Apples to apples

Perhaps we are more like apples than we realize

Do you know that feeling when you are about to bite into an apple? Taste buds preparing for the crunch and the delicious burst of flavour?
Do you expect or desire tart or sweet? Crunchy or slightly soft? Chilled in the fridge, so it’s cold or room temperature?
Your mouth is lined up for that satisfying ahh as you bite into the apple delights.
You have been looking forward to that apple with stomach rumbling and taste buds producing salvia in anticipation, and then it is not the taste you expected. In fact, you must spit it out as it tastes horrible.
You created an expectation, and this was not met. Mixed emotions come forward over something as simple as an apple. Your mind and brain signals are now sending different messages than before. Your saliva glands aren’t producing the same amount of salvia, and your stomach acid is now increased, creating nausea rather than preparation of eating. Vast amounts of data and processing all occurring with you only being aware of a tiny percentage of them.
Life can be just like that apple. People, moments, food and relationships, to name a few, can all turn into a sour apple rather than sweet or a sweet apple that you expected to be sour.
Our preprogramming all creating expectations and pathways built on our preconceived notions. Past experiences and information that has been gathered over time all lock into these preconceptions, creating responses before we even know we are in them.
If you consider toddlers who experience things for the first time, their reaction can already be coded based on what they have observed in those around them. The classic example being a parent screaming about a spider creates a fear response in the child; therefore, the programming can turn into spider equals fear. Whereas a parent who readily picks the spider up in fascination will usually lead to the child having a spider equals curiosity programming.
How much of our outlook and responses to people and situations is our own? How much is learnt from a young age?
Genuinely getting to know yourself is breaking down elements of life and looking at it with curiosity.
I once spent time with each meal, really tasting it as if it was the first time. I was considering texture, smell and taste. I sat, seeing if my pleasure response was connected to any childhood or memories. I realized that some of my enjoyment wasn’t because I liked it; it was because it reminded me of a loved one or a time in which I felt pure joy.
Approaching life looking at it like an apple with the unknown under its skin is a freeing step in mind mastery. If the skin looks mottled and bruised, do you consider it to be an apple worth eating? If you see a person who looks dishevelled, do you consider them worth seeing in curiosity rather than judgment?
Does the texture of the apple make it any less than other apples just because it isn’t the texture you like? If someone or something is not your taste, does it make them or that any less than?
 We all have a core, as does the apple. We were created through seeds of life, and our inside world is unique. We all have differing skins, yet we are all human.
Our environment determines how we grow and mature, as does the apple. The right conditions create the ripest and most delicious apples. A deprived environment can allow the apple to wither and die away. This is true of so many things in life.
We do have an advantage, though. We are the master of our own minds. We can alter our inner signals and create stronger pathways and can change our own environment.  These changes can determine our thriving or shrivelling. Yet some may say the apple has the advantage. It doesn’t have the complexity of a brain complicating the life experience or putting judgment into the quality of its life or its appearance. It is as far as we know, just being.
Back in the early years of Disney, Snow White is tempted by a juicy red apple that poisoned her. Through life, we are presented with many temptations that appear incredible on the outside. Frequently we find out that things are not how they seem.  Sometimes we just see what we want to see rather than what is. Sometimes things can also be as good as they seem. As humans we generally find it much easier to be cynical though, therefore potentially sabotaging an experience. 
Mastering your mind is essential to become aware of judgements, sabotages, and expectations, all of which can taint your life experience. Consider life and those you meet with gentle curiosity as from there, you allow yourself to grow more abundant and more bountiful in your own life and those around you.
Life is our orchard with growth, death and change. Seasons and elements all creating forces that allow us the opportunity to grow and adapt. Many of us fall, as does the apple. The apple can decompose and become food for the earth and create new growth. We either fall from our life journey and can rebirth ourselves or in our own death become growth for the earth around us.
With the saying comparing apples to apples, it is to compare something similar to each other. It is reasonably compared. Can the same statement be made about humans? We are all beautifully unique.
Much can be learned from something so simple and yet complex as an apple.
Enjoy your next juicy bite! Of your life and your apple!