Delia Smith says, as a human, you matter
TV cook and Norwich City joint majority share-holder Delia Smith has written a book about spirituality, climate change and why every human matters. Review by Keith Morris.
Better known for her TV recipes and her role at Norwich City, Delia is also a Catholic convert. After writing cookery books and TV series for 50 years, Delia says she desperately wanted to write something about spirituality that wasn’t about religion.
And being at home in Suffolk during the Covid lockdowns gave her the ideal opportunity to finish a project that she had been working on for about five years.
Talking to an audience of Daily Telegraph readers, Delia said: “I wanted to write about human life and the amazing thing that it is. It is something we take for granted but it is actually phenomenal and I was inspired by a man called Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit priest and scientist.
“We are in this vast universe which goes on for infinity and we live on this tiny planet in one corner. And as far as we know we are the only life in all that and we have this beautiful planet and are perhaps now in a bit of a dark place in this world in which we have everything. I wrote the book to encourage people to think more deeply about themselves.”
Delia was keen to stress that it is not a religious book: “I have great respect for religion, and I am very attached to my own, but there are all different religions and I just wanted people to know that they have a spiritual life that is natural and we need to develop it.
“Everybody has something to offer, everybody is unique and different. There is not anybody on this planet who has the same face or voice. It is phenomenal and we have to sit down and think about that. Everybody has something special that they can offer life and the community. I go on in the book about the fact that you need times of stillness and silence to think and think more deeply.”
Being still and silent you are developing your own spiritual capacity, explains Delia.
“It's not about meditation but about being still and silent for at least 30 minutes every day – now I do an hour when I get up in the morning. I just let my mind do what it wants to - I might be day-dreaming, or thinking I need to go to Waitrose, or anything at all. But every now and again you suddenly find you have gone a little deeper. You are letting it happen to you. Let it be done unto you.
“There are those moments in life maybe music or in nature when you are awakened in a deeper place,” says Delia. “A lot of people are afraid of depth, they are afraid that they don’t want to know about themselves because they might not like what they know. But when you really begin to know yourself, you begin to understand yourself – you learn how to be tender with yourself - there is no guilt or condemnation.
“We all have something we can give each other. It is not about being selfish. If you are happy with yourself in your own skin and you respect yourself, then you start to respect everybody else, so there is a connection then to other people.
“It does not mean I don’t have anxiety of all the struggles other people have but there is this lovely bit of calm and peace which does pervade the rest,” she says.
“There is no such thing as an easy ride, life is full of trial, error, difficulties and pain but there is also a tremendous amount of joy. Julian of Norwich wrote ‘pain is passing but joy is lasting’.
“At the end of the book I speak about love,” said Delia. “We know we love our friends, partners but there is a love we don’t know about which is a love deep inside us that connects us. Developing your spiritual life makes you aware of that connection and it makes you much more comfortable and understanding of other people.”
Quotes from Delia Smith talking to a Daily Telegraph subscriber audience.
You Matter: The Human Solution by Delia Smith is published by Mensch at £14.99.
Pictured above is Delia Smith. Image by Robert Wilson/News Licensing.