It's really difficult at times to remember that I am actually the source for my own happiness and can cause and create my own reality based on what I choose to think or do.

As part of my Journey/Vision Board I have also agreed to keep a journal that tracks, informs, and notes my adventures this year. Keeping a journal is not as difficult for me now as it used to be. I used to have to make up things to say, and try to sound really profound and thoughtful.

In the past few years however I have found writing in my journal to be less of a task and more of a joy when I realized that I did not have to always write out the tedium of my routine that day but instead started to capture and document the moment in the day that I was either present, moved, or otherwise inspired. I have always been a collector of notes, cards, magazine clippings, photos, flowers or whatever, and I started also to tape these totems in my journal as another way of expressing an insight, thought, or a gratitude, and soon my journal started looking more like a art book or inspiration book that anything else. I love going back and looking at something I tucked inside a journal that held special meaning at that time.

I've used journals to grieve, snuggled up to them in my loneliness, issued secret love affairs with someone, (unbenounced to them) and I've used them to share my dreams and wacky business ideas. I leaned on one of them in my fears of being a new mother, and had even begun a "green" journal when I started Little Bits to track my insights, facts, eco footprint and confusion as I navigated through the murky waters of starting my own business in the green movement.

2008 was an incredibly tumultuous year and felt like one very long and drawn out bad hair day. I lost a great friend this year, my business suffered from the economy terribly, I felt overwhelmed and powerless to make things better. I relied on my journal as my grounding place, or at least the moment where my pen could express my anguish and confusion in a flurry of emphatic paragraphs (usually saying the same thing every day - only slightly different) as an outlet and as a therapeutic exercise for a place to put my mad ramblings. I look back (4 days ago) and can actually see that somewhere along the way last year, I lost my spirit for my business, my marriage, and my belief in myself.

As a way of calling back my spirit, I have also embraced another means of using my journal along with my vision board, and that is as a place that will hear my prayers.

I do not consider myself to be a religious person, but I've realized I have a deep need for prayer, and a place to express my desires, my gratitude, and my discoveries and wonder about the mysteries of this world to a place that feels safe and will capture it all.

Because I am up to big things in 2009, and am asking the universe to help me sort through it all and arrive someplace really wonderful and comfortable by 2010. I want peace, success, and happiness in my professional life, and in my personal life. I want to restore my belief that I am making a difference in the lives of others, and that I can continue down the path of self discovery with strength and love for myself, no matter how ugly things sometimes look.

I'll be keeping my vision board close and I will journal my thoughts keeping an eye towards looking for more ways that I can generate my own experience of my life each day and "get out my rainbow colors and make it beautiful."

For more on Monica, visit EarthSavers.typepad.com

I don't know about you, but I was happy to kick 2008 to the curb.

Yesterday, as a way of bringing in the New Year I sat with good friend and professional visionary who helped me map out my own vision for 2009.

The exercise itself was liberating...and zeroing in on my hearts desires and my hopes for the future year gave me insight into some of my core desires...most of which I did not even know I had!
 

In preparation she had me gather books, journals, magazines and clippings that inspire me and asked me to place them all out for her visit. The mix was a combination of green, spiritual, and parenting books and articles, entrepreneurial, home design, and epicurean magazines, and quotes and style guides. We spent some time talking about the year in review, and how I was currently feeling about my future. Basically I was able to hear a recurring theme in my discussions with her, that seemed to incorporate feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and unsure of my next step both personally or professionally. Privately I hoped she'd be able to make me feel like not running and hiding under my bedroom covers and perhaps help me understand how I could magically create a future that included lots of money, and virtually no stress to get it.

She asked me to close my eyes, and she led me through a relaxing visioning exercise that at first seemed pretty far fetched because i felt anything but relaxed and open to receiving guidance and wisdom from the great beyond, especially with the past year on my mind. I did however grab a blanket and considered taking a quick nap while she was quietly speaking to me. As I listened to her voice I gradually started to relax, and breathe more deeply.

I listened to her speak and I followed her voice, and let her take me through the exercise. Ironically I found myself deeply relaxed inside my head doing dishes at a kitchen sink? I thought briefly that perhaps my deepest inner desire included perhaps a more intimate relationship with Cascade Dish Detergent, but the vision continued with me looking out the window where I could see a meadow with flowers and sunshine. A breeze blew through the windows, and I could see myself...at peace, while I happily washed dishes in all my domestic glory.

She led me through the rest of the vision which lasted for about 15 minutes and brought me through my five senses, my location, my inner feeling in that place, my career, and my family, and what my life would look like in January 2010, so in other words, my vision was not about getting there...but already being there.

When she was done I sat up and looked at her and told her "I don't think I did it right."
She laughed and asked me "why not?"
I told her there was no crowds of people, no chaos, no loud parties, no investors, no travel, no crisis, no busyness, and she smiled and asked me if that's what I wanted?

I told her in my vision I was wearing a sundress, and I felt relaxed and beautiful and I was not worried about money. I had what I needed, and I felt successful and completely and utterly satisfied with where I was at in my life. She smiled and told me that it must be what i want otherwise my vision would have been different.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. "I thought for sure I should be in a business suit with a portfolio in my hand and lots of board rooms, and a bottle of Excedrin in my handbag."

"I guess not" she said.

I couldn't shake the feeling that my body had been invaded by another life force or an alter ego, but as I sat clipping the pictures for the vision board she had me build I began to accept that perhaps my inner spirit was telling me something, and I could actually have a year that entailed a successful career AND be at peace and in harmony with my surroundings, and feel revived and relaxed instead of overwhelmed and depleted both emotionally and physically.

I'm still a little unsure of how this will all happen, but she told me to "thank" the universe in advance - as if I already have what it is I want....

So here goes:

"Dear Universe- I am grateful for the peace, love, and inspiration I have in my life. I am thankful for the abundance of money and the freedom from worry or anxiety. I am also grateful for my health and the love and support of my family and friends, and for the wildly successful book series I wrote. Thank you for the amazing six pack that used to be my belly, the radiant skin, and the lack of wrinkles on my face."

I am pretty happy with my vision board so far- and I think it does in fact portray what I would like my life to look like. Jody said that the goal is to keep the board near me so I can add to it, or be reminded or look at it so that as I move through the year I can be present to the gifts the universe brings my way.

Here it is so far....



For more information on creating a vision board you can look into this book that she highly recommended. The Vision Board - The Secret to an Extraordinary Life by Joyce Schwarz or visit Christine Kane's Blog and she can take you through a step by step.

For more on Monica, visit EarthSavers.typepad.com

Designer Kenneth Cole has always captured my attention and compelled my admiration. His taste is impeccable, his designs classic, and his marketing mind a clever thing of beauty. His products ooze of quality craftsmanship, and timelessness.



One afternoon as I was stumbling around trying to find my new apartment on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan years ago, I looked up to see this gorgeous pair of legs showing off yet another pair of heels I could never afford with my meager starting salary. Although it was clear that he was selling shoes in this ad, he was also selling a vehicle and a voice toward change. Her ARMS reached as endlessly as her legs, and the words under this pair of shoes would forever alter the way I experience shoes and the way I strut my stuff.

Making a statement was something I could suddenly do anywhere at anytime, simply by daring to see a different point of view. Not only did he succeed in selling me his stilettos- he also sold me on the belief that change can occur anywhere, and at anytime, if you choose to see it is possible.

His style was more endearing to me because somehow by wearing it, I was also in on the smart, thoughtful and evocative world he represented.
 

In true form, he has published a collection of essays and conversations by people who are making a difference and making movements toward social change. For more info you visit the AWEARNESS website, and maybe even get a copy for that special someone in time for Christmas. In his words... "NO GOOD DEED SHOULD GO UNPUBLISHED"

AWEARNESS is I am sure, every bit as classic, thoughtful and meaningful as everything else he touches, bravo Kenneth.

For more on Monica, visit EarthSavers.typepad.com

Every year we get the token phone call from both sides of Grandparents "What would the kids like for Christmas this year?" My challenge this year is to stake my claim and ward off the evils of lust for everything American Girl Dolls, and although I get the allure I JUST CAN'T DO IT! Somehow my mother has managed to get an American Girl Doll catalog into my six year olds hands every visit between last New Year and this pending Christmas, and is wanting to get her started on her "collection" (oh GOD please NO.) I have to say that in this economy I should hardly complain but, I'M GOING TO ANYWAY.



I don't know if there are those of you who can relate to this, but when it comes to my mother whom we affectionately call "mimmy," and whom i love dearly (may i not be struck by lightening,) she is the giver of junk extraordinaire. I think it's stems from a need to relive the abundance of childhood she never had (the seventh of eleven children brought up by a widower in River Canard Ontario.) I mean, when she talks about her Christmas's growing up, we are talking L-A-M-E.
Enough food on the table? Maybe. Toys, stocking stuffers, treats, baked goods, and christmas lists?
Pah-lease! How unbelievably spoiled we are in comparison.

So needless to say, the plastic bags full of do-dad's start coming around November first.
It's classic. She'll come for a lovely visit and then just as she's leaving strategically stick her arm back through the door and press the bag handles into my palm saying "just something for their stocking!" or "oh, I thought the kids would love this, hide it somewhere safe!"
or "Isn't this such a time of joy Monica?" and with a gleeful laugh and a glowing smile more twinkly than old St. Nick himself she's off faster than I can say "CHINA."

Now, one would think that after years of growing this business, and spending most waking hours trying my best to encourage any and all to adopt a more greener lifestyle, and having countless (and I mean countless) conversations over the years with my Mother, that even if she were not in agreement with our lifestyle choices (which she is) that she would respect my wishes and keep them in mind when purchasing said glaringly garish, toxic, and environmentally destructive items? She is in fact all head nods, and "yes, dear- I think you are doing a wonderful thing," and "ooooooh, I had no idea that plastic was damaging the eco-system", and "those poor little Chinese people, who's going to tell them? and "what's an eco-system again dear?" so clearly she is getting it right?

So when I lower my head to the kitchen counter and BANG IT REPEATEDLY against the cool unyielding surface I dig deep. I dig down into the tiniest crevice to retrieve one of my more ironic memories and begin to CHANT my only salvation. The serenity prayer she drilled into my head growing up comes fairly easy now, and I repeat it often throughout this joyous holiday season:

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference."

For more on Monica, visit EarthSavers.typepad.com

A LOT.

With the recent increase in news coverage on global warming, and the statements that the polar bear is the first animal to become endangered due to global warming, I feel the need to ask myself what I can possibly do to make a difference, and effect change that might positively impact the Polar Bear in my own life.

We are the unconscious consumer, destroying the the very planet we depend on for life.  More...