This remains a favorite list of mine. It was composed by a German philosopher Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.
“Nine keys to contentment:
Health enough to make work a pleasure.
Wealth enough to support your needs.
Strength enough to battle with difficulties and overcome them.
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them.
Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished.
Charity enough to see some good in your neighbors.
Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others.
Faith enough to make real things of God.
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.”
To me, this list was a great recipe for a life in balance. Goethe uses the word “enough” in every sentence. It is an invitation to check us in areas where our discipline lacks or our appetites are excessive.
It also reminds us to check our spirit where patience, grace and charity originates.
