Bio

I charlene2‘ve always believed in magic. Not the pulling-a-rabbit-from-the-hat kind of magic, but the real magic of our imaginations. I truly believe that we are the creators of our own realities (thank you Jane Roberts) and that our ability to do and to be anything is limitless. Perhaps that’s the reason behind my long list of jobs/careers (at last count there were 13) which includes everything from subsistence farming in Nova Scotia to promoting the jewels and designers of Tiffany & Co. in New York.

I grew up in Minneapolis, studied interior design, art history and architecture at the University of Minnesota and went to work as a display artist when I graduated. Convinced the world was coming to an end, I moved to Nova Scotia with my first husband, where we bought a farm and grew most of our food, raised chickens and goats, and kept bees. As idyllic as that could have been, I was miserable. So off I went to Maine where, with the help of a partner, I grew dry beans and wheat for the organic market, ran a food co-op, co-authored a cookbook and did runway modeling, TV commercials and voice-overs, and in my spare time altered clothes for friends and neighbors. Still miserable.

Then one day, I came across a copy of Werner Erhard’s book on EST. I’d heard about the training, but I didn’t have the money nor the desire to take it. But from that book, I got all I needed to know: I and no one else was responsible for my miserable state, my perceived failures, and my pain. What a revelation!

With a newly-found sense of exhilaration, I sold my rototiller for $700.00 and hitched a ride to New York with a friend. A month later I was working in the public relations department at Tiffany & Co. where I quickly learned the difference between publicity and advertising and how to get a lot done in a short period of time. Five years later, my beloved boss was deposed and I moved on to a Madeline DeVries, a public relations firm where I worked as Group Supervisor for a number of lifestyle accounts. I was no longer miserable, but the stress of living in New York was beginning to take a toll on my health and my psyche.

Then out of the blue, I got a call from the California Redwood Association, and after flying out for an interview, I was offered the job of publicity manager. For the next four years, I wrote countless articles promoting the use of redwood lumber, I scouted redwood applications, hired photographers to shoot them and styled the locations. I also spent a lot of time watching deer outside my window and seals swimming by in Richardson Bay. There wasn’t quite enough for me to do and boredom set in.

Are you still with me? I don’t know about you, but I’m getting exhausted just writing this. Anyway, after a year of freelance writing and photo styling, I went to work for friends managing their successful interior design business. I was responsible for client contracts, billing, payroll, insurance, product procurement, marketing, and much much, more. Four years of that and I was ready for another change.

Thanks to a friend I’d met in New York years before, I was hired to supervise the home team at a branding firm with major Fortune 500 clients. There was no job description, so I made it up as I went along. They needed a new CPA, a new payroll company and someone to handle employee relations. I tackled it all and more, but the scene was so chaotic and stressful that I was out of there in less than a year.

As I was wondering what to do next, a photographer I commissioned regularly when I was at the California Redwood Association asked me to rep him. I knew very little about representing artists, but with my experience in business management and my love of photography it seemed like a great idea. And it was great for the next 15 years. I had the pleasure of representing a number of wonderful photographers and the opportunity to work with many talented creatives across the country on ad campaigns, design projects, and editorial assignments. I even got to meet Dame Edna! But something else was brewing and I needed time and space to figure out what it was.

So I took a sabbatical. Free at last to do exactly what I wanted to do, I started this blog and I began dancing again after a 25-year hiatus. I studied meditation, hands-on healing, core shamanism and reincarnation. I learned to dowse. And I wrote a novel, a mystical coming-of-age story about the reunion of a 12-year-old girl and her seven missing soul parts.

It is my greatest wish that my stories will inspire you to listen to your heart and find the courage to take on new challenges. I invite you to leave comments here and to join me on Facebook.

13 thoughts on “Bio

  1. Jo Langevin

    Very interesting, Charlene. I did not know you had done so many exciting and varied things. I am very impressed. I am eager to share in your journey and admire you for your bravery. ( Robin says you have been in California too long.)

  2. Charlene Nevill Post author

    This makes my hair hurt – kind of like calculus. Can you separate these thoughts out a bit so I can get a better hold on what you’re saying? Have you found this to be true?

  3. Gary Shodo

    Also Charlene,

    It has been said that the very thing that causes us to seek, like your journey, is the very thing we are seeking. Wonder what that is, or do we need to go anywhere to seek being awake.?

  4. Gary Shodo

    Doug Dyment said,

    “Buddhism & Hinduism both have versions of enlightenment, but I think that neither view should be permitted to constrain ones perception of the concept.”

    Doug, If I’m hearing you right…. then no constaints on the freedom to conceptualize is most important.

    What if it were said that human concepts about the universe may be what keeps one from understanding? Maybe being awake is not what you think.

    Charlene said,

    “why do we want to ‘experience’? Maybe you could answer that one. Turn about is fair play!”

    Maybe change and experience happen in every moment and we are right in the middle of it every moment. Do we have a choice?

    Thank all of you for your answers or views on this universe. Looking through your eyes warms and helps me.

    Bowing to you,
    Gary Shodo

  5. Charlene Nevill Post author

    I will let Angelika speak for herself in response to your questions about ‘awakening’ and our ‘true sources’. As for duality, it’s an integral part of life on this planet and of every religion. Dark and light; good and evil; yin and yang; masculinity and femininity are all representations of this principle. In Neale Donald Walsch’s book Conversations with God, book 1, God explains that his reason for creating duality was so he could know Himself experientially. And we, as God’s spirit children can only experience a thing if we come to know its opposite. I know, I know, why do we want to ‘experience’? Maybe you could answer that one. Turn about is fair play!

  6. Doug Dyment

    I don’t think “enlightenment” can truly be defined. It’s an inner happening, and just as it can manifest in many ways, it can be experienced in many ways as well. While I think it’s fine to talk *about* enlightenment, and the transcendence of desire & suffering, it’s ultimately a concept too elusive for precise definition.

    Buddhism & Hinduism both have versions of enlightenment, but I think that neither view should be permitted to constrain one’s perception of the concept.

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