On our third day in Prague, inspired by the Happiness Project which I had just finished reading, I set myself the task of coming up with my ‘personal commandments.’ I did it in a restaurant that our guide called a diner, hence the name. I wrote this down on the back of a spare place mat, in the time it took for our dinner to be cooked. I edited it a little on the plane ride home, and I have done a little re-arranging tonight, but the core of it reminds unchanged.
And so, without further ado, I present you with the Prague Diner Manifesto:
- Follow your heart.
- And do it with courage.
- Remember to pray for what you want, and you may just get it.
- Remember all the magic you have come across, and it will beget new magic.
- Act with grace, even, or perhaps especially, when others fail to do so.
- Don’t take the world’s imperfections personally; they are not because of you.
- Practice patience; impatience does not make things happen.
- Spend your attention wisely and well; it is powerful and precious.
- Keep the faith; there is a reason for this madness, although you may never know it.
- Love is the stick you throw.
- Love is the seed you plant.
- Love is its own reward.
Wait, gentle reader. Don’t go just yet. For once, I would like to ask something of you. If you do exist, please, please leave a comment with one of your own commandments. I would really like to know.
This was a nice lunchtime excercise!
The Almere Canteen Manifesto:
01. Be kind (and know the difference from ‘act kind’)
02. Make it your highest priority to conquer your fears
03. Practice original thinking, and try to think your own thoughts
04. Listen before you speak, and don’t say what you don’t believe
05. But don’t be silent about things that matter
06. Always plan to improve
07. Love without getting tired
08. Don’t give the people you love any reason to doubt that you love them
09. Try to put the words ‘Love’ or ‘Truth’ where other people say ‘God’ to make the world make sense
10. Realise that everything is a miracle, maybe especially if you can explain it
11. Forgive mistakes, including your own
That’s a awesome manifesto, Dennis! I read it with admiration and jealousy — and I could copy all 11 points to my own manifesto. That’d contradict 03 though so instead I’ll write down a manifesto that I came up with during that same dinner (which was on my birthday and somehow seemed rather fitting).
01. Appreciate your luck
02. Be brave
03. Be honest (especially to yourself)
04. Stay centered
05. Take responsibility and don’t blame others
06. Seize the day and share passions
07. Be self-critical and always aim to improve
08. Make reasonable plans and live up to them
09. Give without expecting something back
10. Learn to fail
11. Dare to ask for help
12. Keep trying and keep trying harder. Always.
Dennis, that was beautiful; thank you.
Martijn, I think you mostly wrote yours while having coffee, not dinner.
Dimitra, if only I could live up to your commandments, I’m sure I’d be a happier man. Right now I don’t have any of my own to offer, but yours were inspirational. Now I just have to remember to be inspired.
I adored this post, I’m so excited to find a positive blog! I’m looking for submissions for an online literary journal at http://www.amymunday.com – let me know if you’d be interested. It’s based on the writer’s process, I think your take on that would be a awesome.
And its still inspiring, 6 months later. I don’t know how you consistently do it, but you’re one of life’s free-thinkers, in the truest sense, and its one hell of a gift.
I still feel, with your manifesto, that its a one point at a time plan. That said, 1 and 2 seem to go together. So, 1 and 2 for the first week of March. And the 28th of February plan to follow here – my attempt to replicate what you’ve done.
Love, and huge respect. xx
[…] I thought of Kyra, who once said that the writing, it only happens when we write; of Ian; and of my own words of wisdom; and I concluded that the remembering, it only happens when we remember. And I vowed to came back […]
Well, I drew up the plan, and have it in the front of a book that I planned to write lots of inspiring stuff in. Maybe I still will. As it happens, the plan is pretty great. Not as outstanding or original as yours, but that’s okay.
I wonder what “Love is the stick you throw” means to you right now? I’m not sure what it means to me at this moment in time. I’m not sure what a lot of things mean to me at this moment in time.
I think I’m going to print this manifesto and keep it with mine.
Ian: I am flattered, honoured even.
I don’t quite know why I am one of life’s free thinkers. Some days I think it is a curse as well as a gift, but then again I don’t like to be unduly dramatic, or ungrateful at all.
‘Love is the stick you throw’ means you might give your love away, and feel like a right fool for it, and think that you will never see it again, but you might be wrong. Sometimes it comes back to you. Sometimes, even, when you least expect it. Does that make any sense?
Brave thing to do. And yet, when it comes down to it, I can’t help feeling it is the only way to be truly happy. Which doesn’t mean I’m capable of it very often, of course.
(I’m referring to the love-stick-throwingness, btw. Being a free thinker is also a brave thing to do. Whether it is the only way to be truly happy or not I don’t know!)
[…] didn’t need to be cynical, not even when the whole world around her was, and that she should follow her heart, and do it with courage; and I wonder if our story would have perhaps unfolded differently had I found the strength to hold […]
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