General: March 2007 Archives

I just came in from outside. It’s a gorgeous Spring day in the mid 60s, Roly and Lilah are in the yard, blissing out with their raw marrow bones, and as it was a bit chilly in the shade of the patio cover, I sat in my Happy Place, which, in the summer is in dappled shade at this time of day, but now is in full sun.

Wow. It’s amazing how I manage every winter to repress my absolute craving for being outside! It’s just heavenly to be back in the fresh air and warmth and energy of the sunlight. Even the recognition of all the gardening tasks to be done didn’t take away from the ecstasy of being in the now, soaking up the moment like a dry sponge plunged into a sink-full of warm water.

I’m feeling at a crossroads. Actually, not a crossroads, but the start of a new road, the choice having already been made as to the road I’m taking. Now I’m just contemplating the most suitable conveyance for getting on down that road. Being a big-picture thinker as I tend to be, can serve me, or overwhelm me. I’m skating on the edge of overwhelm at the moment, and my choice to write this blog entry right now is a choice to focus in.

There are so, so many things that I could do and want to do. There are at least a dozen books in me to write—ones I already have titles and concepts for—and one, in particular, that is asking very insistently to be written. There is the Spring 2007 newsletter to get out. There is a blog to keep current. There is the Easy World Forum to tend. There are many, many updates and additions to my website I’d like to make. And so many more things that I’ll just stop now because I feel myself teetering on the edge of overwhelm again! When I go into overwhelm, I just do nothing at all!

You know—I started the book I really was excited about writing, and then the energy for it just took a big dip. Then Easy World presented itself, and continues to present itself very insistently, as the thing upon which to focus.

As I write that, I feel ready to burst into maniacal laughter—I mean, if I just stay in Easy World, I am assured to get done exactly what is right for the moment, and then, for the next moment, and on and on without overwhelm! It’s that pesky ego again, seeing the big picture, and thinking it’s got to manage it all that stymies me. So I guess instead of continuing this soliloquy and going into overwhelm, I'll go into Easy World and just do whatever feels inspired and fun!

See? I knew that coming in to blog would be the right way to take the next step down the road! I’m all calm and focused now.

I think I’ll go out and hang with the dogs some more. Watching them in the altered state we call the “bone zone” is a perfect example of the ecstasy of focusing on one pleasurable thing at a time. Those dogs have Easy World down pat!

That is my sigh of relief! This was siding week at the Hamrick’s. The house is newly wrapped in vinyl and should never need painting again. While my dream is to have a gorgeous home made of all natural materials, our 1960-vintage ranch is not it! The new skin will help with resale when the time comes and will keep our neighbors from cringing till then. It does look nice and I feel much better about it. We had delayed this for as long as possible before the wood started showing through the paint!

I’d like to say I stayed in Easy World every minute of the process—and I did amazingly well considering that for 4 days I had to get up really early (I’m a night owl and that doesn’t suit me). Whereas I am used to sleeping on my own schedule and having quiet solitude everyday working on my own, there were people here all day till 6 pm, ripping old wood off the house and pounding on the walls all day. The dogs, while amazingly calm while the house was being pounded on, were like little alarms going off from time to time. And where usually, they can go out anytime they need to, with the gate to the backyard having to be open to facilitate the movement of the siding guys, it required coordination to be sure it was shut, etc., for potty breaks.

It is hard, not to mention, counterproductive, to describe the psychic distress I experience (or, to be more affirmative, “have experienced in the past”) in such situations, even while doing better than usual this time through my continual reminders to myself about Easy World. Having circuits wide open enough to channel and to assist people with my intuitive abilities means that I am in need of extra measures to deal with things like this week’s siding project. So I won’t pass along any more of my misery by describing the effects, but I will share with you that I used an additional technique that helped as well. I kept asking myself “How would a relaxed person be handling this?” And then I simply acted like a relaxed person, and I became one, if only temporarily. It helped immensely! Still, I was definitely out of my element this week and am so relieved it’s over.

BUT, I must say, the head guy who did the siding job was really wonderful. His wife is a Reiki master and he was very understanding of my needs. We had a system worked out to make things as painless as possible, and when I finally said “Enough!” yesterday evening to the radio that had been blaring loudly all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (thankfully, to a classic rock station and not to mariachi music such as that which accompanied the roofing crew when we had our roof replaced year-before-last!), he very kindly didn’t even get it out of his truck today. He even asked me today why I never said anything before so he could have turned it down! Good question...

It was just he and his son and they both had really sweet, easy-going energy, so at least it didn’t feel like my house was being assaulted beyond just the basic tear off of the wood that couldn’t be on there anymore, and whatever the term is for putting the siding on. They were really a blessing. I am convinced I attracted them because of my commitment to Easy World, even if I didn’t stay there every minute! I couldn’t have asked for a kinder, more cooperative, easier crew to have here.

I found out today that unless things miraculously change, I am scheduled to be swimming in a month. I won’t get started on all the weird reasons why it’s taking so long (all on the company’s end of things—we’re all set), but I confess I’ve been scouring my consciousness to figure out why I have created the delay. All I can come up with is Divine Order, and my need to totally trust that. In case you’re listening, Universe (grin), I AM READY, READY, READY for my Endless Pool!

Some people were talking about the power of anonymous giving on The Secret Forum tonight, and I was reminded about a powerful experience I once had with that I think you might enjoy...

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Back quite a few years ago--9 or 10 at least--I read in the newspaper that it was "Oprah's 'Be An Angel' Day." Because I was working with prosperity principles at the time, I decided that my angelic act was going to be putting a twenty-dollar bill in an envelope and anonymously putting it on someone's windshield with a note saying, "An angel blessing for you."

As I drove around the smallish town where I lived at the time, looking for just the right vehicle on which to place it, I tried not to base my decision on whether it looked like the car belonged to someone who needed the money--this wasn't about giving to someone in need--it was about bestowing a spiritual gift.

So, I chose a modest car in a downtown parking lot--not the fanciest, and not the most dilapidated. I just felt it "calling to me." The only thing that made it stand out was that it was a little bit rusty, and had an unusual stripe on it--obviously custom. My heart racing, I made sure no one was in sight, and I jumped out, pinned the envelope behind the windshield wiper, hustled back to my car, and sped away.

I had errands to do in town, so I did one and drove back by to see if they'd found it yet. The car with envelope was just as I had left it. I did another errand, and drove back by. Still there.

So I went to the post office, 7 or 8 blocks away from the parking lot where that car had been parked, and as I was leaving, thought about driving by it again, when the very clear thought came to me, "Angels do their work without seeking to know what the results are. They do it for the joy of doing it, and then let it go."

So, as I pushed the exit door to the post office open, I realized that what I needed to do was completely release it and let my sole reward be the joy inherent in the act alone.

At that very instant, the slightly rusted car with the unusual stripe drove by, the envelope no longer on the windshield! My heart leapt up and tears of joy sprung to my eyes! Clearly Spirit was rewarding me for letting go!

Of course, I never knew how the person responded to receiving the money, but just seeing the car drive by was all I needed to know that the gift in the whole experience was to me—not the other person!

Today was glorious! After the long, hard winter we’ve had, it was Spring at last! Okay—so the calendar doesn’t say Spring, but the sun on my face and the ground under my feet sure did!

With the snow finally mostly melted in the back yard (it’s on the north side of the house) enough for me to move past the huge frozen ridge of drifted snow that has been blocking me for months, I was able to go examine the ground for signs of life. And I sure found some! I took a bunch of photos, but I had a setting wrong and most--okay, all--of the pictures turned out blurry.

But here’s the magic in that. Look at this picture, with the very tiny tulip leaves just coming up--what I was intending to show you--all out of focus. But see the little sprig of lavender foliage in the very top left corner with the light on it (kind of blue-gray-green and soft looking)?

As I was setting up to take the shot by moving the flax out from on top of the tulips to uncover them, I kept thinking how I wished you could smell the beautiful lavender fragrance I was enjoying when you looked at the photo.

I was so mentally focused on it, while presumably focusing the camera on the tulip foliage, guess what came out to be in about the best focus in the photo?! Not the tulips, but the lavender! A little un-planned Law of Attraction lesson there!

Can you smell the lovely lavender? Ahhh…

In addition, I found myself feeling very energized and focused in other ways. Though I hadn't thought I'd do so, I worked on a writing project today that I am stoked about, talked to my buddy Andrena for the first time in a long time and really enjoyed that, Stepdaughter #3 came over and I made one of her--and my--favorite comfort food dinners (tarragon-roasted chicken thighs with garlic-y rice pilaf, green beans, and cherry tomatoes), and a bunch of new folks discovered Easy World. What a fabulous day!

The idea that I might need to change the name of my website has flitted in and out of my consciousness for awhile now, and I just always knew that I’d know when the time had come to make a change. And turns out, the time was now.

With the Easy World energy coming in, and the evolution of my teaching, Recreating Eden just wasn’t fitting anymore. It was just not a wide enough umbrella. Not to mention, some people have been a little squeamish about the Eden idea, church-wounded as they are—thinking I might be telling the same old depressing, punitive story about Eve and Adam they learned in Sunday School. Of course, that couldn’t be further from the truth as Recreating Eden actually heals that story, exonerates Eve, and provides a map back to Paradise. But never mind that--even if the name didn’t bring up people’s stuff, it just wasn’t working anymore for the website name.

So...the need arose to decide on a name. Given all the different things I have going, and all the things I have on the horizon, the one common denominator in all of it is...me! So my website is now www.juliarogershamrick.com. I didn’t want to make a radical change—at least not yet. I believe that’s coming down the pike, but it just seemed right to evolve things more gradually for now. Thus, the site looks basically the same, just with some graphical changes and some other updates. But for some reason, it feels huge. Maybe using my name is my way of claiming a little more of my power. It’s been awhile in coming.

Practically speaking, though, this all happened very quickly. Rick and I talked about it, I told Tony, our webmaster, that I wanted to talk to him and his wife and partner, Sherry, who designed the original look of the site, about a bit of revamping. I shared my idea for a new logo, and Sherry and I were on the same page with it right away. She suggested making Julia a lot larger than I had, and even though it felt a little funny to have my name that big, she convinced me it was the right thing design-wise and energy-wise. After just a couple of days, she had perfected the new logo for the top of the page, and Tony had implemented the changes. For me, it was definitely an Easy World experience!

It feels so different—and so right! I loved it the old way, but the new one is really an improvement in many ways. I updated the greeting letter on the home page, revised my bio, and did a bunch of other small things. There are still many things to do, like creating an online media kit, something I’ve needed to do for quite awhile. It is beginning to feel like I’m really going to soon need one, so it’s risen on the priority list. I’m in the process of changing the links wherever I have planted them—but happily, the old web address will still work just fine, so if you have the site bookmarked, the recreating-eden.com will still work.

I feel a fresh breeze blowing and www.juliarogershamrick.com is a tangible sign that it’s bringing even more exciting new energy my way…

Do go check out the new look and let me know what you think!