This weekend, Barry and I met my parents for a little adventure — the Northern California coastline, the Southern Oregon coastline, and the Redwood forests.

Yes, that one little pocket of the world contains sandy beaches, rocky shorelines, and awe-inspiring trees, all within a few miles of each other.

Here’s Barry with my parents by the California beach…

And Dad’s taking my picture as I take theirs!

You’d never know it was North instead of South… this is the type of beautiful beach that you could find and enjoy in nearly any warm climate area in the world.

If you blindfolded someone and brought them here, they’d probably never guess where they were!

Then we moved further North up the coastline, where it turns rockier (and windier! Wow!) but just as beautiful.

This is me above the point where the sand and rocks meet… like teeny rocks that have been formed from what the big rocks once were.

Millions of years of history can be seen in a place like this — and it’s amazing that we get to experience it.

I like to imagine it 100 years ago. Did it look the same?

What about 1,000 years ago?

How many people have stood, just like me, above the beach with the wind whipping all around them?

Things like that make me stop and contemplate the world we live in, and the way it has unfolded over time.

It also makes me enjoy the moment, even as I think fleetingly about other moments that have also been enjoyed in that very same spot.

After that we headed back south and went through the Redwood forests, on a small trail off the beaten path (literally — it’s just a dirt road), stopping every now and then to take a short hike into the huge trees.

This picture gives you some idea of the size of the giant Redwoods, as Barry walked behind the rest of us… but for some reason, none of the pictures we took really did them justice.

The awe-factor somehow seemed to go missing as soon as the 3-D world was captured on a 2-D photo.

This really makes me think about our significance (or rather, insignificance) in the vastness of the Universe.

It makes me appreciate everything we’ve created, everything we co-exist with, and everything that defines what we call home.

And of course, it makes me appreciate those I love that were there to experience it with me.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

My parents came to visit a few days ago… they’re here for almost a 2-week stay, and they’re planning to see as much of the area as they can during that time.

They’ve never been to Oregon, but it’s strangely reminiscent of Ontario in a lot of ways (besides both starting with an “O”)… for instance, both have beautiful rivers and tree-filled scenery, and both have Shakespearean festivals that are among the top in the world.

So Barry and I thought they’d enjoy going to a play here at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland… and I decided on A Comedy of Errors, which was presented as a Western musical.

Yes, Shakespeare, Western twangs, and song-and-dance — all in the same play.

This picture of us is one Barry took a few hours before the show, walking around the quaint historic downtown Ashland. And since my Dad is a retired history professor, we knew he’d like the old-time aspects of the town, and also the local school — so we took him to explore the campus of Southern Oregon University.

It’s interesting how things happen in patterns in life… and no matter where we go, we find things that remind us of home.

It reminds me of the saying, “Wherever you go, there you are.”

I moved 3,000 miles across the continent, and to a different country, almost a year ago… to follow my heart.

And here I am.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Brian Johnson, our marketing assistant at LWL Worldwide, sent us an interesting article yesterday.

It’s about a placebo pill developed by a woman who wanted to control her niece’s hypochondria by giving her some kind of pill — preferably not a drug, since her mother-in-law (also a nurse) had suggested Motrin.

Since placebos were not readily available at the drug store, she decided to develop one for kids called Obecalp (”placebo” spelled backwards). Basically a gummy candy that’s meant to taste bad so children think it’s medicine.

The whole article in the NY Times is here.

Okay, hold on a second… I sense good intentions from the inventor — after all, she didn’t want to give her children or her niece REAL drugs — but, come on! What the heck are we trying to teach our kids with this kind of “solution”?

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Well, for the past several months Barry and I have been looking at EVERY house in the local market that fell within a certain price range.

But we’re picky… we need somewhere we can live and work together 24/7, since we work out of the home. We need a place that has room for two offices (we work separately because when one of us is on the phone, interviewing someone or chatting up business associates and JV partners, or recording audios or screen-capture videos, both of us need to be able to concentrate, and not be interrupted).

And of course, we also need someplace with a separate bedroom for the baby that’s both near our bedroom, and my office, so he/she (we’re now affectionately calling the baby Mango instead of Peanut since that’s about the size he/she is) can get immediate attention when required, and when not sleeping right beside me.

We need a nice yard, where we can work outside if we want, or get some fresh air while still having privacy, or meditate and connect with nature… and we need to be away from noisy streets for sanity, and so we don’t have traffic noises in every recording we do.

We also need room for our home gym and our video studio. We need a big walk-in closet (yes, NEED, or else we have to live in an uninspiring mess). And we need modern bathroom and kitchen facilities, with a double sink in the master (because that’s what we’re used to) and granite or tile counter tops in the kitchen, including an island in the middle (because that’s what we like).

Yup, we need the perfect house… but we want this champagne-grade house on a beer budget.

And finally we found it… or, perhaps, it found us…

Click HERE To Continue > > >

A year ago this weekend, Barry and I were at the System Seminar in Chicago… and met face-to-face for the first time ever.

We had been working together for over 6 months by that point, and had just had a major success with the launch of Masters Of The Secret…

And we had been friends for over a year.

As business partners, we had done our fair share of arguing (hey, two ambitious, driven people who are passionate about what they do are bound to clash from time to time)…

But meeting in person allowed us to see that there were elements of each others’ personalities we had never noticed or given the other person credit for before.

Hanging out for the whole weekend — shooting video interviews together, attending sessions at the seminar together, eating meals together, and one night even exploring why “Chicago, Chicago is my kind of town” with a trip downtown to a jazz club and The Second City comedy show — cemented that we really were good together, both as friends and business partners.

But something else happened that weekend that was totally unexpected…

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Last night Barry and I went to the gym for date night.

I know, the gym… how romantic, right?

But we actually have a lot of fun at the gym together.  Usually it starts off with some stretching and/or machine workouts, then a game of basketball, and finally a dip in the pool.

We used to end the pool time with a hot tub soak, but now that I’m pregnant I’m not supposed to submerge myself in water that hot — there is a warm therapeutic pool that’s the next best thing, though… and we can do water yoga, stretches, small laps, or use the water weights for an enjoyable workout.

And… having Barry pull me around the pool with a foam tube is a fun ride for me (and a great workout for him).

But last night, the most amazing part happened before we got in the pool!

Click HERE To Continue > > >

This morning I went to get my second ultrasound done, with my new OB/GYN at the Women’s Health Center here in town.

The baby is 9 weeks old now… and wow, has it grown since my first ultrasound at 6 weeks!

Not only that, but I saw it actually moving this time — whereas at 6 weeks he/she (or Peanut, as we call him/her) was just sleeping. And I heard the heartbeat, as strong and healthy as can be.

Here’s my latest baby picture. You can almost make out the hands and feet, which were actually waving around quite quickly at the time. The arrow is pointing at his head (yes, the head is the same size as the body).

It sure brings the term “miracle” into perspective when you can see the living results two people made… basically out of thin air!

I’ve seen the miracle of birth many times when I was breeding cats (and one of the reasons I chose my doctor is because she delivered her first litter of kittens at 9 years old)… but it’s different when it’s inside you.

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Today Barry and I were watching the Final Four basketball play-offs, part of the NCAA March Madness tournament.

We’ve been watching it all along, and guess what? I’m actually enjoying watching it!

I always figured that if I was going to watch sports, it might as well be at the pro level — the players are better, so the game would be more exciting, right?

But Barry has taught me that college basketball is even more fun and inspiring, because anything can happen — with a little determination…

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Easter has come to represent a time of new beginnings.

Eggs are a symbol of new life, Spring is a time of new growth, and we see images of baby rabbits, ducks and chickens everywhere we look.

Of course the religious tradition of Easter revolves around new beginnings as well, so it all makes sense.

This year, the Easter Bunny brought Barry and I something special… a new beginning of our own.

We just found out we’ve created the ultimate in manifestations — a new being (who will embody an old soul, but be new to this lifetime) that has already been created, but will be born to the world in November (shortly before my own birthday).

Yes… we’re expecting a baby!

Probably the most exciting, life-changing manifestation that exists!

And just like manifesting a career, a partner, a house, a car, wealth, health, or anything else — it’s after the initial seed is planted that the gestation period kicks in, and finally what you’ve created appears.

It never appears right away — because it needs time to develop, and for you to be ready for it, while it gets ready for you.

Funny how we all accept that when it comes to pregnancy… and yet we’re impatient when manifesting anything else on the above list.

Maybe we need to think of all our manifestations as babies, so we give them the patience, love and understanding they deserve.

Happy Easter!

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Yesterday Barry and I went to Medford… I had an appointment at the LASIK center (my eyes have now healed, but while the vision in my left is perfect, the vision in my right has gone back to where it used to be when I wore contacts — that’s good because it’s better than it has been the past month, and because I still have some contact lenses that I can wear while I wait another two months to get a LASIK touch-up!)

Then we met with a prospective new business associate, and afterwards stayed for our weekly “date night”.

Yes, every Friday night is date night… so no matter how busy, frustrated, or buried in work we get during the week, we always know that Friday night is our time to relax, get out of work mode, enjoy each others’ company and appreciate being together.

Nothing is better for a relationship than the time you dedicate to each other, and you can kick that up a few notches by feeling grateful and appreciative for every moment that it lasts.

This time we went to Red Lobster (one of my favorite restaurants — and the one in Medford happens to be the only one around), followed by a movie.

The movie was forgettable… it was called Vantage Point, and the description seemed like an almost metaphysical drama about different viewpoints surrounding a situation, but it played out more like a boring repeat of the same viewpoint with emphasis on different people each time.

Oh, well, it was time alone, side by side in the dark… who can ask for anything more?

And before it started we had some time to kill, so we played around in the arcade downstairs where they had our favorite toy — a photo booth!

This one only took black and white photos, but gave us the opportunity to be goofy and have some fun… as well as take home a reminder of what fun we have together.

And that’s really what life is all about!

After all, like my email signature says…

The meaning of life is to play the game, have fun, and learn along the way!

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!