tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-118928 2010-02-08T20:33:40+01:00 Committing random acts of boldness is what got me to Paris at age 45. I found my boldest self here. And then... Love found ME. You can find YOUR bold soul any time, anywhere. Just take the first bold step. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a8766ca4970b 2010-02-08T20:33:40+01:00 2010-02-08T20:38:05+01:00

Overheard between a French husband and his American wife this evening: She (pointing to a red box with the image of a familiar, motherly-looking woman of color): "I made myself some pancakes for lunch this afternoon. A LOT of pancakes. And they were good. Even though they're not crepes." He (reading the box and mispronouncing the name): "Aunt JEM-in-a. Oh, that's like Uncle Ben's." She (rolling her eyes): "No, sweetie, it's Aunt Je-MIM-a. And no... Uncle Ben's had an old white guy with white hair and a black hat." He (grinning with French superiority): "No, my love, Uncle Ben's rice has a black man on the box." She (running to grab her laptop, SO ready to be RIGHT, for ONCE): "Oh REALLY?!? Which one of us is the American?" She Googles "Uncle Ben" and prepares to click on the link. He (following her and standing in the doorway, still grinning):...

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef01287767dab1970c 2010-02-05T14:48:35+01:00 2010-02-05T14:51:45+01:00

I'm working full-blast to finish a memoir project for a client; hence, not much energy or time for blogging (or socializing, or eating, or bathing... sorry, TMI). We've started this book more than two YEARS ago (don't ask why a project that was supposed to take 6-9 months took about 30 months instead... it was mostly all my fault) and now it appears we will complete it no later than tomorrow if things continue to go well. Oh, the celebrating that will happen when this is done! And then... it's back to work on MY book, and NOTHING ELSE. Meaning I will have no income whatsoever until I sell the book, but I will also have no more reasons to procrastinate. So it's all good. Better put the last few bottles of our wedding champagne on ice now, though. I plan to drink a lot when this project is done....

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a85e99e9970b 2010-02-04T10:35:30+01:00 2010-02-04T10:35:30+01:00

The camellias -- like me -- are just waiting for spring.

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a83b29e5970b 2010-02-01T14:53:27+01:00 2010-02-01T14:53:27+01:00

Ah, look who decided to join me at the kitchen table for a cup of coffee today! Sorry, Clachat... that was the last drop. And it's all mine.

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a824b948970b 2010-01-29T10:19:45+01:00 2010-01-29T10:19:45+01:00

OK, so we're not actually in 3D... but getting ready to see Avatar last weekend. I had to capture the moment, with this "fashion statement" (NOT!)

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef01287727c303970c 2010-01-29T10:14:12+01:00 2010-01-29T10:14:12+01:00

You may have noticed I haven't posted much of anything this month. I've been in a rather quiet mood, actually. I think I get like this in January: the fun and chaos of the holidays is behind me; the weather generally sucks (today it's just raining steadily, and I'm guessing it will be like this all day long) and there has been little sunshine; I've been scrambling to finish a client's book after over two years of working on it; and other than the big soldes, nothing much seems to be going on. (I did manage to score a totally adorable teal-blue purse yesterday at Lollipops in the Marais, the first time in three years of the Paris soldes that I have actually bought myself something I liked but didn't necessarily need. And I didn't even buy it in black. For 25€, who could resist?) Well, we are starting to...

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a7f85cf2970b 2010-01-21T18:25:28+01:00 2010-01-21T18:29:04+01:00

You know how, when you've got kids around, you try and anticipate things that could go wrong, and warn them? Because you're the adult, and you're the one with the life experience? And how they never want to listen? Because they think nothing bad will ever happen and they know everything? Yeah, exactly. That's how a giant marble just put a huge top-to-bottom crack in one of our glass front double doors. In the house we are just about to SELL. Technically, it was the neighbor's kid who threw (not rolled) it, but let's face it, there was culpability on all sides. I've been asking them for weeks to tone it down and stop being so wild with the marbles. But would they listen? Suffice to say, the 2010 Paris Marble Olympics are OVER at this house. Banned for life, I think.

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef012876e52215970c 2010-01-17T12:38:19+01:00 2010-01-18T17:01:37+01:00

Oh, how much I want to help. To DO something. I ache with the desire to be useful. I want to give water and food to every person in Haiti who needs it. I want to get them the best in medical care. I want to dig every last survivor out of the rubble, and then help families find and bury their dead in a respectful way. I want to take every last orphan out of Haiti and personally adopt every single one. I want to rebuilding buildings, put the lights back on and get the water running, create safe housing, put businesses and people back to work, provide trauma counseling, help put lives back together. I want to make Haiti into an island paradise, to solve all the problems they've ever had, because they've already suffered more than their fair share. And I can't. I can't do any of...

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a7e22aff970b 2010-01-17T10:32:29+01:00 2010-01-17T10:49:55+01:00

Guard Cat, en garde! It's been a while since I showed you any photos of Clachat, but here's one taken a few weeks ago. This is Clachat with her arch nemesis, Lady. Lady is the chien of our gardienne and a very friendly, sweet dog despite her sometimes fierce-looking visage. She's safe around the children and only barks on occasion. Mostly, she's a typical family dog: eager to please and dying to jump and play with anyone who'll take the time. Lady's favorite occupation in the shared courtyard seems to be teasing Clachat... who absolutely cannot tolerate the presence of another furry creature on HER turf. (In fairness, she WAS here first.) The dog trots up to our door, front paws on the step, eagerly looking for her "ami", at which point Clachat takes a flying leap off the kitchen counter, slamming herself with full force into the glass doors,...

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef012876dba5d0970c 2010-01-15T21:42:32+01:00 2010-01-15T21:43:31+01:00

No, not the temperatures... those are still way too chilly for my tastes. But look at this amazing car! I know nothing about these old sports cars (or ANY cars, for that matter) but couldn't help drooling a bit over this one. I actually took this photo over a month ago. However, just this past weekend, there was an antique car rally scheduled on Sunday, the 10th such event. I wonder how many car owners actually showed up, given the snow and all around bad weather we had.

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a7cdef12970b 2010-01-13T16:57:55+01:00 2010-01-29T10:15:46+01:00

Six ways you can help in Haiti: http://bit.ly/helpinhaiti Here's your chance, World. DO something, already. If you've already donated anything at all for Haiti through these or any other aid organizations, I'd gladly bise you on both cheeks if I could; I love hearing that through small $10 donations and cell phones, charities are collecting millions from those with generous hearts. I know not everyone can afford to give much, but $5 or $10? Totally do-able. No matter what your situation in life right now, it's got to be better than what the Haitians are trying desperately to live through. So if you CAN give, please find a way to give something. And to Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson and any other narrow-minded racist asses who thinks they don't "need" to donate or that these poor people somehow deserve this catastrophe? You can just bite my liberal ass.

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef012876cf801e970c 2010-01-13T14:33:23+01:00 2010-01-13T14:33:23+01:00

It's not only my refrigerator that's leaner, cleaner and meaner in 2010. I've streamlined my coaching work to simplify my professional life while making MORE time for writing and publishing my next book! (More details about the book in an upcoming blog post, including a short excerpt, so stay tuned!) While I have made the decision to drastically reduce my coaching availability in order to focus on writing as my primary passion, I enjoy coaching too much to completely pull the plug at this time. This is good news for some of you who have perhaps thought of working with me in order to create your own bold life or finish your own book! I'm pleased to announce two very straight-forward short-term programs for private coaching! The NO EXCUSES 90-day POWER* Coaching Program, and The NO EXCUSES 90-day Standard Coaching Program Both of these programs provide participants with 1-on-1 monthly...

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a7bfbbf7970b 2010-01-10T21:03:18+01:00 2010-01-10T21:07:51+01:00

Have you ever had one of those vacations where afterward, you felt you like you needed another vacation to recover from the first one? That was our holiday this year. In actual fact, I can't really say that it was all that stressful or tiring in the usual sense; we had our gifts pretty well organized and mostly wrapped before we packed our suitcases, and only had to do a few extra things once we got there. We were staying my sister-in-law's place, which now that I've been there a few times, I feel quite at home and I know where everything is -- plus she's just so wonderful to me, so it's not like I've got "in-law issues" to stress me out. The kids were really pretty great; the older ones were very nice to their little brother and took time out to play with him more than they...

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef012876b8d531970c 2010-01-08T16:56:10+01:00 2010-01-08T17:03:18+01:00

Happiness is knowing that there is now NOTHING in the family refrigerator that will give anyone in the family a bad case of food poisoning. I went trolling for something to eat an hour ago, and suddenly felt in the mood inspired driven by the hell that is our frigo to examine the expiration date on each and every item. Especially the entire top shelf, which has been chock full of an assortment of condiment jars (some of them with Russian labels on them) ever since I moved in here at least two years ago (and probably much longer). The stuff at the back was the stuff I was most concerned about because of course it never seems to get rotated to the front, and as happens in everyone's fridge, you tend to forget what's even back there. THIS was what I had to throw away: There were THREE open...

The Bold Soul tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c82c653ef0120a7a6dead970b 2010-01-05T10:53:47+01:00 2010-01-05T10:53:47+01:00

Very recently, I received an email from someone who has done all the right things. She's read all the books by all the masters out there: Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle and more. She's done the exercises and followed, to a large degree, the advice. She's asked herself all the right questions. She's even hired other coaches. And still, she feels no closer to finding her "soul purpose" in life. She wrote to me to share her story, to ask how I might coach someone in her situation, and to ask what I thought. Her central question was: "Could it really be that I have no passion?" Since I suspect there are many others asking themselves the same question, I decided to share my response with readers of my newsletter, The Exception™ -- and with Bold Soul readers as well! Read about it here, if you, too, are searching...

The Bold Soul