Astrological Predictions for 2010 for Each Zodiac Sign

Laurie Baum

These astrological predictions for each zodiac sign for 2010 were written by my friend Laurie Baum, MSW, a psychological astrologer and psychotherapist in practice in Encinitas, California.

Click here to read another post that includes Laurie’s comprehensive astrological forecast for 2010.

Personally, I never had much of an appreciation for astrology and just didn’t care enough about the subject to investigate it further. Then two things happened.

First, I happened to read a chapter in a life-changing book that burned off the fog of ignorance and answered every question I had about astrology. It was written with clarity, precision, wit and wisdom, and I felt the subject come brilliantly alive for me as I read it. Click here to read that excerpt on astrology.

Second, I had an hour-long astrological reading with Laurie Baum today. We discussed every area I could think of: health, relationships, finances, lessons in need of learning, major life changes to come. Not only did she nail everything—and I mean everything—about me, but she provided very helpful insights that will help me navigate the years ahead with more confidence and authority. It was uncanny: everything she told me aligned perfectly with what my intuition had long been telling me; but she also went far beyond that point and gave me much to think about. This reading with Laurie gave me a much deeper appreciation of the value of astrology and a more profound respect for its power. Thank you, Laurie!

NOTE: After this post appeared, Alan, a very spiritually minded friend of mine, e-mailed me: “Given your glowing recommendations I just sent Laurie an email requesting a reading.” Three days later, Alan sent me this note: “I had a wonderful astrology reading experience with Laurie. She was able to deliver insightful information in a comprehensive and compassionate manner. I found it timely and useful on many levels so I thank you for introducing me to her.”

You, too, can benefit from Laurie’s wisdom. She writes a free astrological newsletter about how planetary alignments affect our lives on earth. Click here to e-mail Laurie to subscribe at no cost, or visit Laurie’s website and click on “Free Email Newsletter.”

Laurie is a former newspaper and news magazine reporter who is profiled in the books Psychic New York and The 100 Top Psychics in America.

Laurie is the author of A to Z Acrophonology: Discover the Power of the Letters in Your Name, Everything You Need to Know About Your Astrology Sign, Whispers from the Cosmos, Sacred Mysteries of Egypt, and Astrological Secrets for the New Millennium.

Laurie also offers counseling appointments by phone. She will answer your questions about major life decisions and talk with you about the reasons you have incarnated, the lessons you are here to learn, where you are on the wheel of karma, and the psychological developmental cycles you have been through and are going through. She will look at current influences on your health, finances, relationships, career, and any relocation plans that may be necessary. She also will look ahead with you at the next seven years of your life. A reading with Laurie can help you take the next step in your life. Sessions, which are available via landline phone or Skype (audio or video), are digitally recorded.

To make an appointment, click here to e-mail Laurie or call her at (760) 753-7676. Click here to visit Laurie’s website for more information.

YOUR PERSONAL ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTIONS

Illustrations by Kagaya, a Japanese digital fine artist.
Click here to visit Kagaya’s website.

ARIES (March 21 – April 19)
You are an adaptable, quick-moving soul who thrives in changing circumstances. The new year will support your high-spirited nature as 2010 ushers in a period of rapid, and perhaps, unprecedented change. Uranus, the planet of revelation and sudden change will enter Aries on May 27, 2010. Uranus was last in Aries from 1927 to 1935. Beneficial Jupiter and revolutionary Uranus will conjoin each other in Aries on June 8, 2010, bringing rapid change to you and many others. Your role may vacillate between leader and follower. Be ready to change direction at a moment’s notice. And as always, try

Here’s Why Your Book Is Unpublished

Mystified that your terrific manuscript hasn’t been snapped up by a high-powered literary agent? Guess what, it’s not them, it’s you. Before you drop another manuscript in the mail, hunker down and do these two things:

#1: IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR WRITING

Even if you’ve been making a living as a professional writer, do not assume that publishers will swoon over the quality of your work. I spent ten long months writing a business book with Tom Gegax, founder of the Tires Plus chain, only to hear from publishers that the writing was mediocre and that they weren’t interested in our magnum opus.

Yes, that criticism stung. I had been writing magazine articles for the last dozen years, and consistently heard from editors, interviewees and the general public that I was a wonderful writer. And I was a good writer! In hindsight, however, I wasn’t good enough.

After some indignant wailing and gnashing of teeth, I finally realized that

One More Pitch: The Music Video!

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My lil' bear cub and me

Yesterday was a happy, happy day! I had the wonderful and profoundly moving experience of showing my daughter, Erin, the music video for One More Pitch, a song I wrote to celebrate her childhood and the joy of our Daddy and Erin times together.

Click here to read about the history and meaning of One More Pitch. You’ll find the lyrics to One More Pitch at the bottom of this post.

I am forever indebted to my very good friend Jeffery Goodson for writing the music to go with my lyrics and for doing such a beautiful job of putting this video together. That’s Jeff with the guitar at the start of the video.

All the home movie footage and photos are

Learn How to Write Greeting Cards!

Writing greeting cards is a great way to satisfy your creative urges and earn some extra money to boot. If you’re like most people, you’re convinced that you could write Birthday cards just as good as the ones down at the local drugstore. But, like most people, you don’t know how to get started.

By the time you finish reading this eBook, you’ll not only know how to get started in greeting card writing, you’ll know how to be successful at it too.

Click here to order the complete 12,000-word eBook on Amazon for just 99 cents! In it, you’ll find:

• Nine basic rules that must be followed when writing greeting cards
• Eight insights that will help you better understand the greeting card business
• Eleven business tips that will help you present yourself as a professional
• Sixteen techniques that you can use to write greeting cards that sell
• Techniques for writing T-shirts, buttons, coffee mugs and Post-it notes
• Dozens and dozens of examples of cards and related products I’ve sold to all the major greeting card companies

Below are excerpts from the book to give you an excellent idea of what to expect.

Unless otherwise noted, all the card ideas presented in the book were written by my weekly card-writing group or an individual within the group. All these ideas were sold to a major greeting card company. Click here to gain some insight into how our group operated.

Click here to read my Q&A interview about greeting card writing with the Renegade Writer website.

Click here for a funny story about me hearing Wayne Dyer mention one of my birthday cards during an interview.

Okay, let’s start with the nine basic rules that must be followed when writing greeting cards. Some are more important than others but all of them must be taken into consideration.

RULE #2: The card has to have a “me-to-you” sentiment. You’ll be much more successful at writing cards if you get in the habit of using the word “you” more often than the word “I”. Sure, you’ll see some cards where the joke is about what happened when “I” went looking for a present or what “I” think about getting older. There are always exceptions but the vast majority of successful cards have a strong me-to-you message because greeting cards are about relationships. Here are some examples:

COVER: Happy Birthday! I’d like to borrow your secret for looking so young.
INSIDE: I mean, since you’re not using it.

COVER: Know what I find attractive in a man?
INSIDE: Just

Laughing All the Way to Your Colonoscopy

Dave Barry

Since I love to encourage people to stay healthy, and laughter is the best medicine, this column by humorist Dave Barry is a perfect fit for my blog! He not only delivers an important message, but does so hilariously. I hope you enjoy it! (umm, the column, not the procedure.)

OK. You turned 50. You know you’re supposed to get a colonoscopy. But you haven’t. Here are your reasons:

1. You’ve been busy.

2. You don’t have a history of cancer in your family.

3. You haven’t noticed any problems.

4. You don’t want a doctor to stick a tube 17,000 feet up your butt.

Let’s examine these reasons one at a time. No, wait, let’s not. Because you and I both know that the only real reason is No. 4. This is natural. The idea of having another human, even a medical human, becoming deeply involved in what is technically known as your ”behindular zone” gives you the creeping willies.

I know this because I am like you, except worse. I yield to nobody in the field of being a pathetic weenie medical coward. I become faint and nauseous during even very minor medical procedures, such as making an appointment by phone. It’s much worse when I come into physical contact with the medical profession. More than one doctor’s office has a dent in the floor caused by my forehead striking it seconds after I got a shot.

In 1997, when I turned 50, everybody told me I should get a colonoscopy. I agreed that I definitely should, but not right away. By following this policy, I reached age 55 without having had a colonoscopy. Then I did something so pathetic and embarrassing that I am frankly ashamed to tell you about it.

What kid doesn't enjoy romping around in an 80-foot long, inflatable colon?

What happened was, a giant 40-foot

Toto’s Hit “Africa” by an A Capella Jazz Choir from Slovenia!

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I’m a big fan of creative artistry and I’ve always loved a cappella performances. So it was a real treat to watch Toto‘s smash 1982 hit Africa (one of my favorite songs) reimagined by Perpetuum Jazzile, an a cappella jazz choir from Slovenia! I was particularly impressed by the opening two minutes, in which the choir simulated an African thunderstorm with their hands. I applaud their creativity!

Click here to order a CD of this performance.

For the sake of comparison, here is Toto’s music video for Africa.

Facing the Fear, Finding the Blessing

Laurie Baum in the Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens at Paramahansa Yogananda's ashram in Encinitas, California

My friend Laurie Baum, who, like me, follows the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship, is a clairvoyant intuitive. I love the stories she’s told me about her angelic encounters and alternative healings, so I asked her if I could share them on my blog. To my delight, she agreed to write them up. Today’s post describes her physical and spiritual recovery from cancer. Click here to read how Laurie was protected, guided, and mentored by her angels.

I’d like to mention that Laurie is also a licensed psychotherapist and astrological counselor in private practice in California. She is a former newspaper and news magazine reporter who is profiled in the books Psychic New York and The 100 Top Psychics in America.

Laurie is the author of A to Z Acrophonology: Discover the Power of the Letters in Your Name, Everything You Need to Know About Your Astrology Sign, Whispers from the Cosmos, Sacred Mysteries of Egypt, and Astrological Secrets for the New Millennium.

You can visit Laurie’s website for more information. For counseling appointments, click here to e-mail Laurie, or call her at (760) 753-7676. Thanks again, Laurie, for sharing your stories with me!

When the doctor told me the cyst-like lesion under my eye was skin cancer, I felt a wave of spiritual love and protection flow through me. I imagined everything would somehow be okay.

I remembered my Kriya initiation through Self-Realization Fellowship more than a decade ago, when I faced another health challenge. Still on a high a week after my spiritual initiation, I was in a serious bike accident in upstate New York. While flying through the air, about to land head-first on the black pavement street, I felt invisible hands reach

The Joyous Life and Wedding of Katie Kirkpatrick

Katie Kirkpatrick

Katie Kirkpatrick’s story is a powerful reminder that we can still find joy in the midst of suffering tragedy by focusing on and celebrating the present moment. The photos and text come from an e-mail I received and from snopes.com which verified Katie’s story.

On Valentine’s Day, 2002, Katie Kirkpatrick, then a freshman at Rochester College (a small Christian college in Rochester Hills, Michigan), was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Undaunted, Katie strove to keep up with her studies, but she suffered another setback in 2003 when she was diagnosed with an inoperable lung tumor wrapped around her pulmonary artery. Nonetheless, in 2004 the resilient Katie took part in champion cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Ride for the Roses cancer fundraiser.

On January 15, 2005, twenty-one-year-old Katie—the girl “with a contagious smile and unrelenting optimism” who had been battling cancer for three years—married twenty-three-year-old Lapeer County sheriff’s deputy Nick Goodwin, her high school sweetheart and the love of her life, at Church of Christ in Hazel Park, Michigan.

Photos were taken by Romain Blanquart.

Katie Kirkpatrick and her fiance, Nick, rest prior to their wedding. Katie has terminal cancer and spends hours in chemotherapy. Here Nick waits while she finishes one of the sessions.

Even in pain and dealing with her organs shutting down, with the help of morphine, Katie took care of every single wedding plan. Her dress had to be adjusted several times due to her constant weight loss.

Susan Boyle Goes Legend

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Susan Boyle of Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland,  is forty-seven. She’s frumpy, unemployed, lives alone with her cat and has never even been kissed. And . . . she . . . just . . . blew . . . away . . . the judges and crowd in her audition for Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday, April 11, 2009.

Wow. Be prepared to be moved. Big time.

Susan Boyle stuns the crowd on "Britain's Got Talent"

The judges and crowd had dismissed her—and were openly mocking her—before she sang a note. The looks on their faces when she started singing I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables are priceless. They were on their feet before she finished the first stanza. Incredible.

What made Susan’s performance even more touching was the song itself, a song she has essentially lived, a song that cries out to the lonely and unwanted, a song that offers not comfort, but salt in the wounds of dreams unfulfilled.

Yes, there are

My “Close to Home” Cartoons

I’ve been writing ideas for Close To Home, a nationally syndicated cartoon, since 1999. I send my ideas to John McPherson, the panel’s creator, and he picks what he likes. Here are some of the ideas he turned into cartoons.

For many years, the creative writing group I started has written greeting cards and cartoon ideas. I’ll share some of our group ideas in future posts!

The Unlikely and Inspiring Story of Arnel Pineda

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After Arnel Pineda‘s mother died when he was thirteen, he endured many hardships, including a brief homeless period. Blessed with an amazing voice, he eventually became lead singer of a cover band in his native Philippines.

Then came the phone call that changed his life. Neal Schon, the guitar player from the iconic rock band Journey, found Arnel on YouTube and invited him to audition. Arnel is now living the dream as lead singer of  Journey. . . and counting his blessings every day.

Arnel Pineda, lead singer of Journey

I first became aware of Arnel while

The Day Weary Willie Smiled

Emmett Kelly as Weary Willie

I loved Emmett Kelly as a kid. He was Weary Willie, the quintessential tramp clown, an integral part of my childhood. This touching and amazing story by his daughter, Stasia Kelly, of Atlanta, Georgia, appeared in the October 2006 issue of Guideposts. What are the odds of this story ending as it did?  Probably one in a trillion. And yet . . .

I sat on the plane, my purse in my lap, waiting to take off from Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta for Florida to attend my father’s funeral. I had just spoken to Dad the day before. He’d sounded a little down, but I never guessed it would be the last time I heard his voice. “I’m tired, Stasia,” he said. I could hear that tiredness through the phone, could feel it the way so many people had felt the world-weariness in the most beloved character my father ever portrayed.

Emmett Kelly learns he's a dad

I shifted in my seat—first-class because it was the only available spot on this leg of my trip home. The airline-reservations op erator had promised to get me there in time for Dad’s funeral, so she honored my bereavement ticket and gave me an upgrade. I pulled the faded newspaper photo from my purse and glanced at it. The famous picture of my dad, Emmett Kelly. Or should I say of Weary Willie, the sad clown that he had immortalized. Dad was disciplined about Willie’s public persona. Once Dad put his makeup on, Weary Willie never broke character and never smiled, except once, back in 1955. That one time he smiled—beamed, really—a young photographer snapped his photo, and around the globe it went. The only time Willie smiled in public, the world smiled with him.

The plane was almost full and the seat next to me was still vacant. Good, I’d have the row to myself and my tears.

A Salsa Superstar . . . at 87!

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Wow. May we all be so young of heart, joyous of spirit, and fleet of feet—and not wait until we’re 87 to do so. Excuse me, I’m

An Elephant Never Forgets . . . Her BFF

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The above video is a story of love and devotion . . . between Tarra the elephant and Bella the dog. The bond they share is as deep as it is authentic. Sadly, the story has

What Do Women Want? Here’s the Answer, Guys!

I was two weeks shy of 22 when my daughter was born. I was naïve and blissfully immature. My wife was five years older than me and an outspoken feminist. Not surprisingly, she often became exasperated with me because I just “didn’t get it.” And though I didn’t much like the way she expressed her frustration at times, I disciplined myself to pay attention to what she said rather than how she said it. And so I learned.

I also received quite an education simply by keeping the lines of communication open with my daughter as she grew older. She shared virtually every detail of her life with us, which afforded me the opportunity to get an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at how teenage girls viewed boys and life in general. I paid attention when she said things like, “Dad, I don’t want you to solve my problems, I just want you to listen.” And so I learned.

What I learned is the answer to the question, What do women want? If you’re one of the three billion men on this planet who claim to have no clue, the answer is very simple: Women want to be cherished.

But you already knew that, didn’t you? You’ve just been pleading ignorance because you think becoming a true life partner with a woman requires too much work. After all, looking out for number one is a full-time job and then some for most men.

It’s all about perspective. Women liken a relationship to a plant that needs daily watering. Men liken a relationship to a cactus that only needs watering every few months.

Sensational Singing Prodigies

My post about sixteen-year-old singing sensation Charice Pempengco five days ago led me to discover other young, talented singers whose abilities defy belief. Watching these youngsters perform is tremendously inspiring. They seem to be channeling a force greater than themselves. I know that you’ll enjoy their performances!

Let’s start with eleven-year-old Bianca Ryan‘s June 28, 2006 audition on the first season of America’s Got Talent. One word: Whoa!

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And here is Bianca (who is now fourteen) singing I Am Changing on the finals of America’s Got Talent. She walked away with the $1 million grand prize.

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And here is the announcement and presentation of the $1 million grand prize.

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