Live to work vs work to live.

Some times I feel like work is just taking over. I am sure many people have this feeling, when family, friends, interests and life in general just end up way down on the priority list of things to pay attention to.

The situation  put me confronted with a dilemma I really have no solution to: I work and get paid to provide my kids with a good life. While doing so, I feel bad because I realize I neglect the quality time I should have spent with them.

We should do things together like going on outings, cinema, eat out, explore nature and activities. We should laugh together a lot more and have good talks about mutual experiences and how come life is the way it is. I should have created situations where telling them the things my parents told me about life and how things work was a factor which brought us together. In short: to continue the family legacy.

I get things done, don’t misunderstand me, I do the laundry, prepare and cook meals, make sure the kids get to their spare time activities on time, make sure homework is done and get them to bed... But I never seem to climb any further on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs than to the second step. Looking at the model it is rather depressing knowing I do not really get to fulfill what science think is essential to a person.

The things I used to enjoy doing, like designing clothes and bags and sewing them, to draw and paint, to have friends over for supper, just because it was an ordinary Wednesday (No special occation needed, just the notion that a sandwich tastes so much better when eaten together with friends seated around the table)... I just never have the energy or time to do them.

I can’t really remember when I did something like that last. I can’t remember when I just sat still absorbed in my own thoughts and own doing either. I would so love to feel happy and satisfied, rather than just content.

I like to think I have a strong sense of reality. The alternative is too frightening. I understand that through defined periods of life some preferences must be set aside and postponed. Yet, to understand the fact, and live by the notion, really does nothing to comfort me.

I so wish I was better at combining a demanding job and a private life. I love my job, don’t get me wrong, even though it is too absorbing timewise. Even more: I love my family to pieces and want to be able to provide them with the best possible circumstances. I just sometimes feel I live to work, rather than work to have a living, and I feel guilty about it.

I wonder if that makes me a bad person?

Just a few totally useless facts...

Did you know that:

·         If you screamed for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would produce enough energy to heat a cup of coffee? (Hardly worth the effort.)

·         If you break wind  continuously for 6 years and 9 months it will produce enough gas to effectuate a nuclear bomb? (Now we’re talking!)...

·         When your heart pumps blood around your body, the pressure is so strong it can squirt 914,40 cm? (Oh My God!)

·         A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes? (In my next life I want to be a pig!)

·         A cockroach can live for 9 days without its head before it dies? (Creepy!)

·         If you bang your head in the wall you use 150 calories an hour? (Don’t try this at home. At work, perhaps...? It might help...)

(Still not over that thing with the pig!)

·         The male stick insect can not mate while its head is still attached to the body. The female takes initiative to sex by tearing the male’s head off? (Honey, I’m home! What th....?!)

·         A flea can jump as far as 350 times the length of its body? That corresponds to a human jumping the length of a football field.

(30 minutes... lucky pig. Can you even imagine that?!?)

·         The catfish has more than 27 000 tastebuds? (What can possibly be that tasty on the sea bed?)

·         Some lions mate more than 50 times a day? (I would still like to be a pig in my next life – quality before quantity.)

·         Butterflies taste with their feet? (Always wanted to know that!)

·         The strongest muscle in your body is your tongue? (Hmmmmmm.....)

·         Right-handed people live, in average, 9 years longer than left-handed? (Which is good for me!)

·         Elephants are the only animals which can’t jump? (OK, makes sense...)

·         A cat’s urine illuminates under black light? (Wonder who came up with the idea to pay someone to do the research?)

·         An Ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain? (I know a few people with the exact same problem)

·         A starfish has no brain? (I know a few people like that as well...)

·         Polar bears are left-handed? (If they change hand, will they live a lot longer?)

·         Human beings and dolphins are the only two species which have sex for the fun of it? (What about the pig??????)

For more useless facts:
( Fun Facts, Do Fish Drink Water?, Amusing Facts, Encyclopedia Britannica, Caplex, side2.no)