It's easy to forget to enjoy things.
I get distracted. I'm trying to finish reading something, or I'm still annoyed about something that happened earlier, or I'm wondering how something is going somewhere else. I do it all the time. I think it's pretty normal for people to be thinking about other things. Even when you're supposed to be living in the moment and reaching for enlightenment, it's awful easy to miss out on the moment because you're thinking about the next enlightening thing, or the chores you have to do later when you're done meditating.
I've been watching No Reservations on Netflix, watching Anthony Bourdain go effortlessly and appreciatively from street food and dive bars to Michelin-starred restaurants and appreciate everything about all of them. Now, I am definitely a food truck kind of guy, and when I'm looking for a place to eat I think the divier, the better, but I was fascinated by watching him eat a tasting menu at one of them fancy, experimental restaurants.
You might get nine courses, but you only get two or three bites, and each of those might be an entirely different flavor or kind of food. I started out wondering how you can even appreciate something like that, when it's gone by the time you experience it, but I watched how he experienced it. He would take a bite and stop and reflect on the flavors in that bite. Each one was distinct and worthy of his full attention, of having his memories and all of his awareness tuned into it. How perfect an example of living in the moment! You get only one bite, so you fully experience the bite as you're taking it. You enjoy the texture, the flavor, the interplay with the sauce or whatever else is going on there.
I'm surely not going to be running out and spending a couple hundred dollars on a fancy three-star tasting menu any time soon, but Mara values... well, she values valuing what you have. Even if I don't have a fancy tasting menu, I am lucky enough to have food and to be able to cook, and I am doing my best to enjoy the food I have, to savor every bite, and to really be in the moment with it while I'm eating.
The food that I have is a gift. It's not the most extravagant gift, but every time I find a good-looking cut of meat in the clearance section, I thank Mara. Everything from salmon to steak and bacon to lamb necks can be a gift, and I try to appreciate it as such. Using things before they go bad, mindfully cutting coupons to stock a pantry, any of these things can be a devotional act when you see the food you eat as the gift of the earth.
For other folks, this is probably obvious, but it's something I try to think about every day because it gets away from me if I don't. I used to let myself get caught up in trying to keep my mind focused on "good" thoughts, higher and more spiritual things, to the exclusion of appreciation a good meal or a warm bed on a cold morning. Mara is also the name for illusion in Buddhist stories, after all. The Buddha ignored Mara, seeking something higher and beyond what the world could offer.
I'm no Buddha, though. I'm finding myself much more suited to a down-to-earth spirituality lately. It's easy for me to lose myself when I'm stuck in those higher realms, so when I have other, everyday concerns distracting me, keeping myself down to earth, appreciating what I've got and being right here.