Sufi Remembrance

URS September4, 2022

Our very dear friend Ginny Olney passed peacefully from this world on September 4, 2022, at home. She was surrounded by loving friends, and an outstanding team of home caregivers. She lived a full 79 years, loved life, her friends, and had a fierce love for her children and grandchildren.  Her last major project was rebuilding her own deck from the ground up, at the age of 75. Ginny had a very aggressive form of brain cancer, which took her, and everyone else, very much by surprise. 

Ginny was born and raised in Seattle, spent time on the east coast for college, and lived on Vashon Island, WA and Sitka, AK for most of her adult life. Ginny had a regal bearing and always looked so elegant in her simple, but very beautiful clothing and jewelry.  She had so many wonderful qualities including great generosity, joyfulness, strength, and devotion to her grandchildren. She was very loving, animated, and full of the light of intelligence. She was deeply committed to a very healthy lifestyle, and loved being part of a fishing family who was immersed in the beauty of nature and the ocean.

Ginny was a spiritual seeker, and was grateful to join her friends in the Ocean of Love Meditation Circle in Sitka. She fell in love with Sufi teachings and stories, and the community of like-minded inquirers. One could often find her at home reading or meditating. Several times she hosted a group of Sitka friends at her condo in Seattle, for meditation retreat weekends.  She was exuberant when she had a chance to show her friends around Seattle, her favorite “stomping grounds.”  

She desired love, harmony and beauty in this world, and worked on those qualities daily.  She had a grounded meditation practice, read copious volumes of spiritual teachings, and loved to share  and discuss her emerging realizations.  Ginny went to Albuquerque, NM in 2009 with 4 others from Sitka, to be on retreat with Pir Zia. It was there that she ecstatically took bayat with him.

Having a terminal brain tumor was initially devastating, and took Ginny down many difficult roads, with many challenging twists and turns. There were waves of disbelief, and then questioning – how?  and why? – interspersed with layers of acceptance and surrender. She wanted to unravel the mystery of exactly how she could have been stricken with brain cancer, but that was an impossible task.  Ginny came to a place of acceptance, and was a beautiful model for gracefully parting from this world.

Ginny was always able to gaze deeply into your eyes, and even without any words exchanged, a heart to heart, soul to soul, connection was present and palpable. 

Shortly before she was no longer able to talk, she shared one of her last decisions about dying, saying, “I’m not going to fight it, I’m going to love it.”