5 Questions for Inner Wisdom

It is such a delight to bring you this podcast with one of my spiritual teachers, Janet Conner. Join us to learn about the prayer practices and rituals that have sustained Janet through the pandemic and continue to help her connect to the Divine.

Janet Conner is a prayer artist, deep soul explorer, field guide in The Mystic, and mistress of the mystical theta brain wave state—the threshold between worlds. But first and always, Janet is a devoted daughter of the Feminine Divine and Original Prayer. Put it all together and you can see why many consider Janet a 21st century wise and wonder-filled witch.

Her first book, Writing Down Your Soul, became a bestseller, followed by The Lotus and The Lily, Soul Vows, Find Your Soul’s Purpose and more. When “Prayer Artist” came calling, Janet found herself writing a whole new genre of prayer, redefining prayer altogether, and leading radical prayer intensives with fellow female mystics. She launched the Praying at the Speed of Love podcast to host intimate conversations with authors about their private prayer lives. Although she can hear the trees in the Hudson River Valley whispering her name, for now Janet lives with silence, solitude, and joy in the tiny town of Ozona, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. https://janetconner.com/

It's August 22, 2020 and my guest Rabbi Amy shares deep wisdom about feeling gratitude, noticing beauty in the world around her and in her home with her teenage children and shares rituals that help her feel grounded and resilient on a daily basis.

Amy Grossblatt Pessah is a rabbi, author, spiritual director and mom. Serving various communities and demographics across the country, Amy has been a Jewish educator for over twenty-five years, with a specialization in Jewish Family Education. She received her masters degree in Jewish education from HUC-JIR and her ordination from Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. She lives in Florida with her husband, Aryeh and together they are the proud parents of three young adults. Amy's recently released book is Parenting on a Prayer: Ancient Jewish Secrets for Raising Modern Children.

It's May 27th, 2020...and the world is full of the beauty of spring and also so much sadness as people around the world suffer from Covid-19. I am humbled to bring you a conversation with an old friend whom I haven't seen in many years but I carry in my heart. John Fenner Mays, a terrific actor from Chicago, shares his vulnerability, resilience and hope as he tells a story of losing his beloved partner, Lorraine.

We share a lot of laughter, some tears...and even ponder the future of live theater. Take a listen...

It's April 12th, 2020 and my guest Adina is someone whose life work focuses on asking questions that help us to expand and transform our thinking. As Adina and I reflect on gratitude and beauty during this global pandemic, she shares the important question of 'What can this time give birth to?' We talk about her desire to get creative as a maker, how honoring the Jewish ritual of counting the Omer can be grounding in this moment when days run together, and her intentional practice to consume positive news from the Good News Network.

About Adina:

Adina Laver, MBA, M.ED., CPC is Chief Curiosity officer, founder of Courage to be Curious.

It's April 5th, 2020...This podcast is landing during a week when so many of us are holding anxiety, fear and exhaustion...and also are discovering inner strength and wisdom, resilience, compassion for self and others, community. It's the perfect time to talk with Naila, a person whom I think of as a ray of sunshine! Naila talks about connecting with her body through exercise, moving through grief, coping with isolation and she shares a beautiful, easy practice that we can all try for connecting with our heart centers.

About Nailia:

Naila Francis is a certified death midwife and From Grief to Gratitude™ coach, as well as a wedding officiant, poet and accomplished writer. Over the course of her journalism career, she profiled artists and entertainers such as James Earl Jones, Krishna Das, k.d. lang, Pink, Michael Franti and “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert. Her words have also appeared in greeting cards. Raised on the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia, Barbados and Antigua, Naila is an island girl at heart. She considers herself an ardent joy enthusiast and is also an avid traveler, who especially loves spending time in Tanzania with “her kids” at the orphanage she helps to support.

It's March 17th, 2020...This podcast is landing during a week when so many people feel like everything that keeps us safe and okay has been taken away from us. Fear and anxiety is surrounding us and it takes practice to feel grounded, thankful and hopeful. I can't have asked for a more wonderful guest than Tami Astorino for just this moment--Tami shares about her experience discovering the ancient practice of 'forest bathing' and how connecting to the beauty and energy of being in nature has been transformative for her.

I hope Tami's experience will inspire you to unplug and connect to the trees, the sky, the flowers, the birds...the natural world all around us.

About Tami:

Rise Gatherings co-founder, Tami Astorino, M.Ed., has spent her career bringing people together over shared experiences to empower each other.

After studying feminism and psychology, Tami brought her passion for building for health to her work as a school counselor and then national non-profits including Moving Traditions and InterfaithFamily. At the core of Tami’s work is a belief in the power of listening to one’s own voice as well as the voices of others to create both individual and systemic change.

She is currently dedicated to creating the retreats she’s always dreamed of for women of all ages and backgrounds to access their fullest potential and rise together.

About Rise Gatherings: www.risegatherings.com

About Forest Bathing: https://www.forestbathing.club/

I'm excited to share this conversation with Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg.. Yohanna speaks about the personal and communal lessons she's learning during the coronavirus outbreak in Washington state where she lives; the loss of her mother last fall and the experience of noticing spring coming to life in the natural world; and the sheer joy she experiences in taking her dogs to the dog park on Saturday afternoons.

Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg has served as Congregation Kol Ami's rabbi since 2014 and has worked as rabbi and chaplain in the Seattle area since 2003. Before coming to Kol Ami, she was an assistant rabbi and director of education at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, Washington for 11 years. Rabbi Kinberg is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and a member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. She is involved with JStreet, Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Services, Faith Action Network and a variety of other organizations working towards peace, justice, sustainability, and interfaith connections.

Rabbi Kinberg loves working with people of all ages and stages. Children, elders, babies, teens... people who are in the midst of celebration and those who are in the midst of crisis. In addition to providing pastoral care for our members, She offers spiritual direction and small group classes for anyone who wants to study specific topics.

Rabbi Kinberg enjoys spending time with her two dogs Yoda and Hansolo. Together they explore the dog parks of the greater Puget Sound. She also love spending time wit her husband, Rabbi Seth Goldstein, and two sons Ozi and Erez. You can often find them eating at the delicious Asian restaurants in Washington State  or shopping at an international market for foods and spices from all over the world. Rabbi Kinberg also loves working out at Orange Theory and is always up to date on all of the latest bingable shows on TV. 

For more info about or to be a guest for an upcoming 5 Questions Podcast, visit www.gabriellekaplanmayer.com.

Thank you for listening and please share with your friends! Please take a moment to subscribe, share some stars and a review on Apple Podcasts so we'll reach more listeners~much appreciated.

I'm excited to share this conversation with Joanne...someone who shares about her spiritual journey in recovering from illness and how that experience has transformed her sense of the Divine. Joanne shares about the gift of teaching, of family and her hope for a world in which we humans choose to slow down and focus on connecting with each other.

For more info about or to be a guest for an upcoming 5 Questions Podcast, visit www.gabriellekaplanmayer.com.

Thank you for listening and please share with your friends! Please take a moment to subscribe, share some stars and a review on Apple Podcasts so we'll reach more listeners~much appreciated.

Whatever you are going through today, take a moment to be uplifted and inspired by a conversation with an incredible woman, Marguerite (Marge). Marge shares about living with joy and intention, the power of ritual, her love for Linda Ronstadt and the journey that she has been on in surviving the loss of her beloved son, Ron. Be warned: this interview is full of laughter! Marge blogs at The Grief Warrior and you'll want to read her powerful writing after listening to her. You can also see images of the Ron Silberstein Healing Bench at Lorimer Park here.

For more info about or to be a guest for an upcoming 5 Questions Podcast, visit www.gabriellekaplanmayer.com.

Thank you for listening and please share with your friends! Please take a moment to share some stars and a review on Apple Podcasts so we'll reach more listeners~much appreciated.

Join us for a conversation with Oz who calls in from Jerusalem; he takes us to his view from his balcony and shares about his gratitude for his studies, the beautiful encounter he had just by placing a pride flag on his apartment, the value of his family and his growing awareness that he has the ability to make significant change in the arena of inclusion through the professional path he's pursuing.

I met Oz and his family at Tikvah Family Camp at Ramah in the Ramah in the Poconos~check out this amazing place that supports families raising kids with disabilities.

For more info about or to be a guest for an upcoming 5 Questions Podcast, visit www.gabriellekaplanmayer.com.

Thank you for listening and please share with your friends! Please take a moment to share some stars and a review on Apple Podcasts so we'll reach more listeners~much appreciated.