Life's "How-To" Booklet

Recently my husband and I moved from Colorado to Oregon. While we get our lives together (i.e. find employment) we are staying just outside of Portland on my grandfather’s hazelnut farm. The luck and gift of the situation are not lost on me – we are staying in an idyllic setting of 32 acres with apple, pear and even a plum tree. On a daily basis, we feed the horse (Willy) and the grazing cows (not named due to their future place on the dinner table) apples. We take morning strolls through the rows of hazelnut trees to the blackberry bushes where we proceed to get pricked by thorns, turn our fingers and mouths purple, and eat fresh, plump blackberries. Blackberry bushes do not give up their goods easily (something I should have learned better in my years as a single gal).

So, what am I getting at?

In the house, at the top of the stairs is a warped Life’s Little Instructions poster. Each time I head upstairs, I catch a glimpse of one of the instructions and each time is a pleasant reminder to enjoy this life. Reading a phrase has become a game of mine: what phrase will I get today? Can I read two phrases in a matter of seconds? This game reminds me of my past office mate (who is in the top tier of awesome office mates!), she would read her 8 Ball every time something plagued her – and sometimes I think she read the 8 Ball to set the tone of her day.
This week, also the first of a new month and soon-to-be the eve of a new season, I thought it would be most rewarding to pass on some of Life’s Little Instructions for you to mull over and do what you will with:
• Compliment 3 people everyday (and you are cheating if you are not sincere!)
• Feed a stranger’s expired parking meter
• Be kinder than necessary (again, with sincerity)
• Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation
• Be someone’s hero
• Avoid negative people (this includes yourself)
• Wave at kids in school buses (and not in a pervy way)
• Keep your promises
• Have a firm handshake
• Ask for a raise when you feel you’ve earned it
• Whistle
• Make new friends but cherish the old ones
• Leave everything better than when you found it
• Have a dog
• Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life
• Buy whatever kids are selling on card tables in their front yard
• Learn 3 clean jokes
• Learn CPR
• Commit yourself to constant improvement
• Be the first to say “Hello”
• Drink champagne for no reason at all
• **Insert your own personal instruction here**



Taken from the national bestseller, Life’s Little Instruction Book, by H. Jackson Brown, Jr., Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, Tennessee.