Eulogy for Life…

Maurice believed in anything that made him feel good to be alive. To say that he lived an unconventional life would be an understatement. The soundtrack to his life would be Elgar’s Enigma Variations. His aim was to leave his body with a heart as light as a feather. No one knew how he died. They only knew that when he was found his countenance was peaceful, and he showed a smile that went from ear to ear.

His age at his death (or the finish of his orbits as he’d like to say) is irrelevant. In his developmental years, he cut his teeth on a dairy farm and, because he was the youngest of ten, learned self-preservation at an early age. That led to him becoming an autodidact, reading by the age of three, memorizing the presidents by the age of four, and getting his first library card at the age of six. He began dreaming at a very early age and entered the shamanic world in the fourth grade as a means to stop the nightmares he was having with the Ticklish People. He succeeded.

He broke six bones, became a yogi, produced TEDx events, and was briefly an accountant to a Dr. Soul. In a dream as a child, he was visited by Madonna, or Catholicism’s Blessed Virgin Mary, and as an adult worked with Madonna, the singer, as her first yoga teacher. He was a healer, milkman, and artist’s model. He a butcher, cheese monger, and was a published author and poet. He was an altar boy for one of the most notorious pedophile priests in the country and slept with a porn star who was inducted into the industry’s Hall of Fame. He was a farmer’s market advocate, a barista and, finally, developed his own clothing line.

Maurice’s life was lived vertically by destiny and horizontal by choice. He was grateful for clean white sheets and was an expatriate in his own country. He was preceded in death by untold numbers of raindrops.

He did his best to not take anything in life too seriously.

Maurice was drawn to the healing arts after a serious cycling accident suffering major brain trauma. This event led him to the study of yoga and First Nation culture and to immerse himself into a wide range of healing modalities. In 1995, he realized that he was predisposed to heal with his hands. As a yoga teacher, he brought himself fully into the room with humor, presence, and aplomb. His messaging for students was encouraging and down to earth. He was respected as a gifted and stellar teacher. He used his hands respectfully and well. He valued breathing first and foremost and was known for his familiar reminder in class ”Steady Ujayyi”. His goal for every class was that everyone leave feeling better than when they walked in. This vow soon expanded to every interaction he had with anyone who came into his presence.

Maurice’s therapy practice was full, vibrant, and all-encompassing. Against great odds and vociferous opposition, he found a way to combine hands-on-work with his psychology training and establishing protocols that allowed people to be fully comfortable within their own skin, sure of where their bodies end and where the rest of the world began, and the joys of what it is like to be fully human.

Maurice wanted to share with everyone the joys he often felt, that our lives are valuable just by being alive, and that being here now is the best game in town.

Maurice was overjoyed that he attended his own memorial and could give away all of his estate while he was still alive. Still, this request was found near him…a poem written by the Persian poet, Hafez.

“The days of who’s drunk or who’s sober,

Who’s right or wrong,

Who’s closer to God or farther away.

All that’s over.

This caravan, instead, is led by a great delight.

The joy that sits with us now.

That is the grace.”

On the back of the note there was a reminder to me to let you know he’ll be making his presence felt to you for a while. So, keep your eyes open…as they always should be.

Allen Grant, “Russ Tamblyn does a flip on the sidewalk while walking with Venetia Stevenson”, Life Magazine — 1955