If you are one of those people who does not believe in the powerful transformative force of positive thinking and creative visualization over present reality..then you probably shouldn't read on.

So for those likeminded people who like me can be hardnail, tough & practical and yet mystically open to spirituality & the powers of synchronicity and positive thinking..I invite you to take off your yellow construction hazard hat, open your third eye and read on....

Like most people, I think I have been unlucky in some areas of my life and very lucky in others. In the "lucky" department of my life my 88 year old Italian grandmother, takes top billing.

On my Valentine's Day visit to her this past Sunday. my beloved Nonna Rosa--a black attired, 5 ft tall, gnarled hands, hunched over, illiterate, non-English speaking, package of unconditional love--turned into a new age Italian guru, as she was was stirring the Sunday Sauce and ladeling some onto a plate for "tasting" by my overgrown teen & preteen.

As is my habit when I am in that kitchen...and with her...I regress.

And I use that term clinically....I REGRESS..to about the age of 15 years old. Its actually a source of great amusement to my children. I sit barefoot, and crossed-leg balanced on a small wobbly chair, at the even smaller kitchen table, pick all the sesame seeds off the Semolina bread and start my Italian aria of "complaints".

Nonna has always listened to me ,with her back turned to me, stirring something.

And usually, this ritual, has me spewing something in Italian..with great drama and lots of hand gestures...and like clockwork her answers have always been... "Si, si amore...(yes, yes,my love)"...and "guisto...(you are right!)...and "Voi ancora da mangiare? (want something else to eat?)....

She was in position at the stove. I was in my position in the wobbly chair.and I was ready to talk and be calmed....

However this Sunday, this little Italian old lady took me on. I was going on and on...just expecting her to soothe me and stir her pot. She was quiet for most of my ranting.. and then I said it.

I said , "...(blah blah blah)...and sometimes the road looks so difficult and dark and there are nothing but obstacles... it makes me ask why bother?..it makes me just want to give up..(blah blah)."

She was not happy. She stopped stirring her pot. She turned around to look at me while wiping her hands from the sauce. She looked down at me, and with her fixed glare and from that stance she suddenly appeared about 8 feet tall...

Then she said it, "Elena...Tutto e difficile ma tutto e possible. TUTTO! Repetello siempre and non scordare...Allora Basta!" --
"Everything is difficult but Everything is possible.. EVERYTHING! Repeat it! Always! And Don't forget. Now Enough!"

It was the Italian law of attraction! She used to say that sentence to me as a child-- and for years that sentence had always been my personal & quiet amulet; a private incantation for my life & for success .

But life has a way of wearing away at even our most valuable possessions and beliefs... And on Valentines Day, I was reminded that sometimes, amulets and incantations are only as powerful as the people who give them to you.......
Well...
My amulet was reignited...and reinvigorated with the life force and wisdom of an little Italian lady..who had witnessed its transformative power on me on the past.....

So I pass on my Italian amulet and incantation to anyone who needs the invigoration, reigniting optimism and fearlessness that at times can only come through the faith of our most loyal and greatest champions.....

"Tutto E Possibile..Everything is Possible! Repeat! Repeat Always! Never Forget!"