Next Stop: The Pacific Northwest

Jan29

At the most northern border of Washington sits a little peninsula called Point Roberts, which is the only spit of land that is not hooked to the United States, but is still called America, since you have to go into Canada and then back over the border again into Point Roberts to get to it at all. Three sides of water, 1700 people and a wild terrain make it an unusual destination for anyone. But not for a writer.

I am here for a month to finish a first draft of the screenplay I have been hired to write. There is no cell phone service for me and even land line service is unreliable. That is good. I have the fortune of waking up ever morning to opening my large windows that look out on an idyllic scene. Right in front of my house is a large winter pasture, filled with Icelandic Ponies that exude a kind of old world energy with their shaggy coats, long trailing tails of rust and black that blow in the persistent wind, and their plush manes. It is a frequent sight to be watching them and as they are sipping at a winter pond in the field, a Bald Eagle will joint them for a bath. Everyone completely at home with one another. Everyone certain of their own unique nature and living it without restraint. Oh if that were true for all of us humans.

And, looking past the field, are the Strait of Georgia, a grey blue ocean with rolling hills of Canada in the distance. I have not seen the whales yet and do not know their winter migration habits.

So, The Point is full of writers, retired folks, old timers, hermits, eccentrics and transplants like me. Individuals and families, most of them women so far, that find the seclusion, the simplicity and the rural flavor and rhythm to be just what they are looking for and have moved here from all over the world. I can see the benefits immediately for me as a writer.

And getting here was momentous. I left Asheville on the 17th and flew to Denver for two big events. The first was to meet with my Lawyer about my non-existent driver’s license. Last judge, Higher Court, made an appeal to change the spelling on the original name change document that was ten years ago, and once again, an inexplicable NO. So, a new tack is being taken. I am going to Canada and getting an International Driver’s License. Now this is creative. Please send good thoughts my way that this will be easy and simple. And of course Marriage is not ruled out, so a lottery might just be created in the future.

There is a letter in the mail to my Congressman, I never got an audience with the Governor of Colorado so a letter to him is underway and I am almost finished with an expose for Channel Nine in the special interest category. We will see where any of it leads, but it is certain that I am having ample opportunity to use my voice in creative ways.

The second big event was re-uniting with a dear friend who I have not seen for ten years , who now lives in Sweden. She is an exceptional international painter and brought a body of her newer work to Denver. She has had an extraordinary life and was graced to lived inside the wonderful Miracle of finding love on 9/11 while others experienced the endless losses of that day. I am so privileged to know her and trying to catch each other up on our many twists and turns of life over a decade filled with love, death, children, changing careers, travels and aging was quite an exercise.

So, I am here now in Point Roberts to write and prepare for my next leap of faith. Just before leaving for the West Coast for some of my very own seclusion, I was seized with a knowing that I wanted to apply to The Film School in Seattle. I have wanted to attend their Screenwriters Bootcamp for years, but my faith in myself as a screenwriter was not strong enough and time never seemed to be right.

The school is the creation of actor Tom Skerritt (www.thefilmschool.com) and has reached international acclaim for their commitment to helping writers remember the art of story telling and character development, which we do not see much any more out of Hollywood. So, as I can feel the power of the story I am writing about the triumph on one man’s spirit, I decided to apply for their Bootcamp in March. Then of course I noticed they only took 25 people internationally.

There they were. The voices at my left ear whispering: “Maya what are your thinking? You are 30 years older than every applicant, you have no production experience on your side of the ledger, you are a woman and you know how that has been and always will be in Hollywood, and you know you won’t get in so what are you thinking…WHAT are you thinking?” So I applied and told the voices to shut up.

I got in.

Wow is all I can say.

I will leave here on Feb 25th for Seattle, renting a room with a kitchenette and starting a 6 day a week, 12 hour a day writers dream, complete with no time to shower or sleep and lots of coffee I don’t even drink. I need to relearn the bus system, remember how to take a backpack everywhere with my computer and camera, find a local health food store that is open very early in the morning, and forget about all those supplements I usually take and just dive in.

I am so very appreciative of this opportunity. It seems that when I simply quiet myself and listen intently to what my guiding voice from my heart tells me, no matter how unfathomable, how outlandish, how inconvenient or how much money I think I don’t have etc…..I am always led to exactly where my soul needs to be and most of the time I did not even really know my soul needed to be there.

After four months, it is clear that living in the Flow of Life, fully surrendering all control, is the only way I want to be living from this time forward. And oddly enough as I arrive at this commitment it is exactly what is called for to live in the year 2012. I have come to realize that the most important part of living is for me to be deeply aware of what brings me Joy and Inspiration. Period. People think that living for love, or living for what brings happiness means that you don’t do the responsible parts of life. That is not true. You just bring a happier more inspired person to those tasks we have to do to be a responsible global citizen.

All the years of thinking life was about what I DID and not about just BEING happily in myself were years that I know I created my own ill-health and my own struggle to do the right thing, to do the acceptable things, to do too much and overdo it in so many ways that never led me to a sense of calm knowing who I am and why I am here. I am glad to have found my way out of that illusion and into a space in my life only filled with possibilities.

And The Beat Goes On…and on…and on

Jan20

My Chauffeurs are getting weary and whispering that they are going on strike. I am acting allot like Driving Miss Daisy. I am getting short, and disgruntled at all the little things. A bit cynical regarding “The Law”. When did I start just calling this large disorganized and inefficient body within our government, The Law”?

Like so many of us from the 50’s when that Utopian time of dreaming up a version of America that felt just as good to conjure as what we now call the Cinderella Complex, I have been duped. That picked fenced yard, 2.5 children, a two car garage, big screen TV, back yard BBQ’s, early retirement, the 401K, cocktails at 4pm and being on a bowling league that was supposed to bring serenity did not. This ideal vision spoon fed to us on Leave it to Beaver, defined prosperity and happiness. Those were the days that set us up for what we are now calling “The Fall”. Those were the illusions that set us up for alcoholism, the death of creativity and vague illnesses. The happiness pill we were sold did not in fact deliver.

So. there came this list of immutable forces we could count on to define our parameters for us. We needed various patriarchal father figures to help guide us when the things we thought would pan out in fact did not.

I had an image of THE Law much like I did of The One and Only God. That kind of wording that covers a pervasive body of energy eventually extended to The Doctor, The IRS, The Military etc. I never referred to my indispensable relationship with my hair dresser as, The Hairdresser, The Chef, or The Teacher. Each of those stations in life had a name, a face a personality. What was different about The Law? The Law had no face but conjures up an ominous presence as if Moses were right in my front yard delivering the 10 commandments to my neighborhood. Oh and we wont talk about those men in black that strike fear in the strongest of us. The IRS, which if you have not read up on the IRS, has no legal right to force you to sell your house in order to pay up!

My point? I am finding that all these omnipresent institutions are smoke and mirrors to the nth degree. But boy do they have power over my psyche.

As the driver’s license saga continues to unravel I am left like a shell on the beach, washed and tumbled and sanded down to a smooth surface, but not really the shell I started out as. My lawyer has not found her way in the system of clerks any better than I attempted to. There were no breadcrumbs on this path that lead to anything other than the next wicked witch who basically said, “I have no clue what to do, so I think I will eat your for lunch.” My last bastion of possibility is currently that my three inch thick case is on the bench of a Denver District Court Judge to possibly rule that I might have what I want: To be able to drive. But, odds don’t look good.

So my point is this. I have been the perfect citizen, following the letter of the Law, going down every dark alley I was told to go, taking fingerprints so I can be deemed a safe citizen and nothing has happened to say that The Law is on my side. In fact, those inside the legal system have suggested that my only course of action is to…go outside the system. What can I say but..fine….then that is what I will do. I will do exactly what The Law asks me not to do and take the Law into my own hands.

Let me say a little about the reality of not driving. Our culture is based on mobility. My lack of mobility has created huge changes in my life. Let me say first that I could hitchhike, I could become a recluse, I could pay for people to deliver groceries to my home, I could walk 17 miles to the Greenlife Grocer, I could ask the doctor to resume house calls after 50 years and I could hire a cab to take me to doctor’s appointments. But, since we are not a communal culture where there would be many people who could share all these life issues with me, I am not in a position to do many of these things at the age of 61. And what if I had an office job and did not work from home? OMG how would I get to my 9-5 job every day, pay the bills and feed the kids?

I pay huge amounts of money to fly everywhere and pollute the skies which I am opposed to. I have missed necessary doctor’s appointments due to not being able to get there. I have had to take cabs to get my groceries, when no one is available to drive and most importantly I feel a hostage to our system. A system that is not interested in me as a person. And quietly, inside ,as I remember the Thrive Movie and read up on the ID Act it feels as if that might be the point. To keep the sheep of our society hostage and immobilized.

So I am flying, right now, at 33,000 feet, to Denver to meet with the last person capable of helping solve this problem. A Marshall who will take my fingerprints and then I can start the process over, as if the last ten years of being who I am and driving like any pimply 16 year old are non-existent facts, because The Law simply does not know what else to do with me and does not care to solve my little problem.

Then I will go to The Governor’s office with my file an sit and wait to say “ This needs to be fixed and let me tell you why in no uncertain terms”. Then I will go the Channel 9 to give then a story about the Denver Court system and the ID Act that would paralyze a woman with a Harvard degree, who is articulate, has the means to fight the machine and does not have four kids under the age of 5, or a sick mother living at home and working three jobs to make ends meet like a huge portion of our country who could not take 5 months to deal with The Law.

So, here I am stepping outside the system, I wish The Law had proven to be a place that had our rights as people in mind, at heart and at the core of what they did to serve the masses. But alas, none of that is true.

Wish me well….. I am about to land….somewhere!

PS. For those who have not followed this saga please go to “Older Posts” and read the initial explanation of what took me off the road as a gypsy. The post is “The Gypsy Joke”, Nov. 11, 2011

Waking Up

Jan15

I woke up this morning , cats perched on my chest purring so loudly who needs an alarm clock. I had great plans for my day. The sun was finally out after a few days of torrential rain and I had plotted out my next installment of writing to be done on the screenplay I am involved in, a screenplay that tests my very metal. I would get up and then reward myself with watching the Golden Globes. So, I got up and did the usual. Brushed my teeth, fed the now yowling cats, poured a cup of Masala tea and headed to my desk. But I got waylaid. Something tugged on my heart from the inner realms and stopped my trajectory toward the computer.

It was a large purple and white orchid I had sitting in the window. The sun was streaming in behind the spider veined petals and they seemed to be lit from the inside out. Suddenly, nothing seemed relevant at all except to drink in the beauty of the petals and the cosmic design of it’s very unique personality. No orchid is the same. No petal the exact mirror or design. Humans are just like that even if they are twins there is one mole or a different shape to the smile that makes them one of a kind.

Already my day was traveling down a different road. In the past, I had my list, my “to do’s” numbered one through infinity and would start the day by reminding myself what I was up against and then like my exercise regime, I would just do one rep at a time till I was done. Sometimes that would take me till after midnight. But, my life has changed since those days. Living in the flow of life makes living by lists a bit obsolete. And you may ask, ” If you live in the flow how do you get anything done”. Well that is truly a mystery.

Somehow, even when distracted from an original intent to sit at my computer and answer emails, and instead sitting with the orchid as it vibrates its neon colors, as the sun pours in the window one minute, illuminating shapes and hues that I have no name for and then a cloud mutes it all into an impressionistic painting, my vibrational frequency rises to the experience. My field of the heart opens, I am more in a feeling state, feeling my life, I am more joyful and happy. I am changed for those moments I INTENTIONALLY allow myself to “wake up” to what is right in front of me. To slow down to notice life. My heart is met with a kind of energetic communication that changes how I hum through the day. And subsequently, how I hum through my to do list.

I know you. You and I are very similar. We each have a habit of thinking just the opposite: “If I get everything else I need to do today out of the way I will feel satisfied, less stressed, more productive and then I will have the time to sit and really look at the flowers in front of me, the ones that have been there all the time.” And I am here to tell you that this is an illusion. When was the last time that really did happen in just that way? What really happens is we believe the illusion, start ticking away at a list that is filled with not terribly inspiring things like calling the insurance company, taking out the trash, answering emails, vacuuming, that oil change etc etc etc. And before we know it we have little time left for anything creative, joy filled or contemplative. Right? We are simply too busy to be happy.

Well here is the truth. Somehow, very much a mystery to me (and the mystery is what makes my life worth living), somehow when I am awake enough in my own body and my own intentional life, and I make the room to let myself be surprised by joy, interrupted by the unknown and the unplanned, then my to do list gets done and then some. Because you see, when I vibrate at the level of love and joy, I hum along in an open posture to life, not reactive to it and I draw in a total experience of every thing else humming along and vibrating at the same rate I am: Faster.

Everything is done with efficiency, every call to people who I usually have to struggle with like a credit card person or a tech person for my computer are all in good moods and get the job done for me in a blink. And I just find myself un-flustered, and just a more pleasant person all the way around. Then what happens is I draw in more very pleasant people, more inspired experiences, more surprises to throw me off my game on getting things done and I “flow” toward those new and wonderful interruptions to my day….and it still all gets done because I am feeling happy and creative.

“If you want to make god laugh…tell him your plans.”

And there is a caveat to this truth. Sometimes those interruptions are hard, sad, filled with crisis and a demand to do something that feels entirely unpleasant or unwanted. A car accident, a friend suddenly dies, a husband cheats with his secretary, a foreclosure, lost job, illness. These harder aspects to living still require the very same posture. Move with the flow, feel it all, see the opportunity to be a bigger, better, less reactive you.

And in the contrast of this difficult moment is its opposite: In the pain there is the joy you would rather feel, in the shock is a calm place inside of you that you can reside, in the anger is a compassion available at all times. The bumps and bruising of life is only a contrasting experience that reminds us of what we truly do want, what we are capable of and what we desire. It is our business and our choice to decide where we focus. Do we want the pain or the place of relief.

We are in total control of our experience. If we panic and rush headlong into finding a solution to the crisis we will certainly be met with the same energy; chaos, reactivity and confusion. If we can take a breath and step out of the crisis for one split second and see the other side, see the beauty of our lives, the design, the people who love us and will give a hug freely, the dog still centered and waiting for you, the opportunity to be a stronger version of yourself, then you will find quickly, the appreciation you have for the crisis and the pain. It is a choice. And what’s the worst thing that can happen? Really? You die. Isn’t that liberating.

So. I have yet to do my exercises this morning, make my breakfast and sit to write the next scene. I am a few of hours behind schedule. And that’s ok. I have had such a lovely experience communing with my orchid and my cats and now with you, that my writing will be the better for it. And about those flowers right in front of us. Look around. There are “flowers” blooming everywhere. Those little faces of the people we love, with children inside of them, that just simply want someone to say, “come out and play”. Then there are our dogs who need that brushing we have been putting off or that walk with you, without you being on the cell phone, but paying total attention to this being who is the most unconditional love you will ever experience. Or that clerk at the coffee shop that you have meant to speak to and thank for helping you every day, but you are in too much of a hurry. The trees blowing in a rhythmic dance outside your window, decorated with singing birds that are there for you to notice and appreciate, the feel the water pouring over of you in the shower, the smell of the roasted coffee in the kitchen, it is endless.

Wake up! Are you paying attention to everything around you so that you can then FEEL everything inside of you? The universe supplies you with endless opportunity to stop and smell the roses, hug the loved ones, see, and I mean truly see the sky and breath in this new day you have been given a chance to truly live. This is the only day you have right now. The to do list will wait and in fact it will all get done. I promise.

Happy Birth

Jan15

And today is Martin Luther King’s birthday. He gave the world a new kind of wake up call one we have yet to accomplish. One we are still needing to hear resound in our hearts and minds and then lead us to act in our lives in accordance to those hearts. I will leave you with his amazing words.

“Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men and women rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding, brotherhood.”

Martin Luther King

My Prayer for All of Us

Jan14

This wonderful Blessing is being passed on to you…to pass on to someone else you love, who is in trouble, crisis, or just as a wonderful reminder of the truth that happiness is, ” ALL a matter of where we focus.”

The Power of Words

Jan5

Naomi Shihab is one of our greatest poets. She has married words to her heart. We would all live so much more richly if we would recognize that words have power. We would do so much less harm and so much more good if what we said and what we wrote, if what we whispered on the phone or text to a friend understood the power of words.

Shoulders

A man crosses the street in rain,

stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.

No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.

This man carries the world’s most sensitive cargo
but he’s not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

His ear fills up with breathing.
He hears the hum of a boy’s dream
deep inside him.

We’re not going to be able
to live in this world
if we’re not willing to do what he’s doing
with one another.

The road will only be wide.
The rain will never stop falling.

“Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye, from Red Suitcase.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o said, “In writing, one should hear all the whisperings, all the shouting, all the crying, all the loving and all the hating of the many voices in the past. Those voices will never speak to a writer in a foreign language.”

The Year of Being You

Jan4

The year of Being YOU

I had a wonderful conversation with a friend yesterday and we talked about a process I have been doing for some time now. I begin the new year with two days of tapping into my soul’s desires and writing a Strategic Vision and then making a Vision Board that reflects what I wrote about. This is part of the process I did last year that lead to me creating an intention to go to be with the White Lions in South Africa, create a fundraising Blog and in April of last year I was there with the help, love and support of so many people. Instant manifestation once I was aligned with my heart’s desire.

And I woke this morning to realized that the vision board I use every day in my meditation is focused on not what I want to be doing in and with my one life, but what I want to be feeling and how I want to BE in my life. So, I have decided to share this process with you and encourage you to use it and find it as part of how you manifest your dreams in 2012. Those dreams are only going to become real and vibrant in your life when each of us lives from the core of our own knowing and authentic self. This process connects you to this essential nature of you and helps you create a new and more energized relationship to be-coming who you truly are. Everything else you desire will follow your energy.

So here is the two step process. Take time, turn off the phone, close the door and discover what your soul has been telling you all along.

Strategic Vision:

Write without restriction or censoring, a vision for this year as if it is ALREADY TRUE. Example: I AM 125 pounds and fit. I exercise each day and love my rebounder. I have learned to cook amazing and delicious gourmet vegan meals and share it with friends….or I have seen a credit counselor and all my debts are paid and I have money left over to invest in a new internet business I am so excited to be doing….I am loved and have friends who travel with me…I am so happy about the painting I am doing and I am sharing it by creating greeeting cards. The key is be VERY specific and detailed. The more details the better. Instead of saying that you want to snorkel in the ocean, say what ocean, where you want to snorkel and what you want to feel like it when you see whatever you are desiring to see.

You get the idea.

Cover every area of your life: How do you feel spiritually, physically, relationally, economically? Once you sit with the Vision, ask how it feels. Read it several times and claim it even if there is a part of you that has no idea how to achieve the desires. Every day spend 5 min. meditating on the board and FEEL what you would feel in every case. How would you truly feel in your body if you were fit and healthy, how would your feel if you had abundant money, love, or creative free time? Do this every day.

Vision Board:

We all know about a vision board, but the trick is to USE IT. You will create a visual representation that you have to walk by every time you go to the kitchen or the bathroom and you take in the energy of the board deep into your subconscious. This board is very powerful if you pay attention to it. So, when you create it make it rich and vibrant and if you want nothing more in life than to live in the Taj Mahal then make it a big picture on your board. And by all means put some amazing music on and have fun and get glue and glitter all over you.

Get magazines, travel guides, books of poetry you are willing to copy and cut up, colored pens, anything that you can find images and words to match your Strategic Vision. Your own design and method will just reveal itself. And please do not use just poster board, but get a board that is a thin press board and is sturdy and can be moved from room to room or hung if you wish.

The most important thing about this process is to make it a sacred exploration of you, your desires and the images that move you. Take lots of time and realize with every word you write and picture you put on the Board you are creating your reality. YOU are creating your reality.

So please, if you have thoughts or questions write me and by all means please share your vision with me and with as many people as you can.

Happy Creating…Happy Being.

Praise for the Ordinary

Jan2

Waking on the Farm

I can remember the early mornings—how the stubble,
A little proud with frost, snapped as we walked.

How the John Deere tractor hood pulled heat
Away from our hands when we filled it with gas.

And the way the sun brought light right out of the
ground.
It turned on a whole hill of stubble as easily as a single
stone.

Breathing seemed frail and daring in the morning.
To pull in air was like reading a whole novel.

The angleworms, turned up by the plow, looked
Uneasy like shy people trying to avoid praise.

For a while we had goats. They were like turkeys
Only more reckless. One butted a red Chevrolet.

When we washed up at noon, we were more ordinary.
But the water kept something in it of the early
morning.

“Waking on the Farm” by Robert Bly

The Year of Living Fearlessly

Jan1

2012. This is an auspicious year. For as long as recorded history has been speaking of it….2012 is the year we turn around. The whole planet in a Universe of planets.

What does that mean?

Without delving into the historical literature about prophecy, or the Bible about its revelations or the Mayan Calendar which ends in November of this year, we can all feel that something is different in our world. We feel it in our body, in our souls restlessness, in the headlines of the newspaper, in the climate, the medical revelations, in animal behavior, in the crumbling of some of our most sacred institutions and the disclosure that the governments here to protect us are doing just the opposite. Disillusionment has set into the groundwater of who we imagined we were as a species, as an individual on this planet, and we are all asking questions that are revolutionary.

And doesn’t’ revolution simply mean a re-evolution or a turning around? We are poised on re-evolution and this is the year that we will see a leap forward in human kinds evolution of soul, heart and body. This re-evolution is in fact what it will take to keep humans living on this planet and living here in harmony, not in conflict, pain and suffering.

We can just be on for the ride of our lives and hang on by our fingernails, hoping to survive the earthquakes of change that are mounting or we can move into the flow of this unprecedented change. We can resolve to bring forward in our lives all the awareness we can muster, all the faith that we can contain, all the courage we have an unlimited supply of, all the surrender and willingness it will take and we can do the changing necessary by our own hand. Then this will be the most exhilarating ride of our lifetime.

And now we face a NEW year and we traditionally take inventory of our lives and make what we call Re-solutions. Hmmm. I am thinking that I will not make my new year’s resolutions but will intend to make my next year a year of re-evolution.

Resolve is what has been behind all those resolutions of the past, those RE-Solutions that we apply to the New Year when we have not yet achieved what we resolved to do the year before. I have so many times, re-upped my commitment to loose weight, eat better, love more and save money. I have reinstated my exercise regime and most of the time do a good job by the time the end of the year rolls around but always fall short of my ideal in some way. So, then I have the GRACE of the new year to reestablish my commitment. 2012 needs something different than this level of commitment.

What if, just what if, we used this auspicious year to move to a new level of awareness and self-commitment? What if we took the Lakota Death Teaching and applied it to 2012? What if you asked yourself today, “If this year is the last year I have on Earth with those I love, how will I spend this year? What will I do differently? What is of true value in this world and what am I willing to do about it?”

When we drop the illusion that time is stretching out forever in front of us and adopt the awareness that time is an illusion, then we would all behave differently, every time the sun comes up and the sun sets, wouldn’t we?

AND there is one timeless truth. There is one vibrational frequency that is never altered and is limitless, miraculous and transformative. Love. Love is the only elemental, energetic, cross-cultural, cross, specie wealth there is that does not die, change or destroy. Can we say this about anything else? Is oil, gold, silver, diamonds or land eternal? Have we harnessed this energy called LOVE as a planet or a person?

This year needs to be different for all of us! Time does not stretch out in front of us endlessly. Our resolve needs to be filled with the concept of evolving our most authentic self into a full expression of what it is to be living on this planet now, with the people we live with, with the circumstances we have created. Nothing short of a willingness to fully evolve our un-evolved selves will do for this year of 2012.

What will that take? It will take everything you are willing to give up and let go of in order to make space for everything you are. This cannot be a year of simple solutions to clean the garage or learn to recycle. These are all daily commitments that are important, but not what 2012 is entirely calling you to do.

This is a year to ask yourself;

“What am I not doing in my life that I need to do today?

What am I not saying that I need to say now?

Who and what do I love that I do not fully love, including my precious self?

What does the world need from me?

What gifts and talents do I have to offer that I am squandering?

What makes me deliriously happy that I need to do right away?

What is my soul’s purpose on this planet?”

These are the only questions worth asking as we move into our re-evolution, our re-solutions worth and these are the perfect questions to enter a year that proves to rearrange our vibrational frequency, throw open the door to hearts that have been closed, take down the negative influences that keep our blue planet crippled with fear and this is the year that we will each, in our own way, realize on a cellular level that we are not alone in this world. This is the year that Love moves to the front of our lives in ways that we have yet to imagine.

So, my resolve for personal evolution this year is this:

To speak truthfully and honestly in every moment with every person I have the privilege of knowing,

To do the things I have been afraid to do,

To love with abandon and be fearless,

To create the things in my life that truly makes me happy.

This photo of an amazing new crop circle is the Phoenix. A message? Yes. From whom? It does not matter. We simply must see and pay attention to how exquisite the beauty of this work of art is, that it is here for a reason and that in any moment I can take the image and ask myself “who is the Phoenix to me?”

That is what 2012 is about. Rising up in the fullness of who we are from the ashes of the past and from the ashes of our own fear. This is a new year of rebirth. May our resolutions and resolve reflect our courage to birth a self that has just been waiting to see the light of day. If not this year, When?

Happy New Year,

Happy new you.

Happy beginning of a new era.

Blessings, Maya