Alan and Naomi Tribute-Synchronicity Foundation

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Alan and Naomi

In Loving Memory

Two Beautiful People
A Tribute

Alan

I first met Alan many years ago when I was presenting a beginners retreat at the Sanctuary Retreat Center. He was excited to meet a spiritual mentor in Master Charles, whom he was sure would powerfully and effectively continue the evolution of his spiritual journey. That weekend he had profound personal spiritual experience and fell in love with the setting and community at Synchronicity. Shortly after that retreat he began bringing his lovely wife Kia and infant daughter Naomi on retreats. Both he and Kia where welcomed and in the space of a few years they decide to continue their meditator's journey and commitment to holistic living by making the transition to live at Synchronicity. They did this with the intention of giving themselves personally, as a couple and family, to a lifestyle of balance as well as sharing that lifestyle selflessly with as many people as they could reach. They moved into the community 11 years ago when Naomi was two years old and their participation evolved into key roles in the Foundation.

A former President of the Synchronicity Foundation, Alan had taken a role as one of the Vice-Presidents in order to create the time to focus on his greatest contributions, which were in the areas of writing and speaking, and he was brilliant at both. Often the life of a meditator, one who lives a holistic lifestyle and is committed to personal balance, seems too esoteric, out of reach for most. Alan was a down-to-earth guy and, feet firmly planted on the ground, he was able to impart through his writing and speaking the most subtle of the wisdom of the ages. He was a bridge to the enlightening mysticism that is Master Charles, sharing his understanding and mastery of Master Charles' teachings with those who aspired to such a consistent enlightening state. Alan made Master Charles' work accessible. He was our principle presenter at retreats, coaching people in our work and assisting them in experiencing it as real in their lives. He has been an enormous influence on many people and has made a lasting difference for the better in thousands of lives.

Alan was not only a good friend but a confidant as well. He had a wonderful sense of the absurdity that life could manifest and at times a brilliantly sarcastic and sometimes bawdy sense of humor. I could go to Alan with my deepest fears and serious complaints and he would have me laughing at myself and leave me ready to "get on with it" with a spring in my step. He was passionate about all of life and had his own list of ‘favorites’, as we all do. He loved his wife and daughter, he was happiest teaching Synchronicity holistic lifestyle and contemporary meditation, life coaching, and as a connoisseur of fine coffee he would search out the best raw beans and roast them himself. An avid shopper on eBay, with just a family stipend, he reveled in finding incredible deals that enriched his and his family's life. Music, refined aroma therapy, photography, guitar, Vedic Astrology, Indian culture, cooking (he was a chef) and philosophy were all passions of his that he shared freely and happily. He was a great guy, and like any human being he could be difficult, moody and grouchy (me too!), an ordinary person and at the same time exceptional. I loved him.

Due to his years of meditation and personal transformation, he was an extraordinary, ordinary man. A man of tremendous love, compassion, kindness, insight, and wisdom, he was committed to leaving this world a better place through living his life as a contribution to us all. Alan succeeded; his life is a victory and a testament to what is good and available to us as human beings. I only wish I could sit and laugh with him again.

Naomi

"There would be less violence in the world if people used hula-hoops…"

- Variation of a quote from lyrics by the band Linkin Park

I begin this essay about Naomi with a quote that I found, in her hand-writing, on the bulletin board in her office and I end this piece with another. Yes, Naomi had her own office at age thirteen. She needed a place in which to start to express her individuality as a teen, as well as to do her lessons from the home-schooling curriculum she studied online.

Naomi started visiting the Synchronicity Foundation with her parents Kia and Alan in her first years. She moved to the Sanctuary when she was two. Naomi grew up and became a teen within our community and, given that she was the only child, she was unique in our family. Naomi was a girl who grew up with two parents and thirty aunts and uncles who nurtured and cared deeply for her. At the Sanctuary, she also lived with Master Charles, an enlightening human being who kept a watchful eye over her and was always attentive that Naomi have the best upbringing possible.

Naomi loved being a teen. She reveled in experimenting with her appearance and had many friends who enjoyed and encouraged her self-discovery and emerging adult personality. She was mad for cute boys and had a not-so-secret crush on the young man who drove the produce delivery truck. Like her father, she was an avid reader and loved music. One of her favorite bands was Linkin Park and she had gone to her first concert just this past July. Her father Alan took her and he had a great time with Naomi for she was sharing with him her passion for the music she loved. She also had a passion for learning and excelled, self-motivated, at her online courses.

Through Master Charles' suggestion and her parent's guidance, it had become Naomi's dream to attend Emma Willard, an excellent prep school for young women in Troy New York. She studied hard for her SSATs and had traveled to Emma Willard to visit and take an entrance exam just a few weeks before her trip to India. She was so excited at the life that was unfolding before her, she knew what she wanted and she enthusiastically took the actions that would provide the desired results. She was an achiever. For Naomi it was not that the sky was the limit, there were no limits and after the excitement of seeing the campus of Emma Willard she was off to India for an amazing journey, a wondrous culture like nothing she had seen before. Her father's love of India inspired her to be open to all the trip would offer. The flight to Europe and then on to India was her first time in a jet.

Like her father Alan, Naomi fell in love with India. The colors, aromas and flavors, the incredible hospitality of the Indian people, a unique and ancient culture rich in tradition and fabulously different from anything she had known before. The women on the tour doted on her, buying her colorful saris which she joyfully took to wearing. One day at the Oberoi Hotel Naomi got an excited call from her mom, Kia, back at the Synchronicity Foundation telling her that she had gotten a grade of 92% on her SSATs and attending Emma Willard was one step closer. She was so thrilled, so happy, life was magical and literally full of possibilities. On Wednesday the 26th of November, the day before Thanksgiving, Naomi was having a late dinner with her father Alan and other members of the tour in the Tiffin restaurant, off the lobby, at the Oberoi Hotel when the terrorists strode up to the wide entrance and started shooting into the dining room with machine guns. Both she and her father Alan were killed.

Naomi was only thirteen years old, but she was preternaturally wise, endlessly animated and energetic and lived an extremely spiritual and conscious lifestyle without giving it a second thought. It was rumored among the guests that she was the girl who could see and hear the Divine Mother and Naomi nonchalantly confirmed this. Some might call her an Old Soul. She was and is dearly loved.