EVERYONE DESERVES A MARY It ended the way it began. No one could point an index finger quite like Mary. I met her in a small coffee shop across the way from the spiritual center in which I was then employed. I entered midmorning to get a cup of tea and was cheerily greeted by name by the owner and barista. A small yet mighty woman stepped out from behind a bookcase and asked of me” so you are Taylor?” I replied in the affirmative. “You are the reason I moved here.” After a brief explanatory conversation, she pointed her index finger right at me and declared “you should teach a class on The Seven Spiritual Laws.” I took a moment or two to stare down the

A MATTER OF TRUST It has become painfully clear to me that I taught myself not to trust myself. I grew up in a home where we were not allowed to have our own opinions. Self-referral was not encouraged or even allowed. Parental opinion was law. And so, my parents would proclaim something to be true or right or just. The proclamations frequently landed heavily in my solar plexus, and I knew deeply that what was being stated was not true. At least not for me. And so, I would question. >br> And my questions landed heavily inside my parents. Then they landed heavily on me. The same was true in schools, church, and various organizations in which I became affiliated. Doctrine was declared. It did not

I wish I had gotten madder, sooner. I grew up in a family in which anger was unacceptable. With a mother prone to rage and a father with dementia-related outbursts the context was at best confounding. There was a small and constricting zone of what was acceptable to feel and express. Anger was outside of that zone. So, not being allowed to be angry really pissed me off. I became masterful at suppressing that concentric anger. At school we were punished if we displayed anger. At church we were taught that the Righteous do not get mad. If they did, an angry and wrathful God would cast you into hell. What? Those teachings really ticked me off. I graduated school and church and began to forge my