(Rules for) Living Life on the Lime (425)

A. Be a radical optimist.

1. Smile more because it makes you happier.
2. Sleep more because it also makes you happier.
3. Remember what it’s like to be around grumpy people.

• (not super fun).

B. When traveling by train at night in India, use the Western style toilet.

C. Consider the usefulness of hanging upside down.

D. Appreciate your ankles and air that is clean and sweet porridge and brightly colored clothing.

1. Expressing appreciation will make you happier.

E. Eat turmeric.

1. Apparently it reduces the risk of degenerative brain diseases.
2. Try turmeric on sweet potatoes with paprika or in split pea soup. Yum yum.

F. When you see locals dashing into a cafe run by a monastery, follow them!

1. Maybe you will find ginger tea and authentic Indian tea and fried rice and sweet porridge.
2. Maybe you will sit in the balcony and see goats on the roof not quite next door, but nearby.
3. And maybe you will discover secret stairs and foot paths that wind between the apartment buildings and shanties and then you will feel in-the-know.

(Rules for) Living Life on the Lime (7)

A)   Read the Desiderata

1. Remember specifically: “Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.”

B)    When joining a sports team or going to dinner in a residential hall that looks like it is out of Harry Potter (maybe because it is actually in a 400-year-old building), smile a lot.

1. This will help you make friends even more than beating them in a race will.

C)    Take fruit whenever it is offered.

1. If you don’t want the fruit you have, however, take it to a bar with you and offer it to drunken people or hungry people.
2. Or make banana bread.

This Living-Life-on-the-Lime message is brought to you by The Parrot on My Head, in cahoots with The Purple Monster.