SOME OF THE TERMS OF LONG TERM CARE

1. Eat at least one grapefruit every morning, especially
in the winter.

2. Keep a garden, even if only in your imagination.

3. In order to take yourself lightly, practice high wire
walking every day for at least five minutes. Make sure
to keep a trampoline directly beneath the high wire
which, incidentally, should be no more than two feet
off the ground.

4. Read a good poem before you go to sleep.

5. Read a good poem upon waking.

6. Allow rebirth to occur with essay writing. For every
creative essay you write, you extend your life by one year,
your health by two.

7. Say Yes loudly three times and take action on each
sweet golden sunrise before you allow the tiny
hard seed of no to sprout in the very dirty dirt of doubt.

8. Visit the Bedouins at least once a year.
Bring your own camel.

9. Believe in the rivers that have disappeared under deserts.

10. Every animate and inanimate being is inhabited
holiness. They pray for you. Remember to pray for them.

11. Go to an antique store and buy an old sled. Use it in snow,
on sand, in petals.

12. Build a bed in a tree. Sleep there. You will not know
if you are in a boat or a hot air balloon. Your dreams,
thus suspended in a sanctuary of light leafiness,
will teach you the miracles particular to hand carved wooden
bowls, the secrets hidden deep inside mirrors, the architecture
of birds nests and pyramids.

13. Yes, it is worth buying -- costs nothing, lasts as long as you do.