Taking a few minutes out of my self-imposed writing marathon to address this whole New Years business:

So... um, 2010. Ta da.

I might have found myself more hopeful or at least raucous, but my husband is with his family right now because his grandfather died.

And tonight, he called and told me how they all reacted when he passed. He teared up just talking about it. I all-out cried. But mostly I just wished I could have been there to hold him.

And that made me think about how precious my little family is to me. Even tonight, when I did every thing short of bribing my parents to take my daughter overnight so I could get through this next part of my manuscript, I miss Gwen like crazy. I'm alone in the house, thinking how amazing it is to have a little quiet and a little time to myself, but knowing exactly how full my life is when the house is chaos instead of silence.

I have a gorgeous and hilarious daughter, who is vibrant and brilliant and who i couldn't love more if I tried. I have a husband who is all that I am not, and some things I wish he were not, but who loves me and loves me, even when I think he shouldn't. (Or when I think he really should, and a little more on Tuesdays.) I have friends and family who support me in this crazy dream and all the rest. (And who give each other knowing looks when I'm being odd and disjointed, as is my artist way.)

I have so, so much.

So even as I work and strive to take the next step in what I hope to be a long and successful writing career, as I look to what I want to accomplish in the coming decade, i thought it was important to think of how amazing my life is now compared to where it was this time ten years ago.

And then I have to feel lucky and privileged, but most of all honored that I get to strive for my next set of dreams.

Back to work now... but before I do, I feel compelled to make wishes for you in the coming year:

Peace in the chaos
Beauty in the storm
Love that makes your eyes shine
Laughter that makes your heart ache
Quiet moments to find what you thought you'd lost
And Passion that stirs your soul into a frenzy...

Happy New Year.

A friend of mine posted a really cool retrospective, with a summary of each of the last 10 years.
I started working on the same and in typical fashion, mine turned into an epic length novel. One I've decided not to post because, while it was good for me to look back on the monumental amount of changes I've been through in the last decade and how much better off I am as a person in so many ways, it ended up being such a highly personal thing that I'm hesitant to share. I think I'll keep that portion of my end of the year introspection to myself, as it's best suited to personal reflection anyway.

At any rate, I'm more interested in year to come and all of the potential for growth and accomplishment it holds.

So, my top 10 New Year's Resolutions (in no particular order):

( Read More... )

Overall, I'm not coming up with a huge schedule this year. Not going to try and change everything all at once like I usually do, ending up sabotaging myself in the process. Not going to worry or stress or get angry at myself , expecting myself to radically transform my life in a short period of time instead of going at a comfortable pace that's a lot more logical and potentially successful in the long run anyway.

Because the fact remains, on January 1st or any other day of the year, I am a work in progress. And whether that progress is major at times and minor at others, huge strides or baby steps, what matters most is making sure I'm always headed in the direction I'm wanting to go.

renaissance2010
Turning to photography as a creative outlet during a valiant fight with breast cancer at age 34, renaissance10 survived and set up a photo contest to help raise funds for the Lavender Trust, a nonprofit that provides information and support to younger women with breast cancer. In the first two years, the competition brought in over £65,000 (that's $107,260.73 U.S.!), with entries from 130 countries last year. Renaissance10 recently joined LiveJournal to meet other passionate photographers and find supportive friends.

curiouscupcakes
Holy buttercream frosting! If you have a sweet tooth for sugary goodness or a wandering eye for whimsical confection, this is pure ecstasy iced in deliciousness. Hailing the beloved cupcake as the artisinal canvas of choice, you'll enjoy recipes, photos, and bountiful tips to bake up a batch, whether your taste leans toward French classics or funky and flavorful.

mission101
With New Years in the offing, it's an ideal time to reflect on past accomplishments, make peace with disappointments, and refocus the lens on future goals. This community welcomes you to create a bucket list of 101 things you plan to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. Offering support, guidance, and inspiration, this is a great way to jumpstart those pesky resolutions.

In what has become an annual tradition, I've put all of my past LiveJournal entries on private.
The general point of doing this each year is to leave the past behind, move forward, change and grow and start the new year with a clean slate. More symbolic than anything else, but it works well for me.

In the upcoming year, I'd also like to start syndicating my posts from LiveJournal to Facebook.
It's become somewhat of a dilemma. I love LiveJournal. I love the posting format, everything about it. But in terms of staying in touch with people, I do most of that on Facebook these days. So this seems to be a happy compromise... leaving room to share my posts on both, while still giving me the privacy of protected posts over here should I need it. And I should really share more on both sites, so this seems like a great way to do it.

At any rate, I hope everyone had a lovely holiday!

Holiday debuggery

We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:

• If you were unable to send out multiple coupons at a time, please perform a hard refresh, and you should be good to go.
• If you redeemed a coupon to upgrade your account and the balance at checkout was $0 instead of $9.95 or $15, this means your upgrade did not go through (nor were you charged). We've straightened this out, so you can now apply your holiday coupon toward the purchase of an annual paid account.
• If you tried to redeem a holiday coupon and had trouble using a gift certificate to cover the balance of an annual paid account, we identified the root problem. If this happened to you, you can now use your holiday coupon together with your gift certificate.
• If the number of holiday coupons you have available suddenly goes up (instead of down), this might be due to recipients declining the coupons, at which point your pool of available coupons will be replenished and, therefore, increase.
• If you need assistance with holiday coupons or pretty much anything else (well, LiveJournal related), please open a support request and we'll be more than happy to help!

Tweaks

• There were some initial glitches displaying results on My Guests, but we've worked them out. We hope you'll check out who's been checking you out!
• Some of you reported formatting issues using the Rich Text Editor (i.e., line breaks were being removed incorrectly). We've implemented a fix! Thanks so much for your patience.

Give a little extra!

We're pleased to report that we've already sold over 100 virtual red ribbons in honor of National AIDS Awareness month. Remember, for each charitable vgift you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to fund the development of an HIV vaccine. Once again, we thank you for your generosity.

Celebrate with holiday vGifts!

Stop by the Virtual Gift Shop and share some holiday magic with your LiveJournal friends.

Photos of the week

We're back with more dazzling pictures from around the world. Congrats to marlenemcc, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our fourth photo contest. We hope you'll click over to LJ_Photophile poll and tell us your picks in pics!

For more fantastic user content, we'll meet you under the cut. ( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!

i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

I recently finished a 40 day sadhana practice of nabhi kriya--a series of exercises designed to strengthen the third chakra, your core. As you gain core strength, your electromagnetic field and aura strengthen creating higher vibrations. In other words, it's the law of attraction in action. When you move through life emanating higher vibrations, you are in harmony with the universe. This got me to thinking about the books that have been written on LOA and how it is presented as a concept. Most books out there on the law of attraction tend to focus on mind over matter kind of exercises and whatnot to rise vibrational frequencies--vision boards, ask-believe-receive, careful wording and thought patterns and behaviors, etc. Are there any LOA books out there that focus on rising vibrational frequencies through core/electromagnetic field strengthening (I'm specifically thinking kundalini yoga kriyas and mantras)? When a person's vibration naturally rises, he/she will naturally align with the vibration of the universe--thought patterns and behaviors will naturally change because of the changed vibrational frequency. I personally find this application much easier than the mind over matter concept (which, don't get me wrong, works for many many people). Does anyone have any experience with this? Thoughts?

X-posted to live_the_secret community.