Do you matter? I know, what a silly question! Of course the answer is a resounding, "yes!" - right? Amazingly, this statement flies in the face of what many of us learned.

Rushing, rushing, rushing...boredom...so many things to get done - so little time, running late, feeling exhausted...a window of unexpected extra time. What to do? Fill it up to keep the busy feeling going? Allow the peacefulness of quiet? Or just wait for the next onslaught of "must do" to claim your attention. Do you know this one?

How do you explain a puzzle when you take for granted the pieces that create it? In Made to Stick, authors Dan and Chip Heath refer to this predicament as the "Curse of Knowledge." The Consciousness Collaborative is currently faced with its own curse of knowledge.

These last weeks, I have found myself struggling in ways I've not experienced for many years. A friend described it as this, "Joanne, it feels like you're on a boat, by yourself, in the middle of the ocean in complete darkness, and you have no compass." The image resonated strongly for me. Where is my compass?

Think about the last argument you had with someone close to you. Did it disrupt the intimacy? Was there blame involved? Did you hear the words, "you make me feel..." come out of your mouth?

As Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto discovered with his "Messages from the Water" experiment, every thought and word has a vibrational energy so powerful, it alters the molecular structure of water. Yes, you read that correctly. Thoughts and words alter the molecular structure of water! My experience with last month's mirror meditation reminded me of this power.

Ahh...Spring Fever...that time of year when extended sunlight acts as an aphrodisiac...seriously, it's scientifically proven! It reminds me of an article I read a few weeks ago about a matchmaker who has this 80/20 rule. She theorizes, if you find someone with 80% of what you're looking for in a mate, this is a viable match. If you move on, you're likely to find no better than another 80% person - simply a different 80%.

Soon the rains will be coming to wash away winter and give birth to the seeds of spring. It has me thinking about spring cleaning... when everything in the house is polished, laundered, and submerged in some sort of pungent fluid. My grandmother did this every year when I was little; I was her "official helper." My big job was reorganizing the cabinet under the bathroom sink.

As we are immersed in the depths and intensity of winter (my least favorite season), I find myself remembering this one line from a Walt Whitman poem, "I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world." In line with my own growing edge, I thought there might be a lesson here for me.

Happy New Year! Tomorrow the sun will rise on a new day and a new year, and change feels like it's on the horizon. Twelve years ago, the night before we were married, my husband, Mark, and I began a New Year's Eve ritual. At the suggestion of our beloved friend, Bunny Duhl, we held a burning ceremony.