Process Spirituality was the last workshop I attended during the Birth, Breath, and Death retreat. The title, Process Spirituality, didn’t reveal what to expect, but I heard others recommending Kalyan Volpe, the facilitator. It ended up the central experience for me on this retreat that my daughter-in-law, Michelle, had encouraged me to go to. Before … Read more
My journey continued as it had begun, full of serendipities. Despite the last minute uncertainty about where I would stay during the retreat, the Air BnB that Jack booked for me for one night was perfect. Arriving at dusk, I found it accessible, cozy, comfortable, and “safe” feeling. I began paying attention to owning my … Read more
This past weekend I went on a journey. This was a far greater and deeper journey than my recent European river cruise. It had to do with my emotions; with living and dying. I thought I was attending a retreat to support my daughter-in-law, Michelle, who has stage 4 cancer. It was being given by … Read more
“Who am I” is not something I still ask myself. Who I am feels well established at this point, with all its gold stars and “room for improvement” notes attached. But writing a book has thrown me a curve ball I was not anticipating. Since fifth grade I’ve always “known” I would be an author. … Read more
Many are familiar with Gurdjieff’s notion of the different parts of ourselves. Over the years, this has boiled down to the three main centers which we refer to as the moving, feeling, and thinking parts of ourselves. Ouspensky talks about our “higher” centers as well—especially the higher intellectual and emotional. So how do we connect … Read more
“Eat, drink and be merry.” Or so the Roman God, Bacchus, supposedly advises. “For tomorrow you shall die.” I have always taken this sentiment to mean, live it up now baby, ‘cause heck, we’re all going to die in the end! The antithesis to a spiritual practice in life, right? Eating and Drinking on the … Read more
I experienced a moment of compassion this morning with a friend. It happened as we were practicing one of Gurdjieff’s movements called the Great Prayer. This movement never ceases to reveal something to me in the practicing of it. There’s a lot of kneeling in this movement. Neither one of us is young, and she … Read more
Negative emotions that I didn’t know I had surprised me recently. There are tent caterpillars ballooning in a few trees in my yard. My go-to remedy for this is to cut those branches down and burn them, caterpillars, and all. I struggle with this because “all life is one and everything that lives is Holy,” … Read more
This is how the Work works— it only works when you do. And what, exactly, does that mean? It means, I am the only one who can change in any given moment. Like the moment of being profoundly unhappy, or mad, or dissatisfied, especially those moments when these feelings are directed at someone else. When … Read more
What can I do when life gets in the way? It happened the other day. I was hacked and I didn’t know how badly. Had they breeched my computer? Could they get into my bank accounts? And then my phone wasn’t making or receiving calls. I’m so not good at emergencies like this. I don’t … Read more