Text and photo from the "Goleta Sun Newspaper," Wednesday, April 12, 1989

picture caption: Susan Kramer, alias Shuchi, helps people relate through her writing.
Photo by Mark Lewis, Goleta Sun

Author relates … with love

By Bill Greenwald
Sun news reporter

     For most of her life, going back to when she was a teenager, people naturally turned to Susan Kramer when they had spiritual questions in their lives.
     Now 42, the 13-year Goleta resident still gives spiritual advice but these days she does it in book form. Kramer, who uses the spiritual name of Shuchi (meaning pure heart) in her writing, completed a book last year, "Relating…From Light and Love," that is designed to help people listen to their conscience and let it be their guide in everyday situations.
     "Each person has that guide if we listen to it," she says. "We don't have to depend on outside sources."
     Shuchi's book is divided into four sections. The first deals with humans' place in the whole of creation; the second with relating to others as family, friends or mates.
     The third is a section on practical living in the workplace and schools, and the final section deals with uplifting people to help them experience their own state of happiness.
     A disciple of Indian guru Swami Satchidananda since 1977, Shuchi admires his ecumenical work with all faiths, not just Christianity, and "seeing that all faiths lead to the same experience of God."
     Shuchi gave an example of how to tune into one's own intuition and conscience in an everyday situation.
     "When faced with a decision when my children need my time and I'd rather go to the movies, I usually go with the child's need," she says. "If I go to the movies I won't be happy. By staying with the child my own inner sense of peace is maintained. There's no conflict."
     It is those decisions that lead a person to his own natural sense of peace that Shuchi calls "tuning in to your own self-maintenance program."
     Shuchi is a multifaceted talent with a rich background of experience. She has always been involved in some aspect of the arts. She was a classical ballet dancer in… Baltimore until she was 28 and also became a well-known artist in abstract color construction in Maryland. She wrote her first book, "Free to Move While Learning the Three R's," a manual for teaching in early childhood education, …[in 1978 in] Santa Barbara. She also illustrated the book.
     "I was encouraged by my parents to express myself and set myself to whatever I tried to do," she says. "It's 99 percent work and one percent talent."
     "Part of the learning tools to peace that she talks about in her book includes living as close to nature as possible. Clean diet, positive attitude and a healthy body bring about a balance of activity between the physical, mental and emotional bodies, she says.
     "Relating…From Light and Love" is the first book of a projected three-part trilogy. "Intertwining Lives" and "Just Love All" are the other two.
     The mother of five children, Shuchi has lived in Goleta since 1976, when she came here from Annapolis, Md. to visit a friend and fell in love with the area.
     "I loved the combination of ocean, green valley, the beautiful mountain peaks and all the lushness and color," she says.
     "Relating…From Light and Love" is available from Coleman Publishing...

posted July 3, 2000; updated page July 17, 2007 with banner linked to my new books now available