Soul SiStories
Soul SiStories was born out of a mutual desire to bring forward hope and healing through sharing our lived experiences. Hope is embracing life despite adversity. Hope is our reason.
Soul SiStories
Finding Strength in Spiritual Exploration with Tracy Earlywine
Reverend Tracy Earlywine, our guest in this thought-provoking episode, opens up about her remarkable journey from a nature-loving California girl to a senior minister at the Claremont Center for Spiritual Living. Her diverse experiences in hospitality management and extensive travels have shaped her into a seeker of deeper truths. Tracy's path was profoundly influenced by her college years and her mother's engagement with religious science, leading her to embrace an inclusive and metaphysical approach to spirituality. Her story is a testament to the power of curiosity, connection, and a relentless pursuit of understanding life's most profound meanings.
Join us as we explore the heart of spiritual practices and the transformative connections they foster. Reverend Tracy reflects on how therapy and personal introspection have played critical roles in finding centeredness and moving beyond the past. This episode uncovers Tracy's insights on uncovering inner strength, the science of mind philosophy, and the boundless opportunities it reveals. Through her inspiring anecdotes, she emphasizes resilience, love, and the importance of education in opening doors to new possibilities. Get ready for a journey that not only empowers but also invites you to look at life's challenges with fresh eyes and an open heart.
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Welcome to Soul Sisteries for Spiritual Living, also just a longtime dear friend of mine and I just love talking to her always. She's so inspiring and centering to me and just so authentic.
Speaker 2:And I love just to hear her, kind of through the whole interview, talk about joy and the importance of joy and you know her, her music, her inspiration, her, you know service is all about joy and I love to hear that.
Speaker 1:And those connections. Didn't you love the little story about her as a little girl connecting with nature, touching all the leaves? It's just so sweet. Everybody just listen in. You're gonna love every moment. Welcome to Soul Sisteries moment.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Soul Sisteries. Well, it's good to have everybody here with us today as we introduce Reverend Tracy Earlywine. She is the senior minister at the Claremont Center for Spiritual Living in Southern California. Tracy describes herself as a teaching minister, in her own words. I seek to recognize love and spiritual principle in everyday life, to reach the deep silence of spirit and the mystical heights of transformation. I value integrity, authenticity and consensus building in all that I do. I live life with delight and a deep commitment to empowering others to live their lives more abundantly.
Speaker 2:Although Tracy is a California native, she has traveled extensively, beginning with her year as a high school exchange student to Switzerland and her college language studies. Before becoming a minister, tracy logged over 30 years in hospitality management and training. She traveled extensively in her professional life as a trainer with Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Tracy credits her travel experience as a foundation for her global perspective and inclusive ministerial style. We welcome people of all faiths into our teaching, understanding that each of us has what we need within to live and create our own best life. Coming together, we are creating a world that works for all, and so welcome Tracy, I feel like I can get onto the stage now.
Speaker 1:Thank you, amen to all of that. We're just so delighted to have you here. I mean, I've known you for years and I love you truly, and something that I love so much about you is that you demonstrate such beautiful, authentic and graceful living, so true to the heart and with such peaceful ease and grace. That's the best word I can come up with and so I just want you to know that, and I want everybody listening to know that. Thank you.
Speaker 3:That is who you are Especially on a really good day.
Speaker 1:I just love you. I love you. So here, obviously, as we just heard in your bio, you've had a storied and varied career and many you know. As one lives a life, there are many different angles and corners and turns, and all of that collectively has brought you here and I'm wondering if you want to share just kind of like the highlights. What is the journey that's gotten you to where you are right now doing what you do?
Speaker 3:Well, I think, you know, I've always been a spiritual seeker, I've always been curious spiritual seeker. I've always been curious. I did not do well with any religious organization that told me not to think or to just do, or no, this is it, no questions. I don't do no questions very well. So it kept me curious, it kept me asking, it kept me looking, and even as a little girl, just when I would walk to school, I would touch all the plants on the way to school because and I would make sure that I touched every leaf on the big plants so that none of the leaves felt left out. You know, it's like I had this sense of connection and that life is life, you know, and I could never have articulated it as a child, but I came with that, I really came with that. So, you know, in my college years I did a lot of exploring of different spiritual traditions.
Speaker 3:I went to a great, a small college in the Midwest that had a great, very liberal arts program and it had been a pre-seminary school, so there were a lot of spiritual classes offered, taught by scholars, you know, mostly Christian scholars. But I found myself just wanting to know more, always wanting to know more and really believing that there was not one way, but that there was a way to understand life better. And so my mother became a minister, but it was after I had moved out of the house. So she found religious science, the science of mind teaching, which is now called Centers for Spiritual Living, and she and her husband had done all the studies and they took on a church. And when I would travel for work I was often on the East Coast. They were back in Rhode Island, and so when I would see them on the East Coast I would attend and, like most of it fit pretty well with how I saw the world. It was a very inclusive approach, a metaphysical approach, meaning, just like when you take a literature class. There are layers and layers of meanings in any story. Beyond the plot, there are layers of meaning going on, and I was continued to be fascinated by that. So, although I didn't grow up with her as a minister in the same house just's not like I was raised in it it was something that came to me when I was in my 30s, I'd say, and her best friend was the local minister in my neighborhood when I finally returned to California to live and work and I went to her church because I loved Reverend Joy. She was funny she was funny more than anything and irreverent and practical and inspiring.
Speaker 3:So I continue to be inspired by the teaching and I don't really know how I became a minister. I just kept taking the next class. You know, I kept taking the next class. And I remember going to Asilomar, the big summer conference that we had for Centers for Spiritual Living, which is all like music and workshops and people that I would only see once a year because they're, you know, they lived on a different coast than I did. That I did and I remember going and I went to the open house for the college, for Holmes Institute, which was the process of becoming a minister of the education, and I had never done that before, I'd been going for 15 years, I'd never walked in there.
Speaker 3:I just walked in, started talking to somebody, asked a few questions, and I remember her telling me I was saying, well, I, you know, I don't know if I want to do this. I mean, yeah, I know it starts in the fall, I don't know, I was just curious. And she said to me well, pretty soon your head will catch up with your heart. You just let me know.
Speaker 3:And that's that was really the beginning of it. So here I am 20 years later, 10, 15 years later as a minister and, I don't know, 25 years into science of mind.
Speaker 1:So, and you just kept following your feet and following your heart.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly. Next step what's the next step? I have no idea what's around the next bend, I just know this is the next step.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's gorgeous. I love that. So you met you in sharing your story there. You use the word connection and I know that when I asked you about what's your hope through that's the that's the word that you came with. I know how important that is to you in your, in your story, in your journey and how you live your life, and I know that that's part of what you want to talk about today. That was cool, good example. By the way, I just visioned you as that little girl and touching all of those leaves, that connection to plant and to life, and it's as simple as that, right, yeah?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's being able to recognize when we resonate with something or someone. When we resonate with something or someone, you know, and for me that little walk to school every day was all about seeing, you know, were the roses blooming yet, and was the dog in the yard, and was the little Italian lady on the corner out watering her grass in the front, you know, and those were like just my little touchstones every morning during the week and, like I said, I came with that. It's just kind of how I've always seen the world something to be recognized and appreciated.
Speaker 1:Amazing, Amazing Sis, were you? I'm sorry, you were jumping in.
Speaker 2:No, I was going to let you actually ask the question, but I, because you know a little little bit more about Tracy, that I do know you today, tracy, and I appreciate that. But I think just hearing the bio, the first thought is okay, well, we're going to talk about, you know, religion, church, right, spirituality. But you shared, donna, the word connection and how important that is. And I think, talking a little bit before you showed up, tracy, we were talking about kind of the importance of connection through challenging times in life.
Speaker 3:Yes and so.
Speaker 2:I would love, if you can, to share a little bit about that, about the importance and the value of connection during life.
Speaker 3:And I would. I will say to your first point about you know we're going to talk about church. I remember in ministerial school we would do these mock panels, so like when you have your ordination panels, you're going to be interviewed by ministers and they're going to ask you questions and you got to know your stuff right. And I remember I'm thinking to to myself she's going to ask we were all sitting in a circle at some you know colloquium or something, and the dean is asking uh, everybody, questions, like you're going to have this. These are things you're going to have to answer. And I'm thinking don't ask me that, don't ask me that, don't ask me that. And sure enough, she asked me the one thing I didn't want her to ask me, which was so tell me about your spiritual practice. And I thought I am so busted because my spiritual practice doesn't always look like a ritual or a formula or a I do this 10 minutes every day and I do that three times a day. It doesn't look like that.
Speaker 3:My spiritual practice is looking for the truth in every situation, and I don't mean like the facts of what are happening, but what is the bigger picture, what else is going on here? Because I know, when I hear somebody tell their story of their difficult relationship or their, you know, I do a lot of counseling with people and maybe they've got a kid that has addiction issues or maybe, you know, whatever the trauma is, maybe for themselves they're going through grief story listening to someone, I don't see the whole story. When I read someone's post on Facebook, I don't, I can't, I don't from this one place, and so my spiritual practice is to remember that there is a bigger picture here, whatever it is, and so that's what informs how I find connection in my life, because I connect on a. I choose, I consciously choose to connect to spirit. That my sense of the divine, my sense of the energy and essence of all life, that we all share, something animates all of us, and that something is, although we are unique in how we express it, that something is the same for everybody. We, you know, we all seek love, we all need shelter, we all want to be safe. We, you know these are all human, these are innate human qualities and desires, and by recognizing the bigger picture, then the circumstances become less intense. It's not to say that it's less important, because what we, what I experienced on a human level is very real. It's absolutely true. It's what's going on in the moment and you know, I would never tell somebody that you know everything's okay when it certainly doesn't feel okay. You know so.
Speaker 3:So to me the idea of connection is I connect first with what I know about the bigger picture of life, the sense of source or or spirit, or by any, whatever you call it. For some people it's nature, for some people maybe it's music. You know whatever you connect with. But I also know that I do better when I connect with people in a way that is heart to heart. And so, whether that's a friend, or whether it's family or for sometimes, and sometimes it's community, like I want to be surrounded but I want to be part of a group that's doing something that excites me or nurtures and feeds me, then connection happens on all of those levels.
Speaker 3:And for me, when I'm in a dark place or when I'm frustrated, or when I'm overwhelmed which seems to be happening a lot lately, and I know I'm not the only one what moves me forward is that finding a point of connection with someone, whether it's a conversation or me even just hearing them talk and try to get clear and ask questions, or maybe it's me going off and getting it. You know for me, an open road, a full tank of gas and the stereo up loud. I'm good. I'm good, I'm going to come back all grounded and back in my body and ready to go again. So I think that we each have to find our own way to what we connect to, because that is what fills us up, so that we can show up in the world, so we can participate.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So how did you arrive at this such clear knowing and such a clear ability to get to that groundedness and to re-find your center? How did you get from that little tracy touching the leaves to here? What you know, because it because, for each of us right, we can go in different directions and we can, um you know, not find this so centered place yeah, well, I, I will credit some of that, uh, early process to um therapy.
Speaker 3:You know, learning the value of talking to someone and being heard, really being heard and validated, and then, in that process, being able to let go of whatever truly is in the past and no longer has power over me. I'm thinking about this some more, so there's go ahead. Ask me again how did I get to?
Speaker 1:yeah, how did you get from that little tracy touching the leaves to this woman who is in the midst of hardships and challenges and obviously aware of things that go on in the world that are not filled with love? Right, you know, but to maintain your sense of love and center and all of that, and I mean therapy is a great answer therapy is really helpful.
Speaker 3:I mean, that really did lay the foundation, you know, and when I was first thinking about going to college, I really thought I might go into psychology. I think it's in some ways started with hindsight of being able to look back, having somebody point out to me hey, let's remember I know you feel like crap right now, but let's remember when you were in this other situation and you did this and this and this and you weren't sure it was ever going to end, and then it got better and and you've done that all along the way. So being able to look back and see that I was stronger than I thought, or I I did have helpers, or I did find a way forward and I, for me, the, the truth that there is always a way forward is what allows me to keep thinking about possibilities. And then, honestly, the philosophy that I teach, you know, the science of mind philosophy is, it's not just positive thinking and, you know, think yourself into wealth, and that's not what it is. It really is understanding that any possibility in life is available and our choices bring us to the possibilities that are ours. To do out that and seeing the light go on for someone else you know I had.
Speaker 3:I had someone ask me when I was, you know, just taking classes at the center I was at at the times and say, is your life better when you're in class? It's like, well, yeah, why? What makes the difference? What makes the difference is where I'm putting my attention and and being willing to kind of figure out my attention and and being willing to kind of figure out all right, well, how does spirit show up in this situation? Or how is there a greater truth happening here? How, when this looks so dark, can there possibly be any joy in life? And and now I see it all the time, you know it's a practice, it's, you know, if you, if you look for something, you will find it.
Speaker 3:You know, I, I, I have a lot of friends that you know. They think the world is a hard place and people are going to take advantage of them and they're proven right all the time. And then I have other people who say life is great and it's not always easy, but you know what. I always come out okay and you know what they always come out okay. I think we find what we're looking for and so I've learned to look for better things and I find them and again it, it doesn't stop all this other stuff from coming at us.
Speaker 3:You know it's like I go on my Facebook feed, I see all the stuff that's out there that's hurtful or hateful or angry or divisive. You know, but I was Donnie, you and I were talking earlier and I said you know I was, I had a night. I was flipping through Facebook at night and you know, looking for the dog pictures and the cat videos and the and the friends on trips videos, all this everybody's opinion about everybody else and everything else. And it's just. You know it's so hard and right now it's so negative and so divisive and people are so anxious and so afraid and therefore so angry. And you know, after trying to skip over a bunch of those. I was like, okay, this is like no fun, I got to go to sleep to skip over a bunch of those. I was like, okay, this is like no fun, I got to go to sleep.
Speaker 3:But then my little two and a half year old niece's video popped up on Facebook because her mama had posted it. And there she is in the park with her mama and her Gigi and she's dancing. She's bouncing her little knees and dancing to reggae, and the three of them are dancing on the grass to reggae, and the three of them are dancing on the grass. And it's like it's not just that. That was a happy thing.
Speaker 3:What I felt was my entire body changed, all that constriction and that tension and the tightness in my throat and the headache starting behind my eyes, and, wow, I really need to lay down and go to sleep.
Speaker 3:All of that was gone and it was just this joy in this little package right here of this little girl dancing, and what it tells me is it's a reminder that that joy is also true and also happening and also here and so, connecting with the music, connecting with her joy, connecting with family, those things refresh me so that, as I then continued to scroll through Facebook because I didn't really want to go to sleep just yet, none of that other stuff really got in. It's like my defenses were up. My feeling was better, I could look at it, I could have compassion for people that are really struggling. I could see how we are really in this huge upheaval of a process and there is a way forward, because all of these other things are also true that duality right like this is not negating the reality of the hardships, the challenges, pain that exists and also little niece dancing in the park right right with mom and grandma.
Speaker 3:That exists, yes, yeah exactly, and and that's always true and that's always true and even when I have a conflict within myself. You know, I think I should have done something differently, or, oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot to respond three weeks ago to this person and I get in that whole. You know that conversation. You know that conversation in your head.
Speaker 3:I think it was just yesterday I had that, and it can go on a really long time, and especially if it shows up at you know three in the morning, then you're like really in for it. But it's that reminder that I can choose where to put my attention. I can trust that I'm going to make that right whatever it is, or I'm going to take the next step over there, because there is a next step and to me that's what hope is. Hope is this knowing with confidence. Knowing with trust, expecting a good outcome, expecting that the right option is available, will show up. I will know what to do.
Speaker 3:I may not see it from here, I don't even know why or what it is yet, but I know there is a step. You know I may not know what you need in your life to lift your depression or help you get along better with your kids, but I know there is something and to me, that kind of confidence, that kind of trust some people would call it faith. You know it can be a religious concept, but it doesn't have to be. It is what is in us that keeps us moving forward, and I can choose where I put my attention. And when I can't choose where I can put my attention, I call my friends. You know I talk to my spiritual advisor. I make sure I get outside. I do the things that nurture me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, when?
Speaker 2:when did you know that? When? When did you come to that realization? Was that not as the little girl walking to school? Was it after the ministerial school? Was it when your mom became a minister? When did you learn that?
Speaker 3:I think I learned it in my own, it was my own spiritual growth. I would say as a kid I couldn't articulate it, I wouldn't have said that I knew it then, I couldn't name it then. But the combination of psychological support and studying different spiritual paths and specifically going to ministerial school, that was a big. That was a big shift. That ministerial school gave me a language for it. I think I'd been discovering the concepts all along the way.
Speaker 3:Like again I could look back at my life and see where I had come through things that at the time I thought there was no way out, I was going to be stuck forever.
Speaker 3:You know we've all had that dark night. You know where we just think this is it, it's over. And looking I could always see that things happened or people happened along the way that brought me up and out. And it school taught me to recognize that as living in possibility. Like if I could know that at the beginning of my depression, if I could see that in the middle of the trauma or the sadness or the fear, if I could remember that in the middle of something happening to me or the fear, if I could remember that in the middle of something happening to me, then I could shorten the time and effort that it took to get through it. And you know, not to get rid of it, not to pretend like it didn't happen, but to integrate it. You know all of those things shape us. All of my life experiences have shaped me and I'm always at choice on how I want to live from this minute forward.
Speaker 1:And that's what and what you just said right there. I think that's the key. They all shape you, but you, you make, you're making conscious choices.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm still more than that one thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, as, whatever the hardest thing is, that's still not the whole story of my life. Yeah, you know, and, and the relationship that goes south, it's like that's still not the whole story of my life. Yeah, you know, and, and the relationship that goes south, it's like that's still not the whole story of my ability to be in or have or appreciate a relationship. Right, even though it's that relationship.
Speaker 1:It's that relationship that went south, still had within it so many beauties and so many things that are all to be embraced, and right in the end it went south and you move forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, right and I just see similarities between kind of what you shared with your education, serial school and mine. I I did choose that psychology route. So in my training a psychologist and therapist would always say like, even if I never did any counseling or any therapy for anybody, what I came out of that experience is phenomenal and I'm a better person for it. I'm a better partner for it, a better sister, a better mother. So I love to hear that there's this like we don't all have to go through the same path.
Speaker 3:No, no, not at all, and I really, you know, part of what we, what I teach, and part of what really moves me is I really have come to trust that people have their own answers, given enough space to find them, given enough time, given enough validation and patience for us to let what's inside of us rise up, because we do really know. I had a very distinct experience in one of my classes, in part of my training counseling someone, training counseling someone, and one of the ways in which I think is I see patterns and I make connections. I had a really hard time in geometry because I couldn't go step by step through the proof. I could get to the end and then I'd have to work backwards to figure out what this? Because I just do it, I don't even I don't know how to explain it. So where was I going with that? I just do it, I don't even I don't know how to explain it. So where was I going with that?
Speaker 3:So I had an experience where somebody was talking about something going on in their life. I was counseling them, so I was listening, right, and I said something about like what to me, was the obvious next step? Oh, so that means you will da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And the person I was talking with or listening to, to their credit, said no, I don't think that's it. And they waited a second. And then they said what they thought and, of course, what they thought was perfect for them. And I never would have said that because it was not part of my framework, wasn't part of my experience, wasn't part of what had shaped me in my life. And that stuck with me.
Speaker 3:That whole conversation stuck with me, because I don't know what's best for you. I don't have to know what's best for you. What I do know is that there is a way forward that is best for you. I don't have to know what's best for you. What I do know is that there is a way forward that is right for you. And if I know that and I live that way, then I think people can see that. People get, you know, they get hopeful for themselves. You know they think, oh well, there must. Maybe there's a way forward for me too. And that's what opens the door to recognizing those next steps or those little nudges to go in a certain direction.
Speaker 1:Well, let's take that then and make a connection, because you and I we do know each other and we were talking earlier and I know that part of what you have to share and part of you know the challenge that you've experienced in your own life is around sort of the the end of life, the later part of the life for your, your parents, and the challenges in their health and their care.
Speaker 1:And you know that, that, how hard that was, and, and, um, just how, how, how all of this applies to that journey, that you're not saying, well, oh it was, everything was just fine and I just thought my way through.
Speaker 3:This is a theory, this is like real stuff, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you talk a little bit about that and and this idea of connections, also in the hope, through the connections, if you would yeah, so, uh, my mom and her husband, um, uh, they the, I should say, her last husband.
Speaker 3:They met later in life. They had a like 15 years together and the first seven they they met because my mom was in rehab. She'd had a minor stroke, she had some physical challenges, so she was doing physical therapy and she met Paul on the rehab bus. He was there for back surgery, recovery from back surgery, so they had the first seven years of their lives together. Was this whirlwind of activity and travel? And I've never seen my mom happier. They both adored each other. He was a staunch Catholic and she was a science of mind minister, and they had the best conversations. It was fabulous.
Speaker 3:And then my mom took another fall and had a more serious injury which compromised her ability to communicate, and Paul took on the main role of caregiver, which worked really well, until his own health began to decline a bit. He was in his 80s and it got to the point where we knew that they were going to need more help at home. And my stepsister, paul's daughter, has a medical background, lives close by and would just like stop by and check in on him. And you know, we kind of make sure I'll bring dinner one night. Hey, can you bring dinner another night? And so the two of us would kind of tag team, just making sure we were there.
Speaker 3:Well, as things go, you know, their health continued to decline and they needed more care and it got more complicated and my mom wasn't really responding to therapy anymore, like speech therapy or you know, just to be able to do practical things for herself. She was losing what she'd had before. And I remember talking to her neurologist and I said you know, I know that if I could spend a couple hours a day with her on helping her with her verbalization and vocabulary and helping her find the words, and I know that if it was more intense we could make more progress. And I looked at her and I was so upset I said but I just can't do it. And she said one of the most valuable things to me. She said you know, she says that's not what you give her, that's not your role with her, that's not for you to do. You need to be there because she's your mom. And that shifted everything for me. So when I think about the word connection with that, I think about me connecting with a larger community of support that I wasn't doing it all by myself.
Speaker 3:I think about me connecting with my mom in any and every way I could, that whatever I did was enough. Whatever I did, however I showed up was what worked and I have a very distinct picture of her coming in early in the morning to help her get ready in the morning. And as we were going, if we didn't have a caregiver with them, I was going to put her to bed or I was going to get her up and you know we were helped because Paul couldn't do the physical changes and stuff like that with her. And I remember walking into the room and she was just kind of lying in bed looking at nothing, you know, not really processing or connected, and she saw my face and her face lit up like she knew exactly who I was and why I was there. And that recognition that that connection is valuable in and of itself made it possible for me to drive seven days a week at 10 o'clock at night and help her get to bed and go on the weekends when the caregiver didn't show up. And I wasn't the only one, we had a whole circle of people doing that and it's human nature to connect. It's human nature to love. It's human nature to help.
Speaker 3:All you have to do is look at what happens when there's any kind of communal disaster you know the fires, you know, or the hurricanes, everybody shows up. Everybody shows up. You don't ask the guy next to you filling sandbags what church he goes to or who he voted for, or you know that stuff doesn't matter when we're present to each other. And so, had I not been able to reach out when I needed help, or to ask the questions that needed to be asked, or to take a break, you know to say look, we're going on this trip, this camp, whatever it was. We're going to be gone this weekend. I'll be back next week to do all the stuff. You know, if I hadn't been able to do that for myself, I wouldn't have been able to be there for her. So if we can't, you know go look at the cat video in between listening to the news. We can't be present to make a difference or to take care of ourselves. Or, you know, put your own oxygen mask on first. You can't help anybody if you can't breathe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of bottom line, Just bottom liner right there, yeah, right, right.
Speaker 3:So true, but what it's also done is it? I expect to find those connections, I expect to see those helpers, not that I expect any one person to do something for me. It's not like that. It's just the. This is how life works, this is how we are with each other, and when we're not, then I need to take a step back and breathe or dance or sing or hide or whatever it is and then come back to the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, boy, as you said that, your little kid I love that, that was sweetheart oh she has a little heart on her forehead.
Speaker 3:That's how she got that name.
Speaker 2:I have two questions I want to ask and I'm wondering which one I'm going to ask. Your 13-year-old self, your little girl, your 13-year-old maybe starting to come into her own there as a teen, what would she say to you or what would she think about what you're doing now and kind of your perspective of things now? What do you?
Speaker 3:think She'd be like Donna, she'd be going. How did you get there? How did you do that? Because at 13, nothing looked possible and everybody was stupid, so it's really hard to see a way forward.
Speaker 3:You know, and the other part of her would say I told you I was smart, I told you I could figure it out, because I think there's, you know, there's something in me I know, and I see it in other people, whether they do or not. There's something in us that knows, and so I would. I would, I would go back to her and say, see, I told you you could do it. You know, I knew you could do it. Here we are, here we are.
Speaker 2:How smart that little girl was, cause the story you told us first was that touching all the leaves and I'm thinking of all the research today yes, what it does to touch and talk to our plants and give our plants love and how they flourish. And so, yeah, before the research was out there.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I was probably the living example.
Speaker 1:I mean, right when the poop has fallen down, go talk to a tree. It cannot fail the whole forest bathing idea.
Speaker 3:Well, and isn't it fascinating that what the mystics of every spiritual tradition come to is the same place of oneness. It doesn't matter how they got there, it doesn't matter what path they were on, they get to oneness. And isn't it interesting that quantum physics says that the underlying substance of all life is one substance? And how spirituality and religion, which had been together, you know, in the Middle Ages and then separated, and is now coming back together. They're not mutually exclusive. We're not only building blocks. We do have a sense of unity and connection under the surface. That is measurable, that we can see and we've always sensed it. But now we can measure it, isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1:Very interesting. That's some good stuff. What was your other question, sis? I'm curious.
Speaker 2:I was wondering if I was going to say what would she say to her 13-year-old self.
Speaker 3:Oh that's good. That's good. Yeah, what I said, like you were really smart, you had it all along Good job.
Speaker 1:You had the shoes all along. That's right. It was in you always, dorothy. Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love you. Okay, so, in this varied world, who is it that inspires you, my friend?
Speaker 3:Who inspires me?
Speaker 1:I mean obviously your two and a half year old niece, for sure any baby, any baby.
Speaker 3:Um, you know I'm I'm inspired by, uh, the writers that I see, the artists that I see, the artists that I see that continue to express, not in spite of, but because of, the fractured culture we are living in. It's the folks that can articulate these ideas. It's the artists that can bring a sense of beauty to something that pulls us out of the difficulty or the darkness. It's the musicians that write a song that touch the heart about hey, you know you got this. It's a deep well, you're okay. You know I'm not okay. It's okay to not what is it? I'm not okay and we're all going to be all right. The country song that's up now it's like. So that's what inspires me is that we all have that in us and that is the hope of tomorrow. That is the confidence that there is a future and that there is a way to get there.
Speaker 2:Big snaps to that. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So do you have a life philosophy? Well, I I kind of teach a life philosophy all the time, but if I had to distill it down, I would say that that, um, that love is the power of life, and that love is what creates the path forward. And there is always a path forward. I think that's my biggest motivator. There is always a way forward. I don't have to know what's possible, but I do know that something is possible and I'm okay with it. Coming from an unexpected direction, you know, like that person who thinks they have to get a new job because their job doesn't pay them enough and they're not making enough to live on and they need a new job and they need a raise. And then it's like or you could marry money, you know, or you could get an inheritance from somebody you didn't know, or it's like, any way it comes, or somebody could just buy you lunch every day. You know that whole idea that our good comes to us from many different directions. I'm just open to it yeah that's a
Speaker 1:gorgeous'm sorry, sis, I talked right over you. What were you saying?
Speaker 2:Same thing. That is a good message for today, where we are today Very helpful. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:There's always a path forward and love is the way. It's gorgeous. I'm writing both of those down. Listen to my sunday talks. I say them pretty much every time, perfect perfect, perfect, excellent, all right, so um let me ask you as, um, you know there's obviously still much life to be lived, and yet, when the time comes, when that curtain is drawn and you move on to the next, whatever it is, how do you hope that those here remember you when they think of you? What's that legacy that you hope to leave behind?
Speaker 3:I think that it's a feeling of living with joy, and let me see if I can articulate this it's what I've done with my parents passing and some friends that have gone. There's something in me that knows that I have been shaped by that relationship and that that is not lost. So when I feel that and see it in the present day, even though they seem to be gone quote unquote they live, and so what I would want is that live. And so what I would want is that people thinking of me would have a feeling or a sense of the joy and the possibility and the laughter and the depth of life that would inspire them to do the same.
Speaker 1:So beautiful. Thank you for that, that's lovely.
Speaker 2:I can't help but think. Your beginning of that response said living with joy going back to when we asked who inspires you? It was also Reverend Joy.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, she hasn't passed yet, but, yeah, definitely, joy is pervasive in your life. One of the things I did when I got there is I'd found these like removable stick on the wall posters long skinny posters at Michael's or someplace with the word joy on them. And the thing about the Huntington Beach Sanctuary in the center is that there are these pillars right in the middle of the room and, you know, people smack into them. So I took those long skinny joy posters and put them up on those pillars so that people wouldn't smack into them, and the word joy was like all over the sanctuary and I thought this is my ministry, this is it right here, you know, and the fact that my first minister was Reverend joy, because I don't count my mom, she wasn't ever my minister, she was my mom. We did call her Reverend mom, which she loved, of course, but yeah, it was all about joy.
Speaker 1:Fabulous, all right. Well, are you good? I think we've come to the part in our little podcast where we do our rapid fire questions and, as we say, you don't necessarily have to be that rapid or fired, they're just. We're just the ask questions and all we just whatever first comes to your mind. Okay, rather than deep thought. Yeah, all right, I'll try. Okay, you want to take it away, sis?
Speaker 2:Sure, kind of like, if you're walking up to the stage, what would be your walk-in song?
Speaker 3:Three Dog Night. Joy to the World.
Speaker 1:Yep, that was there. What book changed you, oh?
Speaker 3:I have two. When I was a kid it was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, the whole perception, perspective thing, and on my spiritual path I would say this Thing Called you by Ernest Holmes.
Speaker 1:Both excellent books.
Speaker 2:Okay, what movie lives rent-free in your brain?
Speaker 3:Oh, my favorite movie of all times is Mary Poppins and it's that combination of imagination and play and music and I always wanted to jump into a picture that was painted on the sidewalk, right, right, and float up to the ceiling while having tea. I mean that all-time favorite movie.
Speaker 1:I have hope for us, Tracy. We will do those things Somehow we will. We will do those things Somehow we will. We will, it will happen. Okay. What did you love doing as a kid that you love doing to this day?
Speaker 3:Anything to do with color. I like to play with color, so, like coloring mandala, mandalas or or a magic marker, I write my my talks on Sunday in color. Different colors for quotes versus spiritual, versus real life, versus exam. I mean orange and blue and green. Um, when I was a little girl there we had some game that had these little baby poker chips, you know, with the little ridges on them, but they were tiny and I used to stack them up in different orders so I could get different stripes on it. You know all yellow. I mean anything to do with color. I still do that.
Speaker 1:That's a fun fact to know about you. I like that. I like that. Was it my question or yours? I lost track, sis.
Speaker 2:What in your world is lighting you up right now?
Speaker 3:what in your world is lighting you up right now? What is lighting me up right now? Yeah, there might not be a quick answer to that one. Again, I think it's this, it's this sense that, whatever all this noise and what feels like destruction is happening, I still know that something is coming forth, and it's because of the art and the music and the people speaking up and the outrage at inhumanity and the extension of helping hands wherever possible, whenever I see that. I think that's what just makes it all okay, makes it all, makes progress possible, and I think I need that more than anything right now is to know that progress is possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, 100%. What color is hope?
Speaker 3:I think it's yellow, I think it's light, I think it's cheerful, I think it's look, let me show you the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what does hope sound like?
Speaker 3:It sounds like, sound like. It sounds like the breeze in the trees and the music in the distance, and it's whatever draws you forward down the path.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay, I can hear it. I can hear it right now. All right, so complete the statement.
Speaker 3:Connection is the language of the heart I love.
Speaker 2:That Okay, spirit is.
Speaker 1:Everything, the meaning of life is Just a small.
Speaker 3:Meaning of life. Yeah, is the meaning of life. Yeah, is the meaning of life. What does life mean? Expression yeah, we're here to express. Hope is always possible.
Speaker 1:and on that gorgeous note, I think we've come to a beautiful conclusion. Wonderful, it's always possible. Josh, thank you so much for your time, your insights, your wisdom, your heart and your joy.
Speaker 3:It's in fact it has been a pleasure and a little, a little nerve wrwracking, but but really just a delight to to hear, to be asked a question and to realize I do have something to say about that, and then to have you receive it in such a generous way. You know, this is what we do for each other and I just I love it. I love what you're doing with the show. I just think it's fabulous.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you. I'm soaking that in. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll say for me and I think, donna, I think you agree that it is kind of like it's about me, because I want to know more about you, you know. So I mean I'm being selfish by saying, hey, come on the show, but I want to know more about you, I want to feel more hope. I, you know. I think that that is the hope through connection is exactly why we're doing this, because these connections somebody Donna knows well, somebody I didn't know as well you know today to give us that connection, gives us more hope.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly Exactly, and I will just put in a little plug, a little commercial for my center. You can find our Sunday service online. Go to our web page at claremontcslorg, scroll down and there's a link to all the past Sunday Talks, and we are on Facebook and all of that. But you know, it's like check out this philosophy, because what I'm speaking is a way of life that is possible and it doesn't matter what spiritual path you're on. You don't have to give up being whatever you are. It's just a different way of appreciating what life has to offer and trusting what we ourselves have to offer to life.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I'm glad that you did share that. We want everybody to know that too. You can hear so much more from the fabulous Reverend Tracy all sorts of wonderful talks and go live and visit and be among others of like mind and learn and share that joy together and really share all. Share the realness, the heart. Yeah, you know, that's no pretense about where we are and who just come authentically and and connect.
Speaker 3:Yes and connect.
Speaker 1:And therein is the hope. Thank you so much, beautiful Tracey.
Speaker 3:You're so welcome.
Speaker 1:For being with us. We love you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love you too.
Speaker 2:Thanks for joining us today on Soul Sisteries.
Speaker 1:And thanks for sharing stories with us. We'd love to hear your stories as well and keep the conversation going, absolutely keeping the hope going. So we're really hopeful that you'll connect with our guests as well, who have great stories to share. Go ahead and follow them in various social media platforms or live venues, wherever it is that they're performing and sharing what they do.
Speaker 2:We would love to have you follow us on all of our social media platforms, subscribe and rate, as that will help us get our message of hope out to others. Thanks for listening to.
Speaker 1:Soul Sisteries.
