Karen Masman | About Karen

About Karen

I have various bits of academic paper including a Master of Arts Degree in Literature and Lingusistics, a Diploma of Teaching and a Diploma of Counselling Psychology. I have worked as an editor and workshop facilitator for many years and have been extensively involved in the creating and publishing of books and resources for counsellors, educators and social workers.

The same man and I have been laughing and crying our way through family life for about 25 years. For most of these early years we competed furiously for sleeping rights while bringing up our three small children, and now we all simply compete for the same bathroom. The dog, the cat, generations of goldfish, flocks of cockatoos, a mob of kangaroos and various other members of the Central Victorian fauna who pass through our five acre block couldn’t care less but often make a lot of noise about it.

I am intrigued by the power of life to bring us to love. I am intrigued by how the acts of living and loving, when observed closely over time, are forever moving us towards the undoing of pettiness. Even as ‘notches on the belt’ or ‘runs on the board’ may seem to be bolstering up a tidy set of credentials, in some inscrutable and exquisite way things are actually working to help us shed pretence and bluster. I am interested in the power of questions and conversation, the gentle arts of pondering and ruminating. I am interested in cultivating the art of noticing tiny moments of upliftment throughout the day and peering into the landscape of one’s own internal and external life. I am interested in learning how to enter the present moment more fully. I am interested in the transformational power of one’s own honest and good-hearted attention. I am interested in the capacity that we humans have to digest our experiences in such a way that they release some kind of quicksilver—some kind of catalyst for enrichment, even though the internal rub produces a degree of gravel rash. In the end, the only authentic response to the gentle (or not so gentle) flailing that occurs through living and loving consciously is, surprisingly, Love. That is what I am interested in.

'Soulful activities build or uncover layers of richness and character.'

~




About Karen I have various bits of academic paper including a Master of Arts Degree in Literature and Lingusistics, a Diploma of Teaching and a Diploma of Counselling Psychology. I have worked as an editor and workshop facilitator for many years and have been extensively involved in the creating and publishing of books and resources for counsellors, educators and social workers. The same man and I have been laughing and crying our way through family life for about 25 years. For most of these early years we competed furiously for sleeping rights while bringing up our three small children, and now we all simply compete for the same bathroom. The dog, the cat, generations of goldfish, flocks of cockatoos, a mob of kangaroos and various other members of the Central Victorian fauna who pass through our five acre block couldn’t care less but often make a lot of noise about it. I am intrigued by the power of life to bring us to love. I am intrigued by how the acts of living and loving, when observed closely over time, are forever moving us towards the undoing of pettiness. Even as ‘notches on the belt’ or ‘runs on the board’ may seem to be bolstering up a tidy set of credentials, in some inscrutable and exquisite way things are actually working to help us shed pretence and bluster. I am interested in the power of questions and conversation, the gentle arts of pondering and ruminating. I am interested in cultivating the art of noticing tiny moments of upliftment throughout the day and peering into the landscape of one’s own internal and external life. I am interested in learning how to enter the present moment more fully. I am interested in the transformational power of one’s own honest and good-hearted attention. I am interested in the capacity that we humans have to digest our experiences in such a way that they release some kind of quicksilver—some kind of catalyst for enrichment, even though the internal rub produces a degree of gravel rash. In the end, the only authentic response to the gentle (or not so gentle) flailing that occurs through living and loving consciously is, surprisingly, Love. That is what I am interested in. 'Soulful activities build or uncover layers of richness and character.' ~