 |  |  |
The Seeds are sown:
Trudging down the boarding ramp to the plane, for a return flight home after a study/share cohort
weekend with my fellow Master students and frustrated because the original plan for my
Culminating Project had "poofed" into dust, my ruffled feelings were soothed by beautiful posters
placed along the ramp advertising trips to "Sacred Places". This triggered such a powerful train of
thought about 'Sacred' and 'Place' that I realized, as I pulled into my home parking lot, I had been
so engrossed in this process that I did not remember deplaning, finding my luggage and car nor the
drive home. Thanks in part to Delta Airlines, the Sacred Space Project, this resulting website as
well as a new career as Civil Celebrant were born! You never know what the Universe might have
in store for you!
The architecture connection:
Previously planted but dormant seeds in the garden of Sacred Space Celebrations also began to
flower. Thirty years previously, my first conscious interest in the structure of space was born during
the summer of 1973. I visited Montréal as a college student doing an independent study in
cross-cultural communication for my B.A..and was immediately impressed by the incredibly old,
beautiful and 'seasoned' buildings that gave the city a warm, human and inviting feel and
communicated living history to me.
Ambling through the city, I met Pierre Boyer-Mercier, architect, and had several long conversations
about people, space, architecture, family, Montreal and Québec. He spoke with me about many
things concerning the Québécois culture, including of course, the importance of architecture and
the more European attitude and value system in this Canadian province in regard to buildings.
They are generally revered and when the razing of almost any building was proposed some
residents of the city fought hard to stop it.
Since our chance meeting, M. Mercier has been awarded (1999) the "Médaille du mérite de l"Order
des architectes du Québec for his work developing low and moderate income housing in
Montréal.and is a professor on architecture at l'Université de Montréal.
Other flowers of connection to architecture and the interaction of living things with space continued
to pop up from time to time. I was drawn to a book about Sea Ranch in California and learned of
Lawrence Halprin, an architect well know for his concern of making the least possible impact on the
environment. He was a major player in the development of the famous Sea Ranch, a housing
project overlooking the Pacific Ocean in California. His landscape work is both people and
environmentally-friendly has been described as a "dance" with nature.
During the 18 years I lived in Québec more architects entered my life. I had many discussions about
architecture with my then-companion's brother (an architect) and his son, then a student in the
school of architecture at l'Université de Montréal.
My personal interest continued, and continues to be centered on the healthy psychological
interaction of living things with space and more precisely, the construction of interpersonal
processes which enhanced positive personal growth. Using photography and video and other
techniques I began, while in Québec, crafting and presenting workshops and teaching classes in
personal growth.
Systems architecture:
It wasn't until years later, when I took the Meyers-Briggs test and discovered I was classified as an
"INTP", or 'architect of systems and processes' that I began to understand the larger plan of my life.
... duh ... Definitely a case of "Life happening while I was busy focusing on other things". This
discovery is a result of following my intuition along the way leading eventually to Dr. Allan Combs
and the study for the Master's Degree in Conscious Evolution at the Graduate Institute and with my
mentor Barbara Field, F.A.I.A. Yes, yet another architect. Barbara was able to successfully marry
her abilities as a "building" architect to those of "community architect" for the city of Asheville, NC.
I finally saw how all these little seemingly-unconnected seeds, fed and watered by all these previous
interests, people and experiences, had grown into a beautiful and comprehensive garden.
 |  |  |  |