About a year ago, a friend sent me a link to a channeling. For some reason, I woke up at 3 in the morning and listened to it. It spoke of the crystals in Arkansas and in Brazil being activated at a new level beginning 2015. I felt very strongly that I should go there and receive those transmissions. I decided 4 days would be plenty of time. I could handle 4 days in Arkansas.

I ended up taking a powerful group of women there with me in June of 2016. While I was there (which is now HERE) I kept saying “I could live here.” The universe quickly conspired to make that happen.  

The Backstory:

My granddaughter Kelsea told me, in no uncertain terms, NOT to put any more money into my Honda (which had 211,000 miles on it) even though they were working on it at that moment. She said “cut your loses”. With her advice, I ended up buying a new car. The reason I tell you this is because if I hadn’t had a new car begging for a road trip when I got back from Arkansas this awesome new adventure might never have happened.

Anyone who knows me knows that I follow signs (syncronicities) and my bliss. As soon as I got back from Arkansas, I really wanted to jump in my car and go back. I didn’t want to wait until September or October as I had “planned”. Everything fell into place for me to leave town. I took a leisurely trip, stopping at dessert hot springs, and visiting friends along the way. Kayse’s next door neighbor and friend Annie offered me a place to stay in Hot Springs. That was awesome! 

I arrived back in Hot Springs, AR on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 12th. Kayse met me with fresh squeezed green juice. That was a nice sign. We went to THE Lake. Ahhhhh- that was glorious. Worth the trip for sure!  Another nice sign.  

After our time on the lake, Kayse wanted to visit some friends down the street from where she lived to say good bye because they were moving moving out of state. While visiting I found out their place was for sale or rent. They moved out on Thursday, I meditated and made a very quick decision and called the owners. I made an appointment to meet with them the next day. They already had appointments with other people. I meditated again to know if I should take it, if they would rent it to me.  I got a resounding yes- which really was mind blowing. This was totally out of left field and seemed quite crazy. As it turned out they liked me and they rented it to me with an option to buy! They were so generous! They brought me an airbed, a camp chair, bed sheets, and a pillow!! They even blew up the airbed with the generator in their motor home because the power was temporarily out. That was everything I needed. Remember - I had absolutely no plan to move at that moment or to rent a place. I was just coming to check it out.   

Every single move seemed divinely choreographed.  

It felt like I had to accept this this cute lake house with a boat dock that is located right down the street from my new bestie, Kayse. Holy Divine Choreography! Every single thing had fallen into place. The timing was impeccable. I feel every guide I have collaborated to get me here, and I am SO GRATEFUL.  

Who knew there was life beyond Santa Barbara? Certainly not me.

A dear friend asked me 2 months before this happened if I would ever leave Santa Barbara. I said no. I’d rather live in a closet in Santa Barbara than in a mansion somewhere else. I’m eating those words, and happy to do so.

Now that I’ve been here for a little over 6 months the question that arises is what do I love about being here?  Let me count the ways.

When my mother moved to Santa Barbara (from Tennessee- before I was born) there was one stop light in the town. Living in Santa Barbara all of my life, I had become accustomed to the growing traffic. People talked about it, and I was like the frog in that slow boiling water. I didn’t realize it was happening - that is, until I left for awhile and went back. Yikes! I love all the country roads here in Hot Springs. Birds, trees, water, and even driving around you encountered very little traffic and lots of gorgeous trees. Even the “freeway” isn’t like its Californian equivalent. Here 5 o’clock traffic means waiting for two traffic lights, but there is even a shortcut that my local friend showed me to escape the wait.

The downtown is exceptionally cute and colorful and in the process of undergoing a revitalization. They have a first Friday art walk, which I went to recently. It was super fun. They also have a documentary film festival that has been going on for many years. I’m already starting to see people I’ve met before. It reminds me of how Santa Barbara was 30, 40, 50 years ago.

There is also lots of water, including excellent spring drinking water for free! You can go into town and visit any of 5 specific locations to fill your bottles with clean, delicious spring water.

There are so many places to explore nearby, including the Garvan Woodland Gardens. I love the Santa Barbara botanic gardens and the Garvan Woodland Gardens is well on par with them. In fact, the Garvan Woodland Gardens are three times the size of the Santa Barbara botanic gardens and is located on the lakefront. It features flowers, hiking, bridges, and even classes. My kind of Disneyland! 

I also went to the Daffodil Festival in Camden recently. It’s nice to have new festivals. How many Santa Barbara Fiesta Parades have I attended?! Probably 70! It’s time for something new in my life!!! 

If you're interested in cultural activities, Little Rock has more than you can even imagine.  I went to a garden show there a few weeks ago that was off the charts for me. They had a photo booth which is where the above photo was taken. 

And, of course there are the hot springs, which are inside beautiful bath houses. This is the thing to do in the winter when the lake water is fairly cold. People come from all over the world to soak in the bath houses and their hot spring waters.

Another thing to note is that there aren’t as many rules regarding building and what you are allowed to do on your land. If you are in the county, you can pretty much do what you want. FREEDOM! 

And the main thing - The Lake -  Lake Ouachita. Running beneath Lake Ouachita is the largest vein of Quartz in the country.

Miraculously, I got a boat with a slip at a perfect Marina 20 minutes from my house - the slip being a very important piece. Slips are challenging to get unless you buy a boat with one, which I was able to do (very affordably).  

The boat allows us to get out into the lake where the vortexs are, and in the summer the water is so warm you can swim there any time, day or night. It’s safe. We swam at midnight under a full moon. Yumm.  

I feel going into that water is transformational. It feels like that is part of my mission, part of why I was guided here, to get people into that water for a crystalline baptism. 

In actuality, Lake Hamilton and Lake Ouachita are two separate lakes. No one lives on Lake Ouachita - making it one of the cleanest lakes in the country. There are 200 islands on it where you can visit or camp for free. Lake Ouachita feeds lake Hamilton - which is where I live. I also have a boat dock there, as well.

Of course there are the crystals and minerals, too. You can find quartz nearly everywhere, so things are a buzz - a very sweet buzz. There are places to go and dig for them. There's even a place to dig for diamonds. Feels like being on the fast track for awakening, if that is what you choose.

Affordability comes into play as well, though that was not the driving force, it is what allowed me to move here even before my land in Santa Barbara has been sold.  I am trusting that will happen very soon, and that it will afford me the ability to create some spaces for visitors.  I already have the boats to play on.  

Did you know Arkansas is called “The natural state”? Or that the license plates feature a diamond? It’s gorgeous here. I always thought Santa Barbara was paradise.  Many people here say welcome to paradise. This is truly a hidden treasure.  It’s hard for me to imagine that this lake is such a secret. It has expanded my mind, heart and soul in such a good way. To me, this whole area feels like a new Machu Picchu and it's as if the lake is connected to Lake Titicaca. I have synchronistic stories about that too, but this is already too long!

So think about coming to the retreat in June. It will be pure Blisssssssss!  Or as my friend Kayse says Bliss ola.

By Rhonda Parks Manville
Santa Barbara News Press Staff Writer

During her 14-year career in nuclear medicine, Star Riparetti worked with the unseen vibrations of radioactive isotopes. Now she works with the invisible energy of flowers.

The Santa Barbaran is the maker of Star Flower Essences, liquid infusions of flowers collected from plants in Santa Barbara and sacred sites near Machu Picchu, Peru. Bottled in blue glass and dispensed with eye droppers for placement under the tongue, the flower essences are said by those who use them to have beneficial powers that come from the plant's field of energy.

"There are some things you can't see, or feel or taste, but they are very powerful," said Riparetti, who takes a lighthearted approach to life. She wears loose, flowing clothing and short-cropped hair with long braids in the back, and she drives a Volvo with a bumper sticker proclaiming, "Bliss Happens."

"Nature is part of an unseen world that is willing to help us," she said. "When you think about how good you feel when you look at a flower or smell a flower, it makes sense. Everything has an energy -- science has proven that."

At 54, Riparetti has a life many people would envy. She lives and works not far from the beach in Santa Barbara, in a home surrounded by plants and flowers. Her small business is doing well enough that she employs several people. She works with spiritually minded people like herself, who use yoga, meditation, prayer and holistic health practices to keep their lives in balance.

Riparetti also leads annual tours to Peru, and she conducts workshops to teach people how to make essences for themselves. A one-ounce bottle of her essences sells for about $13 in New Age bookstores, on her website, and through mail order.

Humans have been making healing potions with plants and flowers for thousands of years. Similarly, almost all the world's major religions use holy water in rituals and anointments to signify healing and purity.

So while many people might scoff at the idea of flower water having healing powers, Riparetti sees her work as part of an important spiritual tradition that is being rediscovered. This awareness coincides with the coming of the millennium, she believes.

"I think that more of our senses are coming to life," Riparetti said. "It's why we can use something that is subtle like flower essences, because our energies are becoming more refined."

Born and raised in Santa Barbara, Riparetti entered the world of flower essences after leaving a successful career as the chief technician and director of the School of Nuclear Medicine at the Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara.

Working in the field of nuclear medicine "was frustrating, because you would have five people with the same disease, treat them all the same, and some would get better and some would die. I knew there had to be something else," Riparetti said.

After leaving her job, she opened a bar called Riparetti's on the Eastside, and she became a spiritual seeker, although she wasn't sure what she was looking for. She practiced yoga and Reiki body therapy, aromatherapy and herbology; she meditated and spent time in nature.

And then she saw a tiny ad in the newspaper that said, "Flowers for healing."

"It just got to my heart and I don't know why," Riparetti said. "I had always loved flowers. I wanted all the information I could get."

Riparetti studied the teachings of Dr. Edward Bach, who popularized the use of flower essences for health in the 1930s. Riparetti became a practitioner, but the work was not as rewarding as she would have liked. So she kept an open mind about what she was to do with her new knowledge.

In 1988 she went to Peru for the first time, and hiked the famed Inca trail leading to Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca city in the Andes. On the way, she was introduced to Andean orchids, and a light went off in her head. "I thought, 'Andean Orchid essences,' but I knew I'd never make them without a Peruvian. It was not my country."

Riparetti continued to travel to Peru in the following years, and the thought of making orchid essences nagged her. Then she met the man who would be her partner, botanist Roger Valencia of Peru, an orchid expert and guide who speaks five languages and has a nonprofit organization that plants trees. With him, Star made her first batch of "mother essences" from several varieties of wild, non-threatened orchid species growing near Machu Picchu.

From this, Star Flower Essences was born.

Using orchids is significant, Riparetti said, because they are a highly evolved plant, comparable to dolphins in the animal kingdom. And they are beautiful, "demonstrating a profound understanding of natural laws," according to company literature.

There are now 74 essences available through the company, 23 from plants grown in Santa Barbara. Several are blends and some are essences from gems. ("They also have a frequency, just like colors do," Riparetti explained. "Some materials, like radioactive cobalt, have a frequency so strong and dense scientists use a Geiger counter to measure it.")

Some essences are made to coincide with important planetary events. On Aug. 11, during a cross-planetary alignment, Riparetti and her students made a Lotus essence, harvested from Lotusland in Montecito.

Riparetti's essence-making process is imbued with spiritual ritual and mindfulness. Prayers are said before an outing begins and when flowers are harvested. The essences are made by leaving the flowers to soak in the sun, in water taken from a sacred ceremonial fountain of Inca ruins. Then this "mother essence" is diluted and preserved with a bit of alcohol. Before the essences are bottled, Riparetti and her staff bless them with prayers.

Joy Bondy, who works at Paradise Found bookstore, said Star Flower Essences changed her life. She's been using them for three years.

"I did a three-day workshop with Star and I had a spiritual awakening," she said. "I could see that I was functioning in a way that was not working any more. I went from being a suburban housewife to a person on a spiritual path. It opened my eyes to new possibilities, to a healthier, more spiritual life."

Bondy said that using the flower essences is a way of seeking the higher intelligence of nature.

"There is a mystery involved. I can't say how or why it works exactly," she said. "But then, do we know why some Western medicines work? The answer is 'No.'

Riparetti gives her Star Flower Essences names and suggestions for their use. From the Santa Barbara collection, for example, "Pure Joy" is the name of the orange blossom essence, which she recommends for "renewed enthusiasm" to be "happy for no reason."

Riparetti views flowers as teachers and healers, whether people enjoy them through gardening or by spraying flower essences on their pillowcases at night.

"The flower is the highest state of the plant's expression," Riparetti says in her brochures. "Flowers are gifts from Mother Earth, telling us how much she loves us."