Always The First

It’s just a quarter past seven and I have poured myself a fresh cup of coffee. It’s Sunday too, as if that makes any difference in a place like this. But I’m already besides the point. It’s so easy to stray from our own topics. I’m sure you know that. It hit me again when I took this Sunday’s first cup of coffee. Ah..the first one – it was always the first cup of coffee, the first bite of a good steak, the first time I saw a beautiful place, the first time I drank a beer (well no…I was too young at that time), There’s always an exception of the rule. I can  drink three cups of coffee, but it’s always the first one which has the best taste. Now, what is the reason that we always enjoy the first one more than the next? is it the fact of our very own expectation to experience something extraordinary? The fact that we are looking forward to something special?   I remember very well my first experience with standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, looking down into the abyss of a full mile, the Colorado River being just a thin yellow stream along the bottom. Of course, I had seen images of the canyon, which had roused my curiosity and raised my expectations. Finally  I was facing the canyon – the legend. When our expectations are filled, our mind is registering this event and kind of puts it to our fingertips which is the reason why we will remember it for a very long time, maybe even for our life span. It’s the very reason why so many people enjoy traveling. And as is the case with my first cup of coffee, I am able to repeat this “first time experience” every morning as I already have the expectation backed by my experience from many days earlier. It is a repetition of a first time enjoyment. This type of repetition is going on in just about everyone’s life all the time.   This way, our life is speckled with first-time-experiences, and it is a fact that we, as consumers, are also the target of commercial enterprises which knowingly will tease our curiosity and our readiness to go shopping for a certain item. We are all too willing to get ourselves another first time experience. Of course we all know that this can lead us down a road which in a worst case scenario will end in an addiction of shopping. We can get addicted to the newness of what we just purchased. How do we avoid to inflate our eagerness for a first-time experience? If we want to avoid to be exploited by the industry we should concentrate on the simple things of life. We should, in fact, look for alternative ways to have our first-time-kicks. And there are many ways we can do that. A wonderful walk along a beautiful nature path can provide us with a new experience and give us lasting positive memories. As we stay away from the temptations of purchasing stuff we don’t really need, our natural drive to experience something new and exciting will show us ways which will stay in our long-time memory as enriching and positive. Have a wonderful Sunday!