We found this SmartCookie, essentially a big Magic 8 Ball-type fortune cookie, at a cool store called, Hello Portland. The fortunes aren’t very profound, but it makes a great conversation piece.

 ”Every excess becomes a vice”

Irony of all ironies, we picked this one on Thanksgiving, our national day of gluttony.  Perhaps indulging to excess once a year, as opposed to adopting excess as a way of life, allows us to appreciate how good we have it. Even our ascetic Pilgrim forebears knew enough to revel in the abundance of this land for one day a year. It’s important to practice moderation, but it is also important to practice celebration and offer up appreciation. Like anything else, moderation should be practiced in moderation.  In other words, live it up a little – just be thankful while you do!

 Note: The turkey in the photo is actually a cake I baked, it’s a faux fowl.

This has got to be one of the weirdest fortunes I’ve ever received. It’s like something out of a spy novel.  There are so many possible scenarios where this advice could apply: the buffet table, line dancing, a shell game, a seat at the movies, the voting booth.

Bugs Bunny regretted not taking a left at Albuquerque.  Robert Frost advocated taking the road less traveled.  Creedence Clearwater Revival said (sort of) that there’s a bathroom on the right.  But . . . if the right is wrong, what’s left?

Under the category of things that look like fortune cookies, I came across this lavendar bath bomb that looks like an oversized purple fortune cookie. It came as part of a lavendar-themed bath set, but I discovered you can buy them individually from the Wedding Channel, packaged in a Chinese take-out style box.

“You Have at Your Command the Wisdom of The Ages”

There is a lot of great advice, modern and ancient, available to us – we have access to the insights of so many others who have walked before us.  We have the opportunity to sort through it, assimilate it, live it, if we choose.  It’s there for the taking. But too often our culture confuses information and knowledge with wisdom.  We have more information at our fingertips than at any other time in history, but all the knowledge in the world will not necessarily make us wise.  Wisdom is not found in trite bits on a website . . . or is it?  You have the wisdom of the ages available to you — do you have the wisdom to see it?

“If you understand what you’re doing, you’re not learning anything.”  We’ve all heard a thousand times that you have to get outside of your “comfort zone” in order to learn and grow, which seems to be the point of this fortune.  But the question that it does not address is, why do we value learning?  What’s wrong with staying in your comfort zone?  In strength training, the body will reach plateaus where you don’t increase the weights you are lifting, even though you are working out regularly.  The solution to this is to change your workout, shocking the body with new exercises, causing it to respond to this different challenge by getting stronger.  Perhaps life is the same way.  Staying in your comfort zone for a while can be a good thing, allowing you to “get into shape,” mentally, spiritually or emotionally.  But when you plateau, when your comfort level isn’t comfortable anymore but feels like a rut instead, maybe you have to increase the weight in your life, that is, let yourself approach new challenges, so that you can become a stronger person. 

“Being faithful to a trust brings its own reward.”

Because I have been traveling the last 10 days, I haven’t had access to my collection of fortunes. So, while in Newport, OR, I bought a box of La Choy fortune cookies.  The box says that they are “Inspired by Traditional Asian Cuisine.” Although the cookies tasted pretty good, the fortune I got from my first cookie was strangely worded (was that inspired by Asian cuisine?). I’m guessing they mean that if someone trusts you, and you live up to it, it’s rewarding for you. If that’s what they mean, I agree, but it’s not the most interesting fortune ever written.

I feel really fortunate to have found this rock on Nye Beach a couple of days ago. It looks just like a fortune cookie! (I added the fortune to make it look realer).

 ”The joyful energy of the day will have a positive effect on you.”

This is an unusual fortune. It’s very optimistic, and one I had never seen before. It holds out promise that: 1) It’s going to be a good day; and 2) You will be able to appreciate and capitalize on that fact. While it could certainly be interpreted as if you will be the passive recipient of the good vibes, it is also a call to action — knowing that you will be receiving this gift of joyful energy, you can plan to utilize it fully. Go forth and be joyfully energetic!

The first time I had Chinese take-out with my husband, we discovered something we had in common — a tradition of collecting fortunes from fortune cookies. I saved the ones that were most poignant for that moment in my life, while he saved every single one he ever had. Together, we realized we had quite a collection. We vowed that some day we would figure out something interesting to do with them all.

Then it dawned on us that we could create a blog celebrating these tidbits of wisdom, and the idea for this blog was born. Each week (or more often if the spirit moves us) we will post a new fortune, picked at random, along with our reflections on it. We hope that you’ll enjoy these as much as we have!