New World Library Unshelved

Imagine you’ve just finished a delicious meal of your favorite Chinese food. The server hands you the check and, true to form, a fortune cookie. You pick it up and break it open . . .

Even if you’re nowhere near any tea or chopsticks, you’re in luck — you can play our fortune cookie game. Just pick a number from 1 to 7 and then find that number’s fortune in the list below:

I was only four years old when my mother first told me that I was adopted. The news sent me into panic, and something inside me froze.

The shock of the situation was so great that it triggered a drastic change in me. Up until that moment, I had always been a very affectionate, innocent child. Afterward, I started to avoid all physical contact. I wriggled uncomfortably whenever someone tried to embrace me; I hated being touched in any way. I decided that overtures of love could not be trusted, because the people who loved me had lied to me. I came to expect dishonesty from anyone who showed me affection, rejecting all who came too close.

Pay attention to the conversations of people around you, and notice how often the subject of time comes up:

“I’m fine, just crazy busy . . . ”
“I just don’t know when I can find the time . . . ”
“I can’t really talk now — I’m running late . . . ”

People used to be tied to things like families, communities, rituals, worship, curiosity, and beauty. Now we are tied to schedules, watches, date books, computers, and keeping up with the latest gadgets that start with i. It seems like time is going by faster than ever these days, and we’re all exhaustively trying to find, chase, save, and manage time.

Everyone is different. We have different body chemistry, different nutritional needs and restrictions because of genetics or allergies, and different upbringings and emotional states that cause us to associate certain aromas and flavors with feelings and memories. The sum of all this, multiplied by some very powerful advertising, results in the foods that we choose to consume. If we toss genetic anomalies, emotion, social stigma, 60 years of “meat marketing,” and even ethical and environmental considerations out the window, we're left with a simple question: What are we really supposed to eat?

What’s the first thing we do when we set a dieting goal? We aim at the final destination: “I want to lose 25 pounds.” This immediately sets up a perspective that breeds struggle and beckons failure before we have made that first step onto the treadmill or passed up that first donut. Why?

n the 10 years since I launched my website, ArtellaLand.com, I can honestly say I’ve never been as excited about an event as I am about the series that’s happening next week: The Creating Time Mega Event, which celebrates the release of my upcoming book from New World Library, Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life. It runs April 2–20 and will include live webinars, daily email inspiration, dynamic time-shifting games and challenges, a lively interactive community of fellow time-travelers, and so much more.