How 20 Wishes List from Fictional Book Helps Me Live Today

Books can help us in our journey to emotional health, even fictional books. Anne Marie in Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber lists 20 wishes to help her get back into LIVING after the unexpected death of her husband.

I read this book when I was grieving over the divorce. It helped me get unstuck by using my wish for a pain-free life in a positive way. It showed me that my wishes can help me live in the now.

Below are Ann Marie’s 20 wishes.

1. Buy a pair of red cowboy boots.
2. Learn how to knit by taking a class.
3. Volunteer-become a lunch buddy.
4. Take French lessons.
5. Find one good thing about life.
6. Find a reason to laugh.
7. Sing again.
8. Purchase a home for her and Baxter.
9. Attend a Broadway musical and learn all the songs by heart.
10. Travel to Paris with someone she loves.
11. Dance in the rain in her bare feet.
12. Take a cake decorating class and bake Ellen a huge birthday cake.
13. Practice not-so-random acts of kindness at least once a week.
14. Ride the biggest roller coaster in the world.
15. Visit the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg and then go to Amish country.
16. Go to Central Park in New York and ride a horse-drawn carriage.
17. Catch snowflakes on her tongue and then make snow angels.
18. Read all of Jane Austen’s books.
19. Karate classes with Ellen.
20. Live happily ever after.

Last month I made up my own “wish” list. I have ten of them and hope to finish them by the end of this year (2010). Click here to read what they are: 10 Goals to Discover Who I Am & Where I’m Going.

Your Turn

• Do you need help in moving on with life after experiencing an unexpected grief?
• Which items on the list would you like to do?
• What would your #1-20 list include?
• Which one will you do first?
• What books have helped you live better?

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