Happy Birthdays, Boyzz

With two birthday boys in the house this weekend, it's been an indulgent couple of days, and I expect my Weight Watchers weigh-in on Monday will confirm as much. Sigh... But why complain? My beautiful son is stretching toward teendom, and my beautiful husband is almost three years past cancer treatment and going strong. Life is sweet! So let us eat cake and have it, too, and may all groaning scales be damned. Happy Birthday, everyone, whenever yours happens to be.

It's that Wonderful, Colorful Time of Year

...and I'm not talking fall foliage -- though that's always a sight for sore eyes, too. No, I'm referring to the painted skies over Albuquerque during this city's signature event: BALLOON FIESTA! Shutter bug that I am, I naturally do my level best (or, let's say, my upwardly shooting best!) to help win this Kodak-sponsored spectacle the distinction of World's Most Photographed Annual Event. Here's a tiny (and yet, gigantic) sample from my accumulated scads of balloon pix, doing double duty as a shout out to all my old pals in Tucson and the surrounding Sonoran Desert, where the majestic saguaros grow. Yeehaw!

Okay, I'll give you another hint

As I launch the CHANGING MOON journaling group tomorrow (Sat., 1/10, 5-7 p.m., at The UPS Store at Central & Yale SE in Albuquerque), the focus of my talk will be CREATION MYTH. Bring your journal, come listen to a lovely little creation myth of Caribbean origin, and be prepared to apply the creation-myth concept to yourself.

What are YOU creating in your life in this New Year?

I can't wait to meet you! Bring your friends, too, okay? 'Cuz I can't wait to meet them either.

Love Love Love
Sheila

Please come this Saturday!

You know what this Saturday is?

It's 2009's first Full Moon. And it's the official start of StudioFiftyForty's premier journaling series: CHANGING MOON.

I've been running all over the Duke City posting posters*. Have you seen any of them? Are you wondering, "What the heck is journaling, anyway?" Yes, well, sometimes the posters I design forget to mention the most helpful tidbit. In this case, for instance, I should'a thought to include the words "FIRST SESSION IS FREE." Because it is.

So -- hey! The rest you can learn when you come over on Saturday, right? Please join me and a small, wonderful group of others at CHANGING MOON's Official Launch, this Saturday, Jan. 10, from 5-7 p.m., at The UPS Store at Central & Yale, near UNM in Albuquerque.

Looking forward to seeing your smiling face,
Sheila

* Don't let me forget to thank Peggy Spencer, the right-good doctor and my beloved coauthor, who did offer to help with poster distribution. Bless her heart! Thanks, Peggy!)

You are cordially invited (and so are all your friends!)

CHANGING MOON

Hiya. Sheila here.
If you're like me, you embrace the notion of New Year's resolutions. Indeed, you embrace the resolutions themselves --- often the same ones, year after year --- until about February or so. Okay, maybe late-January.

But what if we could extend the "new-year-ness" of the year? What if a clean slate -- a clean start -- came along, oh, say, every month or so? Just in time (in other words) for you to rededicate yourself to the cause!

Well, my friends, that is the very gift the Moon gives us:
Every month a New Moon.
Every month a clean slate.

What's more, every lunar month gives us a Full Moon, the perfect occasion for checking progress and reflecting on our own coming-to-fullness.

This is the principle behind (and beneath and throughout) CHANGING MOON, the Journal-Writing Series I'm launching with a free "demo" session on Saturday, Dec. 27, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the UPS STORE near UNM (Central & Yale SE in ABQ). I hope you can come. AND that you'll help me spread the word.

Please forward this link to your writerly friends, your "journaling" friends, your friends who love New Year's resolutions! Anyone you can think of, who might be interested.

CHANGING MOON is the premier presentation of StudioFiftyForty.com, my new (well, newish) "sole proprietorship" and a natural outgrowth of 50 Ways to Leave Your 40s, the book I wrote with medical expert Peggy Spencer, M.D. Someday, I will grow StudioFiftyForty.com into the "the online gift shop for cool people of a certain age." Meanwhile, I'm bringing this baby out to meet the public in real space. Even if "journaling" ain't your bag, I hope you'll show up for the launch party on 12/27.

Thanks to the magically well-timed offer and boundless generosity of UPS Store Manager Mary Ann Mitchell-Carr and her family, IT'S TURNING INTO QUITE AN EVENT! Mary Ann's brother, Donald Mitchell, a professional caterer, will provide coffee, teas, cocoa, and sweet nibbles. Mary Ann has ordered in 50 chairs (fifty! as in Fifty Ways to Leave Your 40s!). I'm preparing a special little piece of "book art" to hand out as party favors.

OH! & WE'LL HAVE DOOR PRIZES!!!

Tell your friends, will you, will you? And plan to come! Saturday, Dec. 27, at the UPS Store near UNM (at Central & Yale SE, in ABQQ). Try to be there by dark!

Hope to see you then!
Love, Love, Love (that ever-lovin' "Way #47")
Sheila

P.S. Stay tuned for details -- dates, rates & offerings.

Tune in, Ft. Collins!

Sheila's on the radio again
namely,
"Memos from Life"
with host Barbara Bue
Monday, Oct. 27th, from 6 to 7 p.m.
on KRFC 88.9 FM or online at krfcfm.org.
Tune in if you get the chance.