Julia's Blog

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.

I seem to have a particular talent for manifesting desks. Back in the 1980s, when I was starting out as a freelance copywriter, I had a promising little business with some great clients, but no desk. I'd put my word processor on my coffee table and sat on the floor to write. I was not a particularly organized person (odd--I can organize projects down to the tiniest detail, but I have always been chronically unorganized when it comes to everyday life) and I had stacks of papers growing in the living room of my tiny apartment, with no filing cabinet, no desk, etc., and no cash yet with which to buy them.

I had taken a personal-growth class that offered free monthly followups for life, and one of the regular activities at these meetings was that each participant got to present a problem and then be silent while the group would brainstorm for her or him. My issue at one of the first meetings I attended after starting my business, was need for organization. The consensus of the group was that I needed a desk--that I needed to make it a high priority. While not exactly a newsflash, it reinforced the absurdity of trying to run a business without the basic equipment. They also told me that I needed to just start organizing, even in small increments--to just do something, anything, to overcome inertia.

On the drive home, I said to the Universe, "Okay. I need a desk and I need it yesterday. I don't know how you're going to provide this but that's none of my business. Please send me a desk." And I decided that, as soon as I got home, I would do something, however small, toward getting organized.

It was easy to figure out what to do as there was a stack of mail from a few days earlier that I had never gone through. It was the perfect place to start! As I sorted through the various envelopes, one stood out. It was from a local business, and it was hand-addressed, so I was pretty sure it wasn't just an ad.

"Why is Danco Scandinavian Furniture writing to me?" I wondered as I tore into the envelope.

I had forgotten that, weeks earlier, I had been there with a friend to pick up another friend who worked there whose car was in the shop. She had been busy with a customer when we arrived, so we killed time wandering around the showroom, admiring the sleek Danish modern furniture. There had been a small teak desk with a filing drawer there that I had admired, but it was $150, and out of range for me. "Maybe someday," I thought.

Inside the envelope was a letter announcing that I had won second prize in their anniversary giveaway drawing. I had completely forgotten that I had filled out an entry form while we were there waiting. The prize? A $150 gift certificate for store merchandise! I don't have to tell you what I used it on. I'm typing on that very desk right now!

But not for long. No--I've outgrown that little desk, and I'm ready for a new one. My mother-in-law, Emily, was giving away her desk a year or so ago when she bought a new one, but I missed out on that as she gave it to my sister-in-law, who needed it for her kids. But that was alright--as I remembered it, Emily's desk was really huge and a dark finish, and my office furniture is all sort of a reddish-golden teak color. From time to time I thought about how much I needed a larger desk, but when I priced new ones, they were just more than we were able to put out, and I never seemed to have the leg-power to tromp around to the used office furniture places to find a bargain. So I just said to the Universe, "I really need a larger desk and I need it for free or for cheap and it has to come with ease."

The day I got off the phone from talking to my new agent--a very wonderful day, indeed--I called Rick in my excitement to tell him what a great conversation we'd had, and after sharing my news, he said, "It's just a great day all around. If you want Mom's old desk, Karla (Rick's sister) has to find a new home for it because she's moving and won't be able to use it." I jumped at the chance, got the measurements from Karla--amazingly, it was the perfect size for my space--and found out that 2 matching bookcases were included. Rick rented a truck and drove the 90 minutes to her house and picked up the desk and bookcases. When he arrived back home, he had a desk with him that was not at all the huge, dark desk I had been thinking of. It and the bookcases are a reddish-gold teak-like finish! And they match, almost perfectly, the other furniture in my office! Now, for time to clear my office to make way for the new furniture, which is temporarily clogging up my living room. (I need to get as good at organizing my office as I am at attracting desks.) I will tackle it this weekend as it's high time to start using my new bigger desk. My career is expanding and this desk is a reflection of that! Doing some clutter-clearing can only help, too.

Oh, yeah--remember in the desk manifestation story from the 1980s my telling the Universe I needed the desk "yesterday"? If I had opened my mail when it had first arrived 2 days before I finally saw the letter, I could have picked up my desk and had it by what would have "yesterday"! Love the Universe's precision--and sense of humor.

I am the desk manifestor.

You could say I've been quite high the last few days.

Emotionally, it's because (and this is the secret I was waiting to reveal!) I signed with literary agent, Lisa Hagan, president of Paraview, Inc., to represent my Easy World book, and any other books I write! It's been said that getting an agent is, perhaps, more challenging even than getting a publisher. I don't know about that (I hope that's true since it was so easy for me!), but you can't submit your work to most major publishers without having an agent. I had extraordinarily good fortune in that Lisa is only the 2nd one I submitted my query to--and the first one recently (the last was in December). The other guy would have been totally wrong to represent a book about Easy World, anyway, and I credit Easy World with the ease with which I connected with Lisa!

I'll tell you more about Lisa in the coming days, but I'll hit the highlights now. She's very successful--she's been at it for 18 years and has sold a slew of books--and everything I read about her says that she's wonderful to work with. She is now in Virginia, but was in NYC for many years and moved back home--says she went home one Thanksgiving and didn't want to go back to the city--so she didn't. We talked on the phone this week and got along famously--she is very spiritual-growth inclined and we speak the same basic language in that regard. She's excited about my book and, most importantly, "gets" Easy World, which is a requirement!

She said my 71-page proposal (including sample chapters) was excellent, which was a huge relief after devoting so much time to it and only having some books to go by. She only suggested a minor format change in one section, and I decided to tweak a couple of others, so I polished it up and sent her the final version today. Apparently, summertime in the publishing world is very slow since so many people are on vacation and editorial meetings are scarce, so she advised me to be prepared for that. That's okay. I've turned this over to Easy World and I will simply occupy myself doing whatever I'm inspired to do and know that it's all being handled in EW!

The physical "high" came yesterday when Rick and I went on a day trip to the mountains. We drove the Mt. Evans Scenic Byway, the highest paved road in North America (ascends to14,240 feet), open only approx. 3 months out of the year. Once you see the road, you'll understand why!  This movie is of part of our descent from Mt. Evans--pay particular notice to the edge of the asphalt pavement, and know that there were huge "bites" out of the edge in some places--SCARY! I had the "help me Jesus!" grab bar above the passenger-side door in a death grip much of the time, letting go of it only to video the experience to share with you. The wind noise is pretty loud so you may want to turn down the volume, but if you listen to the audio, you'll probably laugh at what I say right before the video ends...

First, however, some dramatic still shots from the top of the world, taken by Rick (click on the thumbnail for a large-format view):

As you can see, the top of the mountain is well above the timber line, and you can see for miles and miles and miles:

I love this sign at the summit of Mt. Evans. I'm not sure I'd have wanted to drive up there if I'd seen it in advance!

These next ones look like they were taken in someone's garden, but they are wildflowers, in a garden designed by Nature. The upper part of the mountain is tundra, and it is amazing the beautiful wildflowers you find there (these were taken just off a parking area, thus, the gravel--I didn't want to go farther as I was concerned about damaging the fragile ecosystem):

 

I'll have to finish this entry later with a Part 2. This is enough for now!