Carol Maas
As a Jubilee Leader:
current board member of JSAI
background in bookkeeping and non-profit Boards
environmental policy researcher
As a Community Supporter:
My earliest spiritual encounters were being held in the warm, steady, blue-brown waters of the Severn River, and among the pine groves of my schoolyard. In my youth, I found wisdom and reassurance while floating in the soft, rolling waters of a Georgian Bay harbour. Standing beside the ocean in my teens, I felt the vastness of my inner landscape. Rooted in a desire to protect the vitality of these life-giving places, I find myself returning to a central question: how might we live differently—taking less, giving more, and living in harmony with all beings? And might this way of inhabiting the Earth offer us the opportunity to use our gifts, express our authenticity, and discover deeper meaning in return?
For over two decades, my professional work has sought to address this question at the intersection of environment, society and community — as an engineer, consultant, community builder and policy researcher. In 2012, I took the Ontario Jubilee spiritual deepening and formation program. The tools and experiences I learned during that time continue to integrate within my life. I am drawn to an eclectic mix of teachers, writing and lessons —from Buddhist, Taoist, Indigenous and ecophilosophy traditions—and I continue to be shaped by new sources. My path has unfolded through periods of immersion in different systems and practices. Practices such as yoga, meditation, Gestalt Pastoral Care, Internal Family Systems, Non-Violent Communication, ecstatic dance, labyrinth walking, and being witnessed in non-judgmental awareness have each offered guidance and nourishment at different times over the past thirty years. While I sometimes long to deepen roots in a single tradition, mindfulness remains the through line that connects what resonates for me across these practices.
Just as formative have been the challenging and enriching experiences of everyday life: my lifelong relationship with water, parenting my child, encounters with death and dying, time spent camping, and walking alongside other women who follow their inner knowing. These experiences have guided the formation of my values, developed a trust for inner ways of knowing, and illuminated my perception of societal norms that no longer serve. Wisdom continues to speak to me through the natural world, and my inner calling draws me even deeper into attunement to plants, forests, lakes, rivers and birds. I am also deeply moved by witnessing people discover new aspects of themselves—allowing themselves to follow their inner knowing and find joy and meaning. I am a spiritual companion to life. I am a spiritual companion to life, and it to me.
