Case Study 56: "The English Patience"

Complete and utter euphoria.  I've experienced it a handful of times in my life, in different places and different times, but with one shared thread: sheer dopamine drunkenness.

When it strikes, time seems to both stand still and speed up at once, as if life itself is stopping you in it's tracks to deliver one massive high five. 

I've felt it a few times at concerts, when buzzed and in the heart of the crowd, everyone moves as one under the pulsating lights, like the heartbeat of what seems like song and humanity in one.  I reached a state of nirvana, half-stoned and sprawled out on a hot pebble beach on the isola of Lipari, as a warm breeze hugged my body and the transparent Mediterranean water tickled my toes.   

Last week I felt it floating in the perfect bathtub of a converted barn next to fields that lead to the sea off England’s South Coast after running a half-marathon.  As I pushed the hot water lever on and off with my toes, refilling my little pool of bliss, I thought about the day, the race, the fantastic charity I ran for and its founders that I had finally met.  Downstairs were the friends and family that has taken me in and amazed me with their genuine realness, imperfect honesty, hilariousness and kindness.  I backtracked the months to think about how the hell I had even gotten here. And suddenly, there it was - euphoria.

"The English Patience" is a smooth and creamy chocolate cupcake swirled with sweet chèvre and stocked full of chopped chocolate.  Upon first bite you taste the crunch and the cocoa, but the aftertaste pure musty and tangy goat cheese.  Paired best with a swipe of honey, sea salt, and a tart slice of Granny Smith apple, it's rich and decadent, and unexpectedly refreshing.

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, even if those reasons aren't immediately obvious. A good friend recently told me that being patient helps; my mother always says that being present does too.

If you told me a year ago that I would be here today, I would have called you crazy.  But that moment of ecstasy in England, fleeting or not, made me realize just how unexpectedly wonderful life sometimes turns out when you live it just so.  Because in the end, if you're open to the possibility of everything, anything is possible, just long as you are patient enough to watch it unfold exactly how it was meant to be.