Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Some people are waiting in anticipation, and others are dreading it. I am already getting calls from clients about it. The people who really enjoy Valentine’s Day the most are Hallmark, florist, and chocolate companies.

Ten years ago, a few days after Valentine’s I was having a conversation with a group of women.  A woman was bragging how her boyfriend gave her flowers, chocolate, and a card. I responded “Well that was very nice, what does he do for you the rest of the year?”  Her face turned bright red. She knew that I knew how rotten he was to her.  Gifts do not mean much if your mate treats you badly.

Singles often have the most problems with this day. They dread seeing all the Valentine’s displays. It feels like everybody in the world has someone but them. I understand how they feel.  I was single on a year when Valentine’s fell on a Saturday, everyone I knew was out with their honey, and I got a delivery of a picnic basket filled with candy from my sister.  That night I gorged on the majority of the contents of the basket and regretted it the next day. It was then that I decided that on Valentine’s Day I give rather than receive. The following year I bought a box of Valentines children’s card and handed them out to everybody.

Please remember that Valentines is just another day. You are an important and valuable person whether you are single, in a relationship or married. It does not matter what gifts you get. What matters most is how kind and loving you are to others.  And that you will only allow kind and loving people in your life.  Love is not subject to one day a year but all year long. Make every day “Love Day.”

Many of my clients think that a significant other is going to make their life magically better.  Somehow all their problems will just disappear when their soul mate comes in. The fact is our mate is there to help us grow and learn lessons.  It is like they are holding up a huge mirror that brings up our defects and past unresolved issues, and we do the same for them. This is not a bad thing because it encourages us to grow into healthier individuals.  Love relationships also teach us compassion, patience, tolerance, how to make compromises, and honoring and respecting differences.  As you can see, a relationship does not magically make your life better. It takes a lot of work.

I constantly get calls from women wanting to know “when is he going to call me and/or when am I going to see him?”  Some of these ladies text or call their men constantly and wonder why they are not getting the response they want. Men also do this, but I see it more with women than men.  If a woman takes the focus off herself and stops making her own happiness, she automatically puts the focus on her man.  She now expects the man to make her happy, and without meaning to, becomes needy and clingy.  Her mate gets confused by her behavior and wonders what happened to the woman he loves.  He starts to pull away because he is feeling suffocated.  She reacts to his distance by pulling closer, which makes him run away even more.

My guides are always telling my clients “focus on you.”  In other words, when you are in a relationship make sure that you keep doing the things you love before you met your significant other.  Enjoy your hobbies, take classes, belong to groups, and get together with friends and family. Have your own life.  This way, when he needs space or pulls away, you will have something other than him to occupy yourself with.  If you are wondering what is going on, call or text once, tops twice, and let him get back to you.  When you leave him alone he starts to wonder, hey, how come she has not called me?  Why is she not chasing me?  What is she doing? Could she be with another guy? He will get in touch with you.

I see this happen again and again, give a man space and he returns. I also know women who hound their mates so much they lose them. Let him be, he will come back around again. If he does not, someone better is coming. Enjoy the time you have together and enjoy the time you have when you are apart. This is the key to a happier relationship.

The drive was boring for a hungry eight year old. In fact we were all hungry and not a restaurant in sight. Finally after what felt like forever, we spotted a hotel with a restaurant. We walked into the place in jeans.  The patrons dressed in evening gowns and tuxedos stared rudely at us sloppy Americans. But hunger out ruled embarrassment.   The meal was very rich and delicious.

After travelling for about a half hour, we pulled over so I could release the expensive, delicious meal all over the side of the road.  The ride was still boring, so I asked my father a question. He starts yelling at me.  I was very hurt and confused, what did I do wrong? Then he starts cussing like crazy. It turns out the Hillman Minx car (from the late 50’s) fan belt had snapped right by Stonehenge.  My father only uses swear words when something breaks down, a habit I picked up, although I swear at other times.

My father leaves us to walk back to a garage he saw down the road. We go over to this famous Stonehenge. I looked around and became outraged. “Rocks! We went through all that for a bunch of rocks!”

Flash forward to today, what I would give to go back to that time.  Back then I would have been able to touch the stones and felt the incredible energy. Today the stones are fenced in because of the damage the tourist have done to them. Maybe someday I will return and see it through the eyes of an adult. I now know that this is a typical reaction of a child. A friend of mine took his family to see the Grand Canyon. When his son looked at it, he angrily said, “We came all this way to look at a hole in the ground!”

Many people think of 2012 as the end of the planet and in a sense it is. No, I’m not talking about doomsday. What will happen is the end of how we have been living and changes that will bring about improvement. My clients have been asking me about 2012 all year long. Instead of major predictions, my guides have given me tools to help you through the transitions.  They just played the song lyric “I got the power.”  What that means to me is people have free will.  Our thoughts and choices will affect mass consciousness. This will have an effect on the outcome of what happens, which is why my guides will not give me major predictions. Nothing is written in stone, we can manifest a more positive outcome.  The following are some tools to help you.

• Take care of the Earth, we are its caretakers.
• Let go of the fear and negative thoughts, those will only create negative outcomes.
• Live in joy and with a positive frame of mind.
• Meditate and practice spirituality so it will be easier to deal with the higher vibration.
• Work on your self growth and strive to be the best person you can be.
• Listen to your intuition and act on its guidance, which is your Angels talking to you. They may tell you to stockpile food, to move by the ocean, to give all your money to charity, or to open an animal preserve. No matter how outrageous it seems, follow your intuition.
•  Be kind and loving to people; do not be greedy.
• Stay in the moment and go with the flow of life.
• Trust God’s plan even if you do not like it or understand it.
• Love is more important than material things.
• Live life to the fullest so when your time comes to go home to the other side, there will be no regrets.

2012 will be a time of magic. We need to feel honored that we are alive at this time. Let us make a positive difference on this planet for our children of the future.

Whether you’re Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Agnostic, Pagan, New Ager, etc., we all want to be loved. Even animals and plants thrive on love. So how do you give love for the holidays? The following will give you some ideas:

* Make crafty gifts, bake homemade goods, cook a meal, or give a back massage. Most people agree those are the best types of gift, because the giver does what they do best and it comes from the heart.

* Spend time with a family member – talk, play games, baby sit, help clean or cook, fix things in their home, walk the dog, or go out to eat.

* Volunteer for a cause that is important to you.

* Clean out your closets and donate your clothes. Give away those old nonperishable food items that are in your cabinets. This is a good gift to give not only during the holiday, but all year round.

* Meet friends for coffee or a meal. Time spent together is more important than a gift.

* Put on a show, read a poem or story, or sing for family and friends.

* Have a positive attitude, smile, and be kind to everyone, no matter what they do. Positive energy creates more positive energy. What a gift to give to the world!

Think of all those long lines, packed malls, hours spent on line, and debt you have avoided. What do you do for those who complain that you’re cheap? Smile; let them know that love is worth millions!

* I published this in 12/2006 on Lady Pens, but the message is still appropriate for 2011! Sending love to all my readers, Happy Holidays!

I spent the majority of my childhood in a large, green Victorian house in Morristown, NJ.  When I was ten, my sister and I had a slumber party. There were at least ten girls laughing, screaming and carrying on that night to the “joy” of my parents.  Someone had brought a Ouija board, so we climbed upstairs to the attic for the perfect atmosphere to experiment with it. There was one set of stairs, a wooden landing that had two windows a few inches above the floor, and another set of stairs. The attic was unfinished and bats sometimes lived up there. My sister and I would write letters to the bats requesting that they leave. You did not know that bats could read?

So, here we are a bunch of girls in a candle lit creepy attic with a Ouija board. We ask a question that I have no memory of and put our fingertips on the planchette.  It moves really fast.  We knew it was not us moving the planchette.  A bunch of screaming girls hightail it out of there and come crashing down the stairs. One of my friends, who I will call Gwen, slips down the stairs. Thankfully, she grabs the banister and does not fly out the window. Unfortunately, a huge shard of glass got stuck in her knee. Some of the girls went home to their parents; the rest of us went to the hospital.  I am sure it was a night to remember for the staff, a bunch of adolescent girls doing poses in front of their surveillance camera.

My friends and I never used a Ouija board again. That stupid board ruined the party, left a scar on Gwen’s knee, and my sister and I were not allowed to have any more slumber parties!  So play it safe and use tarot cards, runes, and a pendulum instead. These tools have a much higher vibration. It still is a good idea to ask God and the Angels for protection whenever you use them.

I was invited to a party for a friend of mine who recently published a book.  The party was at her friend’s home and she wanted us to bring food that we felt our favorite author would eat. I chose two authors one for fiction and one for nonfiction.  For nonfiction Doreen Virtue always encourages her readers to eat healthy foods, so I decided multigrain tortilla chips would be good.  Being a Jersey girl, I love the “Stephanie Plum” series by Janet Evanovich.  I read that Evanovich enjoys junk food, so that is why Stephanie eats massive amounts of junk food in the novels. I thought that chocolate donuts would be good.

I did readings the day of the party. When I was done I received a vision of a pizza cut into sixteen pieces. In many of the books, Stephanie gets a pizza pie and eats it with one of her boyfriends, Joe Morelli. I went to my sisters and brother in law’s pizzeria, “Franks” in Newport, NC and got a pie.  It was cold by the time I got to the party, and who wants to eat cold pizza? Yuck. I did not know most of the people there. I asked for the hostess so I could warm it up.  Some man, who I assumed was the host, thought I was delivering the pizza. I said no I brought it and want to warm it up.  He turned on the oven and put the pizza still in the box into the oven. My intuition told me it was not safe. I asked him, “Is that safe?” He responded, “It is only on two hundred degrees its; fine.”

My friend starts to thank people who have helped with the book.  All of a sudden smoke came of the oven.  I opened the oven and the top of the box is on fire. I could not move, I was in shock, afraid of the fire and so embarrassed.  Mr. “It’s Fine” ran over, took the box out, put out the fire with a dish cloth, and brought it outside.

Luckily half of the pizza was still good. I still feel embarrassed when I think of it because I ignored my intuition, but maybe it was meant to be?  I did announce to the party members that it was kind of appropriate the pizza caught on fire. Because Stephanie Plum is constantly blowing up cars!