So, think about the "Flavors of Life".  What flavor is your life?  What flavor would you like your life to be?  The flavoring of my life has varied immensely at different stages as I have become more adept at the Art of Living.

I was very "Vanilla" for a while during my early adulthood.  I consider vanilla a very pleasant flavor, but not very adventuresome.  It's kind of like you are a person who respects the rules, don't anticipate or appreciate surprises, and have a tendency to play by the rules and expect that everyone else will or should.  It's like having a vanilla ice cream.  It's creamy, smooth and rich, palatable, but not very exciting in any way shape or form.  I was very vanilla during my first marriage.  I quit work to raise my kids, assumed a traditional role, (hell, I embraced it), but was very disappointed when much to my surprise my flavor of life turned to a mashed potatoe.  Everything I believed would be in store for me got beat down (literally) and destroyed.  I had to start all over, from scratch, at the age of 29.  And, although I love mashed potatoes, they really don't have a lot of flavor when you have them as a constant staple, three meals a day, they just sustain you enough to survive.

As I adjusted to my new life, I turned to more of a "Vanilla Fudge" flavor.  I was a single mom with two young boys to be responsible for, and I craved a little more excitement than a full-time career woman and single mother could afford, but I snuck the excitements in every other weekend or so.

Then it went very "Chocolate".  The kids were older, didn't require as much attention, and I could pretty much do whatever I wanted, and man, did I!  I searched out as many life experiences as I possibly could, traveled all over the continent, jumped out of planes, made love to who I wanted when I wanted, cared nothing for the opinion of others, I went for it!!  My career skyrocketed, my children bloomed, and my life was full of people and experiences, and guess what?  Around the age of forty I started absolutely craving vanilla!!!  But I wasn't happy with vanilla, was I?  No, I was not.  I just needed a little strawberry, rasberry, something with sweetness and substance I could bite into and that would last just a bit longer........

Now I consider myself to be quite the culinary expert.  I have vanilla when I feel I need to be grounded, HOT chocolate when I need to feel warmth, hot sauce when I need adventure, and I still eat a mashed potatoe or two when I need to remember when things weren't so great.

What is your flavor of life, and what flavor do you wish you had??