A kiss for luck? Maybe.

After reading Jacki’s book, Coventry Magic, I opened my mind and heart to a new way of looking at New Year’s Eve.

How about this is a perfect time to initiate a transformation? Not like the incredible hulk kind of transformation, though that would be cool. I’m talking about a much more intimate and personal inner kind of change that we seal with a kiss as a promise to stick with it until we’re done.

Jacki calls this first step getting comfortable in your own skin. It makes sense to start all important changes with self-love and acceptance. Even football teams huddle to make sure everyone knows the play and is pumped up for success. This month we are going to do the huddle and make sure everyone not only knows, but feels their value and gets really jazzed about it.

We begin with a gentle reality check. Building change on a fantasy or some future goal or past ideal is like building on a foundation of sand. It won’t hold up to challenges or tsunamis. I know this because my dad’s an architect. Anyway, your reality check means take a look at yourself and your life and acknowledge what you see. That is your base line, your raw beauty, and the person you are today.

After that’s done, take responsibility for what you see. You made this. You. Made. This. No one else. Resist blaming someone else. Just own it. How does that feel? Make a note of that. It will be an integral part of your transformation.

Now here’s the fun part. It’s time to celebrate the “you” you’ve made. Every element of your life is the result of all your thinking, playing, experimenting, creating, fighting and whatever you did up till now. Jacki included a Hindu prayer on page 37 to show us how to celebrate our bodies. Go get your book and read it. It will help you celebrate your body and then you can go on to celebrate your life.

I’ll give you a few of my favorite lines.

I recognize you as my temple in which my spirit and creative energy dwell…

I have created you from my need…

I offer you food…

I offer you love…

I accept you as my own creation…

I need you, I love you.

Now say this in celebration of your life; “I recognize this life as an expression of me and there is only one me. I realize I made this life and it’s the place where I play, love, hate, create, learn and grow. I accept my life as my own creation. I need my life and I love my life.”

Take this month to make your foundation one built of love, joy and appreciation of the miracle you really are. Hey, go get yourself a candle, light it and sing yourself a happy birthday song. My choice is the Crown of Glory Hoo Doo candle. You may like something else. Take a look at our website and pick out a birthday candle for yourself, light it and feel awesome about yourself just the way you are. Revel in that because next month we will discuss that weird habit you have that is doing you no good.