“Practical, uplifting, relaxing, exciting, positive, reflective, calming, intriguing, nurturing, and eye-opening!”
–   Participants in a Three Wishes public talk, January 2012

Denise Flora has a longstanding relationship with FDCW as the author of the UWE resource Ready Set Happy and creator of the Three Wishes Calendar. Having witnessed first-hand the positive results that making three sincere wishes can have in a person’s life, Denise Flora decided to transform the calendar into something more durable, a method that can be used anytime by anyone.

She describes the Three Wishes method as one that uses positive aspirations to transform time-waiting into a practice of compassion for others as well as development of happiness skills for ourselves. These aspirations have been written as heartfelt prayers for each of the 16 Guidelines, but people are also encouraged to write their own based on these sixteen or on any other list of positive qualities you would like to embody and see in the world around you.

What started as a calendar is now a method that encourages people to use the 16 Guidelinesfor Life by choosing one quality at a time and making a wish that 1) each person in the world is surrounded by a community embodying that quality today, that 2) each person gets the benefit of embodying and expressing that quality themselves today, and that 3) you yourself grow in your ability to demonstrate that quality today.

Instructions are included in the undated booklets called Three Little Wishes for a Meaningful Life.

Alongside this resources there is also video, audio of public talks, and more available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/florasabi.

And for further support and exploration you can join the Three Wishes facebook page.

So far, 35 people from eight counties on four continents, men, women, young adults through seniors, have linked to the page to listen in. Links and thought-provoking questions are posted several times a week, based on one guideline theme for about three weeks at a time. By the end of the year the group would have spent time with all four themes and all 16 guidelines. So now is not too late to join the conversation!

Erin Sloan wrote about using the Three Wishes aspirations as she was getting ready to lead a children's class on Honesty. "When I got the calendar, it was the end of 2011, and I was teaching honesty, so I tried those aspirations to see if would give me any insight into my lesson-planning. At the same time, there was this work-related conversation that I needed to have. I had to tell someone something that I knew they didn't want to hear, and don't we always want to tell people what they want to hear? It always seems to make them happy.

“Anyway, after the aspirations, I realized that I was coming from a place of honesty. What I was saying was true and my motivation for making it clear was correct. A weight lifted. I stopped feeling guilty, and I think the conversation went waybetter than it would have if I would have felt apologetic the whole time. My intention was not to try to find a solution for that conversation, but one materialized as the result of the aspiration.

“One reason the honesty thing was so exciting is that it would have never occurred to me that "honesty" was a factor, because we typically think of lying or not lying, but the wording of the aspirations really helped me think about what the value is, things like being straightforward, dealing fairly and honourably, sincere communication."