As a young adult I sought that feeling out in lots of different places. I found Quakerism and attended regularly for many years until shortly after my Quaker wedding. I love how Quakerism respects and calls forward the mystic within. From Quakerism I gained perspective on the hierarchy and patriarchy that intervened between God and congregants of other religions. And, Quakerism introduced me to spiritual activism.
From college on, I developed a strong interest in Eastern religions and visited ashrams, Hindu and Buddhist temples, along with various churches and spiritual centers; and various Christian and non-Christian holidays, including Ramadan. I ongoingly explored Native American and indigenous spiritual practices along with the Divine Feminine through Tantra, Wiccan, and Goddess traditions. I love creating Winter Solstice and other rituals that bring it all together. And I’m a big believer in the value of creating homespun rituals.
I also studied macrobiotics, which has a deep, universally comprehensive metaphysical base. I spent years in spiritual and philosophical studies with Michio Kushi, gaining a strong comprehension of duality – yin and yang – which has been an elegant lens for understanding life’s currents.
About 10 years ago, I was moved to spend a few weeks in Ecuador traveling from shaman to shaman from high in the Andes to deep in the Amazon jungle – a life-changing journey that rooted my spirituality to Earth. I’ve been blessed by finding so many awesome teachers all over the world – and there are surely pilgrimages to come.
I married a Japanese man and enjoyed their unique national blend of Shintoism, Buddhism and secularism. We did a lot of chanting and visited many, many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, including a remote monastery in Southern Thailand, where we fasted for a week. Walking on the non-theistic path helped my self-discipline and gave me a critical context for discerning right action and right thought. I found it freeing that there was much less judgmentalism in a religion where people weren’t worried about how their god was judging them. At the same time, I felt many of the same issues with misogyny and hypocrisy that my mother experienced with Catholicism.
I’m not as strict with macrobiotic practice anymore, I divorced my husband (a spiritual journey in and of itself), and can’t call myself a Buddhist any more than I can say I’m Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Wiccan, shamanic, or…. But, my path of many paths has afforded a wide palette of spiritual practices including meditation, singing, chanting, yoga, prayer, writing, teaching, and everyday choices. I rely on Buddhist precepts for personal and professional guidance, on Hindu teachings for creating vibrational alignment and upliftment, on Pagan traditions for celebrating Spirit in the here and now, and on Christianity for putting love first.
My dedication to the wisdom voice comes from hearing it call from so many corners. It’s been oppressed. But I believe we’re in an evolutionary push to unleash the voice of wisdom in ourselves and in the world.
Americans have no collective spiritual story; few of us even have a creation story we believe. I love all religions and no religion. I see no reason why a person’s divine energy would not likely express toward spiritual unfoldment wherever s/he finds a tradition with which s/he honestly resonates at that moment in time. That’s not to say that heartfelt dedication to a religious community is anything but beautiful.
I had a hard time finding a church for my sons and me. So, I “home churched” my boys for a few years until we found a community we’re now happy with. We’re active with a Religious Science Church, called Center for Spiritual Living (CSL). Through its teachings I’ve discovered a powerful prayerfulness and have gained a stronger understanding of consciousness.
My boys attend a Quaker school and I feel really good about the blend in their spiritual lives of Religious Scinece, Quakerism, and their father’s devout Buddhism. Also, I was a founding board member and continue to serve on the Board of Directors for Common Ground Spiritual Fellowship, a three-year-old, trans-denominational monthly gathering and community events oriented organization. Common Ground resonates for me because it’s broadly inclusive.
I am drawn to the essence that is trans-denominational – to that mysterious presence that enveloped me in Catholic mass as a kid and that I find in nature. I stand for that essential place that is beyond religious constructs.
I ordained as an interfaith minister in 2008 to sanctify my stand for a civil and compassionate world in an originally blessed universe of good will, abundance, and extraordinary potential – a universe filled with possibility, and with ancestral, latter day and every day saints.
Ordination, Riverside Church, Manhattan; with an audience of 1400 people – a life changing moment (front row, 6th from right)
Here are my vows: I am an instrument of Divinity. I commit my gifts to the highest good. I speak truth with power.
I never intended to have a congregation but I think it’s cool that I can legally perform weddings! I’m blessed with a gift for cutting through core issues and, it’s hard to put into words, but it seems like that gift was somehow enhanced by making a public commitment (in front of 1400 people in the gorgeous Upper West Side Manhattan Riverside Church ). Spirituality doesn’t come up in most coaching/consulting work. It’s just that I know that the spiritual anchors in my life make me a a sharper professional and a better partner with my clients.
I know Spirit as the energy that envelops me always; that comes in, of, and through me; that is me and everybody/every thing else, and so much more than us all. My words always fall short in describing my relationship with Divinity but I’m called to keep working at it.
