Hello to all the beautiful (and persevering) people who are still checking my blog occasionally,

I want to wish all of you a wondrous New Year and thank you for the blessing you have been in my life!  And--I want to challenge all of us.

It's the New Year and many of us are thinking about what changes we want to make - how to "do better" than perhaps we have in the past... or perhaps are just relishing the delight of 2008 being a blank slate - much like a new scribbler back when we were in school - where we can write the future we desire.

I was thinking about that when a powerful message from Marianne Williamson (Email me for the file - I can't get it to upload here! Argh) was serendipitously (as is so often the case!) forwarded to me by a wonderful woman friend. So I want to pass on the inspiration, the call to action, and the reminder that I found so valuable--especially to the powerful, loving, and conscious women in my life. (because the Williamson video is about our role in creating a different future)

What saddened me about this speech from 2005 was not the poignant message--although that moved me--it was the fact that when I saw her speak here in Calgary a couple of months ago, she repeated virtually the identical message. Clearly we, womankind in general, have not heard the call, have not answered the call, or the answer has not yet yielded significant results. And so, the message bears repeating because we have not yet arrived at the future I believe all of us long for.

Being quite pragmatic, let me pull back from the cosmic perspective to a personal level for a minute. I often struggle with judging myself as not being disciplined or focused "enough". Recently I had a realization that if I replaced the word Commitment for Discipline and Passion for Focus, I experienced more compassion - a loosening around the harshness that 'focus and discipline' tend to hold for me; and the self-judgment that often accompanies them.

Passion compels me in areas where my gifts and purpose lie. Focus seems more of an arbitrary limitation. Commitment (for me) allows for my humanness. If I'm disciplined I "should" do whatever I say I will (I.e. exercise) exactly when and how I say... because I am disciplined damn it!
Commitment is not something I give, or take, lightly... but I do seem to realize that I am human and will need to come back, and come back, and try again, and recommit, as part of the journey.

So that is how it is with this message from Marrianne - I found it to be a call for a deeper, and renewed, commitment to being more consciously loving and pro-active in the world.

I could judge myself for not having the discipline to be, do, and have more results in the area of making a difference in the world--or I could simply see it as a commitment that I have chosen to make, and that I need to be reminded of from time-to-time so that I can re-commit... and so that my passion can be reawakened and deepened as well. A passion that can draw me forward gently and fiercely towards that which I am called to do.

Of course, how we each make a difference can look soooo many ways. Big. Small. Consistent or periodic. Consciously or even unconsciously. Each is valuable. Each matters. However, I don't believe apathy is a viable option for any of us going forward.

So my challenge to each of you powerful people from all around the world--is this:

Join me in deciding what your intention is for 2008 when it comes to making this planet a better, more hospitable, more loving and beautiful place for us, and the generations after us, to live?

There is no right answer to this--but "nothing" is the answer that got us all to the state the world is in now--and it is not a luxury we can afford any longer. Ladies in particular - we have, as Marianne says so eloquently, a sacred duty to birth a new future. And when I think of each one of you, I see such an amazing force for good. I see intelligence. I see power and strength. I see wisdom and compassion. I see all of the things that are the very solutions needed to turn things around.

I know that this is not your traditional "May you get lots of money (aka abundance) and love, etc., etc. message that I usually send and I know I'm getting pretty heavy on your asses... oh well.   Please may I never become toooo predictable!!

I do wish you the best. I wish you the gift of having the best that is within you expressed in the world in your own unique and special way!
Because not only does that benefit me (and everyone else on the planet), but it also means you will realize many of those traditional benefits we wish for one another... joy, happiness, fulfillment, connection and greater abundance.

I'd love to hear your intentions if you want to share them so we can inspire one another with our ingenious ways of rocking the world. You can post them here on my blog ... or on (gack!) my Facebook (just do a search for my name - I'm the one hanging off of the zip line - there are 3 of us... go figure!), or email me at worldly.woman@hotmail.com

Or, you can just hold that intention, that commitment, in your heart and know that I honor you for the immense difference your life already makes, and will continue to make, to me and to the world. Blessings for 2008... and beyond!!

With love and appreciation,