurred to me recently that I feel

drawn to share. I will call it the "never enough"

syndrome. It is extremely prevalent, though not

exclusive to, the restaurant industry. However, it

infiltrates just about every walk of life. What I am

referring to here is the use of external things to

fill that inner void. Which we all know (hopefully!),

can never happen. That inner void can never be filled

externally; it can only be filled from within.

This is the reason many seem to never get enough to

feel full and satisfied. It is because most of us

have been looking in the wrong places to fill up that

inner void. For restaurant employees, this void is

usually filled with food, alcohol, and other harmful

substances. For the workaholic, work fills this void.

For the shopaholic, shopping fills this void. For

the compulsive person, "busyness" fills this void.

There are many different "drugs of choice," but the

result is the same: a deep feeling of emptiness.

For me, I have noticed that this void was getting

filled with food. (I gave up the really harmful stuff

a while back!) It seemed as if I was never able to

get full. No matter how much I ate, it was never

enough. I am a slim individual, so something was not

right with this picture. I knew that it was

reflective of something going on within. So I asked

for guidance and the answer soon came.

It was suggested by a good friend that this was about

getting my needs met. What I soon realized is that it

was not about getting them met externally, but

internally. Now I have done a lot of "inner work," so

I felt there must be another piece to this puzzle.

I found this piece while journaling. It occurred to

me that the easiest and most satisfying way to fill up

is to be present and take in the joy and beauty of

every moment. I have found that this cannot happen

when I am calculating or planning or worrying about

the future. Only when I am fully present and in a

state of appreciation for life, can I become full.

That is when I really let it in.

I challenge you this week to notice how you are

getting filled up. Are you left feeling full and

satisfied, or just plain empty? If the answer is

"just plain empty," take steps now to stop this

vicious cycle and fill up your soul with what it most

needs. Don't wait until you are much older and have

layered on several more years of emptiness to do

something about this. It will be much more difficult

that way, I assure you. Begin now by focusing your

attention in the only place that can fill you up- The

Present Moment! Remind yourself that peace and

happiness can only be found in the present. And after

all, isn't peace and happiness what it is all about?

The dessert pick for the week is the book "Be Here

Now" by Ram Dass. This book gets to the root of it

all- Being Present. Keep an open mind, and this book

will take you on quite a journey. While this book has

been around for some time, there is still much to be

learned here. The message is timeless. Everything we

are looking for is found in the present moment.