today is my birthday! yes, jammed in between christmas and new years. i love having all the milestone days in a row...it creates a time to consider, reconsider, recalibrate, and start the new year with fresh thoughts and directions. each year during this week, i spend time weighing the thoughts and attitudes and directions i've headed in the past year, and what i hope to bring into the next year...and also what the new year requires of me. i mark the promise/hope/intuition with a new necklace, emblazoned with a word or words that best sums it up. this year: be in service. i plan to stamp out the medallion during the week, and spend some time adding charms and trinkets and talismans to the chain. do you do this? i'm not a journaler, although this blog is somewhat of a journal, i suppose. i look back through the year's posts to see what resonates with me...what gives me an urge for a second reading. and usually a theme evolves. this year, the days that gave me the most joy were the ones that were full of giving - the "coincidental meetings" where i was able to help...help for no other reason than i had something that could make a difference to someone else...a skill, a connection, a shoulder to cry on...something that i could offer that changed a person's life. this year, my intuition tells me that there will be much much more of that...that i need to be sharpened to discern need, and be open to what is asked of me to give...to discern when to give and when to let a person's lesson unfold to them. it's easier, by far, to be a "rescuer" than to watch someone struggle through a life lesson. but sometimes that's what needs to happen. this year, i am planning to set up a philanthropic organization to be able to give as needs are presented. i say organization, but don't mean a large bureaucratic body requiring forms and justification. more to come on all that as it becomes reality. but the thought of being able to provide a service, a connection, an opportunity, and yes sometimes money to someone to help them realize their life's needs and purpose - just the thought is so exciting. it's has been amazing to me to see how the smallest gesture can sometimes make a huge impact. so share with me: what are your thoughts, hopes and dreams for your own life this next year? what things are you hoping to express more of, or develop? what are you hoping to leave behind in 2011 and replace in 2012? sometimes seeing it in print helps gel it... wishing you each a new, fresh beginning, with lightness, purpose and direction.