Back in 2011, I formed a <strong><a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/2011/10/25/day-364-would-you-like-to-join-my-wishing-club/" target="_blank">Wishing Club/Book Club</a></strong> and hosted an off-off-Martha-Stewart <strong><a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/2011/12/20/let-me-entertain-you-although-id-rather-you-entertain-me/" target="_blank">Holiday Tea</a></strong>.  (After reading that post, my dear cousin, Rhonda, actually commended me on my tea hosting skills.  This thoughtful yet obviously nepotistic compliment nearly made me snort my cappuccino out of my nose.)

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As promised, today I present to you Act Three:  Wishes for 2012.

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Our Wishing Club decided to mimic the ritual performed by <strong><em><a href="http://www.changinghands.com/book/9780812975505" target="_blank">The Wishing Year</a></em></strong> author, Noelle Oxenhandler.  As part of her wildly wishful year, Noelle -- a self-proclaimed skeptic -- succumbs to the pleas of her artist friend and builds a shrine to manifest her wishes.  (Noelle and her friend live in Northern California, so the woo-woo factor is high.)

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Intrigued by the woo-woo, my Wishing Club agreed to shrines or -- for those of us less artistically inclined (that would be me) -- vision boards.  If you are familiar with The Most Woo-Woo Movie in the History of Woo-Woo Movies aka <em>The Secret</em>, then you are familiar with vision boards.  You hunt for images of what you want to manifest in your life -- mansion, sports car, hot husband/wife, 2.2 kids -- post them on your vision board, and wait for them to miraculously appear.

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Personally, I thought the movie was a bunch of crock-a-doodle-doo.  Its obsession with materialism was tiresome.  And are we really to believe that if we think it, it will come?  We don't have to set goals, take personal responsibility, and work towards them?

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Then why aren't we all lounging and sipping mai tais on a beach in Hawaii?  (You've had that dream, right?)

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Even though I, too, am a skeptic, I <em>do</em> like the thought of Putting It Out There (as Noelle puts it) through a shrine or vision board to remind us of our dreams on a daily basis.  Then we might actually get off our bums and take a step or two towards those dreams.  And if Lady Luck happens to smile, then good for us!  We all deserve a little bit of woo-woo luck every now and then.

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