27 Things Book Review

Today I would like to give a warm welcome to Tisha Morris and our friends following the virtual tour for
27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home, Tisha's new book.

This is Tisha's first virtual tour and with 36 stops to make between May 11 and June 11, 2010, the tour is winding it's way across oceans. Yesterday, May 27, the tour was a guest on The Wheel of Life Podcast with Shelagh Jones http://www.thewheeloflife.org/.

Ours will be stop 21 in the tour and by all accounts 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home, is a real winner.

First time author Tisha Morris offers the reader a modern and practical approach to using the ancient tradition of feng shui. From introduction to final page Tisha approaches her topic without the affectation or rhetoric commonly found in books on feng shui. She doesn’t oversell the concepts but instead walks you through 27 Things with the assumption that having picked the book up you inherently know the principles behind feng shui are sound.

Tisha brings her education as an interior designer and her experience as a certified life coach into play as she clearly relates the art of feng shui to the reader. She offers solid advice on clearing clutter and with each subsequent chapter clear, practical advice on how to implement the feng shui principles to make improvements, change the flow of energy and ultimately manifest desires. Tisha echoes centuries of mothers by telling us to clean out the closet and keep doorways clear but, more importantly, she explains why these actions are necessary in relation to how energy flows in our homes, lives and in order for energy shifts and healing to occur. This is a strong practical guide book. The author has a pleasant writing style, presents the material in an easy manner and speaks to our core issues in a non threatening way. 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home includes a chapter about creating a vision board, information on the Bagua map, easy to follow advice on using feng shui “cures,” and closes with a plan to implement the 27 Things.

For those readers unfamiliar with feng shui practices Tisha explains just enough about the concepts to allow a lay practitioner to receive solid reward for their time investment when applying the techniques, without planting confusion about the ins and outs of feng shui itself. For readers who have already been exposed to the art and mystery of feng shui, the author assists by leaving out confusing or contradictory information and the superstitions which often impede implementation of an action plan and the needed changes. She writes with confidence that following the feng shui principles and applying these techniques will have a powerful healing impact and her confidence is transferred to the reader.

After reviewing this book I am confident that I will be able to bring about some significant changes in my own life by following the 27 things that Tisha Morris recommends. I am also convinced that I could do so without spending a dime, simply using my current possessions in new ways or by letting go of things I no longer need. I recommend 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home to anyone who wants to employ feng shui without becoming mired in research to do so. Tisha has done the home work for us and lays out the most important pieces in an easy to understand and follow format.

This is one feng shui book you will pull off the shelf time and again. You are going to want to follow this tour on to the next stop where Douglas H. Melloy will air an interview with Tisha on Aware Talk Radio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/aware

Don't forget to purchase your copy of 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home, by author, Tisha Morris, available now at Amazon.com

ISBN: 978-1-59652-567-2

Publisher: Turner Publishing Company 2010

Price: $9.99

Also available with Barnes&Noble book sellers, Borders and Indie Bound.

Those of you that are following, looking for more great feng shui information from our guest will enjoy her new iPhone App, Feng Shui Bagua Map, By Tisha Morris already has a 5 star rating with iPhone users.

I've got it and it is the perfect companion to go with Tisha's book!

Reviewed by Vonne Faroqui

A Haunting Glimpse of Forever

Book Title: Forever With You
Author: Ivzi Cipuri
ISBN: 978-1-4327-4257-7
Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc., 2010
Price: $16.95
Pages: 138 pages
Reviewer Byline: Vonnie Faroqui for Writers In The Sky

A Haunting Glimpse of Forever

When I first received the book, Forever With You, by author Ivzi Cipuri, I was struck silent by the faded photograph on its cover. I have been haunted by that lovely face; the way her eyes shy away from the camera’s lens, as if hiding the soul within, forever denying the reader’s gaze and foreshadowing the author’s torment.
Lovingly dedicated, “To my unforgettable beloved wife Aije . . .” this volume of poetry is an autobiographical journey of love, life, and loss. Through it, the author seeks to immortalize his beloved wife and to share their story with the reader. The book is divided into three sections or moods of poetry. In the beginning, Ivzi offers the reader beauty and hope as he and his bride enter into a new life through marriage. His poetry describes glimpses of life well lived, of health and happiness. Then, the poems take a turn down darker paths, into clouds of fear, illness, battles waged, and ultimately death. The author completes his offerings by opening his chest, and in words, he gifts the reader with grasping, choking, ugly, angry anguish, and grief.

“You beauty, you ugly, I hate you all!
You give me pain, I cry, I toll;
You pinch my soul, you break my heart,
I want to throw, to crash you apart . . .”

I cannot tell whether it is the story of a woman’s courage, and love’s fight for life . . . or instead, if it is the story of a man’s love and anguish revealed in the poetry that I find more compelling.
This book is haunting in its humanity. The verse is rough, but true to the voice of the author and in its aching realism, more potently alive than prettier words or a more skillful pen could convey. Forever With You effectively sings a song of life and courage; its melody revealing depths of love and painful loss more poignantly because it is roughly sung.
I recommend this book for readers who have suffered loss due to illness or for those and their families who are fighting to recover health. An excellent example of the healing power and transformative impact words and art can have on the grieving process and a ringing testament to a love and fidelity that knows no barriers, not even death.
This book is available through Amazon.com

Nashville faces the "Thousand year flood" of 2010: Disaster Recovery Efforts

Yesterday I spent time with my brother at his home in Bellevue along the Harpeth River, one of the worst hit areas in the flood.

The first picture, below, he sent to me while trying to evacuate his wife, who is pregnant with their first child, due in June.

The second picture was taken from his canoe the following day.

I drove down the streets, winding through neighborhoods, around streets blocked and cordoned off to prevent unnecessary traffic flow and looting.  It was strange to behold a landscape which just days before had been completely submerged in muddy water, appearing deceptively lush, green and flowering.

My path wound into areas where evidence of the disaster took the form of huge piles of debris. Each home I passed pulled apart in an effort to salvage the structural integrity of the dwelling. People, some resolute, others with the frenetic energy carried carpet, soggy pink insulation, appliances and destroyed belongings from their homes to heaps for disposal. The air was rank. Who knows what poisons the waters churned up out of drains, sewers and homes to dissolve and leave as a toxic film covering everything.

I was deeply moved by the truck of volunteers which wove through the streets ahead of me, passing out food and water from a local eatery, The Alley Pub, to the many residents.

I reached my mud covered brother as he and his tribe of friends hauled kenneling fence out of the back yard to be moved and put together at a rental home he and his pregnant wife will be moving into. Their two Doberman Pinschers are being housed with one of the local animal rescue shelters for 3 days of free boarding, while the family makes a new home.

Neighbors assisted neighbors with clean up. A young man from Bellemeade roamed from home to home offering the strength of his arms, throwing himself in where needed. Women carrying buckets of cleaning supplies down the streets offered to anyone who needed them. Friends, carrying food and necessities stopping to offer support and shelter for those left without homes. Loved ones and strangers bound together out of necessity trying to rebuild lives and salvage hope from the mud and stench of decay.

With disaster comes renewal and compassion. As Nashvillians are making sense of the devastation, helping one another clean up and restore their lives, they will also be clearing away the debris of old patterns, and attitudes. In purchasing new furnishings, remodeling and caring for each other, not only are they repairing the damage left by the flood, they are shifting the course of the lives which remain and embracing the opportunity to make a fresh start energetically.