August 2008 Archives

Today, I am blue. And green. It is a picture perfect August day here in Denver, Colorado--brilliant sunshine, cloudless blue skies, and an ideal 71 degrees, with a whisper of a breeze and characteristic low, low humidity (why am I sitting in my office instead of out in the garden?!). You'd think the DNC had struck a bargain with Mother Nature to make sure Denver provided the perfect backdrop for tonight's acceptance speech by Barack Obama. And Denver has made sure that all the delegates, reporters, and other visitors will leave the city thinking they might want to move here (the low humidity is sooooooo seductive!). Before calling the moving van, they should know that a day like this in August is not the norm, and that a month ago, it was 104 degrees.

So why am I blue and green? Well, I'm a liberal Dem who is blue that she did not grab a ticket to tonight's event when a block of them were offered to the community, and green with envy that my stepdaughter and her mom are going to be at Invesco Field this evening for Obama's historic acceptance speech. The 80,000 tickets for the event, which were snapped up in no time flat, have long since been distributed and it's far too late to change my mind, so Rick (who is squeamish about crowds and is not the least bit disappointed not to be going) and I will be watching from home. I'm so glad we have a high def TV for this! And we can have the beautiful Denver evening to enjoy--we'll just keep the sliding glass door open to the backyard--they are on the north side of the house in the direction of the stadium. Sometimes, even though we're about 10 miles away as the crow flies, we can see fireworks from the stadium...

I think I'd not have had second thoughts if it hadn't turned out to be such an amazing day weather-wise, and if some of my favorite artists weren't playing! I've had MSNBC on TV today, and they've been broadcasting from the stadium, where Sheryl Crow, Michael McDonald, and Stevie Wonder have been doing sound checks. My inner, youthful JFK and MLK-loving  idealistic, rock-concert loving self finds the combination of Obama invoking a future where we are united and taking care of one another and big music outdoors very stirring.

But the truth about the whole thing is that I never really felt inspired and energized to seek tickets when I had the chance, so I do trust that here at home is where I need to be tonight. I've been writing some on the EW book, and I'm still playing with the art pieces, and with our trip to Michigan coming up, I am starting to feel the tiniest bit of time pressure. Going to the big event would definitely take a chunk of time (doors open at 3 pm!) and a chunk of knee power that I may want to reserve for the extra walking I'll soon be doing.  And I'll get the scoop about it from Stepdaughter #1 after the fact. But dang. I have always hated to be left out of a cool party, even if I left myself out!

P.S.You can find some cool photos of the convention "circus" taken by regular folks here. As I was looking at the official schedule of events for the DNC, I found this that was interesting! So glad it was included: Meditate '08

I've had BIG fun the last few days. Without revealing more than I need to about someone else's project, I've agreed to do some artwork (paid, but not till the project is finished and it sells) for a friend, and the request from her came at such a synchronous time! As I was finishing up sorting through yet another pile of papers, I found something that Sweet Julie (my inner child, so named long ago by Mary Mooney in a therapy session) had written in her own handwriting (non-dominant hand).

I had asked SJ what she needed to get behind me and allow my career to advance because I had already discovered that her fear was trying to hold me back. So, with the method I used to teach many years ago for inner child communication, I had her express her needs by using my non-dominant hand to allow her to write. Two things on Sweet Julie's list of "demands" were "creativity" and "color." So when my friend brought this project up, I knew it was a divine gift! And I've been consumed with it for the last 36 hours. I LOVE playing with color more than just about anything, and it's been awhile.

Here is one of the "paintings" I've made that I'm pretty sure will not be used for her project. (The ones for the project are softer and more abstract). It was made by using a photograph I took of a rose ("Disneyland"), and manipulating it with PhotoShop. It is every bit as much fun as painting, without the mess. And if you make a stroke you don't like, you just click "Edit," and "Undo"!

By the way, if you want to dialog with your own inner child to see what's up under the surface, you might want to visit my inner child resource page for instructions on how to do it.

I know I'm in Easy World when I have the sudden inspiration to post on Denver Freecycle that I am looking for a 10-gallon fish tank for the Three Mousketeers, and get an immediate reply that someone who lives close to us not only has one to give away, but has a mesh top for it as well! We picked it up, ordered a "tank topper" for it (a cage built to rest on top of an aquarium tank, with ramps so the mice can access the upper levels--there are 2, making 3 in all, counting the tank floor), and the mice are happily ensconced in their deluxe new habitat. They were outgrowing the cage we got them when they were babies, only 6 weeks ago!

Now, to speak to the title of this entry. I've really learned a valuable lesson about taking responsibility for 3 lives, however small their packages, without really understanding what's involved. I just saw Britney Spears' sweet little face staring up at me from the tank at Petsmart, and I was a goner. I'm not sure why I didn't consider it just as important a decision as I would if I had been considering a new canine addition. I mean--I'd never have bought a dog through a pet shop. And I'd never have done it on a whim. I've been breathing through my moments of sheer panic, realizing that these are precious creatures, too, that I know so little about rodent-keeping, and that taking care of them properly is the same as taking care of the Divine.

Somehow, without knowing the "mouse rules," I intuitively understood that I needed to get 3 female mice so if one died, there would still be a pair to keep each other company. Turns out, that's the number recommended by the experts because female mice very much need companionship, so if one dies, there's still a companion for the one left, just as I somehow sensed. I am a little verklempt at imagining what it will be like when there's only one left--female mice die from loneliness when their cage-mates are gone. I am not sure I'm willing to keep adding mice forever so as not to be cruel to the last one standing...

Another issue that makes me wish I'd thought this through more thoroughly is that the dachshunds have become obsessed with them, especially since we moved their tank to a more convenient location. But I'm trusting that they will get more used to them and that they will calm down about them. That's already happening, though more slowly than I'd like.

But the mice are such fun to watch, and they have such individual personalities, that we are really getting attached to them, and even though I vascillate between loving having them and wishing I had never taken on responsibility for them, they've become family.  

Anyhoo, I still haven't figured out the trick to embedding video in my blog entries, but I did finally email Tony to ask him about it. So, hopefully, I'll know soon. Meanwhile, click on the links to see the mice--first, in their "starter home," and then, with the wieners watching in their new home:

The Three Mousketeers Deal With A Strange New Thing

and

The Two Wieners Watch the Three Mouseketeers

I'm putting Easy World to the test. Or, rather, Easy World is putting ME to the test. It's very fun. AND, my ego is starting to get a little irritated that none of it's machinations are needed!

As I have already expressed, I got a literary agent for my Easy World book with ultimate ease--my top choice: wonderful Lisa Hagan. She already got 3 publishers to ask to see my book proposal (we still haven't heard back from many of the publishers she queried and have gotten a few "no thanks" as well). Meantime, she has fallen in love with Easy World and is not hesitating a whit to make sure I'm remembering to be in Easy World, too.

Even when I had stepped only so slightly out of it--so slightly I might have sworn I was still in it, she invoked EW and called me back. Love that. The student turns the tables on the teacher. Not that I really consider her my student. But it is quite fun to see someone newly on fire with EW (she's already had a bunch of EW successes--I need to get her to write some testimonials) and it tickles me that she is a new Easy World evangelist--who better than that to help me sell the first book about Easy World?

A couple of days ago, the editorial director for a big, big, BIG New York publisher who had asked to see the proposal called me to talk about the book. Before she called, Lisa rang me up to tell me she had asked for my phone number and would I be willing to talk to her. Huh? WOULD I?! I asked Lisa why she would likely be calling and Lisa said most probably to see if I'd be open to making some changes. I figured I'd sure listen and let Spirit guide me about that, so I told her to go ahead and give her the green light.

The editor called not long after Lisa and I hung up and, instead of wanting to talk about changes, she wanted to ask some questions about Easy World and some things I'd mentioned in my proposal that she was not familar with, and just get a better idea about who I am and what Easy World is about. She also asked who I might be able to get to endorse the book, so I named a few people I have access to, and a few I may be able to find a way to access. (If anyone has a connection to Mike Dooley, please let me know how to contact him--he'd be perfect! Or, any other "A-list" self-help authors/experts.)

We had a fabulous phone visit--talked for 30-40 minutes. At the end of the conversation, she said with great enthusiasm that she very much hoped we'd be talking again and soon, and I inferred from that she was hoping to publish the book if she could get it approved. I immediately called Lisa to report on our conversation and she got the same impression and seemed to think she'd/we'd hear from her really soon.

This is where my challenge to stay in Easy World comes in. After a couple of days with no further word, I'm really called upon to totally release, again. And again. And again. Every time I've thought I had, I have caught myself trying to figure things out. About 100 times! Even though I am rationally well aware that Universal Forces are so very capable of handling this and that the less I mess with it, the more perfectly it will be able to work out, there is still a part of me that is impatient and wants to try to interpret the evidence (ego is all about the evidence!), pick at it and manipulate it, and try and see into the future. Silly, busy ego. It isn't capable of knowing what is actually going on, and certainly not of knowing what is in alignment for the highest possibilities for the book and for me!

That publisher may not even be the right one for Easy World at all. There's certainly a chance that the editor just needed a little dose of Easy World and that's why she was so attracted. Whatever the case, it's not serving me to try and figure anything out. Everything is unfolding in Divine Order in Easy World. It's my job to be there when the results come in!

It is a relief to know that I am not in charge of this--or, at least not my ordinary self. I figure if there is ever a time for me to be confident in Easy World, it is in the matter of getting my EW book published and out there in the way that will be the most beneficial for all involved. It's absolutely my responsibility to keep my hands off the wheel so that can happen.

What a cool adventure! Surely it's going to turn out to be my best Easy World story ever!

www.ILiveInEasyWorld.com 

Well, if you were on the teleseminar, you know that our time got cut short by someone's home security system interjecting itself through the phone line and repeating its menu over and over and over again! How ironic that our topic was vibrational shelter and someone's "reptilian brain-soother" interfered! Funny.

Since we didn't get to finish and there were people wanting to ask questions and discuss, I think what I'm going to do is put the talk online for people to download and listen to (free) and then schedule another conference call where people can ask questions after they've listened. I'll send out an email with that information when the time comes, so keep an eye out!

Anyhoo, here's a link to the PDF excerpt of Chapter 2 in Recreating Eden that explains the power of alignment with Source to protect you from anything out of alignment. The part about the magnets starts on p. 9:

http://www.juliarogershamrick.com/Recreating_Eden_excerpt_chap2.pdf

Not trying to be crass here by talking money--I'm just gobsmacked, as the Brits would say, at my earnings from last month from Holy Tea Club! $731.00! And I hardly did anything to earn it other than just talk about the tea on my blog and include a little soft-sell Holy Tea ad simply linking to my blog entries about the tea in my teleseminar mailings. Oh--and I did have a Holy Tea article in my Spring-Summer 2008 newsletter. All easy. Very, very easy. Stuff I was simply inspired to do. People just "get" that this is a powerful, gentle and, yes, easy-to-use tool for internal cleansing, and they seem to immediately know they want to try it. Once they start using it, most keep it up because the results are so immediate and profound. The longer you drink it, the more layers of toxicity you release. I know I expect to be drinking this tea as long as I'm in a human body!

As you may recall, I had asked for an Easy World way to make money, and the next day, "coincidentally," I signed up as a Holy Tea distributor because I wanted to get my tea, which I'd been drinking for a couple of months, at wholesale. I didn't set out to do this as a money-making thing as I have had many more MLM disappointments than successes and, frankly, am too busy for another job. I just didn't want the hassle. But since it cost nothing to join, there's no obligation, and it meant I'd get the tea cheaper even if I did nothing with the business, it just made sense to sign up.

Somehow, this started taking off by itself, with the help of the free website the company provides each distributor, and the next thing I know, I'm 8 months into it and making a substantial chunk of change--my income with Holy Tea has approximately doubled each month! Amazing for something you've not worked hard for. But that's the way it is in Easy World. No "hard work" allowed. Simply take inspired action only and allow the magic to happen! You can do this, too-- with Holy Tea, or anything else you feel drawn to.

I'm almost feeling a little guilty about how little I've done to earn the money. I sure need to let go of that old-paradigm stuff in a hurry. I live in Easy World where everything is easy!

For more on my--and others'--experiences with Holy Tea, visit my February 23, 2008 blog entry.

I am amazed and impressed with myself. I am about 3/4 of the way finished with organizing my new office. The bookcases, which were, in my mind, the linchpin of the operation, are going to need to be altered to fit in the door before I can use them, but somehow I managed to sort out a whole lot of stuff without them. I set up new files in the file drawers in my "new" desk, and have filed stuff that had been in chaos for years and years. Feels so good! I must be getting ready for some great stuff...<grin>

This morning, Rick and I sat outside for a long time, sipping our morning cuppa, shooting the breeze, and watching the wildlife and the not-so-wild life (Roly and Lilah) in our garden. Two hummingbirds--the first to arrive this season--showed up, much to our excitement, looking for our normally huge and voluptuous agastaches, (also known as Sunset Hyssops) which no longer exist. They lived out their lifespan and had to be replaced this year, but the new ones are still quite small with only a few blooms at this point. It was kind of humorous to see the little birds, who only come to Denver on their way back and forth to the mountains, zip up to where the big plants used to be, look confused, fly off, come immediately back, hover for a few seconds, check around the area, like a tourist trying to find McDonald's listed on their GPS but that been torn down and hadn't been rebuilt yet. "Hey--this place was in the guide and had 5 stars! This is exactly where it is suppoed to be--do YOU see the restaurant, Harry?"

(You can see photos of hummers and agastaches-past here at this link.)

I hope they understood me when I told them to come back next year and the plants would be big and full of blooms just as their navigation system had promised! Meantime, I won't feel as cheated to leave the garden to go to Michigan in September when the hummers would usually flock to our garden.

Another "eating from the garden" story is Roly's. Dang him. He keeps getting into the tomatoes, even though there's a wire fence around them. He's heart-of-my-heart, but good grief! He's incorrigible, and I can't watch him every minute he's outside. He loves to lay out in the sun, and that's what he acts like he's going to do when I first let him outside, but  when I turn my back, he knocks off a bunch of tomatoes. One evening, he got stuck in the fence and we caught him trying to run to the house in a panic, wearing the fence! Thankfully, Rick got him loose before he hurt himself. Another time, I didn't actually catch him in the tomatoes, but the fence was pulled away and was perpendicular to where it had been set up. He looked quite innocent that time--he isn't very savvy about being sure not to leave evidence. So, we're going to buy some better fencing tomorrow, as I need my tomatoes. You really don't want to come between me and my Sweet 100s!

I still have a bunch of  iTunes credit from Rick's wonderful Christmas present to me of a $100 iTunes gift card, so I decided some Beach Boys would help me have fun with the sorting, so I downloaded Sounds of Summer--The Very Best of the Beach Boys. I swear I feel younger and more energized just from listening to, desk-dancing to, and singing at the top of my lungs (!) this music from my teen years.

Okay. Back to "work"! More later...

Well, even in Easy World, Rick and I weren't able to get the new bookcases into my office--too much bookcase, not enough door or maneuverability in our very tight hallway. We'll have to deconstruct them and we're waiting till our very handy neighbor, Jesse, returns from his family vacation to California. He's an engineer and an avid do-it-yourselfer, so we're hoping he'll have a line on how to take the bookcases apart with the least amount of impact to them and get them in the office, reassembled, good as new.

BUT, my new desk is in, and the old one, amazingly, fits at the back of it like it was made to. It's snugged up under the big desk's overhang, which is very handy as I needed a place to put my laptop's docking station and other equipment. There's even room left over so that someone else can work at that desk. I'm hoping Rick will join me from time to time with his laptop. I'm loving the change, and even though I'm sitting in almost the same position in the room, it kind of feels like a new place.

I got the drawers from the old desk sorted through, and transferred whatever was still useful to the new desk drawers. Lordy--I can hardly believe some of the stuff that has been in there for close to forever! Business cards and scraps of paper with people's names and numbers I have no recollection of at all. Soon after I moved to Denver, I revived my freelance copywriting business, and got involved with the Denver Chamber of Commerce. I joined a very active leads group, which I attended quite regularly for about a year, and did a lot of other Chamber activities as well. I collected a lot of cards, many of which were still in my drawer. But the last involvement I had with it was 1999, and I quit the copywriting business not long after to pursue being a fulltime author and spiritual teacher. Time to let that old stuff go. Okay--probably past time!

I do believe that clearing out all this old stuff and organizing what's left is making way for the new energy that is coming in and has been expanding quite palpably. After reading Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston years ago and having a remarkable increase in prosperity from clearing out stuff, I know the power of it. I already feel more prosperous and in command, not to mention, more adult, with the larger desk. In addition to about $15 worth of old stamps of various denominations (even some 22-centers that were first class postage long ago!), I found a little bit of money--a little more than $3, and miscellaneous interesting stuff. But the most fun things I found were a bunch of Chinese fortune-cookie fortunes I'd stashed in my drawer (I love them as divination tools, and stash them here and there to find when I need a shot of encouragement), and they said what I was feeling: 

--and, perhaps, my favorite, as I wait to hear which publishers are interested in my Easy World book--

• Your talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded.