A toast to 2011

A toast to another year where all of us survived

Some people just got by while others of us thrived

We celebrate an ending for another year did pass

We review what we created, and choose things that will last

As we look to the future, and possibilities to be created

I wish you ideas and inspiration that leave you elated

So let’s raise a glass to our experience on earth that is heaven

And look forward to the gifts that lie in 2011.

How (and why) to have a Vision Board Party

I'm so excited for one of my favorite nights of the year.  This is the night that I get together with my close friends and we set ourselves up for a fantastic next year.  How we do that is we create for ourselves a visual representation of all we intend to bring into our worlds throughout the coming year.  In other words, my annual vision board party. I highly recommend doing this, as it not only bonds you to your friends, but it creates support for each other in having exactly what each person wants to have their lives over the next year.  It is also an incredibly fun evening. It's creative and interesting and promotes playing in a world where sometimes we're just too busy to play. So here is my strategy for having a fantastic vision board party. I'd love to hear yours.

1. First, make a list of the people in your life whom you absolutely know want only what's best for you and you want only what's best for them. Invite them to your home, set aside a five-hour window for this project.  (I love to do this on an evening between Christmas and New Year's as it is generally when people can get away, and are still in a party mood). 

2. Go to a hobby store and pick up blank poster boards, scissors, and glue sticks.

3. Ask each invitee to bring all of the magazines that are lying around their home (the fun of this, is that each person will have different magazine subscriptions and areas of interest) and have them each bring a beverage of their choice and a food item. Note: It is very important to have yummy food for this evening. My favorite are the three food groups; wine, chocolate, and cheese. I will have some of that at my house already and then people will bring what they bring.

4. Have everyone arrive at your house and set up an open space where the poster boards sit, where people can cut out pictures and images and ideas for their vision board.  Pretend we are all in grade school and make a mess, cut out stuff, and take up space, it is a great reminder of how our instinct is to play... not work!

5. Share with each other to inspire ideas and bring out what you're looking for in the next year.  Cut out pictures and images of words that represent that for yourself and each other. Share pictures and words with each other, have as much fun as possible.

6. ***The most important part; have each person bring a picture, at least one, of themselves to put on their board and in their vision for their life.  Be sure that everyone appears in their own vision.

7. Final step: Do this once a year. See how the vision board worked for each person. 

One personal thought.  Several years ago, I bought a poster frame, and my current vision board is displayed in my office, and it lives on top of the boards from the years before.  This way, I can feel the life I've created for myself, and take responsibility and care to envision specifically what I intend for my life going forward. 


Wishing you a 2011 beyond your wildest dreams, and the visual representation to make it happen for yourself. 

The good that can come from Social Media

As someone who considers herself fairly unsophisticated when it comes to technology and social media, I've invested a lot of time this year "playing" on the various sites.  I've been posting events, ideas, thoughts, and articles that I find of interest to me and hopefully to the people that are in my world on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I'm astonished as to how social media has changed and can create positive energy out in the world.

Today is my birthday and to my surprise, delight and awe, I have received more than 150 birthday greetings on Facebook, many of which were much more than a standard "Happy Birthday". I find this fascinating, mostly because of the warm, happy, and loved feeling that seeing this created in my body and my spirit. I used to think that emotion was very hard to convey through e-mail or technology. In fact, I used to warn people to not read emotion into an e-mail because tonality and body language are more than half of communication. But I find myself today thinking about all of the good that can be done in the world by creating positive energy for those with whom we are connected.

So my thought for today is this:  when you see something posted by someone that is of interest to you, post a response.  Knowing that occasionally, and hopefully often, doing so will create an emotion that will manifest for that person a fabulous day, thereby generating positive energy on the planet.

I want to thank all of my friends and family who took the time to wish me a happy birthday.  Whether you posted on a social media site "Happy Birthday" to me, those of you who called, those of you who sent cards, and those of you who I know are so busy today that just a passing thought of love and light was enough. I send you all wishes for a phenomenal year, as I'm sure the upcoming year will be beautiful and wonderful for all of us. Namaste.

It's my honor to work with PBS

I've grown up on PBS.  From Sesame Street to the Electric Company, from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, to Charlie Rose (more recently!)  I value the unbiased and indepth reporting on the PBS Newshour, and all of the educational and entertaining programing that comes to my home with no commercials.

With that, I am so excited to have been invited by PBS to be one of the national pledge drive people for the August/ September pledge show:  Marvin Hamlisch Presents the 70's, the Way We Were.  see the trailer here!  I love the opportunity to use my television experience to help raise money for an organization that enriches my life on a daily basis.

Please check you local PBS station for when this entertaining and nostalgic program will air in your home, and I hope you will take a moment to support PBS. 

This video was shot as a "behind the scenes" during the shoot for the pledge breaks.  I really enjoyed it, and so hope to get to play with PBS again soon.  I hope you all enjoy the show!  Namaste.

Celebrating the Concept of America the Beautiful

As I celebrate 4th of July in this beautiful country, my home, America, I begin to think of not only the sacrifices of those who came before, our founding fathers and mothers,  and the concepts they had for this country, but I am struck by the current sacrifice that many of our very own men and women are making to assure our freedom today. I find America, as a place, the most beautiful land in the world.  There are parts of America that take my breath away like the first snow fall in the Rocky Mountains, Fall in New England, the Redwoods of the Pacific Northwest. All of these things are epic in scale and beauty.

What I am contemplating this 4th of July is America as a concept. The concept of inclusion, the concept of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people. I think that may be what's missing when we look at how America is currently perceived by much of the rest of the world. Yes, we are blessed with riches and abundance in resources, yes, we, as America, have always shared our resources with the rest of the world.  Perhaps, I think what is missing now in perception of the concept of America, is that in "America" we do not judge or are not intending to judge the lives of the rest of the world. We, as "Americans" are here to hold the space for others to be as they are. (As long as their beliefs and actions do not physically endanger our rights to be as we are).

This is not a a point of view that we are better than anyone else, it is that we are all different and we all have different paths and destinies.  If we individually, and governmentally could hold the space for each person and nation to have what they have, do what they do, and believe what they believe, and defend all rights to do that, the world may become a more peaceful place.

On this Independence Day weekend, this non-judgemental concept of America is an idea in which I am excited and proud and hopeful to live in. Thank you to everyone, all of our military and our military families, current and past, who hold this idea and are willing to sacrifice their lives for my freedom.  I am eternally grateful.

What happens in Vegas, may not happen in Vegas any more.

I was at the airport in Las Vegas, leaving Las Vegas and I had many extra quarters in my pocket; change from things I bought over the course of the few days I was there. I saw some slot machines and thought, "perfect, I'll gamble, hey, you never know, and I'll travel lighter".  I walked to the machine and there was no slot for coins. I asked the woman who was manning the booth for the slot machines, "don't slot machines take quarters?  They did last time I was here.(not so long ago)".  She said, "change in slot machines are a thing of the past in Vegas". Really?

It's amazing to me how the paradigm has shifted everywhere, including Las Vegas. It seems that when it becomes more expensive to hire a person to count the coins that come out of a machine and put coins into a machine than it is to allow people to put money into a machine to see what happens, is wild.  It's an interesting paradigm shift because this is where efficiency becomes more valuable than people. We wonder why there is an employment crisis?  Everything has become automatic. The other thing about dollar, five dollar, 10 dollar, 20 dollar and credit card slot machines is that they no longer pay off in change, they use paper slip vouchers which you have to take to a cashier somewhere to get your winnings.  YOU have to put in the effort to get your money instead of it coming to you.  Therefore, it's actually just easier to let your money ride and keep playing until your money disappears. So, on a psychological level, and on an economic level, Vegas has changed to where the corporations win and the players/ people lose.

Maybe, Vegas isn't what it used to be... but what is?  Oh and the $5 buffet ... gone. That's a thing of the past in Vegas as well. Happy gambling.

Why "date night" is crucial to any relationship.

Relationships, like anything, become comfortable, familiar and even routine, where surprise is rare and excitement is non-existent. What deepens relationships are shared experiences and passion... toward something.  Date night can take people out of the "norm" and into something unexpected, and give people something "new" to discuss.

Isn't that why we date in the first place? To see who we are with the other person? If nothing new ever happens, there is no deepening of our relationship with ourselves, therefore not creating new space for an existing relationship to grow.

Date night does not have to apply to only our romantic relationships. Create a date night with each of your children, go explore something new, or try something you've never done together. Do a date night with a colleague at work. Find out the hidden gifts inside people with whom you work.

As for our romantic partners, use date night to get outside your routine conversations and obligations, and use date night to expand who you are and stimulate brain chemistry to stimulate physical reaction.

One idea, take turns, with each partner choosing what to do on date night, and the other goes along willingly. Not only will you learn new things about what your partner likes, but you will play a crucial part in making your partner happy. And isn't that why we are together in the first place. Happy Dating!!!

A Valentine's Month Idea

As Valentine's Day approaches, we are inundated with ads for jewelry and chocolate.  There are pretty cakes in the front of the grocery stores and cards in the front of bookstores, all assisting us in professing our love for others.  On this particular Valentine's Day, I'd like to explore love; where if it's missing, nothing else matters.

This Valentine's Day, let's practice the love for ourselves. Sometimes, this love is the most challenging of all. It's much easier to look at other people's stuff or other people and fix them. It's much easier to look at other people and appreciate what's wonderful and lovely and magnificent and powerful and supportive and successful and fulfilled and brave and whole about them. What if we look to ourselves for those things?

Remember, what you look for, you will find. What if we spend this Valentine's Day month exploring ourselves and our gifts?  If we look for the grace and the beauty and the generosity and the genius and the energy and the joy and the peace and the power that we bring to everyone around us, we will feel it....and so will they.

Here's an exercise I'd like to suggest. Begin each day before you get out of bed --, practice this for one month -- while lying in bed, pick five adjectives that describe who you are that day.  You can say to yourself any variation of, "I am love, I am peace, I am blessed, I am happy, I am joyful, I am lucky, I am smart, I am generous and I hold the space for others to show up and be as magnificent as they can be".

This Valentine's Day, I invite you to show love for others as much as possible, but double that when it comes to you.  I believe there can be no war, no stress, no fighting, and the possibility for peace, when people love themselves. Happy Valentine's Day. Namaste.

Tell Your Story for your New Year!

Remember when you were in school, and you took a writing or journalism class, and they said here are the questions you need to answer to tell a great story? Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Why not use this model and tell the story of your new year?

Who? Who are you going to play with in your new year? Who are you inviting to be a part of your story in the next year? For me, I will only play with people, or only have people in my world who support me in having my optimal life and visa versa. In other words, I only want to play with people who want what's best for me, and who also want what's best for themselves.

What? The what is, what do you intend to attract into your life? What will you do, see, have, or be in the next year? Make a list or a vision board and put it somewhere where you see it constantly.

When? There's only one answer to the question when. The answer is now. You plan for the future, but you live in the now. There is only now. So are you playing at 100% in the now?

Where? Where are you? Where do you want to be? Is where you are where you want to be? Is your attitude towards where you are -- let's say you're at work, is your attitude towards where you are good for you? If you are not where you want to be, take steps to move yourself toward your “where”.

Why? This to me is the most important element in a story. Why does the character want what they want? Why do you? Why are you doing what you're doing? The answer to this question, comes back to the core of leading a fulfilling life. The why answers the question; does it matter? If it doesn't matter, don't do it. Either play at 100% with purpose in everything you do and in each moment or stop. Life is too precious to waste it.

How? One of my favorite quotes is “The ‘what’ is your job, the ‘how’ is God’s job”. When you set yourself up with clarity around: who, what, when, where, why, the how will show up by itself.

Enjoy living your story! I wish you a happy, beautiful, blessed, fantastic new year.

My first video blog attempt