Using a lifetime of acquired skills, including intuition, ability to inspire and to receive another’s heartfelt wishes, it is a privilege to accompany people as they resolve the hurt and difficulties found in their relationships. Now in my senior years, as a facilitator and professional coach in Tucson, Arizona, I speak with individuals and groups to see and change what has stood between them and happiness.
I am an active member of the International Coaching Federation as a Master Certified Coach. This life-path started to crystallize during one of my early volunteer activities. Meeting with prison inmates to sort through their lives made a deep impression on me. I came to understand that as fellow travelers on this earth we all want the same thing, love and acceptance and to be valued.
My journey towards peace began as a child in a family that lived in conflict. Problems were not resolved, peace and joy were absent. One day, when I was around 9 or 10 years old, I went out in the backyard to get away from my parents’ huge shouting match. The spring sunshine was comforting, birds around me singing, flowers blooming. And even though I could hear mom and dad raging inside, this feeling that came up in me, an understanding that peace is possible.
Now, to carry this precious gift of peace to yearning hearts is my joy.
In the 80’s and 90’s I spent much time on northwest and southwest Native-American reservations. Having apprenticed with an Aztec Medicine man, I assisted him and after his passing was invited to help heal and teach their communities. I am able to foster and equip coaching clients and students who directly work with this population. This work was sacred.
I also serve as a member of the Khalsa Montessori School Start Empathy Change Team, which networks with Ashoka, a social-change network, for promoting empathy and social change through education. The present project seeks to reciprocate an urban student experience and the rural Navajo student experience by facilitating field trips and student exchanges for middle school students.
What I would like the world to know about older adults is that our maturity has shaped us and dissolved what is no longer important. This allows us to utilize our energy and wisdom for a much greater good.