Baking A Life

There's been a lot of baking at my house recently. I guess a lack of school schedules and a mom at home and a cabinet full of ingredients wanting to be used will do that. As I see (and taste) the results of our efforts, I have to wonder--why can't life be a little more like baking?

1. In baking, you have a plan. With steps. And if you follow all the steps, you generally end up with the result in the picture. How often does life ever come with such specific instructions, much less guarantee you picture-perfect results?

2. In baking, you can combine a whole series of ingredients that look kind of the same as each other (and don't honestly look very appetizing), and come out with something people are eager to eat. In life, if you present a series of uninteresting parts of yourself, no amount of rearrangement is going to make you seem interesting to anyone.

3. In baking, adding chocolate chips makes just about anything better. Okay, never mind, that's true in life too.

4. In baking, "the heat is on" is a good thing. In life, "the heat is on" just makes you sweat the small--and big--stuff.

5. In baking, most things turn out bigger and better when they're done than when you mixed the ingredients. In life, you may hope for the bigger and better, but it doesn't always happen.

6. In baking, all it takes is a trip to the store to acquire what's missing. In life, filling the gaps is rarely that simple.

7. In baking, a little decoration can sometimes smooth over a mistake. In life, there's not always a do-over.

8. With baking, you almost always have an audience for your efforts. In life, it's not always so easy to attract interest.

9. In baking, you can stray from the recipe, but not too far without risking your results. In life, you can--and you often need to--stray farther if you want any results at all.

10. With baking, you can make something new every day. Which, I guess, is kind of what life's all about. The end might not always be a sweet one, but the ingredients, if you choose to use them, are still there for the taking.