Soul Moments

New York Times best-selling author, John-Roger says, “The Soul is that essence of us that is a pure extension of God.”

If God is Love, we’re part of the divine spark. Lovely! All settled. Life is fantabulous. Unless under the burden of sorrow, surprise attacks of judgments from self or others become buried shrapnel. 

Digging deep to discover a blessing or a lesson can bring healing.  Prayer is a great tool, too. Here’s one of my top ten:  Dear God, I’m tired of turning the other cheek; my favorite MAC blush is out of commission. Please help.

Maybe the words don’t matter. What is important is that Step One in 12-Step vernacular is taken. The white flag of surrender is raised. Falling to my knees seems to allow a portal for Soul moments.

What is a Soul moment? Beethoven’s music on the radio? One of his compositions evokes rumbling thunder with the whisper of a rainbow.  Perhaps it’s the streak of a divine paintbrush of white clouds against a sky of blue. Or your darling pet licking wet kisses onto your hand.

On Tuesday, August 7th, Dr. Pauli Sanderson will address the question of What is Soul Awareness? (And awareness of Soul moments.) The 7:30 pm evening event will take place at the Guasti Villa, currently the headquarters for Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens. (Scroll down for details.)

Dr. Sanderson is the co-author of When Are You Coming Home? She also holds an M.S. in clinical psychology and a Doctorate in Spiritual Science. She is well versed on the subjects of human shenanigans and spiritual Rx. Dr. Sanderson also has a B.A. in dance from UCLA. She is one Bruin who can bust a move!

Visit peacelabyrinth.org/events for $10 tickets to What is Soul Awareness? With Pauli Sanderson. Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens is located at 3500 West Adams Boulevard in
Los Angeles. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. 

Looking forward to more Soul moments…hopefully with you!

A Field of Dreamy Gardens

Did you read the exquisite write-up about Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens in The New York Times? The PAL&G piece is by best-selling author, Reif Larsen! (His books are also popular movies.)

Mr. Larsen’s depiction of PAL&G tours’ Guardian Angel is perceptive and accurate. “I was greeted at the villa’s entrance by a kind man named Juan Roberto.”

Through heat waves and cold spells, PAL&G’s bespectacled greeter, Juan Roberto Schulz gazes upon each visitor as if welcoming a long lost cousin. He also answers FAQs with great patience. Mr. Larsen remarks that at the end of his exchange with the PAL&G greeter, “Memories of Interstate 10 bedlam began to evaporate.”

Good thing I was sitting when reading Mr. Larsen’s Finding Yourself in Los Angeles. His masterful portrait of PAL&G is swoon worthy. He describes his labyrinth experience: “As you walk, the city becomes a distant dream, a movie half-remembered.”

Mr. Larsen also mentions shinrin-yoku ( 森林浴 ) – Japanese for forest bathing. He delights in being “serenaded by the gentle babble of small fountains.”  (Be still my heart!!)

Insights about other LA gardens and photos are offered, too. (PAL&G takes top billing.) Scroll down, and you’ll see two people familiar to PAL&G regulars: Anna Sugai and Jeffrey Morgan. An aura of confidence trails the duo walking the labyrinth. Maybe my admiration colors the lens. Anna Sugai is a Brazilian beauty who speaks three languages. Her good looks and smarts are surpassed, however, by her depth. Ask anyone who has seen her co-facilitate a PAL&G evening event. Jeffrey Morgan is an attorney who knows a thing or two about international and integrative law. He’s also quick with a reassuring smile. He serves on the Transcendent Leadership faculty at Peace Theological Seminary.

Mr. Larsen’s Finding Yourself in Los Angeles in The New York Times illuminates the spirit of PAL&G.  It is impressive. The masterful wordsmith’s work strikes my heart with awe for another reason, too. I came to this country from Japan a few decades back. The Guasti Villa stood proudly like a Grande Dame on West Adams as it does today. The mansion, however, was sans labyrinth and gorgeous gardens. It was an isolated island of beauty enjoyed by a few.

Two important men in my life – my beloved teacher and boss – inspired the creation of PAL&G: Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA) Founder, John-Roger and MSIA President, Paul Kaye. They are both role models of living from the inside out.

Remember the 1989 film Field of Dreams? An Iowa farmer builds a baseball field at the bidding of his inner guidance.  Trouble ensues. Tears are shed. A happy Hollywood ending prevails.  “If you build it, he will come.”

Voices are tricky business. Is the whisper well-intentioned or rooted in illness? “Check it out,” is a phrase which John-Roger repeated on many an occasion. 

Clearly, John-Roger was listening to a heavenly messenger about a LA labyrinth. A French accented angel, perhaps. Paul remembers the conversation with John-Roger about a labyrinth at 3500 West Adams Boulevard was ignited in Chartres Cathedral.

Maybe Paul’s whispering angel was from the East. MSIA’s President was instrumental in the birth of an Asian accented garden. He had a vision of something “mad, chaotic, and green with lots of water features.”

The French artisan crafted marble labyrinth was consecrated by John-Roger and MSIA Spiritual Director, John Morton in 2001. The following year, Paul’s idea for the garden was realized. A handful of spiritual warriors roamed the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens (PAL&G) upon its creation in the New Millennium.

Today sold-out tours prevail as peace seekers strengthen Soul practices. Including a New York Times best-selling author.

Do you hear a voice whispering? “Be a PAL&G docent…The visitors will come.”

Check it out. Call Program Director, Carol Jones at (323) 737-4055.

Click the link below to read Reif Larsen’s Finding Yourself in Los Angeles in The New York Times.

Stickybeaks & the World of Awe

Your luggage is checked to your destination. But you’re stuck at LAX. There are only so many laps you can take around the food court, right? Give yourself a sweet treat. Grab an Uber, a Lyft or a taxi and make a beeline for a place of peace, such as Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens (PAL&G.)

As a guide of countless tours around the PAL&G labyrinth, meditation gardens, and historical mansion, I’ve yet to figure out the magic of the place. Always a pleasure though to watch shoulders relax and smiles emerge after a dip in the verdant meditation gardens. No matter the mood, songbirds soften my rough edges, too.

Our Australian visitors say I’ve got a “stickybeak.” (Nosy in American English.) I’m fascinated by travelers who are drawn to PAL&G hours before they fly home. Like a mother/son team who love their English labyrinths. They stumbled last minute into our Chartres Cathedral-inspired creation.

Another women from Hawaii was en route to Finland. She was wilting in the shade waiting for the 3 p.m. tour. She may have questioned her choice of spending her layover at PAL&G. Sixty minutes later her body language said something else. Shoulders slightly stooped, deep in contemplation while ambling the eleven concentric labyrinth circles, her posture straightened as she emerged. No elixir did she slip from her purse. Only the willingness to open to Spirit is my guess.

When feeling like Mr. Shakespeare’s Hamlet (in Act 1, Scene 2), “O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!” Run; don’t walk to the PAL&G labyrinth. (All right, walk briskly. Don’t want you slipping into the gorgeous reflecting pools.) Peace can occur when a prayer of surrender is said before twisting and winding through the labyrinth. That’s what someone very close whispered in my ear anyway.

If you’re a flexible type, or a yogi or yogini-in-training, check out Yoga at the Labyrinth. Or if you prefer an er, um less bendy approach, click the Visit tab at PeaceLabyrinth.org. Dare to explore the beautiful environment inside and outside of you.