Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, a day to love, hug and snuggle. It's a day to nibble on chocolates and perhaps on someone's ear. Our lips, full, thin, small, large, are wonderful instruments  for tasting, smooching and bussing our favorite cheeks and lips.

But did you know that your lip prints have two specific anatomical features that reveal the secrets of our close relationships? In the upper lip, we find the Hug Pucker and in the lower lip, the Gourmet Lip Split.

Your Hug Pucker speaks to your feelings, thoughts and communications in your relationships. How huggable are you? How accessible are you and how good are you at connecting mentally, emotionally and spiritually? How open is the doorway to your heart?

Let's say, for example, that your Hug Pucker shows that you are not speaking your truth to your partner. This will always result in a loss of connection and a loss of personal empowerment. Or, there might be an indicator for disappointment, distraction, judgment or stress. Like sign posts pointing the way, these indications will lead you to where in your relationships there is work to be done. Do the work, refine yourself, regain your balance and peace, and when things are back in harmony, your Hug Pucker will affirm it.

Your Gourmet Lip Split expresses your physical interactions with your partner and other loved ones. Your passion and appetites show in this feature, not only in your sensuality, but in your social and culinary expressions in the physical world. Your generosity, humor, and charisma, your willingness to enjoy the pleasures that life offers us, especially touch, affection and food, are unveiled in your Gourmet Lip Split.

Indicators on your Gourmet Lip Split will bring to light how worried, secure, passionate, charismatic, generous, and funny you are. If you are worried, for example, your relationship will suffer primarily because you will not be present to it. Worry takes us away from the present and out of the reach of those who love us. If you have worry in this feature, this is where the work is. Learning to stay present and grounded in gratitude will enhance your sense of peace and allow more intimacy and joy into your relationships.

Once you understand what your Hug Pucker and Gourmet Lip Split are communicating to you, you're on your way to fine-tuning your ability to show up as a loving and lovable partner, parent, child, sibling and friend. Even if you don't know how to read these indicators, you already know whether or not you are withholding, judging, worrying or in contraction in your relationships.

This Valentine's Day open your heart.... as wide as the sky! Allow yourself to expand into an energetic instrument of Conscious Love. Speak lovingly to others and to yourself all day. Take every step with love. Breathe every breath with love. Know that you have St. Valentine's permission, today, tomorrow and every day afterwards, to give everyone you meet a hug, if only in your heart! Go for it!

Winter is citrus time here in Arizona, and I've been enjoying the sweet, juicy navel oranges from my backyard tree, the lemons my brother-in-law brings me from his house, and the lovely pink grapefruits I've been buying at the produce market. While my garden is not producing ripe tomatoes (yet!), I have been savoring fresh picked mesclun salad and steamed broccoli with my dinner. There's just something so comforting and satisfying about eating peak-of-freshness, seasonal foods.

Eating with the seasons can be good for you, easier on your pocketbook and better for the environment, too! Seasonal eating means choosing foods that are currently ripe and available in your area - whether from the local farmers market, grocery store or your own backyard.

By buying what's in season locally, you will be getting the freshest, tastiest produce. Food ripened naturally with minimal transit time from field or garden to table not only tastes better, but is more nutritious as well.

Local, seasonal produce is also less expensive than produce harvested halfway around the world and then processed, stored and shipped to the local grocery store. All of that processing and transportation carries a lot of expense that will be passed along to you, the consumer. In addition to saving money  by buying locally grown produce, you will also be supporting the local economy by buying from your neighbors.

Not only does the processing, storage and transportation of food add to its shelf price, it has a significant impact on the environment as well. Eating local seasonal foods is a simple way to lower your carbon footprint.

Aside from the practical reasons listed above, there's just something rhythmic and balanced about eating with the seasons that leaves me feeling more in synch with nature - especially when some of that delicious food comes right out of my own backyard.

Want to know what's in season right now in the local area? Check out this  month-by-month list of seasonal delights. Want to know where to purchase local, seasonal produce? Here's a list of farmers markets all over Arizona.

Seven years! It's quite a milestone for our Holistic Chamber.

Seven is the biblical number of creation - the length of time it took to create the world. It sometimes seems like ever since, humanity has been doing its best to destroy that creation with greed, competition, waste and endless consumption of resources.

We in the Arizona Holistic Chamber of Commerce have a different vision for the world - a different vision of how we can live and do business. A vision that values connection, consciousness and sustainability above the bottom-line dollar.

We have spent the past seven years creating "a new spirit in business", attracting members to that vision, and feeling our way into what, exactly, that means. Yeah, we're moving a lot slower than God. And it isn't time to rest yet, but time to push forward with more energy and enthusiasm than ever.

Seven years . . .

A little more than seven years ago, I experienced the most painful loss imaginable - the death of a child. Fortuitously, shortly after that loss I found the Arizona Holistic Chamber of Commerce and, within it, a wealth of resources and connections that became instrumental to my healing journey.

We are an organization of healers: healers of hearts, minds, bodies and the world itself. This is true of every one of you, whatever your business, because you choose to bring holistic values into that business and to embody them in your life.

They say in seven years, every cell in your body is replaced. You are living in a completely different body than you were seven years ago. That is certainly true for this Chamber. We have lost members and gained new ones. Those of us who have stuck it out are not the same people we were seven years ago. We are not the same - we are better, stronger, clearer in vision and in purpose

Life can be broken into seven year cycles. Each seven years marks the closing of one phase of life and the beginning of another. This Chamber is moving out of its infancy and into adolescence: a time of rebellion against the status quo, a time of crystalizing identity, a time of getting clear about personal values and beginning to accept responsibility for acting in accordance with those values. It is a time for claiming personal, authentic power.

In terms of the Chamber, it's time for us to start kicking butt and taking names! (Holistically and with love, of course.)

Let's be honest. Adolescence also comes with growing pains, and I'm sure we will experience our share of them. But on the other side lies the promise of maturity. We are well on our way.

I am honored to be taking on the role of President of the Arizona Holistic Chamber of Commerce this year. Honored to be stepping out of my past and into my future. Honored to have a role in taking this Chamber, all of you, and the world itself forward into our brighter collective future.

Here we stand at the beginning of 2012 - the year the Mayans expected the old world to end and the new world  to begin. We stand here not as idle observers, but as trail blazers. We are not waiting for the new world to arrive, we are creating it. Together. Thank you for joining us on the journey.

Well it's here! The long awaited and long anticipated 2012. While many in Hollywood and "main stream" publications will have you thinking that the Maya predicted this as the end of the world based on their long count calendar, it's simply not true.

The Maya call this the time between time, the time of rebirth and the time of new beginnings. I don't know about you, but none of that sounds very gloom and doom to me!

The fact is that the Maya lost track of the long count calendar a long time ago and the information we get about the long count primarily comes from scientists and archeologists who have created this negative view of the Maya's message (with little or no consultation from actual Maya).

The Maya, to this day, keep track of their sacred calendar known as the Tzolkin which literally means the count of days. This 260 day calendar is made up of 20 day signs representing the masculine energy, or Yang and 13 numbers representing the female energy or Yin. Day Keepers spend their lives keeping the traditions alive by holding sacred the energy of each of the days. The Maya say that the calendar "is life itself". They believe that this calendar is the guide for all of us and that to align with the calendar results in our aligning with our true destiny, our purpose, our passion.

And that is the true message of the Maya for this year, and every year: to be happy and to find your peace. Just as the Law of Attraction teaches us, what we think about we bring about. Each one of us is responsible for our own destiny, creating our own path, our own happiness. When we align ourselves with our passion and let our true God-given talents shine out into the world, the happiness that we create in our hearts permeates into the world and the hearts of others.

So if anyone tries to tell you that the Maya predicted this to be the year the world ends, well I have two suggestions. The first is to share with them what Don Alejandro, the Head of the Mayan Council of Elders says about 2012:

"It is the Maya prophecy, it is the return of the ancestor, it is the return of  the men of wisdom, let the morning come, let the dawn come, let the people to be happy and find peace and be happy. So I am here with you giving you this message not to be afraid but spread it to the world, not to be afraid of this change of time. When this day comes, just assume it's the end of the year like new years day, just a change. Because it's not the first time it will happen. Who knows how many times this has come before.... Don't be afraid my brothers and sisters. And don't believe all the things that you hear of the people threatening the end of the world."

But if you don't have this quote handy then just start singing....

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel FINE!!!!"

To me, 2012 is the year to get that beacon of light from within shining as brightly as possible and sharing it with as many as will have it. Let your true, authentic self shine. Share those gifts that are yours and only yours. Be your passion. Be your destiny and Dare 2 Dream!

Yin Yang by Moira Gil John

In winter, the world rests. During these short cold days and long dark nights, bears hibernate and trees stand leafless, their sap pulled inward, back to the center, back to the core. Fields lie fallow, fish rest motionless under ice-covered ponds and bulbs lie dormant beneath their snowy blankets. It is the Yin season - a time of sleeping, dreaming, resting, re-centering and waiting.

While the hectic pace of the holiday season and the relative warmth of these Arizona winter days pull us into doing, it is important that we honor this season of rest with more being.

January is the perfect time of year to retreat from the general busyness of life. Take some time for yourself to step out of doing. If you can, carve out a whole day, weekend or week to step back from your routine. If you can't create a big block of time, make room for mini-retreats of just a few minutes during your day.

Use this retreat time to reflect on the year past and dream into the year ahead. Slow down and move inward. Center back into your heart. Breathe. Meditate. Move slowly. Be quiet. Be gentle with yourself and those around you. Just be.

Sitting in the energy of Yin creates space for the gestation of what is to come. What is it that wants to be born in you during this transformational year of 2012? Now is the time to plant the energetic seeds of your desires within your heart and mind, to let them slowly germinate unseen within the womb of winter rest.

Soon, as the days lengthen and warm, the time for doing will return. The Yang energy will rise. The bear will wake, the tree will bud, the field will green, the fish will jump and the crocus will push its way up through the snow. The seeds of desire you planted in the stillness of winter will require your attention, and you will move forward with your plans.

But for now, rest, as the world does in winter.