What is “The Latest Thing”? 
By Kay Walburger 

“The Latest Thing” looks like a lovely gift store. It looks like an intriguing bookstore. It looks like a meeting place.  It seems to be much more. It has a mystically charming and loving energy, which greets you the moment you enter the doorway.  The smiling faces of the people who work there and welcome you to browse stir feelings reminiscent of coming home.  What is going on here? 

A Place to Nourish Your Mind, Body, & Soul 
Many people say they discovered this place by coincidence.  However, since so many people say that, one begins to wonder if they are coincidences or kismet!  According to Kimberly Funk, co-owner with her mother, Mary Lou Williams, it’s destiny that led them here to The Latest Thing! 

Wonderful gifts are everywhere in the store. There is unique and custom jewelry that has special meanings to the wearer; there are magical candles; essential oils and incense; powerful crystals, rocks, and stones which exude energies to enhance the life of the new owner; greeting cards with exquisite artworks of artists who heed the call of their hearts and souls; many more treasures to delight the eye and purse of the gift giver. 

Please excuse me, for favoring the marvelous array of captivating fairy items, which transform this store into an enchanted wonderland of beauty and delight! All my life I have thrived on fairy tales and have never outgrown the fascination for the fanciful little beings that stir my imagination and delight my senses. I have a personal collection of fairy tale books and pictures, dolls, etc. This is, in my opinion, one of the most amazing and delicate assortments of fairy folk to be seen in this area. It is worth a trip to the store to see the vast assortment of whimsical poses, sizes, and moods of these wee fairies. 

The gifts alone make it a superb store, however, one must not overlook the books on subjects to nourish your mind, body, & soul!  Metaphysical and 12-Step Books offer tools to help readers on their spiritual path through the darkness into the light of sacred love and wisdom!  As well as books, journals, and diaries for people in 12-step recovery programs, The Latest Thing offers gift items and tokens of progress to celebrate each and every day, week, month, and year of recovery. 

Twelve years ago Kimberly and her mother started this store with the intention of making recovery gifts available to the many who walk the recovery path, with hope for reclaiming their lives and the need to celebrate each baby step in that direction. “Having something tangible to hold onto helps make it real! says, Kimberly. “I love celebrating recovery. I love even more the fact that God has led me to make recovery gifts available to my fellows, nationwide. I love looking into the eyes of my patrons and seeing pride, hope, and gratitude on their faces.  I love watching a parent’s heart swell with pride when he or she comes to purchase a chip to acknowledge a recovery anniversary for a child.  I like to see the way a husband’s face beams with hope when he buys a recovery card for his wife’s first thirty days, or the gratitude a wife feels when her family is reunited in recovery by sharing a morning mediation book together. This is my 12-step work: assisting and helping to celebrate a new way of life by selling recovery gifts and tokens. These serve to remind us where we have come from, how far we’ve come, and who our primary partner is now (the God of our own understanding).” 

“I once sold a book to a devastated mother at her wit’s end.  She had a daughter with an eating disorder called anorexia.  Several months later, the mother came in to tell me, “Thank you for being here. You sold me a book that helped me understand my daughter’s illness, so in turn I can help my daughter. She is in recovery and our whole family is in therapy together now. It’s changed our lives, and began with my reading that book.”

 “This is a rewarding way to live life for me, whispers Kimberly, I am blessed by sharing the precious moments of celebration for a very special community of pilgrims on a journey called life.” 

The Latest Thing Teaching & Healing Center
 “More, more, more soooo much more here!” proclaims Anne Kinney, program coordinator for the classes, special fairs and events held at The Latest Thing. 

“We are here to support you in creating more joy in your life, to help you nourish your mind, body, and soul, to provide you with more confidence, more healers, readers, teachers, classes, more options, more fun, more, more, more!” 

A sample of classes and programs: 1) The Practical Art of Prayer & Meditation; 2) Tai Chi/Qi Gong; 3) Emotional Trauma Release; 4) The Secrete Knowledge of Your Dreams; 5) The How of Manifestation Now; 
6 )How to Navigate the Five Stages of Relationships!; 7) Sacred Drumming; 8) Reiki I & II; and more. For more Information call or write The Latest Thing, 270 E. 17th Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92627, (949) 645-6211 or (949) 645-6210.

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