For anyone not into Indian street food, describing a pani-puri is difficult, if not impossible. Walking anyone through the experience is easy. Simply fill the puri sphere with a hole in it with your favourite stuffings and liquid (pani or water). Consume quickly with a single bite. Do not hesitate. If you do, there will likely be leaking and a growing mess on the table. Do not worry about getting it wrong. You will enjoy many of them. If the last one did not quite taste right, change the flavours with the next one and the one after that!
Last night, I enjoyed a plate of pani-puri. Each bite took me back to my childhood as well into the joy of the moment. It was a fun yo-yo ride of emotions that filled me with hope and the awareness of possibilities. As today comes into focus, I can hear the lessons of dinner framing out today.
Experience changes one’s understanding. Experience is composed of moments that combine to etch the emotions and events on one’s heart and mind. Each experience adds to one’s awareness and creates the opportunity for understanding, learning and growth.
One cannot unknow or un-experience an event. The experience of tasting pani-puri has etched itself on my heart. I enjoy the memories and anticipation, and last night was another experience to add to the ones I carry with me. A writer noted that “once they’ve personally experienced the sheer goodness of God’s Word and the powers breaking in on us” (Hebrews 6.5), they could not undo the awareness, understanding, and knowledge.
Experience is the foundation for growth. The catch is that as strong as this foundation can be, it is only relevant if I use it. With time and age, one might think I would have learned and grown to the point that I was beyond the foundation. Reality tells me otherwise. Each day is a fresh learning opportunity, a doorway to becoming a better version of myself.
Last night’s experience was a great set-up for today, a foundation I can build on.
