As our self-support emerges and we begin to love ourselves as we are, we find comfort and peace in just that. We end up longing less and less for the extraordinary, and we find more and more happiness in the ordinary.

These days, we talk incessantly about living well and achieving life balance, yet we wear masks to hide our pain. No matter who you are, true wellness can never be achieved behind these and without facing our pain and stressors.

Our feelings are always informational -- a profound source of inner guidance. I encourage you to value your feelings and listen to what they are telling you, rather than ignoring and avoiding them.

Haitians have a famous saying about shame and anger; my mother says it all the time when talking about someone who hides behind a wall of anger because they are ashamed of their own behavior but won't or don't know how to admit it. Li fe la wont sevi kole.

With 2013's arrival, much like a gardener using a shovel to prepare for planting (then one day, harvesting), I invite you to explore your faith, facts and fictions with the following questions (shovels) over the weeks and months ahead.

Take a moment now to ponder your definition of a fact. How do you accept something as a fact? Do you take time to verify (through first-hand experience) a fact before you accept a fact to be true? How often do you check facts?

As the season soaks or shrivels expectations, hopes blossom into blessed bliss or dissolve due to daily duress. With seasons officially changing, we enter into a unique 10 days where expectations rapidly climax or crash, awash in faiths, facts or fictions.

The only way you can feel loved is through sharing who you really are. Not the pretend you, not the secret-laden you, but the vulnerable, naked you who is truly uniquely different from anyone else.