I learned one major lesson in 2007. We can change our reaction to our circumstances, but we can’t bend the world to our will. This simple lesson came home, literally, on May 30th when my house burned down this year.

May 30th is the 150th day of the year. Another fire starter, Joan of Arc, was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. Maybe it’s a good day for fires.

In February I wrote,

One thing I’ve learned [from all this travel], (besides how to pack), is that it’s a beautiful thing to be able to carry, in your own two arms or on wheels, pulled behind you, all that you “own” in this world. Keep it simple, cut the fat. What’s also amazing is that if all my luggage disappears tomorrow en route to Colorado I’d be fine. More than anything else, I’ve learned to laugh. Don’t take it seriously, people. There’s always another plane! There’s always more clothing to buy when they lose your suitcase. If you can laugh on the road, you’ll do just fine. “Getting grounded” is illusion. How about — get comfortable with groundlessness.

That month I taught a “Goddess Workshop” at my yoga studio in Japan. I saw Patrick for the first time in about six months and we did a lot of business-type stuff, as well as launched Zen is Stupid, which quickly ended up as one of the top ten of the iTunes Buddhist podcast listings. Who knows why? We just record conversations we’d be having anyway. 99% stupid, 1% Zen.

March: We had the housewarming party in Boulder, my first home in the States after being in Japan more than three years. It was a huge success. Dancing, live performances, two levels of beer bonging and ukulele playing…until the cops were called. They told us that if we didn’t wrap the party up they’d fine each of the six residents $1,000 apiece. (Jason Lange created this time-lapse vid of the party. WARNING!!—mild nudity.)

In April, along with Paul Salamone, I launched another business. Plunge Artist, a design firm dedicated to helping start ups get their branding needs met through logos, brand consulting and web design. We’ve learned a lot about business this year. With Paul now in Berlin, we continue to do a thriving business with clients the world over. We had just set up shop in the front of our house (and in fact had client meetings planned at the house the day after the fire) when catastrophe struck.

That was May and my first personal experience with a house fire, the Red Cross and firefighters which, as it turns out, are as hot (pun intended) as the rap they get. Wired Magazine picked up a photo I took of a MacBook that was destroyed in the fire. Those photos, the top photos in my Flickr collection, show the force of the heat, the intensity of the night. They don’t let you hear the sounds of glass breaking, the stillness of the night around us. Check your smoke detectors. Ours didn’t go off. It’s easy to forget and important to remember.

(For the record, Tara coming in strong at number 3, had nothing to do with the fire.)

I wrote my Twitter Autobiography in June. Otherwise, that month was pretty chill. Overnight I became for fire prevention what Bob Barker is for controlling the pet population.

It was a few weeks after the house burned down and I was living out of a suitcase and staying on friends’ couches. I heard about Startup Weekend happening in Boulder from Andrew. It seemed like the last thing I “should” be doing but thankfully had given up the word “should” years previously in favor of “want to.” I hadn’t found a place to live, but here I was going to hang out with a group of tech folks. I questioned my priorities. It turned out to be, as most of you know, one of the most pivotal weekends in my year. The friends I made during that weekend rocked, and continue to rock, my world.

That was July. I was like, hey! I love working with startups! I excel at it! I blogged about it and the benefits and dangers of living our lives online. I talked about it at open forums at Blogher where I got to know Tara from Lijit, Caroline Donahue and lots of other fabulous women (like Bossy, the ladies from sk*rt, Faith and her mom). Yoga Garden celebrated it’s second anniversary. Then, I turned twenty-six. The next day my grandparents had their fiftieth wedding anniversary and I sang to a group of easy-to-please octogenarians. I launched Expatriette. It was a full and deeply humbling month.

August. Launched GwenBell.com shortly after leaving Boulder. Knew I would go back but wasn’t able to find housing that worked for me. Started traveling again. I blogged that blogging is dead and that post has gotten more hits than any other this year. People on both sides of the fence jumped in to share their experience with blogging.

I moved to Chapel Hill the first week of September. Considered going to grad school, but it felt like a bandage for the sadness that was finally setting in. I thought Boulder was a home, but it suddenly felt distant and cold. I smelled smoke on the few things I had salvaged.

I started tango. No better way to add a little spark (and probably a healthy fire!) to your life. I wrote about how to heat up your sex life with tango. Meanwhile, my own sex life…uh…

I attended my second Startup Weekend, this time in Houston. I met some tremendous people, ate Texas food and fell in love. I’m not saying with whom. But (s)he lives in Houston…

Speaking of love. I fell in love more times this year than I could count. And then, just last week I wrote, “It’s taken me this long to see! That I’m a (hopeless) romantic. I fall hard, fast and completely.” Well, nothing has panned out yet, but I am confident about 2008.

October. I think I drank a lot of coffee.

In November we had Startup Weekend Chapel Hill. It was a great weekend. Like all the weekends before it, I led yoga for a minute or two during most meetings (that happen on the hour). It turned out to be my last SW (for the year at least). I conducted a few interviews, got in a brief debate with Michael Goldhaber over a post on personal branding and figured out what my site redesign would look like.

David Cohen invited me to come back to Colorado to do some work with Colorado Startups and Tech Stars. I enthusiastically accepted and started planning my move. I’ve committed to at least one year in Boulder starting January 2, 2008.

December has been a blast. I’ve had more parties, potlucks and playfulness than the rest of the year combined. It’s like getting my liberal arts degree all over again. Patrick’s visiting from Japan on Christmas Day. We’re going to talk about the future of Zen is Stupid (both the podcast and the online store-coming soon), Yoga Garden and Dating the Dharma.

2008 promises to be a year of startups, conversations and stabilizing. I know that I can’t control the circumstances, but I can control my response to it all.

I intend to find a publisher for my novel-travel-guide, Expatriette. I would love to expand that site, as well as this one. I will cultivate my other projects in the bunker, as well as working on expanding the Colorado Startups & TechStars vision. 2008 promises to be challenging and rewarding. Thank you to everyone that has joined me on this path in 2007. You have been a wonderful friend to me. My gratitude knows no bounds.

Expect big things in 2008.