Greetings All --

Well, the day of red and pink is imminent. Do you have plans? How do you feel about them? Going with the flow and laying out the cash? Detaching altogether?

It's disheartening what Valentine's Day brings out in so many people. The need to belong. The need to hide. The need to over-indulge. The need to one up. I say we take back our power and make this day what it is supposed to be about -- the love we have in our lives. NOT the love we think is missing from our lives, but the love that is already there.

I just wrote about this in Game Plan, my life coaching column on FoxBusiness.com, in a piece entitled, Think Less About Your Love Life, More About Love. Check it out here.

Please consider forwarding this to some people who might benefit from a positive message on Valentine's Day.

Call it crazy integrity, but I think it's time to reveal that one of my earlier "success" stories has taken a bit of a turn. In my Fall 2007 newsletter, I talked about a piece of a tree given to me by a friend. I had nursed it from a Dixie cup to a full-fledged clay pot, a home that would allow it to flourish.

Well, it is no longer flourishing. It is dead.

I was so proud to have brought it along and to have seen the parallels to my own life. At the time I wrote, "I am not nearly the first and surely won't be the last person to draw the metaphor of a tree's growth to human development. But I am awed by the parallels nonetheless. How apt that my life was feeling crowded and that I have taken steps to uncrowd it. How fascinating to see one's own life stages mirrored back from a juicy green plant."

While it is true that my life has opened up considerably, that I have created space, perhaps I was too quick to extract the lesson of the tree. "Maybe it means your old life was supposed to wither and make room for a fresh start," a friend suggested. That is not far-fetched, as my dream of making a living as a coach and columnist has come to fruition after years of due diligence and it feels magical and new.

Whatever the case may be, I am now choosing to focus on the thriving plant life in my home and not the one that got away (see Valentine's Day message above). I rejoice in the ivy that is gorgeously taking over my bedroom window sill. And I marvel at my Rose of Jericho, which is over three years old. Or is it four? This is a plant said to symbolize peace, power and abundance and it is often called the "resurrection plant." It lives in a shapely glass vase in my kitchen.

There is life here.

Hmmmm. Maybe some flowers would be nice ...

COOL THINGS MY FRIENDS ARE DOING:

Writing From The Imaginative Storm -- If you think the concept is intriguing, wait until you see the nifty website: www.thewritingsalon.net. Go to the Salon section to see what the dynamic duo of James Nave and Allegra Huston are offering writers in their upcoming salons in Savannah, Asheville and Taos.

Director Holly Paar's recent entry into the Asheville Fringe Festival, Last Dinner With Friends, is the beginning of an ongoing project about the end of the world. For information about how to get involved, check out her website.