My journey has been a winding road full of exploration and discovery.
I choose to lead my life with Courageous Spirituality.
In the middle of my life, I became acutely aware that I had been on a spiritual quest my whole life. Despite a secular upbringing and an educational indoctrination of rational materialism, there was always a nudge within that asked me to challenge my conditioning. This rebelliousness usually took on a political expression.
I dabbled from my late teens in spiritual wisdom, from mystics to ancient philosophy, to Jungian psychology. When I had my first child, I noticed an awareness of the world around me that I had not felt since childhood–sweet smells out of nowhere, signs, and symbols like repeated numbers appearing frequently. Events unfolded in ways that felt directed even though they were objectively not connected. I knew there was a whispering within, but I was distracted by life and a psychiatrist who relegated my interest in spirituality to a lack of intellectual rigor.
And then, when I turned 50, the family life I carefully crafted was wrecked. The walls of my castle fell. My heart was torn open. The worst fear of abandonment came true. Remarkably, in that time of shattering, and just as suddenly, I felt a deep presence of love embrace me. No matter how my story unfolded, this presence of love within me nurtured my strength and held me to my truth throughout that trial.
Each day in my healing process, I intentionally focused on my growing awareness of the internal support and guidance that was helping me, step by step, regain my balance. I leaned into trusting my spirituality and I gained a broader perception of my life’s possibilities. The longing that I felt in my teens was answered in my mid-life. I now see that the thread throughout my life, with the various knots and dents, led me to this deeper sense of knowing myself and belonging to a greater whole, safe and supported.
I know that this spiritual awareness exists for all of us. We don’t need to wait for the shattering to reveal our spiritual resources.
My career and life as a human rights lawyer, a program director for the International Division of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a board member at various Arts and Educational Nonprofits, a strategic initiative consultant at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and most importantly, mother of three children, always had the through-line of exploring and discovering truth, beauty, love, and wisdom held by my spiritual core.
