People that can help sort out the journey

BARRY NEIL KAUFMAN--"Teaching people how to live happier, more loving and more successful lives" is the introduction to Kaufman's website. He is the author of several books most notable, "Happiness Is A Choice," and "Son Rise," a book about his autistic son and how they brought him out of his self-secluded world. The idea that happiness is a choice is a radical thought. Isn't happiness what we are all striving for? The difference lies in how we go about obtaining happiness. Most of us use happiness as a goal: "When I make a million bucks, I'll be happy;" "When I move out of my parent's house, I'll be happy;" "If I could lose 50 pounds, I'd be happy." Barry Neil Kaufman says you can choose happiness in any situation and be happy right this instant. It's about living in the now.

LOUISE HAY--She promotes affirmations and the results can be amazing. I was skeptical, regarded affirmations as fluff when I heard people in the Al-Anon groups promoting them. The hardest part for me was to look in the mirror and say positive things about myself like some people in my group said was the way to do them. After marrying my husband, he told me about Louise Hay. I had never heard of her. He brought home her book "You Can Heal Your Life" and we started reading it together. I liked how the affirmations she gave as examples in her book made me feel calmer, and actually more in command of my serenity.

Affirmations became a big part of our life during this last six months when our stable world became very unstable. He was evidently going to lose his job (and he did), we wanted to move from Toronto to London to have a place for his son to live while he came from Saskatoon to go to an intensive one year course in audio recording technology, and my two youngest kids were making their plans to flee the nest (which they did by going back to Ohio--my daughter went in May to pave the way, and my youngest son went in August). Stress was at its highest levels for us. I truly believe that if we hadn't trusted in the universe to provide what we needed when we needed it that the resources wouldn't have come through to help us make all the moves and changes that we did. We posted one of Hay's affirmations about prosperity at our computer desk and read it every day. You can't tell me that didn't work.

JOHN BRADSHAW--The guru of family secrets. John Bradshaw is an energetic speaker. PBS stations run his series on family secrets, eating disorders, etc., at various times. I find him fascinating to watch. He is deep and complex and I believe he has the key to unlock those dark childhoods that too many of us have closeted away.