My parents chose to go to India in 1950 as 2nd generation missionaries with the Disciples of Christ. My mother was born in India and her parents served as missionaries for 40 years there. Early India memories include hearing pundits in our nearby village of Fosterpur reciting the Sama Veda every night as I was going to sleep, and playing in the ancient dust in and around age blurred stone statues of Vedic deities, I wanted to be with God from an early age, being told that God knew everything and that when I was with Him, I would know everything. I went off to college 40 miles away in Corvallis at Oregon State University and later at University of Oregon in Eugene. My freshman and sophomore years I was active in the local Christian youth group, helping to create meaningful rituals. I worked during vacations with the American Friends Service Committee at several mental hospitals. I attended various events for peace.I discovered Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. I read DHARMA BUMS by Jack Kerouac and the Diaries of Anais Nin. I studied writing and journaled and wrote poetry. I started Transcendental Meditation ™, which I felt literally saved my life. I had prophetic dreams and insights which helped me reset my life to a more progressive path. I graduated from college with a B.S. in General Social Science. I went to San Francisco and lived with other meditators. I got my California massage license and worked professionally for several years. I studied Tai Chi and Mandarin Chinese and attended one year of a 2 year nursing program. I then got my Masters in Higher Education Administration and then returned to India on an advanced TM course in Vedic Science We sent our 5 children to the Maharishi School so they could have a consciousness-based education. I studied homeopathy and flower essences and ayurveda so that I could better maintain a high quality of life for myself and my family. I received training in the Maharishi Ayurveda Mother-Baby program and as an Ayurvedic Massage technician. I worked for a year as an Ayurvedic Tech in Dr. Lonsdorf’s clinic in D.C. I have always seen myself as a life-long learner. I went back to school again and studied Vedic Medicine. I got two more Masters, one in Elementary Education and one in Vedic Science where I learned Sanskrit and studied the Vedic Literature.
My 20 years of being married were very challenging to me as a person and a woman. Being with my children, even when all five were teenagers, was easier and more fun than working on my relationship with my husband who was sometimes physically and verbally abusive. I was nourished and sustained by the academic courses I took and the churches I attended and choirs I sang in. My daily meditations and prayers also had a healing influence. I participated in 12 step groups for Codependents, and Alanon. I studied the Course in Miracles. My husband and I divorced in 2002 and I continued my inner healing work. I attended the Liberal Catholic Church in Fairfield and studied the writings of Bishop Leadbeater. I hosted writing groups at my house. In 2005, I started a job as a college librarian at M.U.M. where I worked till 2015. I became a certified Yoga Teacher and taught at the local Rec Center. I got my Iowa Massage License and studied various healing modalities including Reiki, Oneness, Pranic Healing, Magnified Healing, Zero Point, Aromatherapy. Although I still share the responsibility of caring for my middle son who has Down Syndrome with my former husband who also lives in my town of Fairfield, I am more “empty nest” than I have ever been and have been taking the opportunity to do deep healing and deep spiritual work.
As I do this deep inner work I feel more in a position to improve my relationship with my inner Divine. I have always had a more impersonal view of God and this view, especially as I have come to appreciate the Divine Feminine, has become more personal, nourishing, loving, intimate. I am very grateful for the transformative ordination as a priest within the Young Rite by Bishop David Oliver Kling, Nov. 2, 2018 in Reno, NV. I celebrated my first public mass at Spiritus Christi in Fairfield Iowa in January 2019.