 We enter the new year perhaps more fully cognizant than ever of the uncertainties life may offer us.
We're super aware how little we can really choose what's outside us: what others do, how the climate behaves, social, global phenomena.
Yet uncertainty can be a gift, too. When we know we can't control others, what are we clearer on? Where is our agency? What do we choose within us?
Where do we place our Solstice light, our flicker in the darkest of the year? What are our actions? Whose world can you light up, near or far? We do have so much affect in our own worlds.
Charity gifts in loved ones' honor (some with gift cards) also help you at tax-time. Always look up a charity's ratings with Charity Navigator or Charity Watch. The following are a few of many I've vetted and feel really good about.
Medical Charities:
*Orbis (gift of sight: 4 stars 10 years running)
*Mercy Ships (includes gift items)
*Doctors Without Borders
Women's Charities:
*Women for Women International (wars, conflicts)
*Girl Power Project (empowering adolescent girls)
*She's The First (42 countries, 16 years)
Feeding And Community:
*Heifer International livestock in communities)
*Children International (we sponsored since 1989)
*International Rescue Committee
Giving Your Time (Volunteering NYC):
*Crossroads (pantry, meals, 51st St/Lexington)
*New York Cares (choose your projects)
*Citymeals on Wheels (homebound seniors)
And, for yourself, perhaps you'd like my New Year's Eve ritual: writing a letter to your future self, sealing it for opening next New Year's Day. It's a time capsule love letter to keep continuously cycling into your own amazing future.
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 I've accrued many sick hours that I am now redeeming over the festive holidays and early January, time to rest, roost, root, write!
When I return to the clubs starting January 18th, here is my January schedule!
Sundays: new times!
Email me for an Equinox day pass if you need one!
You can find my updated schedule any time on my website. For private Restore, Reiki, Thai, or coaching email me directly!
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 ... And adventures big and small.... Last December, we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in the medinas and the kasbahs and on the golden dunes of Morocco.
From Marrakech to Boumaine Dades, Erfoud to Ouarzazate, Agadir to Essouira to Casablanca, it was an unforgettable, memorable, peak life experience, with some peak people! Some years there's Paris, there's Barcelona, or there's Tuscany.
What empathy practice teaches me that is both practical and effective for making life more wonderful: it is the 100+ universal human needs beneath of all our actions, that makes us glad or sad, tense or tranquil. It's our needs that make us feel any of the list of 100 "Feelings associated with met needs,” and any of the 164 "feelings associated with unmet needs.” Yes, I noticed the count gap! interesting social-linguistic phenomenon, no?
 What's been so connecting and liberating for me in the practice of Compassionate Consciousness is the knowing that we all, each and every one of us, have the same universal human needs, we just apply to them our different strategies for meeting those needs.
And even more liberating is knowing that there are limitless strategies for meeting every need. My teacher Thom Bond says there are 10,000 ways to meet any need. A little bit encouraging. No?
And when we can hone down every desire, every hope, every goal we have, to the gem of the precious need within ... and can do so with others we live life with ... well! We have 10,000/squared ways to discover co-creative strategies!
 That's the fun of life, arguably. Having a desire and moving in endlessly new, endlessly creative, directions toward it! This December: Tea Around Town...
Meeting needs for: ease, play, fun, comfort, movement, discovery, adventure, food, beauty, stimulation, inspiration, relaxation! Bon voyage, mes amis!
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Thanks for photos this issue to:
National Asian Artists Project (NAAP) and Baayork Lee, NAAP Broadway Chorus, Hotel Edison, Raul Aranas, Sandy Ames, Raphael Aranas, Raven and Grace Press, Donna Amrita Davidge, Ora Ramat, Rupesh Tarwala, Tea Around Town, Instagram, and my iPhone.
And: to Janel DuRoss for my dancing M+Om logo!
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My story "China Dolls" about my mother, grandmother and me, and its anthology, has made the Amazon Best Seller list, with five-star reviews! Thank you, dear readers!
If you haven't, I hope you'll get it, either on Amazon, or else, order a signed copy from me for $19.95 + $9.95 shipping!
Heal To Lead, Vol.II: Stories to Turn Your Wounds Into Wisdom includes nineteen other stories besides mine, each an inspiring journey of transformation.
Ours is a "give back" book, as a portion of all sales benefits the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
It also comes with a link to a collated workbook, full of tools, meditations, and exercises from all twenty authors, supporting the readers' own journeys of transformation, healing, and self-connection! Get it on Amazon or from me!
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Below is a picture of my bionic hip installed at Lenox Hill Hospital just before Thanksgiving. Dr.Rupesh Tarwala of NY Bone & Joint Specialists is my rockstar surgeon.
Lenox Hill boasts delicious room service by Michelin awards Chef Alan Bennet. I kid you not! The baked cod in white wine! The salmon fillet! The breakfasts! The desserts! Mmmm!
 And, home now with plentiful sweet visitors and time to rest and write, I'm embarked on the next six chapters of my complete book journey, China Dolls and Other Stories: A Chakra Coaching Diary.
Chapter 1: Root, is all about how I historically DIDN’T let myself heal well. Biggest lesson of my life: self-love. Do you identify at all?
What's your biggest lesson you're learning at present? Let me know!
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I honor your email privacy and do not share mailing lists. Please feel free to Reply, Forward, Subscribe, Unsubscribe. I appreciate this cyber sangha, since 2006.
May you know and honor your heart deeply, in 2025. May you feel your connection to All-That-Is.
May you feel your worthiness, and open to needs being fulfilled: yours, and others.
May we find 10,000+ ways to contribute to life: to our own and others.
 Shanti, Salaam, Shalom
OMMMMMMmary
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December Lights * Mary Yoga ENews