Dear Friends,

I just had a trial run getting ready for the first hurricane scare and thankfully, Bonnie petered out. Her predicted path was headed straight for us and although St. Francisville is not a coastal city, we have had our share of damage and power outages due to hurricanes. Obviously, I cannot conduct my internet-based business without electricity, so I have been researching the most efficient and economical way to keep business going without electricity and I now have everything I need to power my home office, so I am ready for the next one. Talk about peace of mind!

Staying "In the Flow"

Needless to say, it certainly is hard to stay positive and "in the universal flow" with looming hurricanes and oil spills in your backyard, so I contacted Choosing Easy World author and spiritual guru Julia Rogers Hamrick to ask her advice. Well, not only did I get some great advice, but she also sent me an interviewer's copy of her newest book Choosing Easy World which is due out August 3rd on Amazon. I have to tell you, I have no doubt that this book will be a best-seller because once again, Julia has this amazing way of making something so powerful, so simple.

I wrote about Julia's Choosing Easy World concept in my Summer 2007 Living Well and have been using her "frequency-raising techniques" with great success ever since. It's amazing how quickly you can shift yourself from "difficult world", no matter how many times the "difficult world dictator" (aka "ego") resurfaces. My favorite technique is listening to uplifting music, something I've been doing intuitively for many years and you probably have too. I especially like to ask my angelic guides to play exactly what I need to hear as I hit "shuffle" on my iPod. Every single time, I am rewarded with the perfect playlist!

The day of Julia's book launch, August 3rd, she has put together a free live webcast along with other spiritual teachers and musicians to radiate Love in ten second intervals. By joining with thousands from around the planet to radiate Love for 10 powerful seconds, you will uplift everything in your world. Radiating Love raises your personal vibrational frequency, as well as that of the Whole, and when that happens, the reality you inhabit shifts to a higher level.  There are two webcasts to accommodate worldwide time zones. 1:00-3:00PM and 8-10PM CST. For more information, visit: 10radiantseconds.com.

Speaking of being "in the flow", I recently received an email from paint customer Patricia Kay LeBow letting me know she included me in her new book ColorFlow: Discover Your Perfect Colors - Experience Life's Easy Flow and I'm delighted to report that this too is an incredible new tool to help you discover what she calls your "ColorPrint" (color fingerprint) or your unique combination of hues that heals your spirit culminating in a natural state of flow she has named "ColorFlow".  She believes that since the human eye can perceive seven million hues, every human being on earth possesses his or her own distinct set of colors. Brimming with information and nine exercises that guide you to unearth your genuine colors, ColorFlow helps you bring the magic of color to create your own personal retreat so that you and your home are in harmony with the universe's flow of energy.

Interesting that in Patricia's book she points out that like the old adage "a change of scenery will do you good", changing the color of your walls is also uplifting. Artist Hunt Slonem is often changing wall colors and his unique ColorPrint is evident in his interiors. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, we have been coloring various rooms at Lakeside Plantation. The "Cornflower Blue" shown below does such a good job of cooling off a third floor bedroom, I reformulated it into an exterior product and painted my daughter's deck fencing with it. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to sit outdoors in the evening soaking in this cool color!

My friend Janie Simmons liked it so much, she ordered a gallon to spruce up the furniture on her deck for a photo shoot for an article that just came out in Country Roads Magazine, "The Schoolmarm, The Mountain Man and the Bridge between them". 

Remember the "Barry's Babylon" color I wrote about in last Summer's Living Well? Always vibrant, it looks different in every setting as you can see from the photo below of this parlor at Lakeside Plantation. 

I hope you're having a great Summer! If you haven't seen it, check out House Beautiful's wonderful new color resource that will be on newstands until August 17th. If you enjoy all those color articles in the magazine, you'll love having them all in one place!

Also, I've been working with Barbara Jacobs to create a special palette of colors to coordinate with her rugs and new line of tiles. We'll feature them in our next newsletter, so stay tuned!

Until next time, live well and stay in the flow!