As I look over all of the influences that have made me who I am today, I realize I am a spiritual dilettante, without one focus but many.

Yesterday, I decided my word for 2021 is, simply “retreat.” As the pandemic promises to worsen, a retreat mostly away from the world is welcome, and necessary. I will not be the one who carelessly goes forth to be a CV19 super spreader, even as the Super Spreader In Chief goes kicking and screaming from the People’s House in Washington DC.

My long list of spiritual influencers is too lengthy to a enumerate here. I used to lament not having gone to see Ram Dass in person but now almost all of his lectures are archived. His soon to be released “Being Ram Dass” apparently reveals stories never told before, pertaining to his childhood. These experiences shaped his curiosity and led him to be a doctor of psychology. From there, he became a spiritual teacher with brilliant insights leading to the psychology of the soul, Soul Psychology, merging the outer and inner worlds.

As it turns out, only the inner world is real.

Ram Dass was a spiritual dilettante, himself. So was Wayne Dyer. So am I. I am led to all that piques my childhood enthusiasm.

It all began at my mothers knee. I remember waking up from a nap with my mother sitting at the edge of the bed. I was three. She was tapping the point between my eyebrows.

She said, “This is where your third eye is located. You will someday have to develop it.”

At the time, in 1954, my mother was studying “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda.

I took the image of the third eye literally. At the time, I imagine myself looking like a freak to the world. I was afraid by the image. 66 years later, from age 3 to now, the yogi’s spiritual lessons taught me where to see the chakra star in meditation.

It is a journey from mortal consciousness to unity consciousness that only a prolonged retreat will reveal. OM

MY Mom