General Audiences
" The Kitchen Mystic: Kindle the Magic in Daily Life"

Key ideas in this talk

Life is a classroom for the soul’s learning.Our lessons are right in front of us with situations we are in and the people we are with.

Spirituality is a state of relaxed, loving, vital, presence
to one’s true self, to others, to Nature, and to Spirit.

Spirituality is a cultivated state of awareness
that I am an individual expression of an immortal Self
whose nature is love, peace, and creativity.

Mysticism is the belief and the experience of direct, intimate union of the soul with God, through contemplation and love. Kitchen Mysticism is a path that cultivates the awareness of direct intimate union with the Divine in the arena of everyday mundane existence.

Stories: The dream that led Mary to meet my husband
The dream that led Mary on a journey to India
Jack the dog, one of Mary’s finest teachers
The Spider Story: Making Peace with God

"We Kitchen Mystics are passionate spiritual seekers who find ourselves involved in a never-ending mystery story that is unfolding with subtlety, finesse, and occasional high drama. There is a benevolent plot afoot, and the conspirators are everywhere— seen and unseen. Their mission: the total destruction of our fears and limitations, resulting in our final spiritual awakening! It’s harrowing, it’s uplifting, and it’s more thrilling than Star Trek because we ourselves are the main characters! Kitchen Mystics keep each other vastly entertained with stories of the latest personal breakthrough.. ..

"I see God in onions. I always have. I remember when I first saw my mother slicing into an onion when I was about six. I stopped my playing, awestruck. What is this vegetable that is so pure, so watery-white, so many-layered in concentric rings that make mounds of perfect circles as they fall open onto the cutting board? I beggerd her to let me cut some, despite her warning that it would make my eyes burn. I can remember the concentraion and reverence welling up within me as I askwardly thried to make perfect slices. My eyes did burn and I had to stop after a few cuts, but I vowed that I would understand onions some day, and cook with them myself...."

- from The Kitchen Mystic book and audio tape

Key ideas in this talk

Seeking one’s purpose is a living paradox: "Relax/Get Going!"

There are six levels of human purpose
-existence
-social (job, vocation, family roles)
-symbiotic (partnership with other people)
-common human purpose
-spiritual
-evolutionary

Stories:

• The Aunt Ann Story (one of Mary’s best!)
• A Key Experience
• George

"’Seeking purpose’ is a paradoxical activity. It is both necessary and unnecessary to seek it. The key to discovering and fulfilling one's purpose is to just relax and love what you have --- no, it's to get going and create what you truly want --- no, it's to relax sometimes and get going at other times --- no, it's to do them both at the same time in different areas of your life --- and as the saying goes, nothing that you do really matters but it's very important that you do it anyway." You see the challenge here? There are paradoxical truths about seeking one's purpose that we need to understand and live by if we want our souls to sing well in the chorus of human expression...

In fact, both of these directives are correct, in different ways, for there are a number of levels to the subject of purpose. Everyone from a mossy rock to a human being is fulfilling at least one level of purpose by the mere fact of existence---I call this existential purpose. You exist because you exist. You can add a few skills on to that and leave society in a little better condition than when you arrived: that is social purpose. This is about what job you have or what career you pursue. You can be an old drunk like my Aunt Ann but willing to learn and to love with each day of your life, and fulfill our common human purpose. You can engage with life as a classroom of learning and mastering certain spiritual qualities, i.e. patience or tolerance, and you have a spiritual purpose. You can pair up with other people and share your complementary skills, and you've got purpose in partnership, or symbiotic purpose. You can choose to call on more of your unused brain capacity and advance the whole thing farther along---yes, the human being alone has the power of enhancing the evolution of our species. You can consciously serve our collective evolutionary purpose.

The relaxing thing about this way of looking at purpose is that you can do any amount of it that you choose. You can have a wonderful career and be a fairly decent person and touch some lives in a pleasant way, and never once ponder a greater meaning than that. You can "hang out", and take the path of least resistance, and be someone's loyal son. You can embrace the new technologies of body/mind transformation and take yourself higher and higher into the clear mountain air of consciousness despite the fact that you have a mundane job. You can be born with Down's Syndrome and live on government aid, and warm the hearts of people around you with your innocent and loving disposition. On this level, we are all doing just fine.

And yet, there is something about the nature of a human being that insists on asking "Why?" and clamoring for more. There is something creative wired into our genes that bides it's time and eventually explodes outward in a surprising moment of genesis that initiates a period of Divine restlessness and growth . Who knows what or who governs these cycles of rest and creativity? It's a mystery. I invite you to explore this mystery.. . Relax—and get going! "

- from Living Your Purpose audiotape

Key ideas in this talk

Definitions of intuition
Five types of intuition
Four blocks to developing intuition
Ten steps to developing intuition

Stories:

• Mary Meets her husband because of a dream
• Jamie and the Motorcycle Accident
• Hannah and her healthy new lifestyle
• Mary Steers her DaughterAway from Danger
• A Magic Telephone Number Locates a Missing Son

"Your intuition is trying to show you only one thing all of the time: how to be happy as you. It's there to make life easier. Your intuition will help you understand and unfold your purpose here, and solve everyday problems. It needs to be reinstated on the throne next to the logical mind, where they can work as partners. Your intuition receives vision for a life direction that will make you happy and will use your unique nature to the fullest. Your planning mind makes a strategy. But it can't make an airtight strategy, because there are always unknowns. Your intuition works through these unknowns, bringing ideas and resources into play right in the present moment. Your logical mind organizes information; it balances your checkbook. Your intuition balances your life. It tells you about health needs, connects you with good friends, and helps you with timing. It leads you into situations that elicit your joy. Together the intuition and the logical mind create a fulfilling and effective life."

- from The Kitchen Mystic book and Develop Your Intuition audiotape

Key ideas in this talk

Why do we forgive? We do it so we can be free and healthy.

Definitions of unconditional love and forgiveness:

Unconditional love: "to see the good"; a universal energy that freely extends itself to all beings without expectation, condition, or demand.

Forgiveness: to cancel expectations that prevent the free extension of unconditional love between myself and another person.
Model of soul and personality from wholistic psychology

- being willing
- releasing stored painful emotion
- canceling expectations, one by one
- restoring personal boundaries
- connecting to spiritual level for unconditional love and light
- sending unconditional love and light to other
- seeing the good in them or the situation
- integrating the physical change

Stories:

• The Woman Who Couldn’t Forgive Her Fiancé and Best Friend’s Affair
• The Woman Who Forgave the Minister who Raped Her
• Mary Forgives Her Husband Who Won’t Do the Dishes
• The Man Who Forgave His Wife for Leaving Him
• The Woman Who Forgave Her Husband for Ignoring Her
• Mary’s Classroom in Forgiveness: Two Despicable Neighbors"

What does true forgiveness feel like? How do we know if we have really forgiven someone who has hurt us? The experience of forgiveness is so profound and refreshing that there is no doubt about it when it happens. Forgiveness changes us physically and emotionally, dissolving the stagnant weight of resentment and flooding our bodies with fresh new energy. It mends our tattered personal boundaries, and empowers us to move forward with more hope and creativity in operation than when we were holding our grudges. When we do the thorough and gritty work that goes into releasing the trauma from the past, we reestablish our connection with our spiritual Source, and that Source gifts us with a palpable sense of light and lightness. We find ourselves on new ground."

- from The Kitchen Mystic book and The Peaceful Heart Audiotape

Key ideas in this seminar

"Chaos" comes from a Sanskrit word which means "infinite becoming".
We need to make friends with chaos, not take it as a problem or personal failing.

Tools for dealing with chaos:(Experiential):
intuition, intention, good boundaries, staying "soft."

"Soft" —
Surrendered to the situation
Open to intuition and synchronicity
Feeling emotions and handling them appropriately
Taking time; pause to breathe and center

Story:

• Mary’s journey through a chaotic life interruption to financial success

(1-2 full day seminar; lecture also available)

Today’s leaders must steer through a sea of chaos and unknowns with serenity, focus, intuition, and compassion.

The New Spirit of Leadership incorporates knowledge, strength, and tools from the realm of the spiritual, the wholistic health paradigm and the feminine mind set and value system.

The archetype of leader in our society is evolving from only that of the "Warrior/King" to that of the "Master Gardener", an archetype that integrates masculine and feminine sensibilities.

Leadership Tools (experiential):
The spiritual classroom
Intention
Good boundaries
Good rumors
Intuition
(other tools in the spiritual tool box include: prayer, forgiveness, humility, ceremony, sacred space, daily centering, offering, service ethic, detachment.)

Story:

• The healing of "the block from Hell"

Emotional Healing for the Wounded Work Place
(2 full days or 3 half days)

Part I: Personal Self Mastery

Bringing the group together, psychosynthesis model of wholeness, the spiritual class room. 8 step forgiveness model, detachment exercise.

Part II: Dealing with painful emotions at work

Skills of emotional intelligence; how to share and how to listen to emotions in a professional environment; how to avoid rumors and gossip.

Part III: Strategies for coping with chaos:

intention, personal boundaries, "soft" stress-relief technique. Self-care plan for transition. Releasing a toxic expectation with 8-step method.

Mary will present a simple and powerful model of wellness to inspire you in your quest for greater health and happiness. Come for some practical ideas that will give you a "tune up" on all levels: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. This is a great little seminar for spring time or times when a group needs renewal.

Healer: someone who facilitates and promotes the restoration of wholeness.

Also, he or she:

Walks with an intention.

Believes in the forces of renewal and restoration, and is open to being a channel for those forces.

Lives spirituality(in a state if relaxed loving awareness of the present)

Serves humbly
(Humility is being in your rightful place in the Universe, moment by moment.
Humility is serving a person’s need the way they understand it, if it is practical)
Stays connected and promotes connection between body, emotions, mind, and spirit.

Faces and transforms her own issues and limitations.

Fully participates with Life’s circle of giving and receiving.

Does her best, one day at a time, and lets go of the rest.

Brings compassion to self and others who are in impossible situations.

Also: Tips to prevent overload; how to have a good day as a healer.

Stories:

• dream with hands on healing
• Betty in the nursing home
• Mary’s anesthetist as healer

We do forgiveness for our own sake, because resentments are a burden on our physical health and can cause stress disorders.

Energy system and physical body carry unprocessed emotions

Eight steps of forgiveness

Stories:

• Woman with colon cancer
• Woman with amennorhia
• Woman with irritable bowel
• Man with tense shoulders
• Mary with tight heart
• Mary with sinus infections

Two wings of one bird: Allopathic medicine and complementary and all medicine(CAM)

Central Message: It’s time for medical doctors to acknowlege and explore and make themselves as familiar as they can with the realm of complementary and alternative therapies, and become capable of interfacing with these options for the benefit of your patient’s health. Try some, learn from some of your patients about it, get acquainted with who does what, and where these resources are. Get the spirit of exploration and discovery --- it’s fun!

Trends in the use of CAM and its incorporation into mainstream medical care.

Principles and culture of the CAM paradigm and therapies. The elements that make them so appealing people are willing to pay for them out of pocket.

Implications of this growing trend for today’s doctors, and the practice of medical care in the future.

Stories:

• Annette’s store as entry point and clearing house to alternative help.
• Story of a life-threatening miscarriage. How allopathic and CAM medicine worked together to save a life and heal the emotional loss as well.

Demonstration of favorite personal discoveries from CAM therapies.

Strong, vibrant friendships with other women are nourishing to the heart and spirit, and significantly reduce anxiety.

Hallmarks of good friendships:
emotional intimacy
healthy vulnerability
good boundaries
commitment to joy and mutual empowerment

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keepng, and then with the breath of kindness throw the rest away."- Dinah Mulock Craik

Stories:

• Mary, Annie, and Lois on Halloween
• Mary, Annie, and Lois and their de-stressing techniques
• Eccentric traditions
• Situational Friends vs. Soul Friends

"Women’s spirituality" is the cultivated awareness of God as Divine Mother, immanent (within) the natural world and our own selves. It is the consciousness of the interconnectedness of all things within one web of life. It honors the sacredness of all of life’s passages from birth through death, including the important initiations contained in a woman’s fertility cycle."

God as Feminine

God as immanent
My intimate connections with creatures and places

Spiritual practices:
The Circle, seasonal cycles, intuition, fertility passages, sacred sites, creativity.

Stories:

• The Spider
• The Birth Goddess
• Journey to a Cave
• Mother Mary, Face of the Divine Mother
• Mary2 (Mary’s Hilarious and Practical Relationship with Mother Mary)

Husband Disappointment: What to do? We’ve all got it: pesky, serious, and worst case

We need to get over it, get out of it, or get through it

Use your will to get clear and make a choice

Fantasy and reality: healing the painful gap about who he is

Psychological clarity:projections, expectations, and boundaries

The eight steps of forgiveness

Unconditional love: it’s do-able

"Happily ever after"

"Husband Disappointment is a miserable condition identified by it’s low-grade fever of chronic resentment, anger, and sadness. Women in the grip of this disease display a tendency to sigh and roll their eyes and mutter caustic remarks about their partner’s character. As the problem worsens, they feel stuck in a mediocre life because of the mate they are with, and they start to lose respect for themselves as they lose respect for him. Worse yet, a woman with an advanced case of Husband Disappointment lives a shadowy existence — numb, depressed, and void of vision — she becomes crippled with helplessness and blame. She is lost from who she is, and the dream of who she wants to be in her fullest potential.

A study done by xxxx in xxxx claims that fully 80% of women interviewed said that if they knew everything they know now at the time they got married, they probably wouldn’t do it over again. This high statistic indicates that this form of emotional discontent with our marriage is practically a norm for married women. And yet most of us are not going to get a divorce because of the inevitable pain and chaos that accompanies divorce. Some women live with their husbands in a state of alienation and resentment for decades! We’ve all seen it, and it’s not pretty. Not all of us are seriously ill with Husband Disappointment, but we can’t leave it at that because that means too many women are settling for a form of unhappiness that is common but not necessary. I think we want more for ourselves than to live life like this. I say, let’s have some attitude, girls, and let’s get some tools to create a worthy life, with or without him."

Stories:

• Tales of Pesky, Serious, and Worst Case Husband Disappointment
• Mary’s Husband Disappointment: From Loser to Dreamboat
• (--- and He didn’t Change, She Did.)
• Elsie Falls In Love With Her Husband Again After 40 Years

Women's Topics
The Woman Entrepreneur: A Spiritual Journey of Empowerment

You create your business out of who you are and what you need to learn

In partnership with God, people, and the planet: It’s all about relationships

Using your will: strong will, skillfull will, good will, and universal will

Persistence and discipline the tools that make your luck

Do your best and let go of the outcome each day

Stories:

• Mary’s journey as a spiritual entrepreneur
• Annette’s story: keep working the model until it’s right
• Beyond magical thinking: putting the ground under your vision

Enjoy the thrills and chills of Mary’s adventures as a spiritual seeker who is ever in the way of unexpected drama that brings needed insights. From hitchhiking around the nation as a starry-eyed hippie to meeting God in the woods as a huge spider eager to walk on her.... from a spirit-filled cave in Northern Ireland or an ashram in India, to meeting her husband Fred because of a message in a dream... when you hear Mary’s personal stories you will agree that ‘there is a benevolent plot afoot, and the conspirators are everywhere. Their mission: the total elimination of fear and limitations.

"For some reason, my life seems to be four times as blessed and four times as stressful as most other people’s; there never seems to be a shortage of drama going on, whether I want it or not. I think God has it that way for me because she knows I have a deep need to tell good stories....

I invite you to enter my stories with me. and if I hand you a laugh or make you shed a tear along the way, I will be a satisfied storyteller. My stories were given to me by a Great Mystery, and I now give them back. There are as many tales of the Sacred in every day life as there are seeds bursting from pods in the amazon rain forest. The Sacred glows silently at the center of every good story. In the silence after the telling of a story is a fertile darkness where seeds are left behind—and understanding may grow. And whatever of these may sprout and take root within you—may it be your own fertile offering to that Mystery."

The Divine Mother is an archetype emerging once again in modern times after many centuries of repression of the feminine that has sent our world into severe psychological and ecological imbalance. The Mother has always been a palpable presence in Mary’s life, first as Mother Mary in her Catholic childhood, and later as The Goddess, who appeared in a vision to help Mary give birth to her oldest child. The Goddess has taken many forms, the spider in the woods, the priestess spirits in an Irish cave, the female Indian guru, the white-haired elder who mentored Mary into her wholeness as a teacher and leader in her own right.... The energy of the Divine Mother is a sweet and powerful presence in Mary’s presentation and magical storytelling: experience Her yourself!

"I could see Him, old Jehovah. I knew his long white beard and scowling eyebrows very well. He sat on a throne on a cloud, and his finger pointed downward at me in accusation. I could imagine him bellowing at me: "Don't! Bad Girl!" He is a face of God from another time and another people; still good for some today but no good for me. As Fred sprayed me with warm soothing water, I visualized this image of God growing smaller and smaller, like soap melting away in the shower. It took a long time, but finally he was just a little sliver that slipped down the drain. Zip! Gone---and suddenly replaced by a new image of the Divine.

The ocean heaves with swelling waters. The moonlight glances off the choppy surface, and the spray sparkles like gems. The night sky is turbulent with clouds scudding along in cold winds. A gigantic female figure hovers over the ocean. Her arms are extended in a wide embrace over the world, and her breasts drip drops of sparkling milk that mingle with the stars in the sky and the water. She wears the crescent moon as an ornament in her long dark hair, which streams out in all directions, mingling with the moving skies. Her head is thrown back and her mouth is open wide in tremendous laughter---she roars with good humor! She is wild and untamed: the mother and lover of all--- the Goddess.

I felt an urge to push.

‘Okay! Let's do it!’ I said suddenly. "

- from A Woman’s Ways audiotape
- read "The Our Mother Prayer"