Greetings.
I invite you to take a deep breath. There is a reason you are here.
For me, and surely many of Dr. Jamie Lauren Zimmerman’s family members, friends, colleagues, patients, teachers and fans, October 12 is forever marked as a day of remembrance of a life that left us forever changed.
My own healing process after her passing has been steep but fruitful, aided by many angels, and in the end, I take comfort in Jamie’s enduring relevance. It never ceases to amaze me just how timely Jamie’s core messages continue to be.
In a time of immeasurable stressors from environmental challenges to the renewed enshrinement of evil on high, is there ever a day when we could not benefit from pausing, refocusing, and rebalancing?
Meditation medicine offers an ancient gift of helping us to remember that we are born from the stuff of stars and will always carry that explosive power of regeneration within us. In that way, every time we push back the tide of stress with a deep, clean breath, we are calling in the spirit of HOPE. We are acknowledging that the way of now is not static. We can create ourselves anew. We can create our societies anew. We can create our future anew. Jamie embodied this hope, nurturing it within her so that she could ride it’s golden wave past tragedy, oppression and pain to claim her destiny, and use her journey as an open hand offering to hoist us up with her.
Jamie’s hand is still open, beckoning to us from the warm vibrations of her voice in the many videos she recorded, the wisdom flowing through the lines of her articles, the radiance of her smile.
In my own life, I have found that everything I do to honor Jamie circles back and blesses me. I encourage you to continue honoring Jamie in your own way from recommitting to your own wellness to taking up the causes so dear to Jamie in life.
I believe for instance that Jamie would be using her platform to help free the immigrant and refugee children the U.S. government has abducted and interned.
I’m certain she would be continuing her work to encourage Peace between Israel and Palestine and the easing of trauma.
I know that she would be delighted to see her friends at The Goldie Hawn Foundation’s MindUp program “creating harmony through a mindful classroom.”
Whether you are remembering Jamie today, or just coming to know this incredible soul, please use this site to refresh your health, reconnect to your passion and most of all fortify your own personal magic so that you may offer it to the precious world of interconnection, equality, respect, and progress even now being born.
With Love,
Mitakuye Oyasin (All My Relations/Lakota)
Aretha
P.S. Don’t hesitate to be in touch if you would like to donate items to Jamie’s archive or send a gift of support towards the upkeep of her site which is an unpaid labor of love. Peace!
2017/2018
October, 2017 marked the two year anniversary of the passing of the beloved Dr. Jamie Lauren Zimmerman. Jamie was a truly exceptional woman of many proud heritages who traveled the world leaving a trail of wisdom, beauty, passion, and hope in her wake. Her example of perseverance through adversity, self-realization, and deep agape built us a lighted path on which to emerge from the communal heartbreak of these unprecedented times.
It is one of the great honors of my life to have inherited Jamie’s website and I hope that you, whether Jamie’s family member, friend, collaborator, colleague, patient, or curious global relative, will find resources on this site to turn our collective stress to calm, fear to courage, and grief to enlightened action.
Jamie and I met in Hollywood at the International Documentary Association many years ago and I was immediately taken by her glow. When she came to see me just before her passing, we stood eye to eye marveling at the force field of love between us. It was clear that we are sisters of the soul, mirroring one another in countless ineffable ways.
“Alchemize” was a favorite word of Jamie’s and she excelled in turning her own pain to gold. When my grief at Jamie’s loss redoubled after finding that her website had been deleted, I worked with Jamie’s dear aunt Mrs. Jean Strunsky to rescue the remaining files.
I am happy to announce the relaunch of jamiezmd.com under the umbrella of The Jamie Zimmerman Legacy Project, a moniker for all of my efforts to keep Jamie’s work pulsing forward that came to me in meditation.
The JZLP has helped to alchemize my own grief at Jamie’s passing by inviting me to step up onto new plateaus of learning, eschew perfectionism, expand my circle, deepen my relationship to mindfulness, and to go boldly in the direction of my soul’s purpose.
My vision is for jamiezmd.com to become a living celebration of Jamie’s most cherished dreams for the world. The Jamie Zimmerman Legacy Project seeks to uplift and advance the world-saving core principles of Dr. Jamie Zimmerman, encouraging you to make your passion your paycheck, integrate socially, stand up for equality, realize holistic wellness, and more.
With the help of my darling husband, I have begun by consolidating many of Jamie’s guided meditations, articles, and bios so that you may connect to her genius with ease.
Unending gratitude goes out to Jean for her determined support, and to Jamie’s loving circle with a deep bow to Harkiran Gill, Angie Pack and Kalyanee Mam for their divine comfort, encouragement and aid.
It is my prayer that you will find inspiration and healing here and that you will reach out with your gifts and ideas for next steps to help us expand and support one another.
There is no limit to the miracles we can accomplish when we join forces in Jamie’s honor!
I welcome the submission of tributes, stories and your creative work as well.
Peace and power to you.
With Love,
Aretha
*UPDATE: I am in awe of the positivity and gratitude flowing in from your responses. Blessings to you all.
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
She rose
Bringing the gifts that her ancestors gave,
She is the dream and the hope of the slave.
She rose
She rose
She rose
-Adapted from “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou