Another new year has arrived and I'm wondering what happened to the last one. The days, weeks, months, and seasons seem to fly by like a race car at the Indy 500. We can't stop the movement so I guess it's best to get inside the race car and enjoy the ride. I don't believe this fast-paced world is going to slow down anytime soon, so we have to find our own way of existing comfortably and happily within it. For me, it becomes a matter of being constantly alert and vigilant to my own daily requirements for balance, and then making sure I discipline myself to maintain them for my ongoing health and wellness. I also need to ensure that I stick to my own pace so I don't get sucked up into the whirl-wind of activity and chaos going on around me. (This isn't an easy task, as you may well know.) It is that balance in life, however, that is so important to all of us, because, without it we are unbalanced and, according to many ancient and modern complementary therapies and philosophies, it is the imbalance that creates our sickness and unhappiness.

To learn how to create more balance in our lives we've included an excerpt, entitled Living in Balance (p. 16), from Gwen Nyhus Stewart's new book, The Healing Garden: A Place of Peace. The article is sub-titled, "The Art of Taking Care of Oneself," which, in my mind, is the essence of what it takes to have balance in one's life. And I don't mean this in a selfish way, I mean it genuinely, where an individual realizes her or his main purpose in life is to be a healthy, balanced individual. When that is the case and one takes the time and effort to honour oneself, then each living being becomes a gift to life and not a burden to it. Gwen provides a number of new ideas, as well as some common-sense ones that hopefully will help each of us start the new year with mindfulness towards achieving more balance in our everyday lives, so we can be healthy and happy individuals, who contribute to the whole.

The start of a new year is also a wonderful time to begin new projects because it prompts us to take that first step, which we might otherwise have avoided. Taking that first step is often the hardest part of beginning anything. That's why I was pleased to meet a creative man named Rick McCorrister, from Tugaske, SK, who took that first step and has started a new project he calls, SoulViews Presents Noon Hour Seminars (p. 14) – a series of weekly talks given by a variety of local presenters and designed to expand the mind and body, heart and spirit. Rick started his research and planning last summer and by mid-October the first presentation was held at The Refinery Arts & Spirit Centre in Saskatoon. According to Rick, the response has been so overwhelming, from both presenters and the public, that it will now become a weekly event starting in January. He notes that if anyone within the province is interested in starting a similar project in their community he'll be happy to offer support and information (see p. 15). I believe seminars such as these are the groundwork for educating folks everywhere about the importance of wholeness and balance so they can maintain optimum health and wellness in our busy world. Bravo, Rick, and everyone involved! May it spread like wild fire!

Stephen Bradley gives us some food for thought, suggesting that in the new year we seriously consider, Our Choice: Evolutionary Leap or Evolutionary Crash? (p. 30) He believes we are rapidly heading for "an evolutionary wall," and either we make radical changes in our relations with each other and with the Earth ("bounce"), or we crash. He says there are some "adversity trends," such as depletion of resources, poverty, and climate changes, all of which will be reaching crisis proportions by 2020. He, therefore, suggests we may each want to look more closely at how we plan to live together on the planet in 2004 and onwards, for our sake and for the sake of our children.

In closing, I encourage you to read all of the articles because they are equally educational, inspiring, and enlightening! Check out the advertisers, too! There are many talented and gifted folks blessing the pages of WHOLifE Journal. Without all of them, and you, the readers, the journal wouldn't exist. From my heart, I thank you all!

Namaste!
(I honour the Spirit in you!)