DISQUS

I would eliminate having to get out of bed. Ours is the most comfortable place in the world.

The smell of Green Irish Tweed from the perfumier Creed is sexy. My husband wears it and it just smells like pure male sexiness to me. Beefy man hands and wrists are sexy. Professionally buffed and trimmed fingernails are sexy on a man. I once read that only men who are truly knowledgeable about how to please a woman take such high a level of care of their hands. Men who can cook are sexy. Men who are equally comfortable at sporting events and charity galas are sexy. Men who nurture are sexy.

I would probably buy an outrageously expensive purse with some of the money, donate some of the money to my favorite charities (Junior League and local ballet company) and then invest the rest.

I anticipate that giving birth will be my magnum opus. When we have a child, I desperately want to have a baby through a natural birth with as little medical intervention as possible. I have accomplished a lot in my life so far and will continue to achieve, but it seems to me that childbirth will be a transformative experience that will unlock a side of myself of which I am completely unaware right now.

I grew up as a Chocodile that became a Molten Chocolate Cake. Solid on the outside, short and stable, not likely to deflate, with warm goodness at my core.

The Hydracoach. It's a water bottle with a little digital thingy on it that tells you how many ounces you should be drinking each day and then tracks your intake and your progress toward your goal each day. It really helps people who need to be able to measure their progress toward reaching their goals.

I hide when I am tired and when I'm just plain overwhelmed by the combination of family, work and volunteer commitments that I have made. Since I was about 14, I have needed a balance between periods in which I am committed to doing more than one could possibly get done in a day mixed with periods in which I have absolutely no commitments.

I would invest it.

I too was told that "love is a verb." Loving my spouse is something that I actively choose to do each and every day. The officiant at our wedding also had an interesting take on love and marriage. Instead of allowing couples to say "I do" to one another, he required couples to say "I will." He said that those two words would serve as reminders of the forward-looking nature of the promise that we made to one another. He also said that during hard times, the knowledge that we had agreed to "will" ourselves to follow our vows would give us strength.

Four walls, a HUGE window looking out onto a lush garden, a door, a sign that reads "Don't Speak to the Animals," white paint on the walls and lots of Vera Bradley's Pinwheel Pink office stuff (the pattern makes me happy and VB gives a portion of proceeds to breast cancer research).

I really had a lightbulb moment when I read "The Power of Myth" while in college. The universal human ability to create the construct of God or any other diety is evidence of the existence of a God. What's more, the fact that many religions share common myths or have stories to explain common elements of the human condition is also evidence that something more that exists. Maybe different religions and denominations are localized/regionalized interpretations of whatever the ultimate truth really is.

Ngonzi -- What an awesome question to ask oneself each and every day! I am going to start reminding myself to the an image of God in the morning and then asking myself in the evening if I was successful in that endeavor.

God is community. Growing up, I struggled with the concept of God being an old man who lives in the clouds. After years of thought on the topic, I reached the conclusion that God is a force that we as human beings are incapable of understanding or perceiving. As a result, whatever God is has given us the ability to create, imagine and construct denominations to allow us to create regional variations on the theme. I also reached the conclusion that the each of us is in fact a son or daughter of God and that we experience the divine when we come together as a community to worship, care for and support one another. Sometimes I think I would like to go to seminary, but I'm afraid I would be kicked out before I even got started.

The best wedding gift I received was a set of twelve engraved silver mint julep cups that my mother gave to me before the wedding. I used them as the vases for the flowers that sat on the tables at the reception. Today, I use one to store my makeup brushes in on my vanity so I get to see it every day as I'm getting ready to go to work. I have another that I keep out and use to drink cold drinks. All the rest are on display in the breakfront in my dining room. They are so loved!

My biggest indulgence is food. Each week, I plan a menu of recipes out of seasonal Cooking Lights. I make a full grocery list before making my pilgrimage to the local gourmet grocery store and then to my regular grocery store for the ordinary stuff. Choosing our food is like a sort of meditation for me. I spend horrific amounts of money for feeding a family of 2, but I love every bite and feel a deep sense of satisfaction when the food I serve tastes awesome!

This question threw me for a few days. I was afraid that I had forgotten how to fall in love with the world. After some thought, I realize that I fall in love with the world through my senses too, particularly through smell. I love the smell of my husband's skin at the nape of his neck. I love the smell of my dogs' skin. The smell of the earth right before it rains in the spring. The smell of the Fall. I just haven't been making enough time for myself to renew and maintain my love affair with the world as of late.

The lyrics to the song Forever Young, particularly the lines:

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young.

To live the rest of my days knowing that I am unconditionally loved by the people who matter to me. To work in a profession that improves the world while feeding my soul and helping me to reach my financial goals. To surround myself with beauty. To raise two or three funny, smart, cute children to be healthy self-sufficient adults who hold similar things dear.

I regret not having had a baby in my twenties.

Congratulations on reaching a big landmark! May there be many, many more.

The voice I hear inside my head is a force of nature that is powerful, strong and confident. Something is lost for me though as the words are turned into sounds. My voice when I speak sounds like something less than it does when the words are in my head. I love your suggestion to work with a voice coach and plan to follow up on it. I am perfectly comfortable speaking in public but for the fact that I just don;t like the sound of my voice. I think this could unlock some great potential for me. By the way, the Dead Can Dance rock my core too! Try Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros singing Mondo Bongo or Incubus singing Aqueous Transmissions.

I totally understand.

I would like to be thanked for all of the things I do around the house. I always thank my husband for every little thing he does to help around the house. I do so because while there are things in life that we just "have to do," we can choose the spirit in which we do them. When we choose to do the "have to dos" in the spirit of love and respect for one another, that brings a new level of awareness and spirituality to every task. The "thank you" becomes an acknowledgement of the spirit in which the task was completed. When I cook for him, do the grocery shopping, the laundry or anything else, I am really doing it because I love him and our home and not just because I have to do it. I would like to be thanked more in acknowledgement of the spirit in which I choose to complete my domestic tasks.

I am so glad that you asked this question because it really highlighted for me that I am not doing enough to promote my own happiness these days. The one little thing I've been doing consistently lately is reading your daily blog and actually using it as a prompt for a quick writing exercise every day. I am trying to motivate to go back to hot yoga classes because I found that it had a supremely calming, relaxing and happiness inducing effect on me.

I am a fearful flier too. As a result, my best tip is to take valium 30 minutes before the flight. Unfortunately, I can barely make it on the plane without it and then it makes it just bearable for me. I love traveling once I get to my destination though. :-) My best tip is to attempt to speak the native language of the place to which you are traveling.