"Making Right Livelihood"
Just over five years ago I made a bold decision.
I quit a lucrative job as a senior database administrator and became a life coach.
Almost immediately I began gaining awareness. I felt the self-imposed loneliness, the separation of my body from the life-giving natural world and my arrogance from muscling through days impatiently multi-processing a million problems. I grieved the lack of lovingkindness I had for myself.
As I slowly thawed from 16 years of office-bound life, I made some unusual decisions.
I went out to Green Lake with a camping chair and a little hand-made sign that said,

Questions Answered
Easy 25 cents
Moderate $1
Really Hard Free.
I sat at a pretty little nook of the lake in the sunshine where I could watch, smell, hear and touch the world around me. I saw God walk by me in every shape, size and form possible. Passers-by would see me and my little sign and burst out laughing. Then gradually they began to stop and say,
"What kind of questions?"
"How's business?"
"Will you still be here in half an hour on my next pass?"
Soon people would stop and sit on the grass beside me and ask questions like,
"So I've been dating this guy for 8 months and he still hasn't asked me to marry him, do you think I should drop him?"

"I'm not happy here. I want to move to another city, but not sure which one."

"I want to start a spiritual practice but I'm too darn busy. How do I start?"

I made a whopping $12 one afternoon freezing my butt off in that little chair, enjoying myself more than I had in 16 years.

I took another part time job teaching tennis in a beautiful park within walking distance of my house. I made $20 an hour and got to hear the morning birds, feel sunshine on my pallid skin, and listen to the laughter of children delighted at batting a fuzzy yellow ball around.

I took a chunk of my savings and published 15 years worth of poetry that I had written. (The book is "Thoreau's Chair" and copies are available from me for $14.)
I gave readings in homes, bookstores, venues all over Puget Sound. I coached a high school tennis team for three and ½ months for $1600.
Glory does come cheap!

I noticed a gentler and kinder person emerging within me. I was no longer wearing a 7x24 pager and working with people that left me alone all day, every day.
No wonder the Wizard of OZ was so cranky!. After greeting a man at Green Lake, he said to me wistfully,
"That was the first time in a year that anyone has wished me Good Morning out here" .

I found other ways to express my soul. I taught improve theatre. I worked part time as a group counselor for people with a life-threatening illness. I volunteered at People for Puget Sound, raised 50K for to help put Christine Gregoire in the Governors' mansion. I facilitated Ecstatic Dance up on Capital Hill, a group of people that do improvisational dancing that allows them to empty out all their frustrations with city life and end up lying on the floor in peaceful bliss.

I joined a Buddhist Sangha ("community") to meditate regularly. I found myself becoming more and more patient, kind and treating myself and others better and better.
I planned and went on an amazing ecological adventure to New Zealand (go to What's New to see slides!)
I found I had a lot easier time sustaining friendships and a lot harder time creating an exclusive life partnership.
I stopped taking other peoples' decisions personally.
I noticed a whole lot more of how the world really is as opposed to how I wanted it to be!

It is a joy to give completely confidential counsel every day. I treasure offering a heart overflowing with compassion and a mind with insight.

If there is any way I could help you simplify your life so you could be happier please contact me at (206) 527-6108 or coachajs@comcast.net