Manual for Life
A Manual for Life
A multitude of things can enhance existence, …yet fail on life So, let us consider not existence but Life.
“He made me laugh at myself. Honestly. I felt quite different. He made me see what I never saw before.” *)
Consider this:
If you can share in his humour, you have a key to understand the man; his way of shaping what is, to his and your delight.
So it is with Life, and your journey with her.
Manual for Life
Starting off, you have to experience that specific state, knowing that raw pain and futility, that you are unable and subject… and, through keen discernment and by wise counsel, making sense of it, beautiful sense.
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever” *)
Then walk with life as it is meant to be.
On this way you will find there is one who is called
“Wonderful Counsellor”, “Mighty God”, “Everlasting Father”, “Prince of Peace”.
In him you will find great delight and for that you will love him greatly.
Manual for Life
On this way there is another:
Your neighbour.
Manual for Life
You will find your neighbour in distress. (After all, he is your neighbour.) There are two alternate ways to deal with the plight of your neighbour: The one is, give alms, be the giver, keep yourself to feel good about it. (This is what ‘charity’ is.) The other is, give life, be the gift, lose yourself to be part of the team that can accomplish it. (Here some advice is needed: A team is a team. You have to decide in what you get yourself involved and in what not. You have to decide what you allow to involve you and what not. And only your team can tell you.) Strangely then, what you keep, you lose, what you give, you gain. He who has the minimum, has the fullness, He who has the maximum, is the one being drained
Manual for Life
The minimum of Life *)
not written down. One page is not enough to contain it, neither several pages, neither several books. The one statement simply represents the fullness of it.
Manual for Life
You need to have a mother who carries you and nurtures you daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have a father who coaches you and disciplines you daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have brothers and sisters who sound you and test you daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have uncles and aunts who watch you and question you daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have a grandmother who understands without reproach and who cherishes without reserve daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have a grandfather whom you admire and whom you strive to emulate daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have friends to share with and to dream with daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have that special one about whom no words can say anything sufficiently substantial forever.
Manual for Life
You need to have children to rob you of your life and to exact from you a life lived for them daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have a dog who will admire you with devotion and who will be loyal to you no matter how wrong and harsh you are daily.
Manual for Life
You need to have a cat who will enjoy your service but ignore you when you ask for attention daily.
Manual for Life
Without these companions on the way, life is simply far too hard and raw to handle. Far too hard and raw.
Manual for Life
Solitude will supply the keen discernment and quietness will apply the wise counsel to complete the picture.
Manual for Life
So don’t say, “My mother (my brother) (my grandmother) (my…) is not like that”. You can recognise and gather around you one, in each case, who is like that to you.
How? – There is only one way: Serve. “If you want a friend – be a friend” Serve as a child; as a brother; as a friend... Serve them so and you will find them so.
Manual for Life
To get there, consider:
“He who seeks, will find. To him who asks, will be given. For him who knocks, the door will be opened…”
The minimum of life, then, is finding these
Manual for Life
The maximum of Life
Manual for Life
The maximum of life is to shape it: Giving life which has quality
By serving persons, each with their role, allowing and assisting them to be exactly what their roles require of them until they are so in full, you help shape them so. For they cannot be so for you, unless you give it them.
Manual for Life
The fullness of Life
The fullness of life simply is everything between the parameters of its minimum and its maximum. Everything! *) May you have a full life
This everything includes everything – from those special moments no one can plan or create, to all the good things to be discovered, but also to mistakes, to pain, to stubbornness and malice, to disaster, ... everything that fills life and makes it colourful and realful.