Baking brings me joy. It’s a subtle positive experience, but I like it nonetheless. While some strive to finish their products because of the forethought of tasting their creations, I do not. I strive to seek out other stomachs who may desire my baked dessert, pastry, or bread, and when found, I transfer the goods over to their possession. It’s much more satisfying for me.
This past week, I used four leftover ripe bananas to bake a favorite recipe of mine: Chocolate Chip Coconut Banana Bread. The ingredients stem from a basic banana bread recipe with my own personal inclusion of semi-sweet chocolate chips and shredded coconut. If you’re curious about how to bake this bread, I featured it in my Instagram stories and you can find it in my archives.
As an avid chocolate lover, I loaded the mix with many chocolate chips. After dumping them in, I quickly noticed the imbalance. Clearly, I had put in too much. Perhaps twice as many as would be necessary. Decidedly, though, I ignored the immediate problem and stirred everything together. I hoped that if they mixed in, the mistake might not be as detrimental as it appeared.
The bread transformed in the oven for an hour. As I peeked in from time to time, nothing looked off-putting. My concerns drifted off and I prepared to remove perhaps the best banana bread I had made yet.
Or, so I had dreamed.
Different people encounter different baking barriers. Mine naturally comes from a genetic weakness of mine: chocolate. I love it. Even in the womb I craved it, and my mother ate far more than she would have preferred if she hadn’t been pregnant with me. So, if I include chocolate in a recipe . . . I tend to include too much for the average palate (and to all you fellow chocolate lovers out there—I know. I agree. There’s almost never too much chocolate).
After I removed the bread from the oven and let it cool, I extracted the loaf from the pan, quickly cutting myself a slice. My suspicion from the earlier stages of baking was confirmed: I overdid it on the chips.
Too much chocolate.
Of course, I still ate and loved it. My husband ate some too and noted the overkill. Later that day, I consumed more of the loaf joyfully. This mistake did not take a tragic toll on my life nor on the outcome of the bread. It did, however, remind me of the need to balance the good things in our life.
Sometimes, I wish I could eat chocolate all day. I’ll think about it often enough that I actually consider attempting this, but I’m usually able to convince myself not to. How? I remember that while I love the taste and the soothing effect, I also hate the inevitable stomach twisting, guilt feeling, and unhealthy weight increasing. Chocolate, for me, is good. Great even. Too much though, and it’s a 180 degree turn: chocolate becomes horrible.
As an independent college student, making balanced choices have been critical. Many times, I have wanted to spend hours with my friends, attending every activity they invite me to. But then, I don’t do homework or household chores or anything else that requires specific attention. Sometimes, when under pressure, I only wanted to do my homework or stay home all day to clean. Then, I wouldn’t get the vitamin D I needed to help my serotonin (happiness) levels. I wouldn’t see my friends to accumulate the necessary social time to feel my beneficial part of society.
The list of good things can go on. Religious activities, exercising, hobby pursuing, errand running, community volunteer work, caring for children, maintaining a career, and so forth. The problems of overdoing these things is just as long. As much as we may want to spend our days only doing one thing, or feel the need to compensate for a previous imbalance in doing by tilting the other way, it’s not going to benefit us. The results usually equates to at least one or all of our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical facilities getting exhausted.
So, over the past four years of attempting to independently balance the good things in my life, I am pleased to announce I have perfected it.
Not.
Not at all.
I suspect it will take a long time before I come close to finding a perfect balance, if I happen to get so lucky. The outcome matters less to me though. I know it won’t go perfectly. Instead, I care more about continuing to gain knowledge on how to adjust the scales of the activities I participate in. I care that I continue my efforts to find the balance between the good. With this mindset, my natural failures will more likely serve as a motivator rather than a discouraging force.
Balancing the good may seem fruitless, but focus on the lessons learned and the little successes in giving effort and you will see the benefits. Life will start to find an order. As chaos becomes organized, the appropriate amount of dedicated time to the good will become more meaningful and have greater effect. This, all in all, will help provide the sunshine for your day.
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