​Wishing each of you the happiest of holidays as we begin the festive and religious month of December. May you enjoy every moment of celebrating, recalling previous holidays and creating new memories with friends and family, right here and right now. 
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In my late thirties, I had a group of girlfriends who began exploring a variety of spiritual viewpoints. We had fallen away from our childhood religious beliefs and were searching for a new perspective and connection with God. We attended a variety of churches and workshops and listened to the latest and greatest speakers on personal growth and enlightenment. The 80's and 90's were saturated with self-proclaimed gurus and teachers all professing a path to self-realization, spiritual awakening, and reaching the pinnacle of a happy life. 

My siblings and I have a list of endearing qualities to describe our mother. At the top of mine would be her storytelling acumen. As young children, without radio, television, computers or our mother’s ability to read, listening to her stories entertained, educated and informed us of our heritage and ancestors whose lives we proceeded. 
One such story was only a tale to our young ears, until as adults we discovered an ancestral connection we did not expect or could have imagined.  

 In the town of San Juan Capistrano, California stands a small adobe home, constructed sometime in the 1840s.  The Parra Adobe is an area historical site, and is the former residence of farmer Miguel Parra, whose family migrated from Spain to Mexico between the 1500s to the 1600s. In the 1800s the Parra family migrated from Sonora, Mexico to San Juan Capistrano, California. 

The solar system has one star, eight planets, five officially named dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, thousands of comets, and more than a million asteroids. In a similar vein, no one organ of the body acts alone, regulation of body health cannot occur without the cooperation of the integumentary, lymphatic, respiratory, endocrine, nervous, immune, respiratory, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular system. Plants, Animals, Minerals, Water and the Seasons are systems coordinated within each other and upon each other as the essential process of evolution for life on Earth. 

I hadn’t given ‘Systems’ much thought. I took it for granted and assumed that things worked out on their own randomly.  Until twenty-seven years ago, after being in the beauty industry for twenty-nine years and was ready to quit my profession. I had become highly sensitive to most hair products and my hands were hurting, swollen and bleeding. Fortunately for me, through a conversation with my beauty supply consultant, I was introduced to Eufora. 

The phrase "know thyself" is attributed to several people, including Socrates, Aristotle, Lao Tzu, and each one of us when we’re not sure why we do what we do. 

Socrates believed that philosophy – the love of wisdom – was the most important pursuit above all else. Aristotle taught that knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom and Lao Tzu stated that knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom, mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

Recently, my friend Mary Beth and I took a one-day road trip to Winslow, Arizona to "stand on the corner of Winslow Arizona," a public spot established in 1999 commemorating the song "Take it Easy" written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey and recorded by the Eagles. (We’re at that age that we remember the song)
Both of us are busy in our lives with work, family, friends, and maintaining our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing; it’s a full-time job. Every year we set aside a day to do something special with each other for our birthdays. This trip to Winslow, we were observing my delayed birthday celebration. On our three-hour drive on the B-Line Highway going through Payson, Pine and nearing our destination, an awareness of Other-Centered consciousness entered my mind. It was a light-bulb moment of wakefulness and gratitude. 

During one of our many conversations, Mary Beth was re-counting a recent trip she had and was describing the people she met. In her calm and descriptive manner of talking, detailing the events, and discussions she experienced, the light-bulb moment came when I realized how thoroughly she captured people’s lives. As if I had never noticed before, on this day, clearly, I heard the difference between a Self-Centered or Other-Centered person. One is either centered on the self or centered on others. It is a skill Mary Beth has developed in being Other Centered when she captures the lives of others and remembers them in an interesting retelling of the experience. She is interested and it becomes interesting. 

I have been a fan of Julio Melara, author, speaker, entrepreneur, publisher, and CEO of Melara Enterprises, a multi-media company which publishes Business Repost for a variety of magazines and newsletters. He also writes a monthly article which seems to appear in my emails with perfect timing. I trust you will enjoy his words of wisdom as I do.  

“Have you ever had a couple of days or weeks full of problems? Well lately I’ve had lots of them, and it got me thinking as I paused to think and reflect about how to solve them. In our journey of both business and life, we encounter a myriad of challenges and obstacles. Yet, it's crucial to recognize that problems aren't roadblocks; rather, they are opportunities for growth, innovation, and progress. I want to discuss the value of problems and the importance of confronting them head-on.

​Thirty years ago, in the month of May, my sister Maggie married Gary. When they met, Maggie was a postal worker delivering mail on the streets in central Phoenix. Gary was a police officer working the same neighborhood. He recalls seeing her one day walking her route from house to house delivering mail and it was love at first sight for him. Two years later they married. Blending their families together with adult children and a teenager still at home to raise, they went through the adjustments of matrimony and committed to each other for life. 
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After their wedding, Maggie stopped working to manage their busy home life and Gary left the police department after his parents relentlessly insisted he leave the department. They worried about his safety. He then followed his lifelong desire to become a master woodworker. With a skill for large, complex wall sectionals, cabinets, and furniture, including our Pluma Studio custom cabinetry, he has an eye for detail and spatial configuration with anything wood related. He is talented.

Just when I thought I’ve heard everything on aging well, optimal health, longevity, exercise, and the importance of emotional, spiritual, and relational health, an insightful book by Dr. Peter Attia finds its way to me. Thank you, Barbara Madorin, for the recommendation. The book is the newest wake-up call for proceeding from the eras of medicine, health, and science 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0 and beyond. 

OUTLIVE, The Science & Art of Longevity is one of the most comprehensive and transformative dialogue on how to be ‘alive’ while living. I realize it sounds redundant to state the obvious. Isn’t everyone who is living alive? Not necessarily. 

On September 2, 2013, Diana Nyad, at 64 years old, after 4 failed attempts and 35 years from her first attempt, swam from Cuba to Florida, accomplishing her life-long dream of swimming non-stop nation to nation. Due to forceful currents in the water, the 103 miles turned into 110 miles. It took her 52 hours and 44 minutes to reach her goal. Continually in the water, swimming across shark-and jellyfish infested waters, without the protection of a shark cage, at the final moment walking out of the water on the beach in Key West Florida, she spoke to an awaiting crowd and uttered these words; “I just want to say, number one, never, ever give up. Number two, you’re never too old to chase your dream, and number three, it looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a team.” In the movie, NYAD, Diana Nyad is portrayed as a persistent, dynamic, egocentric woman who would ‘find a way’ to get things done….no matter what. 

In an interview with Annette Bening, who played Nyad in the movie, I learned of Bening’s compelling decision to play the role.  At age 62, she began training with an Olympic swimming coach for the part. Stating she would not have had the ‘mindset’ had she been any younger to take on such a task. She wanted a challenge, something new, and she too would ‘find a way’ to get it done. 

The Luck of the Irish phrase originated during the second half of the 19th century, according to Edward T. O'Donnell, an associate professor of history at Holy Cross. Many successful miners at the time were Irish. The phrase "the luck of the Irish" was used to imply the miners, immigrants in America, were finding success purely based on luck, rather than based on intelligence and skill.

Although the Irish potato blight receded in 1850, the effects of the famine continued to spur Irish emigration into the 20th century. Still facing poverty and disease, the Irish set out for America where they reunited with relatives who had fled at the height of the famine. The list of successful Irish in America is extensive, from actors to business owners, politicians, and influential leaders in every area of our country.  Were the Irish luckier than any other group of people. Perhaps.  Nonetheless they were intelligent and skilled and open to relocating, retraining, rebuilding, and adapting to new conditions. They made their luck. 
The question is, do you feel lucky?