Meanwhile...

Over four years later, many things have changed; a few have not. I am still promoting a community called Mary's Ward. Still a Boho dancer who once pioneered loft-living in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, NY. Still love languages and music and dance and still only eat plants. But I have moved from Portland to Gorham, ME. I haven't been to Springfield in over two years, as my family has experienced rolling trauma for some time now.

I cared for my father in hospice at home until his death in February 2023, which segued directly into caring for my mother. Our household of ten lost our Portland home to the corporate greed of foreclosure in January 2024 and we lived without an address for over three months. Happily, through grace and the angelic intervention of two dear friends Jimmy and Dave, we have now relocated to Gorham, ME on the west bank of the Presumpscot River. My mother now receives hospice care in this new home, so I am housebound again for a time. While "on the road" these past months I have been unable to attend Mass or participate in my beloved choirs at St. Peter and St. Louis Churches in Portland.

I have, however, been able to continue online my fascinating studies of Sanskrit, Veda, and the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother---an evolutionary view similar to that of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ. Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard both believed that evolution is not finished, that humans are transitional beings, and that more spiritual beings of higher consciousness must necessarily evolve. We may cooperate with this evolution toward a more spiritual nature, a process commonly known as yoga. Sri Aurobindo famously said that "all life is yoga."

In delving into ancient Indian Vedic and Upanishadic writings, I have met Jesus at every turn. I am known in the online Integral Yoga community as the Catholic woman who looks for the Veda in Christianity and frequently points out parallel Biblical, Vedic, and Upanishadic imagery. (More about that in future posts.) I am not the first to think this way, but I do feel specifically called to articulate the depth of alignment I find between Indic and Semitic scriptures. Some writers have speculated that Jesus spent the silent years between ages 12 and 30 in India and Tibet. To me it doesn't matter either way. Truth is one, and the ancient rishis who "saw" the truth about God, did not learn about it, they experienced it. There is only one truth to experience. The truth. Those who experience it must articulate it within the context of whatever else they know. But stripping away accidents of time and place, if the truth is true, it is one.

So, I have re-imagined Mary's Ward in a format that invites inquiry, accompaniment, and encouragement for all of us on our spiritual journeys. If I sound like a heretic, may I remind you that so did many canonized saints along their paths to sainthood. I look forward to journeying with anyone open to the challenge of diverse perspectives.

May God bless you and Mary keep you!