50th wedding anniversary planning can be a bit stressful! 50 years of making friends and family can mean that there would be lots of people to invite and the expectation of a great party as well as a big mixture of ages can add to the pressure. Not that I am trying to put you off! If you plan your anniversary party then there will be no need to panic.

You first need to think about the type of party that your golden couple would enjoy. My aunt and uncle had a big party, organised as a wedding, complete with dancing but my grandparents enjoyed a family meal at one of their favourite restaurants. Which would they enjoy?

When you have worked out if you are inviting everyone or just family you will have a rough idea of numbers. You will now need to find the venue! Look at local hotels and function facilities, get menu samples, bar prices and if not included, the room hire. Also ask around, a local community hall could be just what you are looking for in space and also facilities. A number of community centres have their own kitchen and just ask that you clear up afterwards. This could save you a fortune. If the couple are members of a local social club or golf club they may have membership discounts to hire the room, plus this is a venue known to them and the service would be great, you may even get a few extras.

When you are looking around any of the possible venues think about the size of the room – is everyone going to be seated at tables. The location – is it easy to find for your guests that are travelling, is there overnight accommodation if needed? And the decor – would you need to spend lots to make the room look nice?

When you have all the information, the next stage in your 50th wedding anniversary planning is to collate all of the facts; prices, sizes, ease, minimum numbers etc. We find the best way to do this is to have all of the information on a spreadsheet so that you can compare apples with apples. When you have made your decision you will need pay a deposit to the venue to secure the date, and make sure you read the contract!

Now that the venue is booked you will need to organise invitations and possibly accommodation. It would be a good idea to contact local hotels for prices so that you could include a list of possible places that your guests could stay in the invitation. Don’t get involved in booking accommodation, let your guests do that otherwise you may find that this will take up most of your time. Get your guests to reply with any special dietary requirements

Discuss catering with the venue or with the caterer when you have your replies so that they have all the details of children’s meals or special needs. You will need to confirm numbers a couple of weeks before the party – check with your venue as to what is best.

Organise any decor – it could be flowers, balloons, candles and either book with the decor company or get your volunteers ready! You may want to get into the venue the night before to get everything in place. Make sure your venue knows this as they may have another function on.

If you want to have a special 50th anniversary cake then you will need to book this with a baker in advance, some people have replicas of their wedding cake or the wedding cake they always wanted, others will have fun cakes that show off their personality.

Venue booked, invitations sent and received back, numbers confirmed, decorations done, cake ready at bakers, all that is left is to have a great 50th anniversary party!

Suz Daykin is the Editor of Anniversary Gifts By Year, the complete guide for anniversary gift ideas and how to organise great anniversary parties.

More 50th Anniversary Ideas Here

Copyright 2007 by MyLastingLove.com. All Rights Reserved.

One of the greatest things about getting older is knowing yourself more. Once you have discovered 1. what you really love to do, 2. realized you have the power to create the life you have dreamed of and 3. have chosen to make a leap of faith, you are ready to manifest transformation in your life. Georgia O’Keefe once said, “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life — and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” Experiencing and acknowledging fear is one of the most important steps we can take in our lives. Once we have stared these hairy monsters of doubt and confusion in the eyes, we can move on and release them. Once fear has been released we have all the possibilities and potential of the Universe in front of us. Anything we want is attainable and a life founded on passion, desire and love begins.

You Deserve The Best

Once I let go of the attitudes and beliefs that held me captive I learned to accept blessings from the Universe. Many times the god/goddess/creator/Grand Pubbah offers us gifts and we do not allow ourselves to take them. I have learned we all loved and there is an infinite amount of it. Each of us can simply allow the stream of unending love provide us with the divine support and inspiration that is available every moment for eternity.

“I offer you a basket of stars to encourage you to create your highest vision and follow your bliss wherever it leads.”-D.E.

This is a message from our higher selves, our guardian angels, the Cosmic Cookie. Who in their right mind says no to infinite encouragement and joy when it is offered? Only people who are obviously not in their right mind! There must be millions of crazy people out there since many of us make the choice to reject joy and love. Instead we accept negative attitudes and low self-esteem. Acceptance is one of our greatest hurdles in understanding our lives are meant to be bliss! We must accept this as truth, we deserve to be loved, to live full of joy, to do what we love every day. If we believe this to be true in our hearts and minds it will occur.

This is a Public service Announcement: HaHaHaHaHaHaaaaaaaaa!

Actress Katharine Hepburn once said, “I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.” The last and most important secret to doing what you love is to have fun, enjoy yourself, and laugh every day as much as possible. Have the courage to laugh at yourself. If you know you are loved and divinely supported then there is nothing to be embarrassed about. Doing what you love every day is not about living a perfect life or being a perfect person. I have come to see the hilarious nature of humanity as the key to our enlightenment. When I am able to laugh at my flaws and mistakes I have succeeded and I am living the mystery, the beauty of human potential. The process of changing my life and doing what I love, following my passion, is a wild ride. And some days when I stop for a moment I realize my hair is sticking up from going so fast and my butt hurts from riding for so long, but it is worth it for the rush, the thrill I feel. Take your own ride! Free yourself and let potential and love lead you.

To see more inspirational and creative work please visit my web site at http://www.greatcosmichappyass.com

Diane English is the artist-visionary-mastermind-crazy woman behind the Great Cosmic Happy Ass Greeting Card Company. She believes the expression of humor is a direct path to longevity and in the power of the Universe’s unconditional love. For a good dose of laughter and inspiration visit http://www.greatcosmichappyass.com

Copyright 2007 by MyLastingLove.com. All Rights Reserved.

As I sit quietly, watching the sun sink behind the Blue Ridge Mountains, wrapped in
the warm spring air of North Carolina I take a moment to celebrate the changes in
my life. Change has brought joy, doubt, growth, passion and confusion to me
during the last few years, but I wouldn’t trade the opportunity to do what I love for
anything. The Buddha said “Your work is to discover your world and then with all
your heart give yourself to it.” My world is made of laughter, creativity and being
who I really am and believe me, I give everything I have to it. Each of us has the
chance to live the life we have always wanted, regardless of age, gender, color or
size; we just have to take it.

How I Discovered What I Truly Loved

For years I did what people do in the early years. I wandered, wondered and tried a
variety of career choices and jobs. Medical technician, graphic artist, metaphysical
bookstore owner-I was successful at all of these endeavors, but deep inside, hidden
from sight was what I loved most. The part of me that had been creating art since
childhood was buried beneath fear, misunderstanding and logic. While I managed
my existing business I read a book called The Artist’s Way, which unlocked a part of
me I had not known before. I began to focus on what I loved most in every spare
moment. The ideas exploded and the response from those around me was
encouraging and supportive. I saw change coming and decided I would take the
leap, I would trust and I would create the world I wanted to live in.

All The Power Lies Within You

When it came time to take action it was as if my guardian angel bopped me over the
head with a neon sign that said “This Way” and my vision suddenly became clear.
Everything we need to know is inside us. Our life experiences lead us to the present
situation and using what we’ve learned along the way is an important step. In my
14 years as a business owner I encountered many spiritual people and I noticed a
repetitive pattern humans can’t seem to stop: we take ourselves too seriously! You
know the attitude! I’m going to heaven and you’re not! My prayers have to be more
solemn than yours! The UFO’s are coming, run for your lives! Please! Lighten Up!
Like lightening, I suddenly knew what I wanted to do and I knew my whole life had
brought me to this place. So my new career was born and I dedicated myself to
spreading this message: laugh, create, follow your heart and be who you are
courageously! Unlock your own power and as Rumi stated, “Let the beauty of what
you love, be what you do.”

“You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our
existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity
of choices.”–Deepak Chopra

Change happens a lot more easily when you believe in your ability to be a “choice-
maker”. I continue to see myself as a “choice-maker”. I choose to create, to laugh,
to believe in myself, to trust. Leap and the net will appear! Doing what I love has
transformed my world and filled it with things I had only dreamed and imagined
before.

Diane English is the artist-visionary-mastermind-crazy woman behind the Great
Cosmic Happy Ass Greeting Card Company. She believes the expression of humor is a
direct path to longevity and in the power of the Universe’s unconditional love. For a
good dose of laughter and inspiration visit http://www.greatcosmichappyass.com.

Copyright 2007 by MyLastingLove.com. All Rights Reserved.

Ever action we take is based in love or fear, not just those dealing with relationships. Decisions affecting business, industry, governments, religion, education, social agenda, economic goals, war, peace, attack, defense, aggression, submission, and the list goes on based on the only two possible mind-sets – love or fear.

Love is sometimes presented as the opposite of fear, but true love is unconditional with no opposite. True unconditional love is more powerful than any other energy. It is the environment in which all things arise. Love has energy which is expansive, opens up, sends out, empowers, heals, reveals, warm and inviting. You are made of true energy to live your life whole at one with it, whether you recognize it or not.

Negative emotions are like alligators lurking beneath the surface – rearing their heads when humans allow fear to take over. Fear has energy which draws in, runs from, closes down, hides, withholds, precipitates anger and harms self and others.

It is an illusion that you are separate from this loving energy that causes you to believe that choosing anything other than love makes sense or is possible. In the relative, dualistic world of positive and negative, darkness and light, ying and yang energy, we make choices and we learn from them. This is what we came to this earth plane to do. Underlying these choices, though, is the choice to be conscious of, who we truly are, love in action. This as volitional, it is as love does. When we choose to be conscious of it, we choose love. We still exist in the world of negative choices and cause and effect, and we need to consciously make our way, through it all. Doing so with an awareness that we are all made of love enables us to be more playful, more joyful, more loving and wise, as we navigate the vicissitudes of the earth’s density.

Ultimately, the choices we make, sheds light on the love that makes us all one, enabling those who have forgotten the source to have a glimpse from hence they came. Earth’s vicissitudes makes it easy to forget this source, which is why we are here. We are here to remember and, when we forget to remember again, to choose love. And when we do, we are creating who we truly are – love in action.

Love is patient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful.
It is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable or resentful.
It does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. — I Corinthians 13: 4-8

About the Author

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, “101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life.” Dr. Dorothy has the unique gift of connecting people with a broad range of profound principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one’s daily thoughts and feelings.

http://www.drdorothy.net

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Tip by MyLastingLove.com: For many, good articles on unconditional love & healing, visit http://www.TherapeuticReiki.com/blog .

Copyright 2007 by MyLastingLove.com. All Rights Reserved.

First of all, the normal hurdles that younger couples have to work their way through are seldom of concern. Careers are over for most seniors. Children are raised and have left home. Home buying and other major acquisitions were made in the distant past. Well, then, it sounds like all should be quiet on the romantic front, doesn’t it?

That’s not necessarily so. Seniors who have reached an advanced age, say past seventy, have often established some very strong opinions. One person put it to me this way…”There are a lot of ways to go to the mailbox.” It isn’t something that is often noticed on the surface. Habits become solidified and attitudes, opinions and reactions become pretty firmly entrenched without much fanfare. Long, comfortable marriages seem to support the “I Did It My Way” that Frank Sinatra once sang about.

Seniors who find themselves alone, usually because of the loss of a partner, don’t have current skills at dating and selecting a mate. How could they? And what worked in their late teens or early twenties is usually way beyond obsolete. Unfortunately, most “don’t know that they don’t know” and assumptions are usually rampant.

Dating often becomes a stiff affair involving a meal out with friends or alone and maybe a movie. More often than not, a marriage is contracted with no baseline of reality to hold it together. Each partner knows how things should be, which is how they always were in the past, right? Wrong! Issues of all kinds arise when no serious consideration is given to varying points of view.

The land of assumptions is the direct opposite of deep, investigative conversations. What should be seriously addressed are attitudes about sexual behavior, the handling of finances, the division of labor in the home and yard and how various adult children are going to be involved. And that’s just for starters.

Even when this is done, deep honesty may be by-passed. Telling it how it would be “lov-er-ly”…not how it is can be an easy trap to fall into when trying to win someone over. Often adult children react to a late in life marriage of a cherished parent differently than the hopeful parent thought they would. In other words, they may be hard to second guess.

One senior couple I know quite well sailed into marital bliss with the wife being promised “nooners” by a husband who was sure she would be the cure for his sexual impotence. He also guaranteed that his grown kids would love anyone he loved and that turned out to be a bust. They hadn’t talked about finances because neither of them was comfortable with the subject, so another hurdle loomed. A decade later they are doing very well but it looked, from my vantage point at least, like it was a long, uphill climb.

What seems to work is to take it slow and easy, and see what evolves. Neither partner can be a replacement for the one who is gone. New attitudes may have to be considered and new patterns created. When seniors marry it is not usually a rerun of an early-in-life romance where the pieces just fall in place automatically. It is new and different and needs to be treated with great respect. Seniors are wiser, we can all hope, but not as durable in most cases. The resilience of youth has usually come and gone.

Anyone wanting to remarry late in life might be wise to talk with other senior newly-weds, their own grown kids, a beloved minister and/or even a counselor. Why not stack the deck favorably?

About the Author

by Luise Volta
.
Luise’s life has included careers in nursing, teaching pre-school, interior design, Real Estate sales, insurance adjusting, and dairy herd testing. Visit for Nutrition and Health.

Article Source: Article North directory

Copyright 2007 by MyLastingLove.com. All Rights Reserved.

I have heard spouses on numerous occasions complain that their partner has done “too little, too late.” If your partner has said this to you then you need to make some major changes fast, because your partner is headed for the door. Many people wait until there is a problem or a conflict, then they attempt to perform a Band-Aid solution. This usually gives good temporary relief and things return to “normal.” Unfortunately, it is often only a matter of time before there is a reemergence of the same problem area. Once we see the pattern occurring, then we develop frustration and resentment because we see that things are not changing. You’ll only get so many chances with the band aid approach. The dangerous part is when you take your partner’s forgiveness as a license to freely mistreat them.

Don’t let this happen to you! Do something now. I’ve seen too many people live lives of regret because they lost the best partner they could of ever had. Make your marriage a priority. Let your spouse know how important he or she is to you. Don’t wait until that person throws up his hands and is fed up. Sincerely dedicate yourself to being a better partner.

A system or formula exists for anything we want to do in life. All we have to do is plug into the system and do what the system says or do something similar. We are fortunate that books are numerous on the subject of marriage enhancement. Church is another good place to learn how to have a fulfilling marriage. People often come to therapy in a state of confusion, stating “We don’t know how to do this.” You learn about happy marriages through good role models and/or by studying. So if you haven’t had the role models to set a positive example for you then you need to seek out the experts. You’ll find them in your community, in books, and on the internet.

Ask for professional help, seek out input from other married couples, particularly those who have lasted the test of time. Do whatever it takes. Don’t wait. Get started to day. You know you don’t want to spend the rest of your life without your partner. A little bit of effort goes a long way. Decide to fall in love all over again. You’ll be glad you did.

About the Author

by Mark Webb. He is the author of How To Be a Great Partner and founder of Partner Focused Relationships™. Sign up for Mark Webbs Relationship Strategies Ezine ($100 value). Just visit his website at http://www.powerfulrelationshipadvice.com or http://www.therelationshipspecialist.com.

Article Source: Article North directory

Falling in love…aaahh what a wonderful experience the first flushes of love are. The heart starts pounding, our temperature rises, and the butterflies begin fluttering whenever the girl/boy of our dreams enters the room. The world looks so…well…rosy. Not only that, life suddenly becomes much more exciting. From my own experiences the heady excitement of first love really did my head in – for some reason commonsense flew out the window…well in the short term anyway. I started accepting things that I normally wouldn’t, pulled away from my old friends, and started to lose a part of myself to accommodate the other person.

I followed my heart when on reflection I could’ve saved myself quite a bit of stress had I known a few more things about sharing my life with someone. I never really asked the important questions such as who would be the major breadwinner, compared our values or really planned for the future. I simply followed my heart and went with the flow in blissful abandonment.

What do you really know about your future life long mate? Do you know what their favourite piece of music, colour, outfit, book, holiday destination is?

What about their likes and dislikes? Do you know what their level of patience and understanding is, are they aware of yours? Are they flexible or inflexible thinkers and do you recognise whether you are or not?

I’ve listed 10 basic points to ask each other before you reach love’s point of no return. You could treat this as a date, and also as an opportunity to really get to know each other on a deeper level. Above all be tactfully truthful, treat what the other has to say with respect, and never assume the other knows what you’re thinking.

If this sounds a bit clinical, consider it as a blueprint of your future lives together. Ever heard the comments “I wish I’d known what I was getting myself into.” Or “I wish I knew then, what I know now.” Or “I just can’t understand her/him.”

Here are the points:

1. Ask each other what your values are on a scale of 1 – 10.

2. Ask what you really do not value on scale of 1 – 10.

3. Do you both want children? If only one wants children, is there an alternative and is this issue negotiable?

4. Who will be the breadwinner after the baby is born? It’s not necessarily dad anymore. Are you both okay with who will be the major breadwinner?

5. Assuming you both were employed prior to children, ask yourselves once you become a parent how long will it be before you return to paid employment. I make this point because from experience that whilst the majority of couples I’ve met are ok with the traditional scenario of the wife remaining at home with the children, some men have resented this.

6. What do you expect from each other – in sickness and in health? Ask each other what you expect from them; in return let your partner know what you will personally bring into the relationship and what you will continue to bring to the relationship.

7. What will you forgive/not forgive of each other’s behaviours, for example, infidelity or lying?

8. Do you have a hobby you could both share? List all the really wonderful things you could do together.

9. Will there be occasions when you want to do things alone? For example, boys/girls night outs, fishing trip with the boys/girls etc. Is this acceptable to you?

10. Is there anything that annoys you about your partner already? Are you willing to accept annoyances?

Secretly thinking that your partner will come around to your way of thinking sooner or later could possibly be setting yourself up for disappointment. There’s also the risk of blame and anger if you’re unable to change something you assumed you could.

Accept that nothing in life is perfect – life could be said to be is perfectly imperfect.

Article Source: http://www.articleset.com

About the Author

Michaela Scherr is a Transformational Coach (http://www.michaelascherr.com), certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), writer, and Metaphysician who is totally committed to helping others create positive and action oriented changes to their lives. Michaela is the author of several e-books including Book of 10 Colour Meditation Scripts and Basic House-Clearing 101 the Energy Way. She is also publisher of a monthly newsletter called From My Desk; an engaging, inspirational, and often humorous newsletter which offers ‘real life’ tips aimed towards achieving a more peaceful, spiritual and fulfilled ‘real’ life. http://www.michaelascherr.com
arried to David, Michaela has two children and a grandchild and currently lives in Brisbane Australia. ©Michaela Scherr.

To do proper retirement financial planning, you should start early – that’s the “too late smart” part of the proverb. You’re getting older every day – are you getting smarter? Fortunately, there are retirement books that can help you with this. One of the most important is “401(k) Basics” by Motley Fool publishing. It will steer you into how to make the most of a company 401(k) plan, while taking an unsentimental retirement view – telling you that there is no fast road to riches, only steady, regular savings and investing will help ensure you against retirement losses.

Your retirement benefits should contain a mix of growth funds early on, wealth preservation funds and income generation tools as you age – this can be found online through a number of retirement calculators, and will help you plan the day when you can send your company your retirement letters and say “I’ll be on the golf course!” Most retirement calculators are driven by an investing rule called the Rule of 72 – take 72 and divide it by your rate of return in points (for example, getting 6% on a savings account or CD) and that will tell you how many years it takes for your investment to double. In this case, 72 divided by 6 is 12, meaning that sitting an investment down in a 6% account means it will double in 12 years.

Remember that slow and steady contributions win the day; you can’t rush this later in life. Start early, invest everything you can afford to, and know that your money is working for you in the long term. If you’re eligible for a 401(k) program, you should take it – it benefits you in multiple ways, from employee matching (which doubles your investment) to being take out of your paycheck before taxes (which is fundamentally giving you a 20-35% increase in the net investment from doing it in post-tax income) to tax deferral on the interest it accrues. A 401(k) is by far and away the best retirement investment vehicle possible.

One thing you should not count on is Social Security; due to changing demographics, we’re going to be disbursing more from Social Security than it takes in in about 5 to 10 years, and the fund will literally run out at the current rate of contributions in thirty years. Presume that you’re on your own and plan accordingly.

About The Author