I offer sharings to:
Discuss Simplifying Life & Discovering What Really Matters
The sharing I offer are not therapy. They are simply sharing information.
Marie A. Laverriere
My Background
I retired at 69 years old, on November 1, 2025. I had a career as a licensed clinical social worker for almost 25 years. I no longer practice as a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). I also worked as an Interfaith Chaplain for about three years in a county jail. I started my career later in life, I was 30 when I first attended college and finally decided to stop at 50 years of age. I did work throughout my undergraduate and graduate school years. I truly enjoyed attending college and accumulated four academic degrees BSW, MSW, MA in Pastoral Ministry and Doctorate in Ministry. In my two ministry degrees my concentration was in spirituality. In addition to my formal education I’m also trained as a spiritual director with the Shalem Institute and I’m trained as a Reiki Master.
I have been interested in connecting with the Divine since I was a young child. I refer to God as the Divine. My family practiced a traditional religion and when I was a young adult I started searching for more. My experiences with the Divine were different from what I had been taught in the religion of my youth. I’ve been on a quest to follow my spiritual path for many years, and lately in this new phase of my life, I am working on developing and practicing a spiritual routine that feeds my soul, brings me peace & joy and fills me with love.
My Journey
In 2019 I moved into a tiny cottage across the street from the ocean/beach in coastal southern Maine with my dog. This is when I started to simplify my life. I had to purge my possessions and get rid of about 95% of my stuff. I kept only what I needed and some things that I enjoyed having. It all had to fit neatly and easily in my small space (293 square feet). I then started to feel the need to simplify my finances, my thoughts and my use of time. In doing all this I started to feel that I had created the space to see things from a different perspective. I can honestly say that simplifying my life was the beginning of my spiritual practice. The experience was very powerful for me and so I wrote and published two books “Minimalism for Wellbeing: A Guide to Simplifying All Facets of Your Life” and “A Journey to Authenticity: Finding Freedom, Peace & Joy”. Both of these books captured what I can best describe as a new beginning for me. Living with simplicity became a wonderful experience and in May of 2025 I decided to write and publish my third book “Living With Simplicity & Discovering What Matters”.
After I retired I started to feel the need to put energy into creating a daily spiritual practice that would help me connect to my soul and to the Divine in a deeper way. My practice feeds my soul, gives me a sense of freedom and peace, it fuels my passion and empowers me to pursue the stuff that gives my life meaning and purpose. My practice also encourages me to spend time doing my creative expressions, which are: writing, nature photography, calligraphy, creating jewelry and creating angel art using sea shells and drift wood. I also spend time with friends and take daily walks on the beach with my dog. I truly enjoy helping empower people to reflect on their own spiritual journeys and creative expressions.
A Bit About My Spirituality
I do believe that we are spiritual beings having a human experience and in the past I thought that my spiritual self was more important than my human self, but that is not correct. We need to tend to both our human selves as well as our spiritual selves because on this planet we are in human form and unless we care for our physical needs we can’t tend to our spiritual needs. There is a connection and when we experience growth, expansion or enlightenment as humans we also cause our souls to benefit as well.
In my work as a therapist, before I retired, I practiced healing with a holistic perspective of — body, mind and soul. I do not want to practice as a therapist in my retirement but I do want to continue to help empower people to tend to their wellbeing from the perspective that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Our spiritual essence never dies, it is eternal but our physical essence has a limited time on this planet. I found it very helpful to create a daily spiritual practice where I plug into the Divine Source that empowers me to live with peace, joy and love.
The Role Of A Spiritual Practice
In following my daily spiritual practice I describe it as a foundation in starting my day. Like eating a meal that feeds my soul and body to accomplish my purpose on this particular day.
There is power in knowing that I have choices that I can make in every moment of my life. I can choose not to be fearful and to feel joy, we always have choices even when life is not easy. Sometimes we don’t tend to ourselves, we skip our spiritual practice a day or two and we become disconnected on our end, and we may lose the belief that we have the power of making positive choices. Making positive choices that are in our best interest is part of practicing self care as well as allowing ourselves to feel at peace, to feel joy and also have the ability to love both ourselves and others.
Part of my spiritual practice is connecting to the Divine, even though the Divine is always present to us, sometimes we don’t consciously know it because we are pre-occupied and not in the present moment where life is happening. The Divine is pure love and when we choose to connect to the Divine we can experience that love and in doing so we can share it with others because we have allowed ourselves to connect to it.
In my work in creating my daily spiritual practice, I came upon the desire to connect to my guardian angel. I believe we all have a personal guardian angel ever since our spirit selves came to be. Some people believe that we have had multiple life times and our guardian angel has always been with us loving us very deeply and always ready to help us if we ask for it. Our guardian angel is just ours and it loves us with the deepest purest love there is.
I also believe that angels are connected to the Divine, in fact they are an extension of the Divine. So when we speak to our guardian angel we are speaking to the Divine. I’m fond of Archangel Michael, he’s known as a powerful protector and I talk to him a lot. I once said to him that I felt a bit guilty because I had not spoken to God in a long time but rather I had been speaking to Archangel Michael and immediately he said to me “we are all one so don’t worry it’s ok because when you speak to one of us you are speaking to all of us”.
I offer a Sharing below on the Sacred & Mystical experiences available to us when we live simply, slow down our pace of life and live in the moment.
WEEKLY SHARING 8/18/26
Peaceful Living
As I age, I feel my energy level challenged when I attempt to do too much. We are trained at a young age to be productive if we want to be successful. Letting go of this false belief is difficult if we are not aware that we are afflicted with it. Living a balanced life is how we reach success. When I live a balanced life I am able to live simply with a pace that allows me peace. When I feel peace I usually feel joy and it's only then that I can feel and share love.
What is a balanced life you might ask. A balanced life is when we do our chores (this can mean working), we have time to play and share time with our good friends. A balanced life also includes adequate sleep time as well as self development or educational experiences. The last three are: being creative and allowing ourselves time to do this, being connected to what gives our lives meaning and finally to take care of our health (eat well and exercise).
I have a YouTube channel that I started in 2022 on a variety of ideas in living a simple life and other practical things. I have refocused my channel in March of 2026 to offer more information on the subject of spirituality. You can view it at: YouTube.com/@livingasimplelife.
Meet my dog Henry as he sits in his pose.