January 2007

Happy, happy New Year! I have a powerful feeling that this fresh new start, beginning the 7th year of the third millennium, will transform our hearts. We will re-new ourselves.

New Year: New You

I hope this holiday season filled you with hope and love. While it is not possible to achieve absolute peace on earth overnight, it is achievable to have good will toward man, woman, and child. Everything begins with us – our choices and our attitudes. Peter and I sat quietly by a cozy fire one evening feeling great inner peace and the emotion of contentment washed over us simultaneously. “What I want most in my life, I have,” Peter said. “I have serenity, harmony, meditation, contemplation, peace and love.”

What are some of your New Year’s resolutions? I’m often asked this question. Recently, when I was interviewed for an article on author’s resolutions, I learned that one writer resolved to have more fun in 2007. I want to eat more truffles. Just smelling black truffles makes me happy. Seeing a shaving of one on my plate is quite thrilling. I’m convinced that my passion for black truffles is good for my health; therefore I resolve in 2007 to be sure I see, smell and eat a few specks of these mysterious delicacies. Who would know what joy an underground fungus could bring me?

My great wish for you is to indulge in an occasional treat or two in 2007, experience something so delicious that you feel the real pleasure of being alive, where you can use your five senses in pleasant ways. I don’t feel the least bit guilty about this craving because it strongly reminds me of the great gift of being alive, in our body, where we’re able to eat delicious meals with loved ones every day. Peter has no understanding for truffles. If he is ever served a dish that has a sliver of a black truffle in it, he carefully passes it on to my plate.

I resolve to never tire of life. I expect great things to happen in 2007 and I’m looking forward to many adventures and challenges. I’ve even located a secret restaurant that shaves black truffles on top of cheese ravioli for a minimal charge.

I resolve in 2007 to live by my mantra “Love & Live Happy.” I was touched by a New York Times editorial on Christmas Day: “What we want is to love and know we are loved and to imagine a world that lives up to the purity of that feeling.”

To my great happiness my 25th published book is now out! Peter and I went to a bookstore in late December and on a table of “New Arrivals” saw a generous stack of my book, You Are Your Choices: 50 Ways to Live the Good Life. I was deeply thrilled when my editor Toni Sciarra surprised me with a copy of the book in early December. I cried in utter joy.

Upon returning from our vacation in Barbados where Peter and I celebrated my 65th birthday, we were glad to see the gorgeous photographs of our apartment in Country Living January issue in “Idea Notebook.” Please look for this and share it with friends and family. One of the eight elements that makes me happy at home is the art of my favorite painter, Roger Mühl. There is a photograph of us at a Paris gallery opening in order for you to see what he and his art looks life. He writes, “To paint is to bring color to its maximum intensity so that it becomes vibration and light.” Right on!

To celebrate the publication of You Are Your Choices: 50 Ways to Live the Good Life, Peter and I will be touring the country. Please come see us! We will begin our tour in Chicago and north Illinois and then Milwaukee. Please, please check my website calendar regularly because every day we are working on our schedule. We plan to go to as many cities as we can because this book is so precious to Peter and me.

My publisher, as many of you know, has an imprint that published a book about O.J. Simpson. Many of you were, quite rightly, horrified that HarperCollins would consider something so vile, so disgusting, and so repulsive. I share your feelings. The good news is that the International CEO and President of HarperCollins, Jane Friedman, fired Judith Regan. The book will not be published. I urge you to have faith in my publisher and not hold it against HarperCollins. Under changed circumstances we critics should change our hearts and minds. Jane Friedman just received the Woman of the Year Award by Publisher’s Weekly. I am enormously fond of Jane and look up to her talents and achievements, glad she is my publisher. The new year brings us bright promise. We can make the wise choices that will be best for us and good for others. Let’s together move in the direction of living up to our highest ideals. Let us together “Love & Live Happy.”

Friday, January 26th, I’ll be in Chicago at the Ritz-Carlton for a reception followed by our 8th Happiness Weekend, our first Happiness Weekend to be held outside of Stonington Village, Connecticut. This is a one-night event, ending at 3:30 PM Saturday afternoon. Please come and share your heart with us. Bring your mother, a friend, a sibling, or your spouse.

My publisher is all ears, wanting to know what you, the reader, most enjoys in book styles. I am writing essays now, not chapters. Let me know how you like the short essay format. What style would you prefer to see my future books in?

Great love to you. Please let me hear from you. I hope to share time together with you and your loved ones as Peter and I travel around the country this winter and spring.

Love & Live Happy

I am not allowed to sell my new book, but I am happy to send you book plates for you and your friends. Please consider using my new book for a Book Club discussion. I would be happy to participate in your meeting by speaker phone!

The Ritz-Carlton Chicago is having a celebration for my new book on January 26th, 2007 followed by a Happiness Weekend! Please call my good friend Susan at 312-573-5231 (Susan.Maier@fourseasons.com) for details about the Friday night book event and Happiness Weekend. Let’s make this a memorable experience! To make reservations for a cocktail reception with a talk by me, followed by a book signing, kindly call 312-573-5083.

What a lovely 7-page piece in this month's Country Living magazine. Enjoy beautiful colorful photos of Alexandra's Happy Home.
(see more photos in Calendar section)

Alexandra and favorite artist Roger Mühl with Alexandra's newly acquired Mühl painting.

Alexandra and Peter at the Riot Relief Luncheon with the honor given him by the Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly