Time has gone quickly since the last newsletter I sent you; I've been quite busy, mostly with preparations, parcel-sending, and social activities.

I don't particularly celebrate Christmas, but this time of the year is always social regardless. For a start, I'll be attending a wedding this month, it's my husband's birthday, I've got a cousin from Spain coming to visit in London, and a few scheduled meet-ups with friends...

I quite enjoy all these activities, but I will also enjoy very much when it's all over and I will still have a few days off from work to read and work on my things.

That's another - reading - I've got like 10+ books piled up, waiting to be read ("A new Earth", "Island", "F*** it - the ultimate spiritual way", among others). I'm opening vortexes of time in my imagination, so that I get enough time for reading all I want every day :-)

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you're enjoying the last days of 2009 and I wish you a glorious 2010!

Browsing around on the internet I came across this web site: Family Giving Tree.

The Family Giving Tree organization works in the Bay area of San Francisco (USA) to provide the exact holiday wish, or a backpack filled with school supplies, to those children in need in their communities.

You can help them out in many ways - simply by donating, or if you live in the Bay area you can actually volunteer to help them out with the different things they do.

Check Family Giving Tree - theirs is a great way to help their community.

Life is a bliss when we feel happy.

However, most of the time we rely on the circumstances outside of us being "right" in order to be happy. We tell ourselves that we will be happy when we have more money, get the relationship we want, have a kid, stopped working - whatever!

Let me disappoint you. Studies have shown that people who have experienced a "strike of luck", such as winning the lottery, are just about as happy a year later as they were before getting the winning hand.

The truth is, we don't need to wait for any special circumstances (or any circumstances at all, for the matter) to be happy.

We can choose to be happy, here and now.

When I say "happy" I mean filled with joy for what is, without the labels "good" or "bad" we normally attach to circumstances. The kind of happiness you get when you step back a little bit, and look at the marvel of life.

As for choosing to be happy now, the present moment is all that exists. And when you take the present moment for what is, rather than defining it according to the life story you've told yourself you're living, life is absolutely awesome.

Isn't happiness what, in the end, we are all about? Isn't feeling good no matter what what we actually want, regardless what's going on outside of us?

Then, why wait until circumstances are right? What is stopping you from being happy here and now?

Perhaps you're stopping yourself. Perhaps you don't think is reasonable or appropriate to feel happy just like that, with no apparent motive.

Let me tell you something... you don't need a reason to be happy.

Challenge your assumptions and realize that feeling happy is a matter of choice. And YOU are in command of your choices.

Let me leave you with a link to my friend Susan's "High On Happiness" blog - a superb blog where all of life is taken as a blessing.

Every month I receive emails from readers - some of them contain questions or comments, and some of them are contributions, such as a positive story, an article or a tip.

This month Lisa, from Maine (US), shared this piece of gratitude - and it touched me so deeply that I had to share it with you:

I am so thankful that I was blessed to have a wonderful friendship with the most amazing person. My best friend Angel.

She was my soul mate. She made this world a better place. She battled with a congenital heart defect all of her life. She lived to be 30 and she lived every day with a smile on her face.

Countless open heart surgeries since she was an infant. She had heart transplant in the end that was not successful. She always had hope. She dreamed of what the future would hold for her. She was so brave.

Every day I miss her. And in the second breath I just feel so thankful that she was a huge part of my life.

You can read this story on its page at "My Angel".

Thanks, Lisa, for such a moving story and your approach of gratitude!

Very recently I shared with my husband the video of a kid playing the ukulele. He replied with another video of a kid playing guitar - and oh boy, this kid is just so lovely, amazing and talented! He plays guitar to melt hearts - and he's 7 - yes, just 7 years old.

You gotta watch it. It's Lucciano Pizzichini playing guitar.

I believe that being grateful for something is one of the most powerful tools to feel better immediately. Here are the two thanking bits of the month:

Thankful for... chocolate! I am surprised I have never mentioned chocolate in my gratitude for the month - as I consider myself fan number 1 of chocolate :-) I might just celebrate the start of a new year with a little box of my favourite chocolates...

Thankful for... growing up. As I look back to 2009, I can see how much I've grown up internally this year - for instance, I can see how I don't allow emotions to rule me as often, or how I'm guided more and more by my spirit. Gotta love life! :-)

What are you thankful for? Send me an email through the Contact Me form and let me know!

Care to send me your thoughts about this issue's topics? Email me and let me know!

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please pass it along to your friends, family and colleagues, or send them to the Dare To Play It Big sign up page. I thank you in advance.

Stay well,

Cristina