In life, there are those moments, where we have all found ourselves standing in front of that proverbial door labeled “yes.” The door just begging us to walk though, with little nudges from the Universe to help you get there.

One path leads one way, the other takes you in a completely different direction. Neither is right. Neither is wrong. But only you can choose.

Some walk through the door. Others don’t.

I was having lunch with a girlfriend of mine recently who likened her life to a buffet. She had gone through a tough time years before, and now over a decade later, her life is better than she could have ever imagined.

This is my buffet moment.

We joked at the analogy, referring to life as an all-you-can eat round up at the local Bonanza (please tell me I am not the only one with this image of a trough-like contraption in my head). I don’t even know if those places still exist. But in my mind, as my friend was talking about her life and how happy she is, I couldn’t help but conjure up memories of the fine dining experiences of my childhood.

Like a buffet filled with food to choose from, our life is similar. Where we choose to live. Who we choose to surround ourselves with. What we choose to do for work. Whether we choose to have children or not.  And just like taste buds change, so does life and the preferences for what we need from season to season.

What we need at one stage in our life may be vastly different from what we need moving into a new season. And just like our food choices can vary from person to person, one person’s “buffet moment” of life can be completely different to the next person’s.

I have had a lot of people reach out over the course of the last few months. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to piece together that it wasn’t exactly ideal circumstances that prompted my return home. In fact, coming back hasn’t been easy. There have been tough moments both in making the decision to do so and then adjusting once we were back.

And for anyone with a front row seat to the last few years of my life, they know the weight of the decisions I needed to make.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, sometimes doing the right thing is also the hardest thing – kicking down the door labeled “yes” even though you don’t know what is waiting for you directly behind it.

Life has certainly had its moments with a lot of changes and adjustments, but as I sat there with my girlfriend joking around about food and comparing it to life, she looked at me and said, “you’ll get your buffet moment.”

As the words rolled off her tongue, I realized I was in mine. I made the hard choices, leaning into divine trust, and this is my reward for doing so.

This IS my buffet moment.

She smiled and nodded, knowing exactly what I meant.

Sometimes people are fulfilled in their life because they have found that certain someone. For others, it is a big promotion at work. And then for others, maybe it is buying that pair of shoes or the car that you have worked hard to be able to afford. Adding something that was not previously there.

But for me, it was more about cutting the proverbial fat from my life – the expectation for what I thought life was supposed to look like or who I thought I was supposed to be and all the things that unnecessarily filled up my plate but that weren’t necessarily good for me.

Instead, I’ve opted for a life filled with peace and trust.

As I have gotten older and life has taken me both across the United States and across the globe, one of the things I have come to find is that as life changes, like taste buds, so does the dynamic of certain relationships. But rather than focus on who is or who isn’t currently in my life, the biggest relationship that has changed for me as a result of the choices I have made, has been the one with myself.

My plate is full and filled with things that I intentionally make room for in my life, with or without anyone else.

Quality time with my children. My friends and kick ass crew of incredible human beings who fiercely love and support one another. Being a daughter, a sister, a niece, an auntie. My business and amazing roster of clients. Taking time for myself to simply connect and stay centered.

Whether you fill your plate from the salad section or you go straight for the pudding, your buffet is your buffet and what you choose to put on your plate or not, is all yours. Just like you wouldn’t want someone else choosing your food, the same can be said for life.

Fill your plate with what you want. Kick down the door or don’t. Do life the way you want to do it. Life is a buffet of choices. Have your moment, because darling, you deserve it!