Virginia St. Claire
Virginia St. Claire
Virginia St. Claire is an eclectic being with a myriad of passions and life experiences. Rather than seeing life compartmentalized into the profane and sacred, she sees all of life as spiritual. Every breath, every thought, every action is spiritual practice. But not in the sense of having to do a certain something for some end, but instead, a spontaneous outpouring of life essence. She calls that essence Love and sees love at the heart of everyone and everything.
Virginia has been writing since childhood - poems and stories, then books and newspaper articles. All different subjects, all different formats. A book for couples in committed relationships, a novel, three children’s picture books, and a children’s novel. She’s looking forward to seeing what’s next.
Since childhood Virginia has always created art. She loves watercolors because the paint, the brush and the water create their own magic while she watches. Framing a shot with the camera often has unexpected results as well. Her feeling is that art happens while she cooperates with the process.
As varied as her books and art are, Virginia’s eclectic background is just as she likes it. Since childhood her deepest interests have been in the spiritual realm. She has a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and performed her first weddings in 1976. She has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since 1972 and became a teacher in 1975. She has also been grateful for many years in Twelve Step fellowships.
Virginia sometimes pictures the truth as being at the heart of a beautifully faceted diamond. She sees the peoples of the world walking up to the diamond, peering through one facet and describing the truth as they see it through their particular “window”. She has spent her life looking through many of those different facets. She honors and learns from all of the different ways people seek to apprehend the mystery that life remains to all of us.
Virginia loves life and is passionate about living each day fully. She loves variety and, not surprisingly, that has led to an amazing array of life experiences. She loves to travel, has been around the world three times, lived in many places in the US including many years in Hawaii. She loves the Earth and seeks to walk as gently as possible on it. She grows much of her food, is an ocean swimmer and a biker. She loves making art and is happiest when she’s creating something—it can be a painting, working on a book, planting vegetables, preparing a nourishing and beautiful meal.
Virginia mostly lives in Philadelphia now with only a smattering of life in Hawaii. When she moved from Kauai to Philly, she asked herself what she could do to make it her paradise. She loves the mostly outdoor life of Hawaii--her daily ocean swim, the exquisite beauty of the mountains and waterfalls, the always surprising presence of rainbows. So she spends at least two hours outside no matter what the weather is. So wherever she is is paradise.
To contact Virginia via email click here.