Mother in Law: The meaning of life

Whenever a celebrity interview or self-help book starts talking about 'spirituality' I roll my eyes and turn the page. It reminds me of the time I went to a yoga class at my Student Union and it was all sitting in robes and breathing in incense rather than a relaxing form of exercise that was nevertheless going to make me thin and bendy. Or every other week when Deceptively Angelic Child 2 (DALC2)comes home from her village church school to tell me she’s been learning about Creationism AGAIN. Or when my brother (who struggled through his early teens) came home with a Uri Geller kit and put a crystal on a string around his neck and a big orange sticker on his wall to channel positive energy.

Not. My. Thing. I do not believe the aforementioned rabbits are bounding around a meadow in the sky because, well, they aren’t.

That new Google AI thing defines spirituality as 'an individual's search for meaning and purpose in life, often involving a sense of connection to something larger than oneself'. This definition caught my attention because I am ALWAYS thinking about the meaning of life. It bothers me a lot. I have had a lot of advantages in life, and I feel it is my duty to make the most of them. Specifically, these points bother me:

1. The procreation of children has been, by far, the most meaningful thing I’ve done, but how can it be meaningful in itself? Does that mean my life would be more meaningful if I had had three children instead of two? More importantly, what if I have produced little sh*ts? What would be the meaning of that?
2. I have somehow ended up a litigator. Of all things.

I saw something on the wall of DALC2’s school hall the other day that made sense of some of this. It described spirituality in a really simple, effective way. It said there are four parts of spirituality-

Window Moments - Children are encouraged to pause and look at the world around them. These moments are broken down into Wow Moments (noticing the tree in blossom on our road) and Ow Moments (thinking about Trump targeting law firms). Just a reminder from me: clearly I don’t know much about spirituality but I think the benefit of noticing the blossom is reduced if you immediately capture it for the insta.

Mirror Moments - Children are encouraged to think about themselves. Are you looking after yourself? Are you growing? Are you behaving in a way, on reflection, you can be proud of? I wish some of my opponents would do this more.

Door Moments - Children are asked to get out there and walk the walk. This means caring for others and our community. I do this, right? I care for my clients, and…the economy?

Candle Moments - The candle is used to represent reflection on what we cannot see - for me these are (no more and no less than) faith, hope and love. There, see, I got around to a bible verse eventually.

I can get on board with all of this. Doing my best, looking out for others. In fact, the more I proofread this blog the more I realise I am almost exactly setting out the Brownie Guide Promise I made some 35 years ago. Who knew it was that simple?

Some facts and identities have been altered in the above article