E got a really cool book for Christmas from my sister. It is an anthology of the worlds greatest diarists.. Every day you can look up what someone intelligent wrote in their diary.. For example.

January 3rd, 1853      H. D. Thoreau

I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her. There a different kind of right prevails. In her midst I can be glad with an entire gladness. if this world were all man, I could not stretch myself, I should lose all hope. He is constraint, she is freedom to me. He makes me wish for another world. She makes me content with this. 

My Mom and I used to throw I Ching at the New Years, to tell our fortune. We threw six pennies and drew a map of the heads or tails pattern apparent after six throws. Then we looked up the different patterns in the official Chinese I Ching book and predicted our fortune for the upcoming year. Other than the I Ching and a surprisingly successful voodoo doll stage of our lives, we didn’t put much store in fortune-telling or the dark art of witchcraft.

I used to get terribly sad at the end of the year knowing that the year coming up was bound to bring some loss, a friend or a pet…. Truth is none of us know what is in store for our year and we all begin 2015 with the hope that it is a happy and healthy one for everyone. Nothing we can do if fate wants to drop a tree on our house or a bus should decide to use me as a speed bump. But I can take measures. Measures to increase my odds at staying healthy. I can take down the dead tree hanging over the bedroom and refrain from jay walking. I can also take measures to be happy . I  just have to choose to be content.

We may not be living the life we planned but if we are living at all that’s a pretty big advantage over those who have passed far too young. It has taken me a lot of years and a lot of therapy to get me to the point where I can say I am not frightened by what is coming. I am happy for what we have now. I am not going to ruin an otherwise perfect day worrying about what is to come. I am going to take measures to stay content.

To that end, I dug out my encyclopedia of 5000 spells. I bought it in 2010 on one of those Sunday afternoons when you hang out in a book store browsing titles and drinking coffee. It wasn’t much use to me because a lot of the ingredients in the spells were hard to come by. Where was I to find an eye of newt living in a townhouse in White Rock?

Now that I am living here on the island all of the ingredients should be easy to find. As a slightly less intelligent diarist I thought I would include a spell to help you stay happy too. There are 5000 spells to choose from.  For example there are five spells just to keep the law away from your house.

Basic Happier Home Incense

1. Blend dragons blood and frankincense together in a mortar and pestle.

2. Burn it over lit charcoals, wafting it in specific areas as needed.

If you should try it at home do let me know how you make out.  As you can tell, the ingredients should be easily found. I’m going to go up and check the farm, I suspect that is where I will

find a dragon