My first visit to India was in 1993. I spent 3 months traveling around different parts of India. This was before cell phones and the internet. Even making an international call in those days was an ordeal. It couldn’t be done from an average home phone. It required a visit to a special store where you could make an international call and had to pay in cash. Calling cards (remember those?) were not recognized. At that time a visit to India was truly an exotic adventure for an American, totally cut off from…

Tarot is amazing. It really is. Although I have been a tarot reader for many years now, I am still surprised and delighted by the accuracy and consistency of the tarot. You might think that by now I would be less amazed, but it's like looking at rainbows - I never tire of seeing them. I am always amazed by the “magic” of light splitting into a spectrum of color. Tarot is just like that to me - always beautiful and amazing. 

So let me tell you about a recent event in my tarot adventures that once again left…

It was sometime within the first year after I moved to India. In the early morning, I was enjoying a cup of coffee at the kitchen table with the back door open. A thousand thoughts were running through my mind, mostly about all the adjustments required after moving to a foreign land. Truthfully, just the mental work of so many new things to learn often left me exhausted. Overall I felt that I was adjusting well, but it is also expected that there would be moments of homesickness, and occasional longing for…

Hello Beautiful Soul, 

Recently I was watching a video by Donna Eden, who works with the energy of people’s bodies. In the video there was a brief demonstration on how thoughts affect the energy of the body. She had a volunteer in front of her and asked him to think of a happy thought. Then she “Energy Tested” (you may have heard this called “Muscle Testing” with other practitioners) his arm (energy/muscles) and it was quite strong. She was not able to lower his outstretched arm by pressing down on it with…

Here we are at the last days of 2022 and I am looking back on this year and feeling, “WOW!” - What an amazing year! 2022 was my first year spent entirely in India and it was a fabulous year of growth for myself and for the Beautiful Souls Academy.  

At the start of January I was 2 months into using the Yoga for Pain Relief techniques I learned from Lee Albert and was already seeing the benefits. It was like a miracle, after 6 months of excruciating low back and sciatic nerve pain, I was finally free. I…

A Defining Moment 

Years ago, shortly after I first began reading Tarot for myself, I got a professional reading from a fantastic Tarot reader named Ethony. The path proceeding that moment had been extremely difficult and painful. It felt like everything that was important to me had crumbled away and I wasn’t sure how to rebuild. In some ways it was really freeing because suddenly there were many possibilities in front of me, but as all of this turmoil was very unexpected, I wasn’t equipped to face those…

I am often asked how exactly tarot works. How can a stack of cards give you advice or predict the most likely outcome of a situation? So this is my feeling about the Tarot; how it works, and how I use it.  

Most of us can readily admit that there is something ”beyond” ourselves, something limitless, something Divine. But do you ever wonder how such a source could communicate with you? There are many stories from various religious traditions where an unexpected interaction or a sudden vision of the Divine…

Tarot Beginnings  

You may know me as a singer, a music teacher or as a Yoga & meditation teacher, but did you know that I am also a Tarot card reader? I began reading tarot cards in 2017. In a time of upheaval and confusion, I saw how the tarot could offer clarity by helping me tap into my own inner wisdom, connect to my higher self, expand my view and at times reveal unseen aspects of challenging situations. I found the tarot to be a wonderful tool for cultivating and strengthening my own powers of…

Greetings from Haridwar, India, where I have been staying since Tuesday at a beautiful Ashram that is within walking distance of the Ganges River. 

Yesterday we took a day trip to Rishikesh, which is considered to be the Yoga capital of the world, mainly in regards to the spiritual aspects of yoga beyond the poses. Rishikesh is located on the Ganges River. Here the river is wide, deep and fast flowing. It was an amazing day. 

 I’ve selected 7 photos, out of the very many I took, to take you on a virtual…

Once Upon A Time, on a bitter cold day in December,  I purchased a tiny house on a tiny plot of land in a tiny town in Pennsylvania. The very first thing I did when Spring arrived was to plant a medicinal herb garden. I grew many herbs and used them in natural remedies, in homemade beauty products and in kitchen recipes. The next year I planted a vegetable garden. I started a compost pile, and then planted fruit trees and raspberries. Each year the tiny plot of land grew more and more into a tiny homestead…

It’s a Saturday afternoon in India and I am sitting in a health clinic waiting out the mandatory observation time after receiving the second dose of the covid vaccine. There are about 3 dozen other people here as well. I am in my own thoughts as I sit here with my breath. I am managing my pain, not from the shot but from a different health issue I am working through. The pain is intense. I am uncomfortable. I focus again on my breath.  In my view I can see the nurse who is administering the vaccine doses…

I stepped out onto our little balcony three floors above the mostly dirt road below. Although we live outside of the city’s center, there are still only buildings to be seen from here to the horizon in any direction you look.  The structures are mostly residential in this seemingly endless urban sprawl with occasional trees growing along the roadsides where cows, dogs, and chickens are as much a part of the local traffic as motorbikes and rickshaws. I had gone out to the balcony to take a closer look at the…

"We need to find our new normal"  

I heard this phrase a lot when we were just a few months into the pandemic. People were struggling to adjust to all of the changes and to find how this "new normal" would look as schools and businesses went online while masks and hand sanitizer became as commonly used as shoes and socks. The gatherings stopped, the hugs stopped, the restaurants closed and so many more changes and loss rolled in like a sudden summer storm. Some of us longed for things to return to normal…

Adjusting to married life, in a foreign land, during a pandemic, has not been easy. My husband and I have faced constant challenges, big and small, including issues with my banking, my phone, our internet, and countless items we ordered arriving damaged, just to name a few.  It seems like every day there is a new obstacle to overcome and some problem to be solved. This is life though, especially life during a pandemic. 

The other day I woke early. It seemed close to sunrise but I wasn't sure. I reached for…

I hand-washed our sheets today. Here in India that is nothing out of the ordinary, but for most Americans, (and maybe other Western cultures) this might seem unusual. It was no problem at all. I placed the sheets in a bucket with washing powder and water and let them soak for a bit. Then later I used my hands to churn and stir the water to wash and then to rinse them. There are washing machines available to purchase here but many Indians consider it an unnecessary expense when it is just as easy to do it by…

I am a Yoga Teacher. Before the pandemic I was teaching about 17 classes a week. In all of my classes I had music in the background. Sometimes soothing, sometimes upbeat, depending on the style of class. Since becoming a yoga teacher many years ago, my own personal practice has been done in silence. Maybe it was all the classes, with music, and all the talking required to give precise instruction to guide students through the class safely and with encouragement that caused me to prefer a silent personal…

My view now, as I sit sipping coffee on a mild November day in Pennsylvania. But the beauty of this post is not contained in the photo, but in what it represents. This is a story of resilience, generosity, friendship and love.   
I am a singer/songwriter and a yoga teacher. I owned a yoga studio. It was a dream come true. I loved the people there. Everyone said it was such a peaceful and welcoming place.  But the pandemic took that away from me. In addition to losing my beloved studio, I also had to give…

Dear Uncle Walt, 
Tomorrow it will be 4 months since your death. I think of you every day. I miss hearing your voice. I miss your strength. You never shied away from life. You had a fair share of heartaches, the most painful being the loss of your beloved wife, Mae. She suffered immensely for years with a hereditary illness, that among many things, took away her sight. She spent so much of her life in the hospital, especially towards the end. You were so devoted to her. I know it broke your heart when she…

Living outside of your comfort zone requires deliberate effort throughout life. When you first step outside of your comfort zone it is frightening and uncomfortable, but if you stay there for a while, it eventually becomes comfortable. Maybe you start to feel comfortable or maybe you acclimate into the discomfort. Either way your circle of comfort has expanded and now you are called upon to take another step out and then another step out. Keep taking these steps and one day you will look back and barely…

I don't know when I'll see you again. You, there on the other side of the Earth. Me, here in the country that's become the epicenter of a global pandemic. Borders are closed and travel restricted. Plans canceled. Plans delayed. Plans dying. Hope fading. 
But love is something bigger, isn't it. I've always said that this love is much bigger than my fragile human form can contain. It's enormous. It flows through me with all the power of the oceans and the steadfastness of stars. But I can't get to you. My…

I've heard that people are protesting the shutdown. I've heard that people are refusing to wear masks and are ignoring the social distancing recommendations. 
It's not my place to judge or criticize. But I will admit that I am perplexed. It is difficult for me to understand, although I try, I can only truly see from my own eyes. I can only understand from my own experinece. With so much unknown, and difficult to understand, I would like to share with you the one thing that I know for sure; 

I am a small…

I want to share with you what I think is a funny story about how I ended up participating in an accidental egg hunt on a quarantined Easter Sunday. 

With all these days and nights blending one into the other in my solitary quarantine, I still remembered that it was Easter. So when I woke up, I sent a few "Happy Easter" messages to friends that I knew would be observing Easter, and then I went about my day as usual, with the same blend of working on Yoga Club curriculum, reading, marketing, housework and…

This was the scene just a few hours ago, as I sat in my car in front of Just Breathe Yoga & Fitness studio and cried. Massive tears streaming down my face without even the slightest effort to hold them back. I was there to teach a class, but truth be told, if I wasn't teaching, I probably would not have been there. After far too many challenging days and weeks, it would've been so easy to just stay home and go to bed instead of going to yoga. But I was the teacher. I didn't want to disappoint anyone. So I…

Let me tell you a story of falling and flying, of bleeding and becoming.

It began small and wholly unnoticed at first. I was being nudged towards the edge for years though little neglectful actions and small unkind words. Contained within the tiniest of moments the disregard for me had crept in like a cancer. But the moment of falling began with a note.  Left there carelessly, was a note addressed to the one I loved that read, "Thank you for a wonderful weekend" and signed by a name that wasn't mine. This…

This is a personal story, about my experience of Aerial Yoga and how I found healing and courage within that silk hammock. 

Before I was the owner of the studio, I heard that aerial yoga was being offered locally. It was something I really wanted to do, but for some reason, I was holding back. Many months passed, maybe a year, between when I first heard about these aerial yoga classes and when I actually attended my first class. Why was I holding back? Not because of fear, maybe a little bit because of…