The Recipe to a Good Life
There is a time to be silly and a time to be serious. Brace yourself as this is a serious piece of work about life as I know it. Life can either work for you or it can work against you. I will humbly categorize this post under “opinion” as this is exactly what it is: My humble opinion. But I’m usually quite willing to share it freely.
Okay, here goes.
Life is all about priorities and balance. I’ve done life in many different ways and not much of it really worked for me. It’s like baking a cake, if you mess up the recipe or the order of the ingredients, your end result will be one seriously messed-up cake. But if you follow the recipe you get the cake you were intended to get. Which brings me to…
…My Life Recipe
- God
All the areas in your life should lead to the very centre: God. Who we are and what we want to become cannot happen in our own strength. - Marriage
This actually means your marriage and partner, not your children! Note to all moms: Partner before children. - Me-time
I’m not self-centred by placing this in spot no.3 – If you as an individual are not happy, fulfilled and growing, you cannot be of any use to your husband, family, friends or the community. Make time to be still and take stock. Note that the slice of the pie is not that big, but the position is important. - Family
Children and immediate family - Work
Work takes up a huge part of our day, but it will only work for us if we have all the previous blocks ticked. If you swap marriage and work, for example, the cake will hit the fan and you won’t wanna be around to clean up the mess. - Social/friends
Friends are important and should be appreciated and valued. We cannot expect our partners to fulfil every single roll in our lives, therefore the pie to bring balance. Both men and women need friends to satisfy that part of them that no-one else can. Women need friends to chat to, shop with, cry with and grow with while men need friends to connect with on a level that women can simply not do: they need someone whom they can fish with, dive with and play with without really talking – that’s their thing. They apparently understand each other this way. - Recreational
Hobbies, interests, sport and other fun activities contribute to us feeling alive. - Giving back
We all need to give back in some way.
You still with me? It’s heavy stuff, I know, but it’s almost weekend so you can take it! We might be doing all of the above but in the wrong order, which doesn’t help, really. Can’t mess with the recipe. This is just the way the cookie crumbles.
Life is rather like a tin of sardines – we’re all looking for the key.
- Alan Bennett
By Elzet
I agree with it to a certain extent. Obviously the God part for me is not something I can fully relate to but I do feel that whatever makes your soul happy and content is vital in one’s life. For some it may be religion, for others a philosophy and for some – it may be something as simple as hiking in the Drakensberg or waking up early in the morning and appreciating the beauty around us. I like your stance on marriage, kids and me-time, it makes a lot of sense. A lovely thought provoking post Mammazet!
Well, thank you BossLady. For me the God-thing works – even though I did the hikes and stuff, it always felt like there was something missing…
As for the family and kids thing – I think a lot of mothers make the mistake of giving priority to the kids and the dad must maar schlep along. Just doesn’t work. Then the kids leave the house one day and mom looks at dad and all the finds is a huge wall.
I like it! Well done…
I totally agree – it’s an 100% fullproof recipe. How do I know that? I have tried just about everything else, and NOTHING worked.
I agree. Without God at the centre of your life, the rest just goes pear-shaped! He sort of pulls everything into perspective!
Read Richard Dawkins and don’t fall into the trap so often perpetuated by religious followers that Agnostics or Atheists have no moral code. This is the ignorance or arrogance that we have with Muslim fundamentalists so why should we tolerate it with Christianity. There is no intellectual flexibility whatsoever with firm believers…..
This is not a Christianity VS Atheists kinda post – have ye all noticed the rest of the pie? It’s about an overall balance in your life. I just happen to be into God, that’s why my pie have a lovely big dot in the middle. And it’s labeled My Humble Opinion and comes down to my personal life experience – that’s what blogging is all about. Use it, don’t use it. But let’s play nice, see.
I don’t think religion should ever be about pitting one religion against the next and I don’t think that this post was about that – which is good!
I do think the wonderful thing about blogging is that it stimulates conversation about life and various things that people are passionate about. But when we put our opinions out there for people to read, it’s only natural for others to want to give theirs too – especially when it comes to sensitive issues like politics and religion (which my mother said I should never talk about at the dinner table
). So with the above example, some people will agree but some will also disagree and I think that it’s perfectly normal.
I personally think that spirituality is important but that it comes in different packages for different people – with no option being better than the other – just different. Some people may disagree with me …but that’s fine – how boring would the world be if we all agreed on everything or liked the same things! I say “whatever floats your boat!” Peace Out!