My life has been blessed with an abundance of learning opportunities and people that have created the dynamics for me to grow, evolve, and expand into the woman I am today. But three people were particularly influential to my early spiritual development: my grandmother, or Grams as I called her, and my parents. These fateful three presented me important gifts that have helped shape my entire being.

 

From my Grams, I received the gifts of knowledge and wisdom. Grams, a devout Methodist, studied all things metaphysical. She was fascinated with many different religions and absolutely loved the teachings of Jesus. She was especially captivated by angels. The gift of wisdom and the wealth of knowledge my grandmother embodied continues to guide me to this day. And I will always cherish the memories of my metaphysical and spiritual conversations with Grams. I remain grateful for the exposure to those topics at such an early age. The permission our conversations granted for exploring, learning, and transcending one perspective would become the foundation for my life's passionate path of teaching others to spiritually thrive.

 

My parents provided even more opportunities for exposure with their differing faith perspectives. Both parents would convey to my sister and I that they did not care what we believed, but they wanted us to be good people and exposed to at least one path.

 

I received from my father the gifts of intuition and forgiveness. Dad had an incredible intuition, which he continuously impressed upon me. He called himself a non-practicing Catholic and he did not attend church with us. But while we were in college, he sent his daughters an article that he felt captured his spirituality—connecting with the divine while being one with nature. My dad certainly seemed tapped into the divine, which was epitomized by the power of his intuition.

 

Also, Dad always had a certain lightheartedness around mistakes. He would always tell me, “don’t sweat the small stuff kid,” usually followed by a burst of laughter and encouragement to focus on a solution to remedy the situation. These tiny acts of forgiveness, over what felt to my tiny heart like monumental screw-ups, underpin my affinity for forgiveness. As I learned to release anger and pain around his truly monumental screw-ups, those small lessons would later be applied in a powerfully healing way: I had to forgive my father for all his hurtful actions toward my mother, my sister, and me caused by his alcoholism and his multi-decade affair with another woman.

 

My mother gave me the gifts of unconditional love and acceptance. Mom has truly always loved unconditionally (witnessed by the fact that she never changed the locks on her overly sarcastic and bratty teenage daughters). She grew up Methodist, attended a Presbyterian church in high school, and chose to raise my sister and me in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination. To this day, I continue to thank her for choosing such a progressive denomination; one filled with love, historically rooted in social justice, and ordained women and members of the LGBTQ community long before I was born. The UCC is a Christian denomination that proudly stands for welcoming all, celebrating differences, and accepting that we are all one in God’s love.  

 

Everything I learned from my grandmother and my parents put me on the path to a spiritual awakening and led me to my true calling of teaching others to walk their own spiritual path.