Today we’d like to introduce you to Elaine Miles.
Hi elaine, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My memoirs, Razing Elaine-Stumbling, Tumbling, Fumbling-Breaking Through, speak to not only surviving childhood trauma but thriving via conventional/non-conventional careers/ profound spiritual development. I would go from a young mother to my first venture into the work world as a medical coder. I then became a schoolteacher followed by a bodyworker leading to a kink sex worker and intimacy coach in order to follow my inspirations. I would do this while managing a brutal custody fight and clinical depression. I had no support system except for psychiatric units.
I was formally recognized as an artist in 2023. I now run an Airbnb as I welcome others into my home gallery.
My deep desire for wisdom was a constant source of curiosity. My insistence on authenticity led my ongoing spiritual journey over the years, and I have raised my consciousness to a very rare high calibration of love and compassion. This high resonance allows the law of attraction continues to work in my favor. Abundance, in all its, forms show up in a seamless flow.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I grew up overlooked. While my parents chain-smoked through the chaos of a small Philadelphia row home, I picked used gum off parking lot asphalt, rode my bike across the racial divide, and taught myself that asking for help meant you wouldn’t get it.
I wasn’t indoctrinated into “normal.” I slipped through the cracks and that became my superpower. Last year I published my memoir’s, Razing Elaine, stumbling, tumbling, fumbling, breaking through. It’s a raw, unfiltered story of a woman who broke every rule that didn’t serve her. Getting fired. Getting arrested. Being committed to a psych hospital. Embroiled in one conflict after another I navigated sexual freedom and the dating scene with the backdrop of multiple degrees, professional ventures, and a Billy Joel obsession that became a lifeline.
Simultaneous, compounding obstacles were my mainstay for most of my adult life. The short stories in Razing Elaine depict how I tumbled through childhood, fumbled motherhood, and stumbled over and over in careers and relationships. Living in Philadelphia afforded me with the opportunity to find employment in many hospitals as a medical coder and return to colleges several times depending upon my next inspiration. As a teacher, I had the choice of different school systems to move through both as a substitute teacher and one with her own classroom. I never had difficulty finding work. Philly is a hub of culture, and I used that to obtain a platform for the exotic belly-dancing I enjoyed for many years at local establishments in the city proper. I enjoyed visiting many different neighborhoods and landmarks. I’d rollerblade on Kelly Drive aka Boathouse Row. Admiring the architecture of East Falls and Chestnut Hill as I stopped in Valley Green for a nature stroll were just a few ways I enjoyed the variety on a weekend day.
My neurodivergence served me immensely in pattern recognition and I adopted forward motion as my modus operandi. Eventually, I would break through the neurotic dynamics and victimhood mentality. As a result, I thrive without interruptions.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are creative beings. Without the intrusive indoctrination of our culture, I maintain my childlike curiosity. It has always been a resource in solving problems with a resourcefulness and perspective of an artist’s lens. Resilience is another attribute. Life wants to change and grow. It will challenge you until you realize your potential. My gift was an uncanny ability to meet those colossal challenges and move two steps ahead and one backwards.
After my divorce in 1985 I belly-danced celebrating my body experiencing spiritual joy in the process. I alchemized the repression that Catholicism instilled. Over the years, my soul has expressed itself in many unique home environments. I utilize fashion as a medium for self-expression giving voice to the various personas within. I can envision a “look” for the identity I most feel connected to and create it. Since then, I’ve worn several professional hats, improvising until I settled into each one.
I’ve never concerned myself with the thoughts and opinions of others. I never learned this type of neurosis. In some situations, I was accepted as an eccentric. In others, including immediate family members I was ostracized.
Managing personal and professional relationships has always challenged me, but my life has always been about personal growth. Sometimes I have friends. Sometimes I don’t. It’s odd. Haven’t celebrated my birthday in years. The conventions of the Western world are met with mixed feelings anyhow. I find this culture to be absurd for the most part. A healthy society provides for all its members. It does not abandon those without supportive families and adequate incomes. It provides mentors and developmental initiations. It emphasizes life as sacred and infuses daily life with devotional rituals. Its people know they are loved and accepted regardless of achievements. It reveres and cares for its elders. It has a center that is pure and innocent and its people know that they must lead each day with their hearts. I can be in this world and participate, but I cannot be of its’ superficiality.
In 2005 I began to offer role-plays with a website, time4play thus inadvertently placing myself in the world of professional kink. I created scenarios and enjoyed impromptu acting as I helped others experience freedom from sexual shame. Where I once was immersed in the judicial system with child custody, I would revisit it when arrested for prostitution.
It was at this time that I discovered the joy of chorale singing and now sing in two community choirs. Because I feel like a citizen of the world, singing in foreign language is especially rewarding.
That’s the thing about my life. I was always living more than one life. I’d be in the choir and receive a text for a role play. During breaks in belly dancing, I was studying for my master’s degree. I would be meeting a friend’s family while not permitted to see my children until visitation. I was standing in line for my food stamps after having dined at Le Bec Fin, a former world-renowned French Bistro in Rittenhouse Square the night before. I had to own more than one identity. This taught me about the fluidity of life. Much like a river, it flows and doesn’t accept anything less than forward movement. Blockages and seemingly permanent obstructions cause dis ease and pollution.
In 2016 began to play with clay. I combined these pieces in an organic fashion with found objects to create assemblage wall hangings which hung in Scrambled, a former art gallery in New Hope. Transporting my art was not something that I embraced and did not pursue this route any further, I enjoy seeing my offspring in my home and giving them as gifts. I enjoy repurposing items I often find on the curb on trash day, providing them with a new life and identity.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
There are no coincidences. Everything happens from metaphysical forces. By staying engaged with life I am systematically inserting my will into the mix. With an attitude of gratitude for the most basic gifts like food and a comfortable home, I open my heart and feel joy expanding my being. I state my intentions to the universe. “I recognize unhealthy patterns” “I live with an open heart.” “All toxins are neutralized.”
I relax into a knowing, faith if you will, that needed shifts in my system occur. My higher self/absolute love is engaged and the seamless connection to the actual “Source” (of love), is engaged. And so it is……
Contact Info:
- Website: https://razingelaine.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soultymes?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWUyMmdhNzNmbXM4dQ
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Razing-Elaine-Stumbling-Tumbling-Fumbling/dp/196501643X
