I began writing short pieces I call "Soulsongs" in 2003 in response to inspiration from the Abraham-Hicks teachings (www.abraham-hicks.com). I began emailing them to friends, and thanks to the Internet, eventually had several hundred subscribers world-wide. I'm no longer writing Soulsongs but am instead blogging about the process of choosing happier thoughts at www.abrahamfun.com.
The Abraham-Hicks material has beautifully answered my many questions about the nature of the Universe and the people in it. I'm deeply grateful to Jerry and Esther Hicks for sharing these principles via CDs and books.
I have a son, "Smitty," who is working on his doctorate in mathematics at University of Florida in Gainesville. He and his wife, Bridgett, have a daughter, Akiko. My other son, Joel, is an attorney in Houston. He and his wife, Kristin, have a daughter, Claire. My daughter, Emily, a college student and art history major, is the epitome of a well-behaved teen. [This sentence sponsored by Emily Williams.] My stepson John and his son, Josiah, live in northern California, while stepson David is serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in Japan. .
Thanks for dropping by!
Joel, Karen, and Smitty
An Interview with Karen
How did your Soulsong writings come about?
My daughter, Emily, my mother, and I - along with our Lhasa apso named Susie-the-Wonder Pup - had moved from Oregon to Florida as a result of my desire for more sunshine. Emily missed Oregon more than I had anticipated. She experienced many coughs and sore throats and then, just when I thought she would be able to return to middle school, she’d drag out her recuperation period (in my estimation) far too long.
In 2003, yet another sickness reared its germy head. I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Emily, and frankly, I was feeling very “bummed.” They told me the medicine wouldn’t be ready for 45 minutes, and I decided to sit in the car and write in a little hard-back “composition” book that I had just bought. I wanted to use the writing process to take myself from discouragement to a better-feeling place.
You have attributed the inspiration for your writing to the teachings of Abraham as presented by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Is that what prompted your writing exercise in the car?
Exactly. I had been receiving audiotapes of the Abraham teachings from a friend, Alice, in Oregon, and Abraham was beginning to have a profound effect on me. I was gaining a deeper understanding of how, courtesy of the universal Law of Attraction, we magnetize the situations of our lives according to what we’re thinking/feeling. I knew that if my circumstances were going to improve, then I must first think and feel happier.
So you began writing in your notebook on a regular basis?
Yes, and I felt uplifted each time I wrote. It helped me to gain a broader perspective and to envision more of how I wanted my life to look as opposed to feeling enmeshed in problems. I also began to explore and summarize, in writing, what I was learning from Abraham.
Summoning my courage, I emailed some of my brief writings to about 20 friends and family. They gave me positive feedback and sent my writings to others. Thanks to the email-forwarding process, I gained hundreds of “Soulsongs” subscribers around the world. I never, of course, met most of them, but they sent such gracious feedback.
How did you choose the name “Soulsongs”?
Well, the cool names like “Conversations with God” were already taken. [Laughs.] Seriously, when I write, I ask myself, “If my soul - my divine, inner being - could speak, what would it say to me today?” I use the word “song” not because I write literal music but because it seems that the soul would speak in a beautiful, melodic way - like a song.
Do you consider your writing style to be melodic?
Ironically, no. I guess something gets lost in the translation - ha. I'm down-to-earth and pedestrian in my writing. Nothing fancy, no flourishes. My aim is to communicate as much truth (as I understand it) as possible in a simple and succinct form. I like to write the same way that people speak, and I like to interject my impish sense of humor.
How did your first Soulsongs book come about?
My loving partner, Mark, encouraged me to collect the first 120 Soulsongs in book form. A friend, Claudius, had recently started a publishing company, and he helped us through every stage of the publishing process. Mark had already created a Soulsongs website, and we began to market the book via the site.
You have said you were, at one time, an evangelical Christian. Were you born into that belief system?
I grew up in Portland, Indiana, attending the local United Church of Christ. I always enjoyed Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, church camp, and singing in the choir. But when I went to college, I felt as if I outgrew the Christianity of my youth.
Majoring in psychology, I suspected that the answers for humankind’s most perplexing questions lay somewhere within neo-Freudianism. After graduation and a few years working in England and Indiana, I went to California to see if I could work/study at Arthur Janov’s Primal Institute, where people were supposedly ridding themselves of psychological problems by screaming and releasing pent-up emotions. It didn’t pan out, though. Feeling confused about the course of my life and career, I boarded a plane to return to Indiana.
As we flew over the Grand Canyon, I thought, “My life has become a grand canyon.” I began to cry and silently call out to God, if indeed there was one. While listening to John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” I had a somewhat surreal, mystical experience that awakened my long dormant interest in things of the spirit.
After returning to Indiana, my mother told me that a new church group had taken over the United Church of Christ that had recently closed its doors. She insisted I go with her, just once, to see what it was like. I complied, and she and I began attending services there regularly. At a prayer meeting one evening, the dynamic minister asked for a show of hands to find out who wanted to “receive Christ as savior.” With some consternation, I noticed my right hand rise in the air. I had reached the point where I truly did want the happiness and purpose I saw in the church people.
I became an evangelical Christian, and I was deeply, happily involved in our small town church for the next twelve years. I met my first husband in that church, and our two sons, Smitty and Joel, spent many hours in the church nursery and Sunday school.
Did you plan to live happily ever after?
Yes, but my faith in God was eventually shaken when my husband was diagnosed with schizophrenia and then, a couple of years later, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease - a cancer of the lymph tissue. I was such an involved, committed Christian - I just couldn’t fathom why God would allow those experiences.
Did you become angry and turn away from God?
No, but I began to wonder if there was something important I was overlooking! And as I went through divorce and took chemotherapy and radiation treatments, I read books about how a positive attitude and processes like creative visualization can impact one’s health. A book that affected me profoundly was Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer by Kenneth Pelletier. I was also influenced by Norman Vincent Peale’s The Positive Power of Jesus Christ. I began to explore the power of the conscious mind (not the subconscious, as I’d focused on previously). But I had great concern that my explorations might displease God and undermine my evangelical faith.
Did you recover completely?
Thankfully, I did recover completely, and I resumed writing devotional pieces for the freelance Christian market, an endeavor I’d begun after my sons were born. I also worked part-time as our pastor’s secretary and became the church pianist. I loved spending time in the historic brick church with sunlight streaming through the huge stained-glass window that read, “To the Glory of God.”
When did you diverge from the evangelical faith?
Some years after the divorce, I began corresponding with a man, Ed, in Oregon through a penpal club. Ultimately we met in person, fell in love, and were married. Then Smitty and Joel, ages nine and five, and I moved from Indiana to Ashland, Oregon. Ed was a single dad of two boys, ages 11 and 13. We were Baptists and committed Christians, but the belief system that had, for me, once seemed like a cozy nest began to feel constraining. I began to have persistent questions. More than once, Ed had me talk with our Baptist pastor in order to have my doubts addressed, but they continued to loom large.
After six years of marriage, Ed died suddenly from a heart arrhythmia while working out at karate class. Our daughter – Emily – was two years old. I pondered returning to Indiana to live near my relatives, but I loved Ashland. Ultimately my mom moved there to live with the kids and me. By then, Ed’s older son, David, was in the U.S. Marine Corps, and his younger son, John, was also preparing to join the Marines.
Years before, I had been given a long-term gift subscription to “The Daily Word” devotional booklet that Unity publishes. Each month, I would dutifully throw the booklet in the trash without opening it, as I felt it was contradictory to my faith. But I eventually peeked at it, and it seemed to be a unique blend of spirituality and positive thinking. So I began attending the local Unity church. I also began exploring other metaphysical groups and teachings that flourished in Ashland.
How difficult was it to make changes in your belief system?
I lost many of my church friends – people who were so giving and loving. How I treasured those warm, kind-hearted people. (Thankfully I do still have some wonderful evangelical friends from long ago.) But I felt compelled to forge ahead, ever in pursuit of a spiritual truth that was congruent with what I knew about the human mind. And it took me to some, well, interesting places with regards to New Age spirituality. I think I encountered every healer and guru to come down the pike for a while – some very colorful people!
And your search culminated in the Abraham teachings?
Yes! I’ve always had an intense curiosity about how and why events unfold as they do. In Abraham, I have found a psycho-spiritual-philosophical explanation that is so utterly comprehensive yet simple, so utterly brilliant yet applicable – I’m in awe of these teachings. Mark will verify that every time I listen to a new Abraham CD or audiotape, I’m enthralled - even after these years of familiarity with the concepts.
What do you hope to accomplish through your writings?
I want to encourage people to care deeply about how they feel emotionally and to start choosing better-feeling thoughts, noticing how that simple, gradual process will transform their lives. And I want to continue to write in order to help myself move along in my emotional journeys. My life has changed dramatically in the past few years, and I’m ready to open up to even more of the wonders and delights that await.
I believe there are no accidents, and nothing occurs randomly. Courtesy of the universal Law of Attraction, our experience hinges on our mental focus. As we explore that truth and practice choosing our thoughts deliberately, we’ll experience the joyous adventure once anticipated when we came forth into physical expression.
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Karen writes from her home near Orlando, Florida,
where she lives with her partner, Mark..
