Off to the Mile High City

Next week I'm off to Denver for the International New Age Trade Show - http://www.inats.com/. I'm looking forward to the 8 days in the Mile High City, says the woman from below sea level. When we first arrive we'll give ourselves a day to acclimate and run some errands. Thursday night I'll be offering Angel Gemstone Oracle Sessions and Past Life Regressions at For Heaven's Sake.

Then Friday is the day to unpack the boxes, set up the booth and prepare to sell our merchandise to retailers. It's the first year that'll The Crystal Garden is represented at INATS West as a wholesaler. I made the decision to expand the wholesale division of the store when I saw how popular Smudge In Spray was becoming in my own store.

Friday is also a day of Pre-Show Seminars. I'll be leading the opening meditation at 9 am then co-facilitating a talk on Social Networking on the Internet at 10:45 with Caryn Colgan. Caryn and I have become friends through the Coalition of Visionary Resources of which I am now President. COVR is a national trade organization supporting vendors, retailers, publisher, authors, speakers, musicians and any business in the visionary industry. It's a very good organization providing many benefits.

Each year the COVR Visionary Awards are presented at the Saturday night evening banquet. Smudge in Spray is a finalist! I am so pleased.

Anyway, Saturday, June 27 - Monday, June 29 the show will go on at the Denver Merchandise Mart. I'll be wearing many hats. I'll be there as a wholesaler selling my Spoken Audio CDs, full line of Medical Grade Essential Oils and the wonderful aromatic Sprays. Chrissy and Vincent will be in the booth with me talking to retailers. We are giving retailers sample bottles of Lavender and have cool star shaped fans to put a drop of oil on for them to test a scent.

I'll also be a Retailer, there to buy, buy, buy in anticipation of the Holiday Season. I place a lot of orders at INATS. I've already pulled my purchase orders and I'll buy other merchandise that will be new to The Crystal Garden.

I'll also be there as a speaker because I'll be providing the pre-show seminar and introduce Loretta LaRoche at our COVR Opening Breakfast as well as provide Retailers with a seminar on Scent-sational Sales: Selling Aromatherapy on Sunday.

And, I'll be there as the President of COVR facilitating our Annual Convention Board Meeting bright and early on Monday. Whew!

I'm happy to be returning to For Heaven's Sake on Tuesday evening to offer my class on Crystal Consciousness.

It's a nice full schedule and it'll be good for me to step away from Florida for a little while. The stress of my dear Dad ailing in Hospice has been tearing me up. He's been my close friend as well as my Dad for my whole life. I'm going to miss him when he leaves the planet. At least he is resting peacefully with no pain. I feel grateful that my siblings will be nearby while I'm out of town.

So off to the Mile High City I go . . . my bags are packed!

Soul Food

I've decided to take some time to nurture myself today. My father is resting comfortably so now it's time to replenish myself. Being a good Italian women, I decided to cook a Sunday meal for my self, Vincent and Dad. Dad has been eating well even with the hospital food, yet I know he'll appreciate some macaroni with meat sauce. It's slowly cooking and the house smells like Sunday to me!

Growing up, Mom always made a sauce, or gravy as we called it, which we often ate at around 3 pm. I'm using another kind of "aromatherapy" in the house today to nurture myself. The scent of the gravy wafts through the house and reminds me that all is well.

I visited my acupuncturist, Jenny Lee, this past week. I've been stressed and experiencing achy heels and calves. Acupuncture has helped me so many times in my life. Click on Jenny's name above to read more about acupuncture.

Jenny gave me some special tea bags for a foot bath so I soaked my feet this morning, used my chi machine this afternoon and will shortly wash off this facial masque when I'm done posting this short blog. It feels good to catch up on some of my normal daily activities and adding a bit of nurturing to the mix.

I can't wait to taste my Rotelle, pork and tomato gravy meal . . . mmmmmm good! Food for my soul!

Life has ups and downs

I'm sitting in Bethesda Hospital listening to Dad breathe, watching his every move and distracting myself with anything I can get done on the Internet/laptop. I've added Bach Flower Rescue Remedy to my water and used Euphoria Relaxing Spray on and around my body. I'm breathing deeply and reminding myself it's all part of life.

While I was in NYC, Dad had a mini stroke. When I returned he had an episode that has him staying in the Hospice of Palm Beach County unit in Bethesda. All my Facebook friends as well as many others having been sending love and light and prayers and blessings. This is very welcome and appreciated.

Did you know that Hospice isn't just about getting their care to die? It's meant to assist to maintain a better quality of life when someone has a serious illness or challenging episode. Well, that's my way of putting it. It doesn't seem that Dad is leaving the planet quite yet. He's healthy yet the age onset dementia is challenging him and those around him. He's peacefully sleeping now, but night time is another story which I won't tell here. Se la vie . . .

An amazing wonderful thing is when Dad is talking or comes out of his sleeping stupor he says things like, "Always do good." or "I'll love you forever. . . . forever and ever!" or "Thank you. You are the best." or " It's not just good, it's very very good." It's statements like these that confirm the title of the "Daddy Lama" for me. He is a wise and gentle man and I am honored that he is my father.

And even with all the positives, it still makes me so sad and tearful to observe the changes. It's not bad - just so so sad. I already miss him and he's still here.

I love the wonderful people here on this floor. Dad has already received a Reiki Aromatherapy treatment from an Integrative Therapist named Jennifer. I've brought in my Guardian Angel Spray, Smudge in Spray, Auntie M's Anti Disinfecting Spray and Euphoria Relaxing Spray to give to the nurses, aids and caregivers for their use here on this floor. They've stashed it in the medication room. I was having a good cry and through my blubbering I asked Cathy, who is also a good customer of The Crystal Garden and the charge nurse here, if I could borrow some of my spray back. She immediately brought me the Euphoria and we sprayed me down!

The Doctor seems very enlightened as well as a good medical practitioner. I was happy to hear her tell me how healthy and beneficial it is for me to cry and emote. I have always believed that because I'm one to cry anywhere for any reason - or for no reason. I now have the added permission to cry from a medical doctor! Ha! So there!

It's all good. I'm so blessed with so many positive things in my life. I am so grateful for all my blessings.

Flowers are blooming

I haven't had any time to blog lately because I've been writing 4 -5 articles a week for the Examiner.com. I am the new Miami New Age Spirituality Examiner. Check out this link and please, if you would, visit it often or consider following it. http://www.examiner.com/x-9628-Miami-New-Age-Spirituality-Examiner

I'm tapped out for writing, blogging, tweeting, facebooking and so on so here are a few photos of my visiting friend and my blooming garden.

The Sloppy Gardener

I like to look of a wild garden. It's my excuse for allowing weeds to co-exist with all the other plants in the garden. I have a lawn that consists of various green weeds and a little bit of grass. One of the side yards and the backyard has sod, but the rest of it is a huge lawn made of very interesting plants. While trying to find out the name of these flowers here on the right, I found out the name of other "weeds" in my yard. I have Spanish Needles growing all over the yard. But does anyone recognize this little beauty? The flowers are teeny weeny and the photo I took is a close up (and a bit blurry.)

I had a good time planting seed and making a wild nonsensical combination of plants. It's my great experiment. Over the years I've learned that you should have a vegetable garden separate from a flowering garden with the exception of few companion marigolds, onions and garlic perhaps. I made such a hodge podge of plants in one bed.

I have mammoth sunflowers in between the pineapples. I have a thing for sunflowers. I've enjoyed watching butterflies stop for a snack while the flower is in full bloom and cardinals hang out picking out the seeds from the finished flower. This picture on the left isn't a mammoth one. The big ones haven't bloomed yet, they are still growing and getting big with huge leaves. I can't wait to meet my new friends when they bloom!

I've planted a wilder variety of cosmos within the same bed with watermelon, cantaloupe,onions and bush beans. A customer who comes to Tai Chi at The Crystal Garden brought me the seeds. The sunflowers are mixed within the bed with the vegetables as well.

I was happy to find a volunteer today when I was making a slight attempt at weeding. I'm not sure if it's cabbage or broccoli. Perhaps you'll recognize it and let me know. I love volunteers. It makes me feel like God or the fairies are invisibly gardening with me. Or perhaps they are gardening while I sleep. More realistically, I believe it's a result of my sloppy composting. I'm pretty busy so I often throw my organic vegetable kitchen scraps out into the bed. I don't put it in a compost bin and I rarely bury it. I figure the animals can have a snack and it'll decompose. Eventually I cover it with leaves or topsoil.

I do have a compost bin, but it was torn up and mostly blown away with the hurricanes - Frances, Jean and Wilma. I never replaced it. I do have a papaya plant approximately 10 feet tall with a few papayas growing on it. It's a volunteer as well! Gotta love the volunteers.

I thought I'd plant cosmos seeds too. My cousin in Durango always has such beautiful cosmos. I wanted some too. These cosmos are flowering at my front door. What a happy welcome they provide! You can see the geraniums on the right of the photo. I have many geraniums around the front and back yards. Some of them are over 2 years old.

What's growing in your garden?