Exciting News....Spirituality, Health and Divine Alignment!

So many of you have been so supportive of my articles and columns over the years, it is with GREAT EXCITEMENT and GRATITUDE that I share this story and announcement with you!

About six years ago, a dear friend Rev. Heather Mueller gave me a subscription to Spirituality and Health Magazine as a house warming present when we first moved to the property that is now The Sacred Garden.

I was delighted with the gift as the magazine resonated with my heart in every way. It was visually beautiful; it emanated peace through its pictures, words and even its advertisements. I never threw away a single copy, rather I kept them in out hoping to share them with anyone visiting who might be sitting with a moment to read.

And every time it happened to be me with a moment, I would pick up a copy, flip through the pages and exclaim some variation of or all of the following thoughts: "This is such a beautiful magazine," "I love this magazine." "I want to write for this magazine." I wonder how I would go about writing for this magazine." This internal commentary has been going on for six years.

In February of 2011, I was pondering the next steps of my career as this is something I do with pretty great regularity. As I pondered what was next, I realized that two large things were on my "list." One was to redo my web site and update it and the other was to get my column (that I had been writing for a local newspaper on Maui) into a national publication. I then considered some of my industry friends' websites and wondered if that was the direction I should take. I pondered several magazines that I could approach for my article. For both I came to the conclusion that I wanted the energy of my work to be "branded" with the same energy that The Sacred Garden held. I wanted to have an alignment of my work, my message and my presentation to the world.

At that point, various magazines began to flash through my head. I could feel my ego pull at the idea of "O" Magazine as every author knows what happens when Oprah is behind you. But one after the other my heart said, "No, that isn't it." Then, I remembered my Magazine Mantra for the last six years as Spirituality and Health came into the view of my mind's eyes. I felt internally at home. I felt the "yes" resonate throughout me. Yes, that is the "brand" of energy that matches my own. I held that clarity, put it in queue to pursue some day when I had some time and went to work on my normal daily routine.

A day or two later, I was sitting in The Sacred Garden behind the counter when a man came in. He walked straight to my book, How to Love Your Marriage, and picked it up. I watched and then greeted him. He looked over as if I had surprised him and said, "Are you Eve?"
I said, "yes" and he said, "You are who I came here to see."

He then walked over and plopped 4 issues of a magazine on my counter. The first thing I thought was that he wanted me to advertise in it. Then, suddenly, it registered that I was looking at THE magazine of my mantra. I picked up one of the copies of Spirituality and Health, hugged it and said, "This is my favorite magazine!" To which he replied, "My name is Paul and I own this magazine. "

I proceeded to gush (not my most controlled, professional moment, I'm sure!) and excitedly tell him the story of my Magazine Mantra. I explained that I have wanted to write for this magazine for six years but had never done anything to make that happen. He looked at me sweetly and said, "Well, apparently you have. I'm looking for a relationship columnist. That is why I'm here."

Within a matter of months my first column was submitted and accepted. I received an email at one point along the way from one of the publishers saying that, "It is our goal to have you write for our magazine." I felt like blowing up those words. How could it be that the magazine for which it was my goal to write would also have a goal of me writing for them? Divine Intervention.

SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE support Spirituality and Health Magazine and go buy a copy of the July/August Issue, or better yet get a subscription and have it delivered to your home....

AS THE JULY/AUG. ISSUE HAS MY DEBUT COLUMN IN IT!

Also, I am now blogging on their website so check it out for weekly (if not more frequent!) Q and A blogs. Feel free to send me your questions: Eve@HeartPath.com

And yes, while not quite finished, I have made major headway on updating my website HeartPath.com, so if you haven't been there recently, check it out!

Thank you so much for your encouragement and support!

The Deep End of Life

We placed our kayak into the water and began paddling with all our might to get out past the breakers over the reef. I fought my fear of flipping over at the same time as I fought my desire to look up at the majestic cliffs that towered to our left. Instinctively, I knew that one look up at the wrong moment could cause us to “huli” and tipping our kayak over in the surf, on the reef, just did not sound like a good way to start our trip down the Na Pali coast of Kauai. Especially, because I wasn’t sure how to get back in the kayak once out—a detail in retrospect that might have been wise to practice before leaving.

Just past the first challenge of the reef in deeper and slightly less treacherous waters, I looked ahead at the 16 miles of stunning, rugged, and otherwise inaccessible coastline that stretched before us. It was then that I realized that we had jumped headfirst into the deep end of life.

While it wasn’t exactly like being “up a creek without a paddle”, because well, we had paddles, it meant virtually the same thing. We had about 12 miles to go to reach our first destination, I hadn’t been kayaking in over three years, never in rough seas, and never ever in a place where there was no where to go ashore.

While some might understandably call this stupid, I didn’t realize the stupidity until I was in the midst of 4-6 foot confused seas that came in from the right, bounced off the cliffs and relentlessly rebounded at us from the left with 25 knot winds hitting us from the back. It somehow never occurred to me—until then—that this was dangerous. It never occurred to me that we could be in “over our heads.” It never occurred to me that maybe I should have WORN my life jacket instead of using it as a backrest.

Somehow, growing up going to Disneyland gave me a skewed view of life. One in which I wander though adventures saying, “Wow, this is just like Disneyland,” only to be corrected by my husband who reminds me while in a submarine, or river rafting, or zip-lining, “No, Eve, Disneyland is just like this.” But, hello, here we were and there we no seatbelts and no tracks and this was definitely NOT like Disneyland.

I also hadn’t realized the relationship skills that would be required, since my husband and I were literally “in the same boat.” We had to get in sync and we had to do it fast. We had, oh say, maybe 30 seconds to figure out how to steer together before we reached those first waves, after that, we had to trust each other, communicate, agree on where we would and would not go and paddle in sync for about six hours as we went in and out of sea caves, under a water fall, past giant green sea turtles and spinner dolphins, under soaring white-tailed Tropic birds, down one of the most beautiful coastlines in the entire world.

Had you asked me at the end of that day, after we had worried about friends who had flipped over and struggled with a water-logged boat, after we had overshot our destination and had to turn around with arms and backs already spent and paddle back into the wind and waves for nearly an extra hour to get to shore safely, after we got fried by the intense Hawaiian sun, if I would ever do it again, I would have said no. Had I known, I may not have gone at all. But now, that a few days have passed and one of my long-time dreams has been checked off my “bucket list,” after four days of camping with great friends and seeing few other people, after seeing thousand foot cliffs by moonlight, silhouetted by more stars than I’d ever seen at one time in my whole life, after being revitalized under a pristine waterfall, now that are back in safe harbor, I would have to say yes.

The deep end of life is where the action is. The deep end is where you learn to sink or swim, where you learn to become self-reliant, resilient and relentless. This is where you stretch who you are and become comfortable being uncomfortable. The deep end is where life’s best memories are made and the treasure of great stories are created.

Note: These pics were taken a year prior...in the weather we were EXPECTING....