Maia's FAQs, updated!

Back in June I posted this set of questions and answers... here's the latest 411 on my life.

Where do you live now?
At the moment, I am living in at Upaya Zen Center, on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I actually do have a plan (!) to be here until the end of September. Then my tentative plan is to spend October in Sedona, AZ, with Gina where she'll be immersed in a five-month massage therapy training program. That's as far as I've got planned!

What are you doing for work?
Well, I like to think that I'm still on sabbatical, but the truth is I have been fairly busy. But it feels good.

For several days a week, I coordinate Upaya's Buddhist Chaplaincy Program. This means that I answer email and phone inquiries about the program, I mentor some of the students in the program, and help to envision the future of the training, both programmatically and administratively, with Roshi Joan Halifax.

In addition to that, I sometimes take on freelance projects. The most recent has been for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, for whom I edited a research paper on the use of meditation in higher education.

My Five Directions Consulting firm is how I connect with people and organizations that I want to support. See my business website: www.fivedirectionsconsulting.com.

What's next?
While I'm leaving things pretty open for the future, I do have one North Star that I am rowing towards. Seven years after declaring my intention to do so, I am finally sewing my rakusu and will receive jukai (initiation as a Buddhist) at San Francisco Zen Center on November 15. So I know I'll be back in the Bay Area then, at least for a little while.

I'm feeling a pull towards spending the rest of winter in northern New Mexico. The quality of light here continues to stun me with its beauty, and there is something magical about the high desert in the deep winter time.

Do you have more questions for me? Just ask!