#PHOTOADAYAPRIL

32 Things Before I Turn 32 on March 29th 2013

Ok, here's my 32 Things list! I'm pretty excited about all the writing projects that I have on here. I will make more of an effort to post updates this year as I check things off the list!

1. Participate in Nano Write Month
2. Enter Hay House Fiction Writing Contest
3. Read the entire Xanth series by Piers Anthony
4. Dye lavender streaks in my hair
5. Attend a service at Unity
6. Meet Kris Carr
7. Walk the Labyrinth
8. Be Financially Independent
9. Laugh 30 Times a Day
10. Get over 300 followers for ALL my blogs
11. Get at least one article a month published in another blog or magazine
12. Meet Amber Shea from Almost Vegan
13. Attend the Expect Miracles workshop at Kripalu in July
14. Listen to all of Gabby's lectures
15. Read 100 books
16. Get my Etsy shop Beegan Bakeries up and running
17. Meet my soul sister Shelia from Ohio
18. Attend Laughter Yoga
19. Heal Congestive Heart Failure
20. Confirm my cancer is in remission
21. Watch the series finale of Chuck
22. Finish season five of Merlin
23. Write 52 new poems
24. Publish an e-book
25. Create a painting
26. Meet the Spirit Junkie sisters I haven't met yet
27. Do a Julie/Julia project with Spork Fed cookbook
28. Make a peach pie from Isa Moskowitz's Pie in the Sky book
29. Move into the basement apartment at my Dad's house
30. Make at least one recipe a month from Pinterest
31. Do Goddess Leone's Business e-course
32. Read Danielle La Porte's "The Spark Kit" and "Firestarter Sessions"

The First Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks

From Hay House: "Don't ignore intuitive tickles lest they reappear as sledgehammers." That's the first rule of Ten. 

Tenzing Norbu ("Ten" for short)—ex-monk and soon-to-be ex-cop—is a protagonist unique to our times. In The First Rule of Ten, the first installment in a three-book detective series, we meet this spiritual warrior who is singularly equipped, if not occasionally ill-equipped, as he takes on his first case as a private investigator in Los Angeles.

Growing up in a Tibetan Monastery, Ten dreamed of becoming a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. So when he was sent to Los Angeles to teach meditation, he joined the LAPD instead. But as the Buddha says, change is inevitable; and ten years later, everything is about to change—big-time—for Ten. One resignation from the police force, two bullet-wounds, three suspicious deaths, and a beautiful woman later, he quickly learns that whenever he breaks his first rule, mayhem follows.

Set in the modern-day streets and canyons of Los Angeles, The First Rule of Tenis at turns humorous, insightful, and riveting—a gripping mystery as well as a reflective, character-driven story with intriguing life-lessons for us all.

My Review: Buddhist Monk turned Homicide Detective turned Private Investigator. Here begins our relationship with Tenzing, a man who gets shot, quits his job and starts an investigation that takes us on an incredible journey. Throughout the novel we see how he came to live at the monastery, his tepid relationship with his father, why he left the Monk lifestyle to join the force, and how he continues to incorporate his Buddhist teachings into his new life. 

In the beginning, a woman comes to Ten's house, looking for the previous owner. They were lovers, until she left him and joined a spiritual cult. Ten has just left his job the previous day, has no income and is a little disjointed, so he inaccurately reads the situation and turns her away without any information. The next day cops come to his house, and let him know her body was found in the park, strangled to death. Feeling guilty for not helping her out, Ten decides to take on the case himself and give her Spirit peace. He connects with the previous owner to tell him the news and find out more about this woman. In the process, he discovers this case may run much deeper than he originally realized. Mafia connections, insurance fraud, murder and that's just the beginning. 

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is that although it is a "serious" crime novel, the Buddhist teachings spread throughout ensure that it is never dark, never hopeless, never makes you queasy. When Ten quits his job, his partner on the force, Bill, is concerned that he won't be able to survive without money. Ten assures him that the Universe always provides, and you see him go through his own private ceremony, communing with the Buddha, meditation, etc. to bring abundance into his life. Shortly thereafter, a freebie case turns into over $15,000, with three clients paying to essentially solve what becomes one case. It's enough to get him officially set up in his practice and be comfortable for awhile. 

The mystery kept you on your toes; we met a great cast of characters including John D, an elderly man living on a defunct almond farm who "adopts" Ten as his son. Together they do a lot of the investigating and grow extremely close in the process. 

I highly recommend this novel. If you are interested in a great mystery, powerful characters, a bit of Spirituality, and just a tiny speckle of romance, this book is for you. 

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Hay House Publishing for this review. The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

30 Days of Beauty

Check out 30 Days of Beauty and follow the hashtag #imbeautifulbecause on Twitter. Post your own thoughts on beauty! 

Wild Sister Magazine

Wild Sister Magazine is a gorgeous ~60 Page online monthly magazine created by Jen Saunders. Each month has a theme, such as Gratitude, Self Love, Abundance, etc. The magazine is filled with articles, stories, poetry, artwork from Wild Women from every perspective of life. I discovered this magazine a few months ago and have been incredibly inspired by it. I contact Jen to see if she would answer some questions for us. Happily, she said yes! Click HERE to subscribe to Wild Sister Magazine.

1. How would you describe Radical Self Love? 

To me, Radical Self Love is loving your whole self, the light and the dark of who you are. It's being comfortable in your own skin, shining your light, loving beyond fear, and knowing what makes you happy – and doing what makes you happy. It's authenticity, vulnerability, and honesty. It's knowing you are enough. It’s shining your light so that others can shine their light, too.

2. In what ways do you feel you spread the message of Radical Self Love, or ways you might want to?

I feel I spread the message of Radical Self Love through Wild Sister, which focuses heavily on inspiring and empowering women. I hope I have been able to spread this message by example too, by loving myself, learning to be kinder to myself, and sharing my vulnerabilities with others.

I am planning to spread this message even further this year, firstly by launching the Wild Sisterhood – an online space for women to connect and work together to lift each other up and change the world – and also by starting a new passion project of mine; painting empowering portraits of women.

3. What inspired Wild Sister?

I've always been fiercely passionate about helping women see how amazing they really are, and I became so frustrated seeing my closest friends frowning at themselves in the mirror, putting themselves down, and putting other women down to make themselves feel better. Of course, I have been guilty of all this too, but it always made my heart ache to see women who were so beautiful to me dulling their light.

I feel it is my purpose in life to use art and writing to help women love themselves, own their power, and follow their heart. Wild Sister magazine is how I do this, and I hope to add more ways to live my purpose in the future.

4. Creating a magazine sounds like an overwhelming adventure; could you share with us the process of starting up a magazine? Such as getting permissions, your site up, getting subscribers and submissions,etc.

It all happened so quickly, and I honestly had no idea what I was doing! I have been extremely fortunate to have such amazing women working with me to create each issue. It's absolutely a team effort, and I'm so grateful to be surrounded by creative, intelligent, brave, kind, and authentic women.

I had been blogging for a while, and I became friends with other bloggers too. So, when I decided to create a magazine, I emailed all my favourite bloggers and asked them to be a part of it. Once I had writers, I got to work on creating the website and spreading the word. The writers sent me their first submissions, I found an amazing Assistant Editor (Dani of Positively Present), and I worked non-stop for a week to put the first issue together in time for the release. Luckily for me, I was living overseas and unemployed at the time, so I had plenty of time to dedicate to getting Wild Sister off the ground!

It all seems like a blur now, but I can tell you it involved a lot of time in Wordpress, Photoshop, Pages, on social media, and many, many emails. In fact, it still does! But I am very fortunate to be in love with what I do, which makes it easier for me to dedicate so much time to it.

5. What are your goals with Wild Sister?

I have so many! I want Wild Sister to inspire and empower as many women as possible, because I fiercely believe that by empowering women we can empower the world.

I want the Wild Sisterhood to be a sacred temple for women to come together, be inspired, and change the world.

Causes that focus on empowering women are especially important to me, so I hope to support them through organising fundraisers and other passion projects with the Wild Sisterhood. Our first one is coming up in April, called 30DaysOfBeauty, so stay tuned!

I want Wild Sister to be a movement, one that promotes positive media, self-love, equality, kindness, and love. I want it to spread a ripple effect of love through the Universe, and encourage more movements.

6. You have a specific topic for your magazine, what's coming up?

The March issue is focused on women we admire, and the April issue topic will be 30DaysOfBeauty, encouraging positive body image and self-love. Future topics are still being decided.

7. You've created a new social networking program that you are about to launch, tell us a little about that.

Oh I'm so excited about this! It launches on Wednesday 22nd February (my 25th birthday!) and it's called the Wild Sisterhood. It's an online community for women, and also serves as a subscription to Wild Sister Magazine! It's kind of like Facebook, but with more focus on women, empowerment, and positivity!

It will make reading the magazine a much more interactive experience. Members can download the latest issue from the Sisterhood store and talk about their favorite articles and share their Aha! Moments with fellow readers – and even talk to the writers who wrote their favorite articles!

Wild women connecting from all over the world, forming friendships, sharing stories, supporting each other, owning their beauty, inspiring and empowering one another. Magic!

8. How would someone go about submitting to your magazine?

The submission guidelines are on the website (http://wildsister.com/contribute/), and it's pretty easy to do.

We include about 5-10 submissions from readers in every issue, and we've just reopened submissions for 2012!

9. You also have a personal blog, My Smiling Heart (loved it!), share a little about this.

I started My Smiling Heart after I had a life-changing physical/mental/spiritual breakdown, or rather, breakthrough. My whole world had been turned upside down, and My Smiling Heart was my therapy, a way to document my journey as I rebuilt myself from ruin.

More than a year later, it's a positivity blog, a place to share my art, and where I bare my soul. I wouldn't be who I am today without it.

10. You are so creative, where do you get your inspiration?

Thank you! Inspiration comes to me pretty randomly. It can be sparked by anything, a movie, nature, stories, a thought, art. My biggest inspirations are women who love themselves, take hold of their power, and use their lives to make the world a better place.

11. You married recently, how is it going?

I love being married! I'm so surprised by this, because I never thought about getting married when I was younger. But it's so much fun, I can't explain it, I just feel so blessed that I get to spend every day with my favorite person in the world. I'm a very lucky girl!

12. Anything you'd like to add?

Thank you so much! Your questions have been so much fun to answer, you can interview me anytime! :)

Hi! I'm Jen, a stargazing, rainbow riding, empowerment artist. I’m the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Wild Sister Magazine, and a positivity junkie who loves to dance with words, paint with love, and connect with kindred spirits from all over the world.

Wild Sister: http://www.wildsister.com/

Wild Sister Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildsistermag

Twitter: @smiling_heart

Instagram: @smilingheart

And the Winner Is....

Jen Saunders from My Smiling Heart and Wild Sister Magazine!!! Congrats on winning my contest for followers. I will be contacting you for your address and getting your package out to you shortly!

Don't fret dear ones! I have more contest ideas up my sleeves. Thank you to everyone who participated; I hit my goal and then some.

Poetry Wednesday's: Universal Truth

Love, the honey kissed wind sending hugs from the Universe across the stars,

embracing the serenity of the forests, the crashing of the ocean responds

with its ferocious beauty; the dolphins prance, dancing, mermaids by their side

Galloping through the forest, sending dreams of wonder to little girls across the galaxy,

the Unicorn, takes a bow and honors the fairies who guard Mother Earth,

precious, she communes with the Sun and Moon, spreading the Universal truth,

We are all Goddesses, basking in the glory of our physical natures.

Our Spirit, it sings; heart-songs travel the rivers, searching for peace.

As I stand naked before the skies, I pray, I pray for forgiveness,

for the ones trapped in darkness. I pray and the Universe answers,

you are worthy, you are loved...

and I believe, wrapped in gratitude, this life, a gift.

And the Angels sing my name, and I know I will never be alone again.