Chop Life First is the Temperance card, and Temperance is the card people skip. It has no drama. No death, no lovers, no chariot. Just a figure pouring water between two cups, keeping a balance nobody applauds.

That is exactly why I wrote it as the most joyful song on the album. Chop life first, before life carry you comot. Enjoy your life first, before life carries you off. The instruction comes before the struggle, not after it. Balance is not the prize you win for surviving. It is the thing you protect on the ordinary day.

Temperance is a discipline, not a mood

I think people hear “balance” and picture rest. Bubble baths, doing nothing, going soft. The card is sterner than that. It is the patience to mix two things that do not want to mix and not spill either one. Soft no mean weak, na mature mindset. Soft is not weak. It is grown.

The verses carry weight the hook hides. I dey guard my peace like I dey guard PIN. I protect my peace the way I protect a password. That is not relaxation. That is a watch being kept. Joy that lasts is defended, not stumbled into.

The part that took the most work

Writing a happy song that is not stupid is harder than writing a sad one. Sad has gravity built in. Joy floats off into nothing if you do not anchor it to something real.

So I anchored it to caution. People go smile but the kindness thin. Dem only full chest when your light dey win. People smile, but the warmth is thin. They only puff up when you are winning. The song is festive and watchful at the same time, because that is how real enjoyment works once you have been burned. You can dance and still read the room. The first drafts were all celebration, no spine. They sounded like a jingle. I kept rewriting until the joy had eyes.

Why it sits here in the story

Track 5 was the boundary. Track 6 is what the boundary was for. You do not close a door just to stand in an empty room. You close it so you can finally chop life. Slow your head, no rush your soul. Slow your head. Do not rush your spirit. After all the choosing and the leaving, Temperance is the permission to enjoy what is left.

I still do not always take my own instruction. Some weeks I save the joy for later like later is guaranteed, and it never is. The song knows something I have to keep relearning.

If you have been waiting to be happy until after the hard part is done, this song is for that. The hard part does not end. Chop life first.