“Ode to Valentine’s Day: Love First. Love Well. Love Often.”

NOTE: This is an article I wrote for Our Voices Magazine that I thought I’d share with you.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

“Ode to Valentine’s Day: Love First. Love Well. Love Often.”
By Udana Power

Men don’t like Valentine’s Day. Did you know that?

And many times Valentine’s Day turns out traumatic for women… kind of because men hate it, get really confused and feel guilty because they are not sure how to do it right. So then they don’t do Valentine’s Day at all – or if they get grumpy – which annoys the woman, it can add enough strain to make the whole thing go south, even if you are both pretending to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a proper dinner. Arg!

I took a whole series of seminars from an amazing woman who teaches women and men how to understand and be happy with each other. It was one of the first things I treated myself to when I started making some money. I had to figure this guy-thing out.

Amongst the series of weekend lectures that I was ultimately happy to spend a ton of money for, I was SHOCKED to learn two things. Literally knock-me-over-with-a-feather shocked. Actually, the whole room of women I was with gasped when the trainer told us what I’m about to tell you.

At the time she made her statement, there was a group of men standing on the stage in front of us sharing their points of view with the room. (I thought I was listening to a foreign language being explained.) When the trainer spoke this pressing truth, the audience of women gasped with incredulity and the men stared in surprise. The statement was so obvious to them that they were baffled why we were so shocked.

What does all this have to do with Valentine’s Day? Everything. You’ll see.

Here is an approximation of what she said: Girls, put down your pen and paper. Sit there because I want you to get this. I have interviewed men for Continue reading

“Love is the only thing that can change the world” – Udana Power

UdanaPowerOn March 6, 2013, Udana Power spoke to The Only Love Project, an organization committed to inter-faith, inter-spiritual bridge building.

The Only Love Project is based on the premise that “only love dispels hate,” and it is open to all who desire to change the world for the better, one community at a time.

Bill Murphy (BM): Could you tell us, briefly, a little bit about your background?

Udana Power (UP): Well, I’ve always wanted to know God. I don’t know where it came from, but I had to know. And I wanted to know. I mean, I was journaling about it when I was 11 and 12 years old. Sometimes I would just journal all night. I wanted to be also an actress. I was compelled to be, don’t know why. And I would write Love and God and Art and Nature and Sex – all those words started with capital letters.  Because somehow all that was part of my searching.

I don’t know what it was. It was core. Now I call it the Law of Blooming, being connected to our source. But at that time, I didn’t know what it was. I was just vaguely trying to find it.

So, my desire to be an actress was for many reasons.  I had a gift for it, but I had to know the Source. When I was acting, or when I ultimately started singing, I would reconnect to the Source place within me, and let that flow of energy sing through me. I would line it all up, and it would take over and flow.  I remember when I was flown to New York by Alan Jay Lerner and auditioned in front of the producers of Coco, starring Katharine Hepburn.  It was in her only stage CocoPlaybillmusical. Alan and I walked into the big lobby of the Mark Hellenger Theater one afternoon.  It was empty. It felt like I was walking into my own dream. I remember Alan was holding my hand. I was very young and very naïve at the time, and I felt like I was walking into a cathedral. As we crossed the lobby and walked I into the great, big, empty theatre, there were a few men in suits there. One of them was Andre Previn.  Everyone introduced themselves and then they asked me to go up on stage and sing.

It was a long walk. All I knew was this is where life was created. All I could think of was that and my personal relationship with God.  I walked up to the big empty stage and sang “Greensleeves” in French and “God Bless The Child.”  Alan said later that it was like they were watching a young Judy Garland.

And whenever I’ve been to a theatrical performance that’s truly wonderful there is something of the spiritual in it. So, that’s been my life, and that’s where I came from. I was an actress in theatre for many years, I was on television and film, I did a one-woman show for five years. And when I did my work, I called it a Yahweh. That’s a word for God. I couldn’t quite articulate what it was, but if I could fling myself out into that experience, and channel that. Then I was doing what I was put here to do.

And I did that many times over and over. People would come backstage just sobbing because the performance had such a profound effect on them. It wasn’t me – it was something that I flung myself into that came through me.  For me it was interesting, and it was easy.

I remember the producer for Applause at the San Bernardino Civic Light Opera. Larry Kasha had produced it on Broadway and was directing it here. I played Eve opposite Yvonne De Carlo. The producer was a woman who Continue reading