“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”

—Edith Lovejoy Pierce

When a year ends, it’s like finishing a favorite book. You really don’t want it to end because you’re still savoring all the good parts, but you also want to wrap it up so you can start the next one.

Before we close this chapter on 2009, we’d like to share some of our most memorable milestones that this magnificent year has brought us. Thanks to each of you for supporting them and helping to make them happen:

Here are our Top Most 10 Memorable Milestones in 2009:

1. Wayne Dyer makes his acting debut in The Shift. The world-renowned best-selling author said this about his movie experience: “I am 68 years old and I have a new career. When I was asked to do this film, I didn’t think ‘I’m too old to do something I’ve never done before.’ I thought ‘I am open to everything. I am willing to change and to learn.’ I’m more proud of this film than of anything I’ve ever done before.”
2. Hay House gets even greener. When you turn the pages of our books, you can be assured that you’re touching paper made from the “good wood.” As of this year, almost 100 percent of our domestic books are now being printed on environmentally-friendly FSC-certified paper. (FSC is the Forest Stewardship Council—a non-government, not-for-profit organization that promotes responsible management of our world’s forests. They work to ensure that timber is harvested in such a way that our wildlife and natural resources can continue to thrive.)
3. Tavis Smiley’s America I Am goes on tour. The popular author and broadcast journalist launched a spectacular traveling museum exhibit—America I Am—this year that will be touring the country for four years to celebrate the impact of African American contributions to our nation and the world as told through rare artifacts, memorabilia and multimedia. To accompany the exhibit, Smiley Books (co-published with Hay House) included this book of amazing photos and empowering quotations.
4. Gregg Braden cracks the code on 2012. While everyone was in an uproar that the world would end in 2012, this visionary author and scientist uncovered the real secret story and included his findings in Fractal Time, his latest book that jumped to the New York Times Bestseller List shortly after its release this year.
5. Patti Davis comes to terms with her mother and shares the story in her first Hay House book. The well-know actress, best-selling author, and famous First Daughter of President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, shared her moving story this year in The Lives Our Mothers Leave Us. She also interviewed several other noted celebrities on their relationship with their mothers—Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Candace Bergen, Angelica Huston and more in this collection of heartwarming stories.
6. Esther and Jerry Hicks and Wayne Dyer make Amazon’s Best of 2009 List. Hay House’s biggest best-selling books this year: Esther and Jerry Hicks’ The Vortex and Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone were also featured on Amazon’s Best of 2009 Top 100 list of Customer’s Favorite Books
7. The Writer’s Workshop and Movers & Shakers Conferences Debut to Sold-Out Audiences. This year, aspiring authors and writers were given inside information from best-selling author Cheryl Richardson and publishing executive Reid Tracey on how to get published, how to market their products, and how to become public speakers in these exclusive workshops and conferences.
8. Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Caroline Myss and more of your favorite authors go mobile! Everyone who has an iPhone and/or iPod Touch can now get their wisdom-on-the-go from all the top authors as our most popular products are now available at your fingertips through new downloadable iPhone & iPod Touch Apps.
9. HealYourLife.com is launched. This cutting edge, content-rich, interactive, multimedia Website introduced to you the foremost best-selling self-help authors, leading experts, up-and-coming inspiration writers, and new like-minded friends who will share their insights, experiences, personal stories and wisdom so you can help heal your life and the world around you…one thought at a time.
10. Louise Hay and Wayne Dyer go aTwitter and become first-time bloggers. Was it the year for the birds? It must be as your favorite authors—Louise Hay and Wayne Dyer (and many more)—joined the social media bandwagon and are now writing blogs, tweeting, and being featured on their own Facebook pages. As Louise wrote in her debut post: “When I grew up and we wanted to talk to someone who lived a great distance from us, we wrote letters by hand, licked a 3-cent postage stamp, and sent it on its way. Now it’s 80 years later and I’m beginning to blog. It’s so nice that there are no age limits for bloggers.”