I know this sounds weird, but I’m delighted we chose to have energy healer and animal lover Tammy Billups on the cover. And in this case, “we” is not used in the “royal” sense at all. 

The reason I’m delighted is that Tammy is a dear friend. Indeed, she appeared on the June 2017 cover. It was only my third issue as publisher, and the articles about her were a review of her first book and a profile. At the time, I was so excited about being the owner and publisher of Natural Awakenings Atlanta. I reveled in my newfound power to reach tens of thousands of Atlantans each month and share what I find to be interesting and important in holistic health and personal evolution.

In retrospect, I did not exercise the appropriate amount of distance and circumspection a journalist should in situations like that. I placed her on the cover because she was a friend and I wanted to! Yes, what she did was newsworthy, and the articles were appropriate given our editorial scope—but cover decisions are never to be taken lightly. 

This time, I knew better. “I should not be making decisions about the cover,” I told myself. So, I delegated the decision entirely to our managing editor, Diane Eaton. Typically, our cover promotes our feature story, and this month that story is about plant-based diets. Also, the majority of our covers are provided by our magazine’s corporate offices since they provide most of our feature stories. Predictably, the cover options from corporate that presented the feature story involved food, and by coincidence, our February cover was all about food; magazines typically don’t like to have consecutive covers with similar content or design.

Then, voilà, Tammy is on the cover! Thank you, Diane! While, in 2017, I relished the fact that I chose the cover, this year, I relished the fact that I learned about the decision via text, and I wasn’t involved at all! 

Now, I have to point out that Tammy’s most recent book, which she released last November, is her third. Plus, she is a legitimate expert—all of her books are about animal-human relationships. In fact, her books are published by the well-respected Inner Traditions, an imprint of Bear and Company, and distributed by Simon and Schuster. Beyond that, both of her first two books won gold medals from the Coalition of Visionary Resources! So, yes, she is a perfect choice for our cover.

Finally, I want to share that I’ve received many effective energy-healing sessions from several practitioners in town, but most have been with Tammy. So, to some extent, she’s influenced our magazine’s emphasis on energy healing. As a result, the single most-read article on our website—the lead article from our energy healing special section in 2019—is about energy healing.

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I want to share information about products and services that have worked for me because I want many more people to benefit. But that’s a fraught proposition when customers are involved—for the simple reason that it is impossible to try everything all customers offer me. Even if I could, what works for me might not work for others, and vice versa. To be clear, my positive comments about a product or service should not be seen as an unqualified endorsement. More importantly, the absence of comments about the vast majority of offerings from sponsors should never be perceived as a non-endorsement. 

That said, this month’s article, “Treating Pain with Sound Waves,” talks about a product from SoftWave Tissue Regeneration Technologies. I was fortunate to come upon this product last year when I visited Dr. Miriam Croft at Hands On Wellness in Chamblee. She told me it was effective at reducing pain, and at the time, my right knee was hurting enough to turn my walking into hobbling. My pain lessened noticeably with one treatment, and six treatments later, the pain was gone. It has yet to return.  

Again, this is not an unqualified endorsement, and of course, your mileage may vary. But Croft’s assertion that they see a 90 percent effectiveness rate does suggest that many others will benefit and experience less pain. ❧

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Publisher of Natural Awakenings Atlanta since 2017, Paul Chen’s professional background includes strategic planning, marketing management and qualitative research. He practices Mahayana Buddhism and kriya yoga. Contact him at [email protected].