How would you like that cooked?

I've been thinking for a bit about the phrase, "everything in moderation," and I can see why people latch onto it, and use it as a guide for living.  It makes perfect sense, for example, the we only eat moderately, spend moderately, exercise moderately, work moderately.  But, I still want to contest that it's not entirely appropriate or sufficient to do everything in moderation.  We ought to never put restrictions on things like love, compassion, generosity, prayer and forgiveness.  These things we should strive to offer in excess.  But, then again, can "excessive" exist for things that ought not to have a limit?  Or, are we perpetually working toward reaching "enough"?  It seems to me that we can give excessively, for example, in specific circumstances, but not in a more general sense.  If I have a million dollars, and you only need $7 to buy a book, then perhaps we could say that there's no need to give you the other $999,993 that I possess--that might be excessive.  But, at the same time, we shouldn't put limits on how much we will give.  That will be different for different people, of course, if we mean to say that "giving" is a function of finances.  But, I don't think that most of the best examples of giving have anything to do with money.

What about the other things that I listed above?  Can we love--genuinely love--someone too much?  Can we be too compassionate?  Do we ever reach a stopping point in our need to forgive?  No, we don't.  And yet, it seems like these are some of the things that frequently get short-changed.  If we would only reevaluate how we do things--maybe work a few less hours this month and spend that time doing some volunteer work.  Maybe don't eat out on Saturday, and give that money to someone who hasn't seen a meal in a week.  Maybe forgive someone AGAIN for the annoying thing that they've done AGAIN even though you're sure they're likely to do it AGAIN tomorrow.  Say a prayer or two, even when you don't know exactly what you want to say.  I don't know the specifics of your life, and I surely am not capable to act as an expert on doing these things.  But, I do think that maybe this is a good way to live life:  the only things that we ought to strive to do excessively are the things for which no point of "excess" may be reached.

5 Things:
1. I have my computer back!
2. Accomplished a few errands yesterday, and the car is already cleaned off and awaiting my son and me for more errands this afternoon.
3. Waking up with a feeling of genuine refreshment.
4. Tortilla soup (which sounds marvelous to me right now).
5. Being able to see just how much money you really save with all of those coupons.