A Driver's Manual for a Healthy Relationship

I just completed my latest E-Book: A Driver's Manual for a Healthy Relationship (and therefore, a Happy Life)!

I'm excited about this since I've been working on it for a while. I've mixed humor and guidelines to present an interesting manual of rules of a relationship road. A labor of purpose you might say.

Here's an excerpt:



We are each the driver of our own vehicle - our lives.

It’s often said that life is a journey. When engaging in any journey, we all rely on the rules of the road, no matter what vehicle we travel in. Car, truck, bus, plane, boat, bicycle, motorcycle. Whatever mode of transportation, someone has to pay attention to the rules that apply to operating that vehicle. Even when we’re walking, the rules of the road apply and we pay attention to others in their vehicles for our safety.

Just as when we get in our vehicle, turn the key and drive, we drive ourselves through life. Our choice to engage in good driving practices usually result in arriving at our destination without incident. Our choices to engage in bad driving practices have the potential to result in minor nuisance to catastrophic outcomes.

You may get away with driving under the influence of mind altering substances for a while, but eventually, when you tempt fate enough times, the odds work against your favor. The same principle holds true in relationships. Your choices govern the outcome, whether you are aware of your choices or whether they operate from subconscious beliefs you hold.

Each state provides its residents with a comprehensive manual or handbook for drivers. In life, there is very little else for which you are given such a comprehensive manual. Yet what can be more profoundly impacting on those you come in contact with than your ability to navigate your life.

We learn by example of our parents and other authority figures in our childhood and by our experiences in our formative years. We then take whatever we’ve learned, whether it be healthy or not, and proceed forward through life with rules that may help, but most likely will hinder our success in forming mature, healthy bonds in a loving relationship.

We drive through our lives with this distinct set of life rules oftentimes without questioning their prudence. We seek direction and guidance from religion, philosophy, self-help teachers, psychologists, pharmaceuticals, self-medication. Anything to find a cure, an answer to the problem that plagues us – what are the rules? Why am I getting a different response than I anticipated or expected? Why isn’t this working?

You have in your hands a valuable handbook that can help ensure a better driving experience through the journey of life. For your protection and the protection of others, I strongly urge you to read it and keep it handy for future reference.

This manual is a tool. To improve your driving experience requires commitment and courage to take responsibility for your driving habits, skills, and practices. You can help keep all of our life roads safe by applying what you learn in this handbook. Working together, we all can contribute to improving our lives, our community and our planet.

Wishing you a safe journey through life,
Reverend Jackie!