Gearing up: a challenging year's ahead

My life is (finally) moving in the direction of "balance" - between personal and professional. It feels incredible.

Workaholism has been such a big part of my life - because I love what I do so much, and I think because my creative work is such a safe haven for me.

But over the past year I've pushed myself to find other ways to share that love among other healthy activities and people.

And I know it takes effort to maintain that harmonic flow.

Passion flows in both directions when there's balance - the passion for work flows into the passion for one's personal life (and back again).

It's in the awareness. I'm always talking to my coachees about awareness - doing things awarely is a great way to empower ourselves. Buddhists say that whatever we do awarely generally leaves us free from regret.

Having four pets helps a lot - three Pomeranians and an Allie Cat remind me there's much more to life than work 24/7, as much as I adore my work. A session of frolicking, playing fetch, taking a walk, snuggling and napping wrapped in my arms is a perfect play date for them, just as it is with kids.

Spending many hours of quality time with friends over the holidays has been incredibly reinforcing to my new balancing act.

At this point, work-wise, I've committed myself to writing six feature scripts next year (including my first animated feature), producing and directing an actor's reading for the feature I wrote with executive producer Chris Koruga, The Herbalist (Got Chi?), at a Seattle theater next month; I've limited my coaching practice to 10 people; singing and other projects are in the works, but as the old saying goes, I'll have to take it one day at a time - taking care of myself and my relationships with equal zeal and zest!

What is sacred to you?

I had the most interesting thing happen in one of my coaching sessions recently.

It rocked my world.

As we wrapped up our meeting, my writing/performing coachee told me he considered our sessions and our work "sacred." That he considered my "wisdom," my willingness to share it so openly, and our collaboration sacred.

More, he considers my home studio a sacred place because he has derived so much knowledge and so much good here.

"This is a sacred place to me," he added thoughtfully.

I instantly realized that my relationship with most people who come through that door is sacred. That's not enough. Every relationship I have chosen to be in should be sacred. If it's not, why not?

I thought - when we consider ourselves, our time, our love, our art, our minds and souls, health, relationships, work, homes, children, pets; acts of learning, of sharing, of enlightening and empowering as well as becoming enlightened or empowered "sacred," they become intrinsically more valuable and appreciated.

Perhaps even considering our possessions sacred might limit those we collect and purchase, appreciating more those we do choose to bring home or use or give away.

When we understand the sacred, we remain aware of life instead of letting it pass us by; we are clearly conscious of what we are doing, where we are going, what we want, what we want to do and how we want to live.

I just realized that if we who have weight issues would consider food sacred, our relationship with what we eat would change significantly; if we considered our bodies sacred, our relationship with how we treat it and what we feed it would change as well -- all for the good.

I'm not suggesting that every relationship in the world should be sacred, but that when we choose to have a relationship, its sacredness should become sacrosanct.

The opposite of making our lives, love, work and relationships sacred is to neglect them, and/or take them and our lives for granted.

I guess I don't want to live that way.

I'm up for experiencing more things as sacred.

Yes, the words of my protégé were a genuine and awe-inspiring awakening.

Thank you, Earl.

The student has once again become the teacher. Namaste.