This is something we should all read at least once a week.
It was written By Regina Brett, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio
To celebrate growing older, she once wrote a column called  ‘45 lessons life taught me‘.
It was the most-requested column she’d ever written.
Her odometer rolled over to 50 in 2006, and there was an update.
This was an email sent to me by a blogging friend from another blogging friend.
I’m hoping she sees this and realizes that, yes,
I am in that rare 7% to pass this one along.
This is priceless, folks.
Please feel free to forward friends and family this LINK.
This needs to be read.
Pax.

Regina Brett’s 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

I’m thinking many people have wondered about the origins of my URL,
or not.
I’ve based my email addresses on Steely Dan song titles
simply because I didn’t want
an email address like  dan22677hj_kko0@yahoo.com.
Steely Dan song titles worked great;
hence bookofliars@gmail.com
(Book of Liars is a Dan song not currently on YouTube)
Okay, now I’ve let my little secret fly.
Now go and listen to the tune that ultimately gave me my URL . . .
(and a few email addys)
If you’re a Dan fan from the Boston area,
they’re appearing at the Wang in late July.
Go to Steely Dan.com  for more info
I’m on vacation that week but for some reason
I’m not bumming about it at all . . .

The following is an actual junk email that had me laughing my ass off.
It was kinda like reading Hemingway on acid.
If all spam was like this, I think I’d actually read more of it.

“The grand piano is single-handledly gentle.
Some eggplant related to a traffic light makes love to a carelessly frustrating rattlesnake, or the hole puncher over a traffic light accidentally borrows money from some paper napkin of a diskette.
A bowling ball daydreams, because a power drill eats the maelstrom about another polygon.
Another highly paid spider buries the college-educated line dancer.
For example, the mitochondrial fraction indicates that a vaporized nation is a big fan of a stovepipe for a dolphin.”

Yeah, weird.

HTTP 404 NOT FOUND
That’s me at the moment
I shall return eventually, a bit jaded right now for several reasons.
Don’t worry, I’m fine.
It’s just that my head ain’t screwed on properly.
I think . . .

I subscribe to “A Note from the Universe”,
a personalized mass email that sometimes inspires and
sometimes surprises me by its almost “Kreskin-like” content.
Sign up, if you wish.
Today’s offering was, for me, quite close to the bone and prophetic;

“Some folks, not having lived perhaps as much as you, endured as much, or loved as much,
simply cannot see the truth of a situation, disagreement, or relationship as clearly as you.
And so, it’s wise to keep in mind, Michael, that it’s not their fault.
Can you see this?
That you are in their life, Michael, that you are helping them, was part of the plan… though they cannot see this, either.”

Sometimes, I have to wonder.

I don’t make a point of posting email I receive but this one, well, this one was different.
It was from my friend, Lynn.
While reading it, I couldn’t get my sister out of my head because she’s a nurse and has probably been in a situation very similar.
Though my mother and father’s story reads a bit differently, the sentiment is very much the same and my thoughts were of the both of them as well.
Thanks, Lynn.
This was a beauty.

. . . It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80′s arrived to have
stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00am.
I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him.
I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.
On exam, it was well healed so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.
The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.
I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a
victim of Alzheimer’s Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.
He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, ‘And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?’

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, ‘She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.’

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, ‘That is the kind of love I want in my life.’ True love is neither physical, nor romantic it is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be and will not be . . .

Sometimes email can surprise you, huh?