On April 17th, 2009, my wife, Pauline, and I celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary. In reflecting on all of our amazing adventures together over the years, it got me to go back and look at my life to see what has made me who I am today… I appeared on this planet, the son of Holocaust survivors, on May 10, 1951 at 4:31 A.M. in East Los Angeles. As early as I can remember, my mom was totally engaged in telling the world about the importance of eating raw foods and allowing nature to do its thing when you are sick. She would say to me and anyone else who would listen, “What do animals do when they are sick?” And continue to answer that they would drink water, lay down and rest. My mother’s guru was Herbert M. Shelton, founder of the American Natural Hygiene Society and author of many books about living on raw food and being in tune with nature, including his most famous one, “Fasting Can Save Your life”. My younger brother and I were the only kids in elementary school whose entire lunch consisted of fruits and nuts. So I can honestly say that I was born into the wholistic movement.
I was raised an atheist and my parents would always tell me that more people have been killed in the name of religion than anything else man has ever invented. Being a natural curious type, when I started my junior year at UCLA in 1971, I discovered and immersed myself in the Experimental College there. This school within a school offered free classes that anyone could teach or take, to the community at large. It was there that I first learned about yoga, tai chi, meditation, hypnosis, etc…(the diversity of classes offered went on and on). Even though I was an American History major, my real focus and interest lie in this exciting cornucopia of new ideas and practices being offered. Out of being exposed to all this new information, I shifted from being a non-believer, into someone who devoted himself to the oft times lonely path of exploring the Limitless Unknown that would lead me to a reemergence with the Divine Intelligence behind Creation.
So it was, going back 38 years ago that I embarked on a journey to understand and commune with the Source of All That Is. And it’s taken me a heck of a long time to realize that this mysterious Being is not something that can be comprehended with the mind and that Truth is something that transcends understanding. I eventually came to the realization that we are living in a Divine Paradox and that Peace of Mind comes with being very patient, slowing down our thoughts and realizing that life is a paradox that is beyond explanation. And that the only way for me to get through life with sanity is not to fight it, but to make peace with it; to flow with the river current. The Way of the Tao is, in fact, the Way of Life.
Along the way, I started to lift out of my own mental/emotional fog stemming from processing my parents’ wartime experience and trying to figure out where I could possibly fit into what seemed to be a very confusing world. Coming out of the bulk of my own pain and suffering, I developed a serious desire to help others who were still going through this arduous process of sorting things out and attempting to find some kind of spiritual meaning in life.
Just before the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, an idea came to me while meditating on top of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico. It was simply to create a sacred gathering space in my home where people could come on a weekly basis to support each other’s evolution. Thus was birthed “Transformational Friends of Santa Monica”. We met every Wednesday night in my 2 bedroom apartment for 1 ½ years. Our evening consisted of a ½ hour silent meditation, music, speakers from the community and consciousness raising movies. We shared our hopes, dreams, fears, and I provided a wonderful wholesome meal for everyone. My intention was that anyone who came into my home would be uplifted on all levels just by being part of our community circle. We had as many as 40 attend my weekly gatherings at Transformational Friends.
Many people would come to me and ask where they could get help with any number of things they needed or were working on in their lives. I developed a knack of knowing where to send them, or if I didn’t know, I was always able to send them to someone who did. It was out of these years and years of community service that I developed “Intuitive Marketing” skills which in the last 5 years I have used to help people expand their professional careers.
At this time, I also needed to find out what my purpose was and where I belonged in the grand scheme of things. So at the age of 35, after trying innumerable occupations and creating various small businesses, I finally figured out a profession to dedicate myself to. It came to my attention while studying about Eric Ericson’s “8 Stages of Life” in a psychology class at Santa Monica College. I learned that when a person reaches the 5th stage of life (middle adulthood), that one stops growing spiritually unless they start to give back what they’ve learned to their community. I was running a small business at the time, but was not really fulfilled with just doing monetary transactions with people. I felt there’s got to be more to life
than this. So I embarked on becoming an educator. I got my teaching credential and achieved a Masters Degree in American Studies from Pepperdine University. I’ve taught kids throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District on the elementary and secondary level for over 20 years. My last 9 years with the District have been dedicated to teaching secondary students, one on one, in a modified home studies program.
In June of this year, I will be taking early retirement from L.A. Unified. This will open up more time for me to pursue other opportunities that I have always wanted to do. One of these areas is what I call “Intuitive Tutoring”. I feel that my strong background in spiritual studies and my lengthy experience working with students in Independent Study, has prepared me to offer curriculum to young people designed to expand their awareness while simultaneously encouraging educational “Ah Ha” moments that would more naturally come up in a harmonious one-on-one learning environment.
I have presented here a brief snap shot of myself. I believe that I have generally chosen the higher road in life and have really internalized and taken action in relationship to Eric Ericson’s 5th stage of life. Giving back to the community gives me a tremendous sense of joy and purpose. By sending out my daily email blasts of information about events and topics that are inspiring and uplifting for our SacredFriends Community, by offering the monthly “Calendar” of events on this website, by sharing and selling wonderful vibrationally enhancing products such as the Miron Violet Flame Glass Bottles/Jars and Sacred Geometry Pendants, by being available to assist people, young and old, in “Intuitive Marketing” and “Intuitive Tutoring”, and by just being an all around friendly optimistic person, I am now able to carve out a life on this planet that is and will continue to be deeply fulfilling.
My wish for you who are reading this piece is to find your calling, your Niche, your special piece in the tapistry of life and live it to its fullest. And that my friend, is what I believe to be the major key to your happiness and contentment.
Sincerely, Samuel Kiwasz