Charmed Monday Minute, Feb. 26

Greetings, all... Do you ever have one of those days you can’t quite catch? I’m having one today. I’d volunteered to lead a meeting this morning at 7:15 and it totally slipped my mind until 6:50 when, sleeping in by decision and by choice after a very busy weekend, I remembered. With 4-minute dressing (we all know it’s possible under duress) and a taxi, I would have made it except that I’m dog-sitting Aspen who is fourteen years old: she looked at me this morning and said with sufficient earnestness that she may as well have had words: “I have to go.” So, I was late; somebody else led the meeting; and I got a delayed start on meditation and the gym and my precious “plans” for the day. Upshot #1: I have to get up at 6 every day of my life. One of my friends says, “The world gives itself to those who get up at 6.” I’m beginning to see what she means. Upshot #2: I am not in control. I knew that, but ya know, sometimes you just need a reminder. All in all, I’m good, though, and hope you are, too. William is visiting his mom so I spent a large part of yesterday organizing a closet and the bathroom I share with my stepdaughter. It was never formally made to work for two until yesterday. Now there’s this wonderful sort of “breath of feng shui” about the place. Tomorrow I plan to refrain from working, except for a couple of coaching sessions, and get the bedroom in glorious order. It’s such a sense of accomplishment to know that the energy is flowing as it should and I can just flow with it. I’m feeling the need for more of this kind of thing since my new book, Fat, Broke & Lonely No More, will be out in just three months. This is a time for me to get centered spiritually, and supported mentally and physically with order in my environment and a lot of rest and “stored-up health” before I go on the road. Some of you have asked if there’s anything you could do to help with the book launch. Thank you so much for asking. I’ll put together a list of things and add them to next week’s Charmed Monday Minute. But this is this week, so let’s start with...

Happiness of the week: My new red rubber boots. Now, this may sound like a small thing, but after nearly seven years in New York with wet feet in the rain and cold feet in the snow, I am overjoyed to have found lightweight rubber boots. (I had a pair before that I threw in a trash can when the sun came out: they were like wearing boulders.) These make me want to say, “C’mere, slush and puddles! I’m up for you!” Product(s) of the week: Everybody knows that blueberries are super-anti-oxidants, and some studies have indicated that eating a cup of blueberries a day can protect against Alzheimer’s. The only problem is that conventional blueberries can go for $4 a pint, organic $6, even when they’re in season. Therefore, I was pleased to discover Wyman’s Fresh Frozen Wild Blueberries (www.wymans.com): a whole bag (15 ounces) is under $4 at my health food store. Since they’re frozen, they won’t go bad, and wild blueberries are higher on the anti-oxidant scale than their cultivated cousins. I use these in smoothies mostly, but you can thaw and serve them on cereal or as a treat. If you want to have a berry-blue dessert, I’ve discovered another products for dressing them up: Soy Whip from a company called Soyatoo! It’s a completely nondairy whipped cream. I wouldn’t call it a health food exactly, but it only has 10 calories in 2 tablespoons; it has 0.5 grams saturated fat and no trans fat; and if you don’t eat dairy, it will make you very, very happy. (It’s imported from Germany by a company called Ceres Organics: www.ceresorganics.com.) Quotation of the week: “Replace your negative thinking by substituting positive memories for the ones that haunt you. Get a long piece of paper, just like when you were in school doing a report on westward expansion. Using colorful markers, write a time line of all your past successes. Most importantly, leave the right side empty so you can fill it in with future triumphs.” – from Younger by the Day, © Victoria Moran, 2005, HarperSanFrancisco

Book of the week: The Life Organizer: A Woman’s Guide to Mindful Year – Tips, Stores & Prompts to Focus Your Needs and Navigate Your Dreams, by Jennifer Louden (2007, New World Library). (Find it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble) A lot of you know Jennifer Louden’s work (The Woman’s Comfort Book, The Woman’s Retreat Book, Comfort Secrets for Busy Women), and if you know it, chances are you love it. She has a way of speaking to women in our real lives. In her new book, she’s tackled our whole lives and done a masterful job of it. For starters, The Life Organizer is a gorgeous book, one you will want to give as a present. It’s exquisitely designed with different-color pages---yummy. And the nourishment packed within those pages is top-notch. Here’s her description of life organizing: -Coming into the present -Asking for guidance, help, support -Listening ,receiving, opening -Applying, taking the next step -Seeing if the path you’re taking fits you, feels right, and aligns with your values -A structure for learning from your inner experience And the 5 steps she offers for implementing these: 1. Connect 2. Feel 3. Inquire 4. Allow 5. Apply This is a book you’ll keep with you, use and re-use, and come to cherish. For more about Jennifer’s workshops, coaching, and more, visit www.lifeorganizerbook.com.

Link of the week: Do you have teens at home? If so, take heart: it will pass (Not that my daughter was ever a typical teenager, but still...) My friend Judith Sachs, who was my roommate years ago at a speaker’s convention, is now editorial director of a new magazine for the parents of teenagers. It’s called ParentingTeensOnline (www.parentingteensonline.com) and there’s no topic it flinches from. The current issue cover story is on “Hooking Up” (in case you don’t know what that is, it’s teens having sex with friends without any commitment, like practice sessions for a real relationship), and there are other articles on subjects like teen depression, taking a “gap” year after high school, and even one on figuring out if your young teen is ready to babysit. If you look around the website (which is really nicely designed, by the way), you’ll find helpful articles on Myspace.com, college scholarships, teens and grandparents, and much more. The best thing is, you can get a subscription to this great online magazine for just $10 a year, and every month, you get a new PDF issue in your email box, which you can print out, read online, or email to a friend.

COUNTDOWN TO VICTORIA'S NEW BOOK, Fat, Broke & Lonely No More: Your Personal Solution to Overeating, Overspending, and Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places ...13 weeks and 3 days!

Happy week, all!

My very best,

Victoria Moran

Charmed Monday Minute, Feb. 19

To my lovely readers and friends: Gosh, I appreciate you guys. Thanks so much to all of you who read this and to those who send Joya (charmedassistant@aol.com) such nice emails.

I had an amazing experience: Valentine’s Day was day #10-in-a-row without any headaches (for those of you who missed it, I had Novocain-gone-wrong back in November, and it left me with recurrent head pain). I wrote in my journal that my new treatment protocol was “a miracle.” That afternoon around 4, the miracle ended and I was struck with another migraine-like episode. It was so discouraging since I thought everything was under control.

Anyway, I lay down, hoping to be okay by 6 when William and I were to leave for dinner. I wasn’t. We cancelled the reservation. I was hoping against hope that I’d be okay by 7 so we could go to A Chorus Line on Broadway; we’d had the tickets for months. But I just couldn’t raise my head. At 7:15, however, something happened. I sat up. Then I got up. I said to William: “I have to push through the pain and go to that show. If not, I feel as if the darkness will win.” In adorable pragmatic guy fashion, he said, “I don’t think it’s the darkness: it’s a headache.”

I didn’t recognize myself. It was like I’d been possessed, but in a good way. Not only was I having a migraine: the weather outside was deplorable – we were in the middle of an ice storm, lots of wind, and temperatures just high enough to ensure that there’d be big puddles of slush. I don’t do well in weather like that. On most such nights, I’d have welcomed an excuse to stay in. But there was a fire inside me. I didn’t have time to put on makeup or anything, so I just threw on clothes, tossed an extra pair of shoes and socks in my bag (I knew I’d have wet feet upon arrival), and we trudged out to fight for a cab. We finally flagged one and made it to the theater. My head still hurt, but my soul felt magnificent. I kept thinking of that phrase, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” only it was, “Get thee behind me, headache and ice storm and anything that would like to hold me back.”

The show was terrific (the curtain call was worth the price of the tickets: they came out in rhinestone suits and did a good old-fashion kick-line) but the triumph I felt deep inside was even better. I told William on the way home, “I haven’t felt like this since I went bungee-jumping.” He looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about but as if he loved me a lot anyway. And I’ve felt stronger and braver and more ready-for-anything ever since.

Happiness of the week: The dogs of New York. There are all different kinds, all different sizes, and they’re so adorable in their winter jackets. More than that, they are like love itself wrapped up in dog suits. Next week I’ll get to dog-sit my beloved Aspen (left) who now lives with my daughter. I can hardly wait.

Fun and funny link of the week: Actress, comic and author Cathryn Michon (who is also my adorable friend who is funny and gorgeous and has the best energy this side of a PowerBar factory) is starring in the hilarious movie, Cook Off! It’s the story of people who compete in a million dollar cook off, sort of like Best in Show at a cooking competition. The film is based on her book, The Grrl Genius Guide to Life, and is premiering at this year's Aspen Comedy Festival. She and Wendi McLendon-Covey (Clemmie from "Reno 911") play sisters from Blue Earth, Minnesota who are competing against each other and are dubbed "The Venus and Serena Williams of the Cook Off." The cast is a cavalcade of comedy all-stars including: Diedrich Bader (Napoleon Dynamite), Stephen Root (Office Space), Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers), Melissa Peterman ("Reba"), Mo Collins (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Markie Post (There's Something About Mary), Gavin Macleod ("The Love Boat," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), Louie Anderson ("Life With Louie"), Marcia Wallace ("The Bob Newhart Show," "The Simpsons"), and way too many more to name here. It premiers this month at the Aspen Comedy Festival. Here is the link. Go! You’ll be glad you did! Laugh of the week: Joya (that’s who you’re writing to when you send something to charmedassistant@aol.com) sent me this link when I was stressing over getting used to a new computer and operating system. It’s a very funny short clip about a guy in the 1600s who was having a hard time getting used to this new-fangled invention, the book: YouTube video

Question of the week: I would love some information on how best to envision the reality we create, while remaining open to what God, the Goddess, and the Universe believes is best for us. In particular, I am planning a move that I’m excited about, but it involves my whole family so I feel a lot of responsibility for it working out all right. – A. Dear A – I relate so much. When I wanted to move to NYC, I had a husband, a daughter, and three stepchildren to think of. When something is right, though, it seems to fall into place for all concerned. That has been my experience anyway. I also know what you mean about the conflict that sometimes seems to exist between my desires and God’s will. I believe that our desires (unless they’re perverted by greed or addiction) are planted in us by God. We’re supposed to go after them. Sometimes they morph into something else, or we get a blessing different from but greater than the one we thought we wanted. I think that lovely prayer ending some people use – “This, God, or what You know is better” – is a beautiful safety valve. When you make a vision-map and put something spiritual in the center, that’s a reminder that all your desires are fine to have, but you don’t see the whole picture; none of us does. As long as we recognize that and know that we’re supposed to go forward as we see fit, yet ever be willing to shift gears as the Higher Power directs, we’ll do just fine. And bless you – and your family – in your new home. -- Victoria

COUNTDOWN TO VICTORIA'S NEW BOOK, Fat, Broke & Lonely No More: Your Personal Solution to Overeating, Overspending, and Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places ...14 weeks and 4 days!

Happy week, all!

Charmed Monday Minute Jan. 15

Happy Martin Luther King Day and best wishes all ‘round...

On the resolutions front, I discovered a great way to keep up with my resolve to have some spectacular fun each day. I’m calling each tasty life-treat a piece of candy and, in contrast to those years of resolutions about never having candy, I’m now resolving to have at least one piece of this kind of candy every single day. On the weekends I can have more. Yesterday, for instance, I nearly downed a box of it:

First piece - a session with my personal trainer. He is my big splurge, but so worth it. With all I’ve been going through with the headaches I wouldn’t have done anything if I didn’t have the commitment to see him twice a week.

Second piece – a visit with my friend Lane. I was just going over there to drop off a blender, but it was such a sweet time. We’ve known each since 1989 and every time I see her, I see myself.

Third piece – church at Unity of NY (www.unityofnewyork.org) and it was really special. The minister asked everyone who was going through a remarkable healing to come on stage. I went up. I was nervous. I’ve spoken there four times and I don’t get nervous; I know I’m a good speaker and I have good information and there’s nothing to be afraid of. But this was different: I was being vulnerable. I was saying, “I’ve been going through a very dark night and I trust I’m coming through it.” There were about 20 us onstage (and it is a stage – the church meets in a concert hall, Symphony Space, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan), and the whole congregation prayed for us. It was extremely powerful.

Fourth piece – lunch with my friend Olivia. She is a super-networking expert (www.spitfireteam.com) and a super human being. We went to Mana, a macrobiotic restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue and totally caught up. (And a lovely young woman came up to me there thanking me for these Monday minutes! I was so surprised I think I mumbled. Please, if you’re seeing this, drop me an email via Joya - charmedassistant@aol.com -- and introduce yourself so I’ll know you by name next time.)

Fifth piece – an afternoon class in restorative yoga at Yogaworks (www.yogaworks.com). I was introduced to restorative yoga at the spa (if you didn’t read last week’s minute, the spa where I greeted this New Year is www.newagehealthspa.com). It is a luscious form of gentle yoga -- all about props and getting in a perfect, comfy position and staying there for a very long time – like fifteen minutes. In the meantime, one of the two instructors comes around to give hands-on corrections, like gentle mini-massages, while at the same time one of the instructors talks about some yoga precept. Yesterday, in honor of Martin Luther King Day, she talked about ahimsa, the power of non-injury, dynamic harmlessness, the roots of Gandhi’s and King’s nonviolent movements.

When you get five pieces of candy in a day, it sweetens the sour stuff like having to take down the Christmas decorations – but even that I did with the show-tunes channel on, which enlivened things quite a bit.

Some other people sent in resolutions to share:

My resolution this year is to be vegan. I've been a vegetarian for 25 years but I finally felt the push to go vegan. I guess I finally figured out it was really possible especially since Native Foods moved into the city! My second resolution is to try and live in balance. I am forever doing too many things. Maybe they are really only one resolution! -- Bajamama

I technically do New Year’s affirmations. The work “resolution” seems so negative – you resolve to do this or not to do that. It puts a down spin on whatever your goal or pledge for the year would be, which technically puts a stamp of failure on it. An affirmation on the other hand is a positive statement or pledge in which a great outcome is visualized. My affirmations: losing some weight so that my lifespan is stretched and I can have as much active fun as possible with my three young grandsons, donating 20% of the “clutter” in my home to charity (not to mention the clothes that will no longer fit me as I lose weight), and learning a foreign language well enough that I can help someone if they are having trouble communicating with others – you never know when a situation like that will come up, and I am sure it is a helpless feeling. There is also a desire to write and illustrate a children’s book, but that may take several years of affirmations to complete. -- Paula

(If you’d like your resolutions in the newsletter – there are two more Mondays in January, so there’s time, send your resolutions to Joya: charmedassistant@aol.com.)

Question of the week: “My current problem is menopausal weight gain around my middle. I hope to start the New Year with continued dedication to health and fitness, and intend to re-read Fit From Within during my holiday vacation. Is there anything in particularly you can recommend that would target any hormonal issues that might exist for weight gain around the waist?” – Irene Irene, you have discovered a fact of life that the world doesn’t seem to want to tell us until we get there. I talk in the first part of Younger by the Day about how there was invasion of the body snatchers in my bedroom, and how virtually overnight my flat stomach was traded for a round one and my round bottom for a flat one. It was horrifying. On the one hand, it’s nature. Just as an eighteen-year-old body and an eight-year-old body are shaped differently, a woman’s body after menopause has a different shape from the one she had before. Somebody even said it’s nature’s way to make sure men won’t be attracted to women who aren’t fertile, but that is just depressing and ugly. So, in my experience and opinion, you can’t totally change this nature-imposed shape-shifting without surgery, but you can do a lot with exercise. You know you need cardio work to keep your heart healthy, but it also keeps your fat level low. Look at runners: they’re lean, regardless of age. The roll we get around the middle, even if hormonally motivated, is made of fat, and consistent cardio can help keep your fat level down. (The old Fit or Fat books by Covert Bailey are still among the best on this.) In addition, around menopause, weight training becomes more important than ever before in life. It not only protects your bones, but it shapes your body. Your abs might not be a washboard or a six-pack, but they can get pretty darned decent, and your waist, although not a Scarlett O’Hara 17 inches, won’t melt into oblivion. (You didn’t ask about thighs and triceps, but they’ll be a lot stronger, leaner, and more toned as well.) While cardio can help keep you fat level low, weight-training gives you muscle. Otherwise, you’d just be “skin and bones” – no shape, no energy, no sex appeal. With weight training in the mix, you’ve got your best shot at a youthful-looking body in your fifties, sixties, and beyond. Now, if you read Suzanne Somers’ books (Ageless: The Naked Truth About Biodentical Hormones and Suzanne Somers’ Slim and Sexy Forever: The Hormone Solution for Permanent Weight Loss and Optimal Living), I think she’ll tell you that taking bioidentical hormones will help keep your body pre-menopausally shaped for just about as long as you live. I am not making any medical recommendations, but if you want to read up on these from a source I trust, you can visit www.obrienrx.com. (Note: if you’ve sent in a question that I haven’t answered, I do have it and it will be answered, as they say on the voice mail, in the order in which it was received. If you have a question you’d like answered, please send it to charmedassistant@aol.com.)

Correction: The New York Times does it, so I guess we can, too... Last week, with the pumpkin pie recipe, I gave a wrong website for Lori Finlay Hamilton. The correct one is www.womenwisdomandwellness.com. (Sorry, Lori – and all of you who went to the site I listed and didn’t find her.

Have a great week, everybody!

All good things,

Victoria Moran

Charmed Monday Minute Jan. 7

Happy New Year to all! I hope 2007 will bring you success, peace, and every opportunity to fulfill your happy destiny.

I’m thrilled to report that I am feeling much, much better. I spent a week at a marvelous, healing place, the New Age Health Spa in the Catskill Mountains about 100 miles from New York City (www.newagehealthspa.com). When I first arrived there, I felt so bad I thought I’d made the wrong decision, that I should be at a starker, more medical kind of place. But within a couple of days I was feeling better and now I’d say that 90% of the pain in my head in gone. I don’t know the reason: I had some amazing treatments there – hot stone massage, acupuncture, cranial-sacral therapy, foot reflexology, and several steams and wraps and scrubs to detoxify. In addition, there were two yoga classes and two meditation sessions each day, plus other classes in tai chi, Alexander Technique, Nia, Chinese healing, and more. And I started to reread Deepak Chopra’s wonderful book, Perfect Health, and I’ve been following an Ayurvedic lifestyle for my body type. (According to Ayurveda, having Vata dosha out of balance – I’m a Vata, so that imbalance is what I’m prone to – exacerbates nerve pain. Very interesting.)

In addition, before I left one friend gave me Reiki, another treated me to a massage, my fabulous Chinese healer from KC just sent me some specially compounded herbs for the condition I’ve had, and I just learned that someone dear to my heart has been doing distance healing for me from the Midwest. And I’ve been on the Silent Unity prayer list this whole time. (If you don’t know about Silent Unity, they use affirmative prayer for people of any faith or no faith, 24 hours a day, and they’ve been at it for over 120 years. Their number is 816-969-2000 and you can call any time day or night.) It all adds up to feeling more well than I had dared to hope. I’m seeing a medical specialist on Wednesday and it will be interesting to see what he thinks of my recovery via these unusual methods.

Anyway, I have a new lease on life – a perfect way to start a year, I think. I wish you this kind of joy (but without being sick first!).

(Note: This is a longer Minute than usual – okay, it’s a 4-or-5-Minutes)

Love and Light to you in this New Year,
Victoria

Movie of the week: Miss Potter. This is the Renee Zellwegger film about Beatrix Potter who wrote and illustrated Peter Rabbit and other classic children’s books. It is visually exquisite, charming and heartwarming, and a lovely look at a woman’s life in a time when women had precious little freedom or self-determination. I loved it, my husband loved it, and all the women in the bathroom afterwards loved it. Only the critics pooh-poohed it as “too sweet.” It’s not! I don’t go for gooey-sweet myself, and this isn’t. It’s just a beautiful movie and one that you could take a child to without wishing you’d brought a blindfold and earplugs. Recipe of the week: In the pre-Christmas newsletter, Joya and I forgot to include the pumpkin pie recipe kindly sent by Lori Finlay Hamilton (www.wisewomanwellness.com). We’re adding it here. Certainly it’s okay to enjoy pumpkin pie in January! Happy Heart, Happy Hormones (low fat, dairy free- "guilt free" pumpkin pie) Pre-heat over to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) 1-1/2 package Mori-Nu Lite Tofu (firm or regular Silken Tofu) 1 cups (480 ml) canned or cooked pumpkin 2/3 cup (160 ml) honey 1 tsp vanilla 1 Tablespoon Pumpkin pie spice 1 unbaked 9" pie shell Place Tofu in Blender or Vita Mix container. Blend until smooth, about 20-25 seconds on medium speed. Add remaining ingredients, and run until well blended. Pour into a 9" (22.5 cm) unbaked deep pie dish shell and bake for about 1 hour. Filling will be soft, but firms up as it sits . Chill and serve. Great for breakfast treat- without the guilt! A note from Lori: I've served this with company and they had no idea this was a "tofu pumpkin pie" :)

In search of... ...the lovely reader from out West who is an Arbonne representative. Please email me: I want to do a little write-up on Arbonne in a future newsletter (the products are yummy) and my daughter is craving body butter and some kind of magical masque. Thank you. Question of the week: I apologize: I was so sick before I left town, I managed to somehow delete your questions. It was some kind of Blackberry-to-regular-computer misstep on my part. In any case, please accept my apologies, kindly resend your questions to charmedassistant@aol.com, and I’ll answer all of them next week. The whole Monday Minute can be a sort of tribute to Ann Landers. Thanks for understanding. My resolutions: Yes, I make them, and they are: Enjoy life each day (I write more about that in the blog entry, pasted below), and: Live Ayurvedically for one full year. I find an assortment of ways of being and ways of living so fascinating that I’ve never really stayed with one system of well-being consistently for an extended period. This year I intend to stay close to the Ayurvedic principles for all twelve months and chart my progress. This includes keeping a regular schedule, getting up early and to bed on time, doing warm oil massage most mornings, meditating twice a day, doing yoga regularly, and eating the diet that’s best for my body type. Much of this I’ve done before or do a good part of the time, but this year my intention is to have a serious commitment to this way of life. I also want to go for panchakarma, a special Ayurvedic cleansing/healing program, at least twice this year as well. It seems like a lot but I have a lot of incentive. I’ll keep you posted. (If you’d like to share your resolutions with the rest of us, send them to Joya (charmedassistant@aol.com) – and we’ll include them next time with your first name or, if you’d prefer, in total anonymity.)

Help for a friend:

To any New York area readers who might be able to help: my dear friend Alima is looking for an apartment-sitting situation for a minimum of six weeks. I’ve known Alima since I was 22, when she and her mom and brother were renting a big house in Kansas City with Patrick, my then-to-be-husband, and his sister. Alima is a gifted intuitive and for some years has divided her time among Kansas City, Sarasota, and New York City, never having a permanent residence here. When she last came up to see clients in NYC, however, she was struck with a serious illness and has been hospitalized for nearly five months.

As you can imagine, not being able to work for that long, plus dealing with uncovered hospital expenses, has made a huge dent in her financial reserves. When she is released in the next few weeks, she’ll need a place to live in New York. If you or anyone you know is looking for someone to stay in their place while they’re away---especially is there is a cat (or cats), bird, or fish to care for---this would be a godsend. (She is using a cane and is not physically able to care for a dog.) A perk is that she is an animal communicator and would be a lovely friend for a pet whose family is away. And she would probably work something out with you so that you could get regular readings for some extended period. She is very good at what she does. If you can help, you can call her directly at the hospital (212-636-8521). She cannot be reached by email there, but if you’d like to visit her website as an fyi, it is www.alima.ws. Thanks, all.

Christmas/New Year's blog

December 28th

Hi, everybody –

Since we’re not doing a “Charmed Monday Minute” Dec. 25 or Jan. 1, I wanted to at least check in, wish you a joyful holiday season, and let you know what’s going on here.

Healing update: I have really been going through the fire with the nerve condition that started with a dental procedure November 7. The past two days have been pretty good (hurray!) and I’m trusting that will hold. Two days last week, when I returned from California after Richard Carlson’s funeral, were lie-on-the-couch/don’t-move awful. I’m headed off tomorrow (Friday, December 29) to rest and get some detoxifying treatments at a spa in upstate New York. After the setback I had from the trip out West, I gave up on the idea of going somewhere far away. I’ll give you a report on the spa after I get back.

Richard Carlson: Some of you have asked about Richard Carlson’s memorial. It was really beautiful, 700 people in attendance, and included in the service were a lovely slide show of his life with his family, and an audio clip of a talk he gave in the parish where the memorial was held. Despite the tragic circumstances of his early passing, the service was a real celebration of his amazing life and contributions.

Wonderful restaurant: When I was in the Bay Area, Patti Breitman (Richard’s former literary agent and mine) and her husband Stan Rosenfeld took foreign rights agent Linda Michaels and me to a really delightful restaurant in Berkeley. It’s called Café Gratitude and is vegan, mostly raw food. The dishes all have affirmations for names, i.e., “I am beautiful,” “I am loving,” “I am abundant.” Richard would have approved. And the food was amazing. Here are a couple of the quotations from the walls:

“By letting go, it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let go.
But when you try and try, the world is beyond winning.”
Lao Tzu

“Abundance can be had simply
by consciously receiving what has already been given.”
Sufi saying

If you’d like to read more about Café Gratitude, here’s a link: www.withthecurrent/menu.html.

The Moran/Melton family Christmas: The miracle was, we had one. I’d been so sick we didn’t even get a tree until the night of the 23rd, and we had to let the branches drop so we actually decorated it on Christmas Eve. That’s a first for us. It’s a precious little tree, though, and I love being able to keep it up through Epiphany on January 6th and have it keep its needles.

Siân, William’s daughter, has a job at Urban Outfitters and had to work late on Christmas Eve, so it was just William, Adair, Nick, and I for December 24th dinner, and Bobby-the-cat for added company. Despite all the recipes I’ve given in recent “Charmed Monday Minutes” for the traditional meal we usually have, we didn’t do anything traditional this very unusual year. Adair brought stuffed mushrooms and a winter vegetable puree. I made a vegan Caprese salad (yes, of course: tofu masquerading as mozzarella), and baked apples. Those without nerve damage shared a lovely bottle of Italian red wine.

On Christmas morning, William and Siân and I went over to Nick and Adair’s place for Christmas morning with them and the two dogs. Such a sweet experience start to finish! It was our first Christmas in maybe seven years with any of William’s kids with us on the day itself, so it was really special to have Siân there. And Adair totally has the Christmas gene. Her sense of decorating and gift-giving and tradition---well, it warms the heart of a mother whose favorite movies include Miracle on 34th Street (original version) and Elf.

Among the wealth of lovely and thoughtful gifts I received were:

From William, a Philip Stein “teslar” watch. You may have seen these on one of Oprah’s “favorite things” shows. They’re amazing. The watch contains a teslar chip to protect again electromagnetic radiation. A host of studies indicate that wearing it improves athletic performance, calms the mood, helps sleep, and even promotes healing (I want that). I am loving having this watch on my wrist. If you want to read about it, you can check out www.philipstein.com/ .

From Adair, a professional portrait of Aspen, officially Adair’s dog but mine, too, (I found her starving on the streets of Kansas City). Aspen is, gosh, twelve now, maybe thirteen, and she moved in with Adair and Nick when they got married. Doubly special: the photographer said to Adair during the shoot, “While we’re here, let me get a few of you with Aspen,” so I have the most exquisite 5x7 of my precious daughter and precious dog together. I put it on my altar because those two faces say L-O-V-E to me.

And, again from William, an invisible dog! You see, I would love to have a dog who lives with us, but William has always wanted to wait until we have a bigger place. Since I’ve been injured, though, he was thinking that a dog would help me get better. When I asked him if he was okay with doing Christmas Eve at our place and Christmas morning at Adair’s, he said, “But one of your presents will be really hard to get over there.” Hmmm. I’d asked for a watch. Something told me he was thinking “dog.” I told him I couldn’t take care of one in my current situation, so on Christmas morning he gave me a card with a cute little white terrier on it and a promise that when I’m better we can go to the shelter or contact a rescue organization and adopt a living, breathing pooch.

I am mega-lucky to be so loved.

After presents, we went to Zenith in the theater district for Christmas lunch. Nick and Adair went home to play with their toys, and William and Siân and I went to the movies---plural. We saw Dream Girls and Charlotte’s Web. I liked both of them a lot, and of course I’m a major pushover for Charlotte, “a true friend and a good writer.”

Wishing you a beautiful, bountiful, and peace-filled 2007: I trust that in this New Year you’ll see dreams take shape, you’ll grow in wisdom and the ability to be happy, and that each of us will put forth energy in whatever way we can to make our entire world more peaceful and whole.

I’ll close with something that really spoke to me. I hope that in the retelling it will mean something to you, too. I was watching 30 Days, Morgan Spurlock’s very positive reality show on FX in which someone spends thirty days living and working in very different circumstances from their regular life, usually with people whose lifestyle or ideology differs vastly from their own. In this episode, a minuteman, an armed civilian who patrols the border to keep illegal immigrants from crossing, went to live with a family of undocumented Mexican immigrants in LA. One day he was out working with the man of the family. They were clearing a plot of land and out from under a rock crawled a creature that was, to human sensibilities, ugly---even creepy. It was sort of worm-like, but it had feet so it was sort lizard-y, too. As soon as he saw this humble, crawling thing, the Mexican man, who had been through so much hardship in his life, said, “Let him go so he can enjoy his life.”

I’m still not sure why that was so incredibly meaningful to me, but it was and it still is. We’ll all here to enjoy our lives---all people everywhere and every being of every description. I made me want to do what I can to help everyone whose life touches mine have the opportunity for that joy, and it made me promise myself to get some joy every day, even the ones that, at first glance, look pretty crummy.

Love and best wishes,
Victoria

December doings

Hey -- I'm looking out my window at the red-and-green Empire State Building. That's a happy thing to do . . . I'm not in the best life-place at the moment due to the dental mishap of four weeks ago. It was a shot of novacaine gone awry, leaving me with a hugely painful condition called trigeminal neuraligia. Some days are better, others not. I'm doing holistic treatment; the neurologist said to just wait since the side-effects of medical treatment can be very bad. I'm looking at going for three weeks to either the Hippocrates Health Institute (Florida) or the Optimum Health Institute (Austin) to see if my body's own defenses, when properly mobilized, can take care of this thing. I also know everything happens for a reason, although the reason for this escapes me . . . On days that haven't been so bad (some days I think I'm really getting better, then it comes back with a wallop) I've done pre-Christmas stuff and love that. My daughter Adair and I make such a big deal of Christmas. We met on Tuesday to go to K-Mart. There are two of them in Manhattan although going to them seems like such an un-Manhattan thing to do. We scoured all three floors. Plans are to put up our tree this Saturday, Nick's and Adair's on Sunday . . . Mostly I'm resting, taking things slow and easy. Prayers appreciated . . . Love and light to everybody ... Victoria

Back to Blogging Again!

Hello, kind people who keep looking at this blog to see if it will win take the record for most neglected blog of all time…

For those of you who aren’t on my e-mail list, I have a new mailing service that has enabled me to send out a weekly mini-zine called The Charmed Monday Minute. It’s newsy and fun and I think you’ll like it. If you want start receiving it, click on the “Subscribe to Free Newsletter” icon on www.victoriamoran.com, or go directly to www.victoriamoran.com/newsletter.html. The plan is to be in touch weekly with the more informational stuff and use the blog for just catching up. (There won’t be a newsletter this coming week because of the holiday, but we’ll start up again November 27.)

I have to tell you that I had a major shock when I learned that people get to rate the author blogs posted on Amazon.com. It’s bizarre to me that we’ve become a culture in which everything is judged and graded. It’s a reality-show mentality, I think: the most desirable bachelorette, the savviest apprentice, the biggest loser. When I think of a blog---a friendly blog anyway, not one that centers on politics or something like that---it’s a person sharing his life or her life. To be graded seems just plain cruel. “You get the good grade when you go to Paris, a bad one when you only go to the post office.” I must say it put me off writing for awhile. I expect my books to be reviewed by other people, but not my day. What do you guys think?

Well, let’s see, graded or not, here’s what I’ve been up to: I had dental surgery last week and ran into an anesthesia problem. It was just a local but it did something to my trigeminal nerve and I’ve been through a scare with that. For a couple of days, it was frighteningly painful. Now we’re down to the dull ache stage, so I’m convinced it will go away. I’m getting acupuncture, though. I am such a fan of acupuncture. My body takes well to it and it’s helped me through a lot of things.

I’m taking the 4-T---Tithing of Time, Talent and Treasure for Prosperity and Fullness of Life---(www.4tprosperity.com) class at the Unity church here. This is the fourth time I’ve done it and it’s very powerful. It’s about changing your consciousness. I think it works so well because participants have to sign a contract agreeing to do a lot of disciplines: financial tithing, daily prayer and meditation, volunteer work in the community, listening to the 4-T CDs twice during the week as well as in class, and being part of a prayer group that is dedicated to helping each group member get to the next level in his/her life. In addition, each of the twelve weeks is dedicated to one step in the 12 Step program, so it’s a way for people who aren’t in 12 Step programs to benefit from those amazing steps. It’s taking some time but somehow I seem to have more time than before. I love the delightfully illogical logic of Spirit. I don’t understand it, but I know it works.

Speaking of such things, have you seen the DVD everybody is talking about, The Secret (www.thesecret.tv)? It’s about the Law of Attraction. I just got a copy and watched it a few days ago (while recovering from my dental affliction). It was fascinating and, in my opinion, right on. I wrote a lot about the Law of Attraction in my new book as well. It’s interesting to see how that ever dependable collective unconscious brings necessary ideas to light in so many places and through so many channels when the time is right.

This weekend William and I are going to Providence, RI. I’m speaking for pre-Thanksgiving dinner of the Rhode Island Vegan Awareness on Sunday (www.veganawareness.org). My daughter and her husband are going to the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary (www.woodstockfas.org) for their pre-Thanksgiving celebration. And this comes from Amy Gonigam of Chicago (she’s also a wonderful writer who gave me some interesting info for my new book on periods of intentionally going without a computer): she adopted a turkey through Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY. (The turkey will live at the Sanctuary; Amy is more its sponsor.) Anyway, she sent me these adorable (well, I think so) turkey photos you might like to see: http://www.adoptaturkey.org/adopt.htm.

A couple of weeks ago I had a very quick trip to my hometown of Kansas City to visit my mother-in-law. I was just there for a minute, it seemed, so I didn’t get to contact many people, but it was sweet---well, sweet and bittersweet---to be back home. I remember Kansas City as being so urban and vital and centralized when I was a kid. Downtown was booming. Over the years, like most cities, my hometown has spread out to suburbs on all sides, and although there’s a great art scene in KC, and some wonderful theater, the urban energy I remember isn’t the same. I suppose part of what I’ve found in New York is a memory I kept looking for in Kansas City. I was talking with a woman here recently who said she was dying to move to LA, that as a native New Yorker she can’t bear to see how New York is changing. I guess I’m blessed that I don’t know how it was, so it seems absolutely grand to me.

I think that’s about it for the moment. This evening I’m going to a book launch for John St. Augustine’s new book, Living an Uncommon Life: Essential Lessons from 21 Extraordinary People, based on John’s long-running PowerTalk Radio series. He’s now working for Oprah doing programming for her XM station. It starts at 6, it’s 5 now, so I need to start making myself presentable. Thanks for taking the time to share some of your day with me. I probably don’t know you, but I do appreciate you.

My very best,
Victoria