Jayme Claire O’Daniel, known here as Jayme, has been a regular presence at UCC since 2016. For the previous 21 years, she attended services with her mother, June Harben, when visiting our area.
Born in Puerto Rico, Jayme lived there for only her first six months. Her Air Force family moved frequently—to Georgia, Indiana, Alaska, California, and, just before Jayme entered 11th grade, to Clearwater.
Always a spiritual seeker, fascinated by Eastern religion, Jayme recalls life changing experiences at age 16, committing to spirit and higher purpose. She became a vegetarian and never ate meat again, discovered healing abilities, and read Hermann Hesse’s powerful novel of spiritual illumination and self discovery. “My life started with Siddhartha,” she says today.
All of these early influences would enhance future learning opportunities and career growth. After receiving her massage license in 1979, Jayme focused her energy on transforming massage into a viable health care choice. She created four healing establishments, both solo and with partners. Empathic abilities to diagnose diseases and use of physical, nutritional, psychological and spiritual approaches propelled her to the leading edge in her field. During the last 17 years of a 41-year career, she practiced her healing arts in Nantucket, primarily as a neuromuscular therapist.
Later pivotal events included a six-week study in India as the house guest of a famous guru who taught Advaita, one of the classic paths to spiritual realization in the Hindu tradition. After this re-thinking experience, Jayme spent four years in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, finding fulfillment in nature, occupied in diverse activities such as becoming an avid gardener and assisting in calving (in Florida, she had helped midwives deliver babies).
In 2016, timing created another important change. Jayme’s house in Nantucket was sold, her daughter Sarah needed help with a new baby, and her mother had heart failure. It seemed that the universe was directing her to be closer to family (her son Jeremy lives in Vero Beach). She found and purchased a home just a few doors away from her parents. Here, she lives with Sarah and the 3-year-old precocious granddaughter Veda, whose name of Sanskrit origin, means knowledge and wisdom. (However, Veda is named for a character from an 80s movie.) Interestingly, another granddaughter, Sita, 22, happens to have the name of a Hindu goddess, also a choice not associated with Jayme’s interest in Eastern religion and Hindu study.
Of her latest move to Clearwater, Jayme says, “there is no doubt that I am in the exact place I am supposed to be.” Unity connections lift her spirits, and “attending services with Leddy is like listening to a Spiritualist, a TED Talk, and a comic all wrapped up in one! I know all is in Divine Order and when it is the right time, I will know what I am to do next to express myself and create an income again. Until then I remain grateful for this amazing community of beautiful souls in this House Built on Love.”