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My Spiritual Journey
If you are considering me as a spiritual companion and catalyst, I’d like you to know where I’m coming from on my journey. Although we don’t need matching religious traditions or spiritual experiences, it helps to be in harmony while inviting inner healing, integration and awakening.
I’ve always been attuned to ‘the spiritual’ – the dimension where we know we’re part of something larger than our individual selves. As a child, I had luminous experiences in ordinary settings:
- climbing the garden stairs, age four, watching the rising sun illuminate blades of grass, stopping me in my tracks, filling me with awe: knowing I was part of something whole and beautiful.
- sitting by the window at school, age eight, hearing an inner voice say, “The Christ is within you;” knowing it is our true and shared identity.
I left my childhood (American Baptist) church and disavowed the belief that there is only one way to God/Truth.
As a teen-ager and young adult I struggled with Bulimia. And was drawn yoga, an embodied eastern system of awakening, reflected in my integrated body-heart-mind-spirit approach to life and spirituality. I was also drawn to experiencing and studying altered states of consciousness.
Embracing democracy as a form of spiritual practice, I threw myself into anti-war work, believing that ordinary people – teachers and trade unionists – could stop the war if we knew what was happening and were organized. I taught classes about the origins of the war; I wrote articles; I went door to door.
In a dark night of the soul at the age of 28, I had a near-death experience, bringing me back to my life’s purpose of healing and spiritual exploration in community, allowing me to start again.
I deepened my yoga and meditation practice and started teaching.
In my early 30s, I wrestled with anxiety attacks and learned to dispel them through sound and movement, giving voice to the soul’s yearning for the divine, and deepening my spiritual practice as a singer-songwriter.
At 40 I answered the call to m
inistry as a Unitarian Universalist (UU) and went to seminary (Starr King School, part of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA). I was ordained a UU minister in 1992.
I started sharing my chants and songs from my spiritual practice. My music ministry grew beyond my congregation through workshops, retreats, recordings and publishing.
I’ve loved and cared for seven congregations, growing with them in their ministry to one another and the communities they served.
I embraced the study of integral (non-dual) philosophy, exploring how consciousness evolves in individuals, institutions and cultures. I teach integral studies, using it in spiritual direction, pastoral counseling and consulting with congregations.
In times of deep transition, I lost (and found) myself in dark nights of the soul. When I surrendered to the pain and asked for help, I found myself heard and guided, opening to compassion, peace and joy.
I’m drawn to being present with people at the end-of-life, supporting us in opening to boundless awareness, to Love holding and calling us (thank you, Rebecca Ann Parker et al); supporting families and friends through death’s transition, celebrating Life.
I’m excited to grow my practice as a spiritual counselor/director/companion. I’m certified as a spiritual director through the interfaith, Jungian-centered Haden Institute. I participate in the UU Spiritual Directors Network. I’m a member of Spiritual Directors International and the Association for Death Education and Counseling.
I retired from parish ministry in June 2024 to deepen my ministry as a spiritual counselor and my music ministry.
It is a privilege and pleasure to explore the journey together.
Frequently Asked Questions
[toggle title=”What kind of minister are you?”]I was ordained a Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister in 1992. UU’ism is a non-creedal, post-Christian spiritual movement, evolving out of two liberal denominations over more than 200 years. UU’s are centered in Love, seeing Truth as too complex and interwoven for any one set of stories or doctrines. UU’ism draws many wisdom traditions, and UU’s describe themselves as Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, Christians, Jews, pagans, humanists, Muslims, Hindus and mystics. Our unifying principles balance respect for the individual with responsibility to interdependent web of life and community.[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Do you travel? (for memorials, workshops, classes, retreats, consulting, preaching, weddings)”]Yes, as it fits my schedule.[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Who are your primary spiritual or religious teachers?”]As a child, I was awakened by the teachings of Jesus on love and compassion, on reaching out across divides, loving the ‘enemy.’
As a young adult, I was energized by folk music and the peace movement.
In my twenties I was shaped by yoga, especially the discipline of B.K.S. Iyengar.
In my thirties, I was drawn to the work of hospice, the teachings of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Stephen Levine. I opened to the teachings of the Buddha. I found feminist spirituality and hundreds of women hearing ourselves into speech.
In my forties, in seminary, I reintegrated a Christian foundation with a mystical bent, grateful for the teachings of Matthew Fox, Rebecca Parker, Joanna Macy.
I found a mirror in Rabindranath Tagore and Jalaludin Rumi.
I am drawn to teachings of Pema Chodron, Jack Kornfield, Jon Kabat Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein.
I wept reading Carl Jung’s autobiography. I am drawn to the writings on the dark night of the soul: Gerald May, St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Jim Marion, Thomas Moore.
I’m heartened in the poetry of Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Billy Collins, John O’Donohue.
I find a philosophical tribe in the Integral Institute, Ken Wilber and Don Beck.[/toggle]
[toggle title=”What’s your spiritual practice? Does it change over time?”]
Yes. It changes over time. Everyone’s practice is different. What matters is that your practice support you in being fully present in life, supporting you in living from what I call your Deepest, Wisest Self. My practice has shaped my life.
For years, my spiritual practice was being outside, responding to the beauty of nature, the insistent presence of our interconnected nature.
As a teen I started journaling. Writing songs and poetry. Writing continues to be a form of self-confession, prayer or conversation with the Deep Self.
In my twenties and thirties, yoga was my practice. Bringing me back, here and now, into this body, present to emerging awareness, this world. My practice was minimal for twenty years. And came back in my sixties.
I benefited from Aikido andTai Chi and embraced Jin Shin Jyutsu (acupressure drawing on Traditional Chinese medicine) and Qigong, with a deep commitment to embodied spirituality.
In my thirties, I immersed myself in the archetypes of astrology. I was drawn to spiritual awakening, self-hypnosis, holistic healing.
Raising my children was a spiritual practice, bringing me into the present, calling forth all my skills, exposing my unhealed wounds and motivating me to do the deep work of healing.
In my thirties and forties, my heart’s dialogue with Life/Presence through singing, and songwriting became my primary spiritual practice.
In my fifties and sixties, explorations of the mind became a spiritual path, with the syncretistic work of integral studies.
My practice shifts between silence and singing, movement and stillness, companioned and uplifted by wise voices all around me.
Today my practice is eclectic. I am happiest and healthiest when I meditate, do Qigong and Jin Shin Jyutsu flows everyday. When I engage my practice, I’m a calmer, happier, more resilient, kinder person. My deepest practice is often off the cushion, in unstructured moments. Meeting life with awareness, curiosity, creativity: Awareness meeting its emerging Self. Co-creating the unknown. Becoming! [/toggle]