How to live.

- Photo taken by me in a cluttered antique shop on Parramatta Road, Sydney March 2010

Be bold. Be courageous, generous, thoughtful. Think deeply. Manners are free - say please and thank you a lot. Unparent yourself. You have more freedom than you will ever know. When you feel fat and ugly and unloved, know this: you will look back at photos of you and realise you were beautiful all along. True!

Don't live in anybody else's shadow. Live in your own shadow. Make friends with your shadow ... you can't outrun it. Wherever you go, there you are! When you are judgemental of someone, gently remember that you are actually judging yourself. Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself.

You are ok! That is the basis of a very wise rehabilitation program used for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics - throughout all the muck and mire and garbage, all we ever really want to know is that we are ok. You are ok!

Breathe. Stop living in your head. Grow up. Then grow back down again.

Look at old people more. Imagine all they have been through, all they have seen. They're fascinating. (Especially the really grouchy ones.)

You are stronger than you will ever know. Stop judging your insides by other people's outsides. You are where somebody else once was. Evolve. Notice your evolution, feed it. Watch it grow.

You are never too old. It's never too late. Things are never that bad. Realz. I thought all of that and have travelled back in time to tell you the tale.

Did you have great parents? What a blessing. Dud parents? Forgive them. If you can't do that, try to understand them. If you can't do that, wish them peace. It's hard.

So many things in life are hard. The best and most worthwhile things in life are the hardest of all.

Take a walk every day for at least twenty minutes. Your hips will thank you when you're sixty.

Imagine punching the whole world in the face, every once in a while. Feels good doesn't it? Rebel. Be free. Don't believe in The Government .... there is no "The Government." Believe in the good and the light in others. All of the darkness in the whole world cannot put out the light of one candle. Remember when you were a kid watching cartoons and the goodies always won? The baddies never win.

Be a badass goodie.

Hate is not the opposite of love - fear is the opposite of love.

You are not less than anybody else. You are not less than anybody else.

Don't worry if you think you have married the wrong person. Everybody marries the wrong person. Try to live together and move forward anyway. Keep going, and growing.

Never ever ever ever ever give up. Don't kill yourself - you'll miss the ending.

Have compassion and time for people who do not know as much as you yet, the same way others had compassion and time for you at the beginning of your journey. Stay away from the haters, the crazymakers, the users. Nourish your body with whole foods. Feed your brain as well as your mind.

Write letters. Learn the tango, even if you're single. Especially if you're single.

You are forgiven. You are ok.

All is well.

Especially when it's not.

::

When you master how to do all this, please give me a call on 1-800-FLOUNDER. Because most days I have no flaming idea what I'm doing.