It was a chilly April night when I ventured out to the Free Library for a warm, intimate experience with Maria Shriver & Friends We were greeted to some live soothing guitar music and a stage full of candles to set a meditative mood.
Bob Roth, Maria’s teacher and friend, invited us to participate in a breathing meditation. Meditation was not something Maria ever thought she would do. He was called to visit her, when she found herself sobbing on the floor after a couple of rough years that included losses, betrayal, and the end of her marriage. ” I feel like I’m dissolving,” she told people. Who she was in the world, or thought she was, was disappearing.
Her new book, I Am Maria, deals with her comeback, her return to herself.
Growth was slow. Slowing down was slow. “First I learned to sit still for a minute, then two minutes,” she tells us. “I was afraid to sit still too long, because then I might have to feel.” How many of us do things to avoid feelings.
I have.
I was a complete workaholic in my marriage, avoiding the dysfunction all around me. Staying still is an art form. I call it the dance of stillness. It takes practice. Staying with the discomfort of feelings is hard, but they come anyway, ready or not.
It is the only way through.
Maria took to poetry— reading it and writing it. She became friends with Mary Oliver. “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” The interviewer, Martha Beck, another friend, commented on how she watched Maria “remove layers” of protection, allowing herself to become more vulnerable and feel deeply. This was how she found her “way home,”—coming home to self, without facades. Becoming real.
She shares her work in this book to encourage all of us to relate. To find out who we are and to express ourselves with poetry. “Start with ‘I am ‘and see what happens.” Included in the program is a blank writing notebook, “For the Poet Within,” an invitation to express, especially in this changing and challenging world. Writing is “holy work, ” she tells us.
Thanks Maris, for the inspiration. I will. I already do. I’ll keep doing it!
I was there too and thought Maria was wonderful and inspiring!
The whole evening was amazing.
I enjoyed your write-up!
Eleanor
How did we miss each other? It’s a small auditorium. Wow!
María Shriver is your kindred spirit! Sounds like a beautiful evening.
I’m so glad I went!
Thanks for sharing your evening with Maria……
Starting with the meditation and then listening to all her truths must have been so inspiring.
Mary Oliver is one of my favorites,
and I look forward to reading Maria’s poetry.
I love Mary Oliver!
This sounds wonderful. I wouldn’t have realized she had taken this path.
Never say never. She said she hadn’t heard the term “self-care” until her 60’s!
thanks for sharing. Agree. Find your way to be still.
Not at all easy!
Very inspiring! Especially these days!
Yes, we all need this!