This writing was inspired by an email from a member from my high school reunion list. Reading a brief summary of his life journey got me thinking about my own life and my choices:

1949 – DANCE
At five years old, my mom enrolled me in a ballet class and it was love at first pirouette. The music, the movement, the teacher, the group experience all came together to launch me into a love of dance. I explored it all. I performed. I taught. I competed and won trophies. I even appeared on television in a talent competition. I fully appreciate the limber body I was gifted that allows me to dance.

1962 – FIRST CAR
I remember going with my parents to a General Motors lot and the excitement of driving home a flashy red Pontiac with white top and white leather interior. I made monthly payments on “my baby” until she was paid off. I was so attached to that heap of metal, that when I sold it 15 years later, I really cried.  “Ridiculous!”  That was the first and last time I allowed myself to get emotionally attached to an inanimate object.

1962-1967 – COLLEGE
I loved every minute of college, plus I was finally on my own. Yippee! I had the good fortune to have parents willing to pay for my education. My only responsibility was attending classes which I did for five years. College did not prepare me for what I would encounter in “the real world” but it did give me five more years to grow up before being completely independent.

1966 – FIRST LOVE
When it’s the right time, right place, right person, the heart can open. Mine did in my early twenties. After dating for a year, my parents got scared and insisted I break up with him. The worst choice I ever made was doing it. I have always regretted aborting this relationship prematurely and not letting it play out. Love has it’s own life and when it’s not interfered with it completes on its own. Think amusement park ride and in my experience, the best ride on the planet is being in love. 

1967 – RELIGION
My parents were good people but not church-goers. I remember attending Sunday school on military bases where my dad was stationed. They were Christian-based but non-denominational. I had no church affiliation until my mother introduced me to Christian Science following a miraculous healing. Before meeting with the Christian Science Practitioner, her digestive system had been malfunctioning for several years. After the appointment, she was completely healed. I was stunned and excited to learn more about this healing religion. It’s message — God is Love — and discipline had a stabilizing influence on me. I was a practicing Christian Scientist for many years followed by a few years in the new age spirituality movement. Currently, my religion is simply forgiveness.

1978 – NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY
I attended a lecture in Los Angeles where three women, Valerie Hunt, Rosalyn Bruyere and Emilie Conrad, shared their pioneering research about the human energy field. This lecture was a pivotal moment in my life as it led me into the world of subtle energies and later energy healing. For years, I attended classes with Emilie, learning the opposite of my training as a ballet dancer. Emilie taught me to tune in to the energy inside my body and let it move my body from within.

1980 – BUSINESS OWNER
Being spit out of a marriage and back into the workforce, I no longer yearned to be an elementary school teacher for which I was credentialed. I wanted to be my own boss with my own business. So I trained to be a massage therapist. I ran a successful business for 25 years, assisting my clients in relaxing and de-stressing with music and touch. I set my own hours and chose my own clients. It gave me a lot of freedom and enough money to pay the bills.

1985 – MY TEACHER
After two terminated marriages – one lasting seven years, the other four – I concluded that I did not know how to be in a loving relationship. I recognized that I needed help. I was referred to Joyce, not a therapist, not a counselor but a teacher of how to balance energy. I was her student for 15 years. Not only did I learn what I needed to know to have a successful relationship, but I also learned how to love myself. Best investment I ever made!

1985 – TRAVEL
In 1964, I attended summer school at the University of Hawaii on Oahu. I loved Hawaii and explored Maui and Kauai on future trips. 1967 was the summer I graduated from college and traveled with a group of college students to France, Italy, Switzerland and England. We stayed in college dorms and cheap hotels, but I had a ball. I returned to Europe a decade later to backpack with a friend for two months from Amsterdam to Greece. We stayed in youth hostels and set up our tent in campgrounds. In 1985, I had a business opportunity which took me to Australia for ten days followed by a three week vacation in Bali. I love to travel; each trip gives me a greater appreciation of life.

1990 – MARRIAGE
Nineteen years ago George proposed and I said yes. Joyce prepared me well. Finally, I am in a loving relationship that continues to keep me laughing every day and makes me a better person. I am filled with joy, appreciation and gratitude for every twist and turn of my journey. I wake up every morning looking forward to what is next, simply enjoying life with George.

That brings me to the end of the 20th century and ten choices that have shaped my life. But why stop there? I’m on a roll. Stepping into the 21st century.........

2002 – RECONNECTIVE HEALING
My career path has evolved from school teacher to massage therapist to energy healer to my current work as a Reconnective Healing Practitioner. This is a frequency that heals the mind-body complex by returning it to wholeness.  My work with Eric Pearl, founder of The Reconnection, http://www.thereconnection.com/practitioners/directory/pop.php?idx=780, has allowed me to travel all over the country with the Reconnective Teaching Team assisting Eric with his seminars. It has been a wonderful experience!

2006 – WEIGHT TRAINING
Dancing I love. Working out with weights I do not love. If fact, I refused to do weight-training until one day the muscles in my legs became so weak they would no longer carry me up the hill near my house. “Uh, oh,” I thought. “I am losing muscle mass. I better do something now.”  So I began working out with a trainer at a gym, the very thing I thought I would never do. I fussed. I whined. I complained. One day the trainer told me he would drop me if I didn’t get serious, so I shifted my attitude and resolved to do the work-outs. I had results within six months and can walk up and down the hill again with ease. But I know as soon as I stop the work-outs, I will lose all I have gained. I don’t love it enough to motivate myself, so I have to hire the trainer to push me. I like having strong muscles.

2008 – DOCTOR OF DIVINITY
October 2008, I graduated from the University of Metaphysics, Sedona, with a Doctor of Divinity degree. It required two papers: a master’s thesis and a doctorate. It was not until I completed the doctoral program that I knew why I was guided to enroll. I learned that if I wanted to write a book I had the discipline to do it. I had completed a thiry year journey of spiritual seeking and closed a chapter of my life that had been devoted to the study of metaphysics. 

2009 – GNAN VIDHI
What followed the completion of my doctorate almost immediately was an interest in non-duality—that which is beyond metaphysics. I began reading books about enlightened beings, Adyashanti and Michael Brown, and attending satsangs. Then I participated in the ceremony of the Gnan Vidhi, offered by Deepakbhai, an awakened master from India visiting Los Angeles. I experience little miracles every day from the awareness practices that I do from this teaching, like finding exact change in my pocket for a purchase.

2009 – MEDICARE AT 65
I used to think 65 was “old” but now that I have reached 65, it isn’t old at all. For me, 65 is about life experience, wisdom, common sense, choices, freedom.  I have loved moving through each decade. They are all so different with their challenges, rewards and surprises.  I have my Medicare card. I am covered for worst-case scenarios.  But my real health insurance is what I eat, what I think and the body parts I exercise. Here’s to living healthy a few more decades!

……. check back for more postings as they unfold, www.sylviasilk.com/choices.  Until you return, fill your days with GIGGLES, JOY, and APPRECIATION!

Sylvia Silk, D.D. Director of the Institute For Balanced Living, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Doctor of Divinity, Spiritual Coach, Reconnective Healing Practitioner, Writer