As I open my new Landscape of China calendar to the first page – I couldn’t find another Crop Circle wall calendar this year – I reflect for a moment, then gaze at the picture of a misty mountain that illustrates January. The change from old to new. Where I’ve come from, and where I’m going. New years and new beginnings always tickle me with a bit of wistfulness, and fill me with new hope. And it especially reminds me of one of the most important beginnings I ever experienced – the birth of my daughter – and how, during that birth, I saw her soul enter her body.

In the mid-1980s, I was still developing my psychic and mediumistic gifts, and studying with my mentor, Sadie Nickerson. When I learned I was pregnant, I was excited, as all new mothers are. But then started the bouts of morning sickness, the sluggish feeling we women get sometimes during the pregnancy, weight gain, and the general malaise where I can’t understand why all the foods I used to love so much just don’t taste the same anymore.

Somewhere along the pregnancy, I reached the point where I began having thoughts like, My God, this is never going to end! and Why did I do this? And there were the scary thoughts, where I realized that from this point forward, my life was going to change. My job title was shifting from wife to mother – I was about to become responsible for another human being!

I felt exhilarated. And a bit frightened.

At the first labour pains, my husband drove me to the hospital, and there began the wait. I don’t remember a lot of what happened over the next six hours, outside a lot of gritting my teeth and sucking ice chips – but at some point I was wheeled down a long hall into the delivery room, surrounded by doctors, nurses and beeping machines, and a tray of spooky-looking medical instruments. So much movement and excitement all around me, and there I was, gasping for air and exerting myself… every muscle in my body on fire…

Suddenly, everything stopped.

I raised my head. Lots of human activity in the corners of my eyes, but everything was moving in slow motion. The room was so quiet, as if I was listening to the sound of silence between two heartbeats. The doctor poised at the end of the table, ready to receive the baby that it seemed like some other woman was delivering. I was joyfully pain free.

Just above the doctor’s head, glittering twinkles of silvery light danced joyfully in the air. They hovered like blinking Christmas tree lights, then quickly coalesced into one glow and dropped down toward the child being born.

I somehow knew that this was the soul of my child – my daughter – entering her body.

I breathed easily and began to weep. Don’t you see that? I wanted to ask the people standing over me. Everything’s going to be ok. And I lay my head back on the table.

WHAM! Time kicked me back to the moment and my head started spinning. I heard a child crying and thanked God, then blew out a breath and closed my eyes. A new life was beginning, and mine had just evolved.

That was quite a special beginning. And over the years, I’ve come to realize that every new day represents the opportunity for a special new beginning. You may not give birth to a new human being, but you may develop a new idea, meet a new person, or decide to give some energy to a new, healthier behaviour.

But if you are going to be one of those blessed people expecting a child in this magical year, keep your eyes and senses open. There’s a new soul out there getting ready to meet you. Welcome this new beginning.