Based on my previous experiences, I knew Catholic churches are the most likely places where such "contemplative prayer" groups might gather. I browsed through a couple websites of Catholic churches in south Orange county, didn't find one. However, I did find a small Episcopal church, which–based on my limited knowledge on Christian church history–is a Protestant denomination that's closest to Catholic practice, in San Clemente. It says on its website: "Please consider this your invitation to join us for our Monday Meditation Class.... We are a small, understanding group of friends who would love to have you with us..." (http://scbythesea.org/
So on one late August 2012 Monday evening I went, and I have been going there basically every Monday evening ever since.
Out of the 7 regularly attending men and women I met there, Annie was probably the one I got most impression with right from the beginning. She's a tall, red-hair lady, very intelligent, knowledgeable, witty, and articulate--I can learn quite a few things just by listening to her talk, be it about movies, books, people, places, spiritualities... they all come so episodic and off-handed from her it's mesmerizing for me to hear. I also sense she's got a great, tender heart underneath her swift talking and she can sense people's feelings and needs fairly well and care for them in a considerate way.
Evelyn is the wife of the group's founder, Randy, who started the group about 11-12 years ago (just about the time I started doing meditation on my own, that's how I remember), who passed away about a couple years ago, before I joined the group. A Japanese American born and raised in the Southland, she is our faithful meditation "gong striker," keeping the 30-minute time period for each meditation session for us. She's a little reserved, but articulate as well (they all are articulate, I find out pretty soon), and makes great cookies and innovative desserts like a "yin-yang" cake she once brought to the group for someone's birthday to share.
Brigitte is a German American who emigrated to this country when she was a little girl with her parents, who are still living in the East Coast. She's an avid reader and would occasionally bring up some spiritual verses from the books she read for the group to share. Although she looks like only in her early 50's, she's just recently become a grandmother for the second time, we have learned. And she's a fantastic foodie, who likes to learn and try new delicacies and cuisine of different kinds. She once invited us all to her house for a full course Indian food try out, which she self-taught through some cook books just a few weeks before and everything looked and tasted so professional and greatly delicious! She's a "Wunder Woman" in my book.
Grace is a lady from Pasadena married to a Belgian man and now lives here in San Clemente, with grand children in San Diego she occasionally would baby sit for her children. Don't be fooled by her tiny frame and very genteel and gracious manners, she's been an anti-nuclear activist for a while and had been rallying and attending seminars and conferences throughout the fight against Southern California Edison for the closing of the San Onofre nuclear power plant that finally happened last year. I once joked that "she was the lady who single-handedly shut down the nuclear power plant here in San Clemente" when introducing her to some new member to the group :)
Matt is officially the leader, or contact person, of this very democratic group of meditators. He's a handsome looking fellow with charming smiles whose day time profession is an industrial designer. We once went to his house for his birthday and I was impressed by the artworks hanging on the walls that I heard were all his own doing. He's also our official sommelier (the wine server) because he's the one who always brings wine to the group whenever we have a little celebration (for birthday, holiday, or just Evelyn or Brigitte having some new cookies or cakes for us to try out) at the church's little library room where we do the meditation.
Mel and Joanne were the late comers (after me) to the group. Mel is probably the most senior person in the group--in his late 70's--but in very good physical and mental shape. Me and my wife once went hiking with him over the back hills between their home and ours, and he walked and talked at a pace that we had to play catch up with. He and his wife Joanne came from Catholic backgrounds, have 4 grown-up children and a handful of beautiful grand children, as we can see in the pictures at their cozy home we once visited. They are both actively involved with a homeless shelter ministry they co-founded as well.
So every Monday evening we meet at the homey library room of the church, chat a few minutes, then sink into a 30-minute silence, "wake up," chat some more, then leave. We have also tried a couple different forms of meditation over time as some of us would propose and we agreed to. For example, Joanne once led a "visual meditation" session where we picked and cut pictures from various magazines she brought as they caught our mental eyes and pasted them on a board to form a theme or story that we then shared with each other. Annie facilitated another one where we all lay down on the floor listening to spiritual music and meditated on things that happened through our lives that we remember most vividly, then shared them with others at the end if we wanted to.
Though I am probably the least articulate among them all (English not being my first language, for one thing), I feel comfortable there, probably because we speak the same "spiritual language," that I don't feel I have to "hedge" my expressions so not to offend some people or make them feel uncomfortable, not knowing where those words or thinking of mine came from. Going deeper, even more important than that "like-mindedness" that might have attracted me in the first place, is "loving kindness," a loving heart combined with an open mind that tries to understand, engage and include--not label, mark off, or block out, that's the sign of true Christian love and fellowship, and that's what I see in Annie, Evelyn, Brigitte, Grace, Matt, Mel, and Joanne, at what we call our Club Med(itation)!
Brigitte and Matt holding the "yin-yang" The full course Indian food Brigitte
cake Evelyn made for their birthdays made all by herself at her kitchen
Evelyn, Matt, Joanne, Mel, Grace, Brigitte Annie and her cat at her apartment
at the library
Here's the link to the picture and news article of a public hearing on San Onofre nuclear power plant where Grace served as a panelist :
One thing I introduced to the group and they all like is using my smartphone timer app to play a "wake-up" music instead of Evelyn watching the clock and "hitting the gong" at the end of the meditation for us. The music I use nowadays is "Be Still My Soul" by Libera:
