Babyface was amazing.

One of my classes just ended at Scottsdale Community College. Two students wrote some wise and profound messages that I would like to share. The first passage is from the student's own experience. The second is a letter written to the class.

"A real failure in life is when someone has fallen and they don't get up, because they fail to realize that every passing second was another chance to turn it all around." -Z.

"There is a reason for each of you... There will be times of utter solitude and complete devastation. This I promise. But I also promise you that you will experience the greatest heights that life has to offer. You will experience love. You will experience joy and happiness. You will watch your dreams come true right before your eyes. You will change this world in some way." -L.

Having a blog is an odd experience. I envy the youngin's who have had years of practice on "My Space." For the writing to flow, I'm finding that, like in a relationship, I have to tell the truth or I get blocked. I can tell when I have something to say, but am not saying it because all of a sudden I can't come up with anything to say. Confused yet?

So here's what I have to say. I feel like I'm putting my words into a big black hole. It feels as if I'm yelling in the forest, somewhat useless to be perfectly honest. However, my ex-husband, still handy in a blogging sort of way, assures me that I NEED a blog so I will continue to babble on.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to share a saying from my first yoga teacher, "An attitude of gratitude is prayer in action."

'Tis the Friday before Thanksgiving. For the first time ever, my parents will be out of town, leaving "the kids" to celebrate on our own. Despite my ripe age of 41, this feels oddly grown up.

I will miss my parents - they are the best. At the same time, I feel excited about being with my siblings and watching all our beautiful children run around and enjoy themselves.

The energy of the holiday will be different, but I'm sure just as sacred.

This weekend I am attending the "Celebrate Your Life" conference. It is amazing. So far I've seen Carolyn Myss, Wayne Dyer, Doreen Virtue and others. Today, I get to see my beloved Deepak Chopra.

My sister Michelle and I are there together. Although there is a year and a half between us, we are like twins. We speak the same, laugh at exactly the same time and look people intensely in the eyes when they speak. We often joke that the two of us together are like a dessert that's too sweet - appealling at first, but quickly too much...

What I have learned at this conference is that the only difference between the brilliant people speaking and the rest of us is that they have developed good habits. One such habit - for the truly powerful speakers - is meditation. Meditation gives us the power, courage, insight and will to make choices in alignment with our highest selves.

The voice of intuition gets louder each time we tune in during meditation - life will lead if we let it - it seems so simple and elegant.

My baby sister's birthday just passed - she's no longer a baby, but for some reason I frequently call her Anna (my daughter's name) by mistake...

Anna and I spent Sunday morning painting butterflies as part of my sister's gift. We used watercolors and chalk and ended up with a bunch of beautiful, vibrant, butterflies in different shapes, sizes and colors.

So many things about creating those butterflies inspired me. Having fun with my daughter, creating beauty with color and texture, and the butterflies themselves - perfect symbols of life after life.

My sister loved her gift - a simple bulletin board for her home office with the butterflies pinned all over it. She's going to use it for pictures of her own baby who is growing and changing so fast.

Today as I started to meditate I found myself thinking about money. Making money, saving money, investing money... It occurred to me that I spend a lot of time and energy thinking about what I want. It's always something - to be more fit, to have more, to achieve more.

Quickly I realized that I was swimming in materialism while trying to meditate. I dropped my awareness down deeper into myself and affirmed, "my life is overflowing with abundance." At first I didn't feel it, but something in me would not budge until I felt the words I was saying. So I started to think about all the blessings in my life - too many to count.

After a few minutes I felt it. When I was done meditating I went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. I noticed my beautiful fruit bowl that my brother and sister-in-law made me years ago full of bannanas, pears, and apples. I grabbed my favorite coffee mug out of the cupboard. It's purple and says, "prosperity" on it.

I can still feel it and am so grateful that I remembered all that I am and all that I have.