Dear Melissa,

It's a Small Small World After All . . . When I headed up to Bristol, New Hampshire for the Masters of Manifestation retreat, I never expected the Inn at Newfound Lake to be owned by two gentlemen that actually knew my Mom! Phelps had actually worked at the Salon Mom used to go to in Beverly Hills and did her hair a couple of times some 30+ years ago. What a wild coincidence and reminder of going with her to get a trim or my first highlights.

Camp town Memories . . . It was funny too that on the drive from Manchester airport, I realized that the Inn was located a mere 40 minutes from where I attended camp with my sister some 32 years ago, yikes! We attended Cardigan Mountain camp, which during the year is an all boy's school. I took a trip up to see the lake where I'd learned lifesaving (you know when they make you jump into frigid waters with your clothes on, take your jeans off and blow them up like a life jacket!) and the invaluable skill of canoeing in circles. (Don't go there, my sense of direction has never been great!)

Fall is coming . . . Albeit late this year, Autumn does seem to finally be arriving. The signs of global warming are becoming ever more apparent. We are suffering the worst drought ever in Atlanta with severe water restrictions enacted, and our annual rainfall 17 inches lower than last year. Trees are changing later now as the weather is barely starting to cool down. While Christmas is up in the stores, I'm just getting decked for Halloween!

Travel Well and By Design,
MG

"People think I’m disciplined. It is not discipline.
It is devotion. There is a great difference."
~ Luciano Pavarotti
Opera Singer 1935-2007

Manifesting Your Success: Finding the Masters

While I can safely say I didn't learn any new secrets to manifesting in either my business or personal life at the recently attended retreat, it did give me a chance to think about all the many ways that I have been successful in manifesting in my own life. Professionally what I have found is that finding masters to mentor and associate with is an invaluable way to move yourself forward. Masters are those who have gone before us in either a similar path or even a very different one; they are those who have realized success beyond our own and share a generosity of spirit with their support, feedback, and ideas. Masters can come in many shapes and sizes, and be professional or personal.

Success is impossible in a vacuum, and it is vital to seek out and connect with Masters that are willing to encourage and provide insight and wisdom. Doing it all ourselves is the slowest path and often the most arduous. No matter how groundbreaking we think we may be, I guarantee there is someone out there who has been through a similar circumstance even in an unrelated industry. Connect to your Masters as a forum for success, a creative brainstorm, a support network. Give up the idea of the glory in doing it all yourself, there is none! Reach out, look forward, and become a master to those behind you coming up.

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Lifestyle Selling: Making More With Less, The Manual

What I did see at the recent retreat was a propensity to bare wounds and commisserate on the challenges of being a wounded soul. This is uniquely frustrating to me as I have learned that in order to get on with our lives, we must get over ourselves. Being a walking wounded is a choice and not a healthy one. We all have unique challenges, painful, even abusive experiences we have gone through. The point is what to do with those and the best advice I was ever given came to me at a low point. It was about two years after my Mom had passed and I never lost an opportunity to tell someone she had gone so suddenly. I was working as a Purchasing Agent for a Birmingham hotel and joined a food rep for drinks one night (Dutch of course!) He said he'd lost his mom too but that it didn't serve me to wear it like a badge of pain on my sleeve for all to see. He said “get over it.” And I agree.

We can be a function of my mother died . . . my father loved my sister better . . . I was abused . . . we were poor . . . I'm fat . . . whatever it is that you are wearing on your sleeve, put it away. Get over your past to embrace your present, and delight in your future. The more you keep your wounds front and center, the longer they remain open and unable to heal. If you need extra help, by all means seek it. There is a difference between being an open book and being a walking wounded. We rarely know the true stories behind the most amazing people and often our own wounds would pale by comparison. It isn't what you've been through that matters, but how you process it, wear it, and succeed often in spite of it.

RARE - Atlanta, GA

What a surprise behind a rather nondescript façade in a relatively uninhabited part of Piedmont Avenue, this opens to reveal exposed brick walls, stained concrete floors, and long gleaming wood bar, exotic cocktail opportunities, and two distinct dining areas. The first and most coveted is the lounge dining area complete with built in chaises/beds. The dining is done on small plates from trays, tapas style. Black and white movies featuring all black casts are projected on one blank wall, lighting is subtle, artistic, and romantic. It has a very mysterious quality with Victorian Gothic overtones.

The menu is intriguing with a trio of deviled eggs incorporating shrimp, bacon, and traditional style, hoppin john is a festive favorite, chicken and waffles is a surprise on a dinner mennu, lobster macaroni and cheese was very tasty, salmon croquettes are a best seller. All showcase an entertaining mix of down home Southern cooking and global influences including Moroccan style mussels and Piri Piri style pork. The portions are well sized for sharing and exploring the creative culinary talents proffered.

Rare
554 Piedmont Avenue
Atlanta, GA
404-541-0665
www.rareatl.com

I have to say I didn't recognize the voices as anything special, but the movie was. A bit campy, and somewhat predictable but I am a sucker for happy endings. Fun because it involved such a collage of characters from old cartoons married with new ones, done in a style that felt real and not super technized. As always every animation has its lessons and this is about the choices we make between being rats in the rat race eating the garbage we are given, or rising instead to a higher level and creating a life of our own design with our unique talents.