Today, I’m eager to introduce Katie Dutcher, Quest for Eternal Sunshine’s webmaster. Katie is a very important collaborator in my mission to share my father’s story and legacy, as well as other valuable resources for healing, wisdom and self-discovery. In addition to her technical skills, she is a professional mindfulness and meditation teacher, a great writer, and a smart, grounded person with much wisdom to impart.

Interviewing Katie taught me many things about her I never knew before (it’s amazing what you can learn when you ask questions!), like the fact that she was born and raised in a small, predominantly Mennonite town in Ohio into a Mennonite family.

Katie and her three siblings grew up hearing her parents’ stories about their two years as missionaries in Nigeria. Throughout her life, Katie has taken every opportunity to travel the world. She has spent immersive time in Papua New Guinea, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain and Mexico. After getting a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language, she taught writing and grammar at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco, where she lived and taught for four years. It was there that she met her husband of eleven years, Adil.

In 2010, Katie and her husband moved to Monterey because she was hired to lead the English as a Second Language program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Five years later, she left this position to teach mindfulness and meditation full time.

Myra: Katie, please tell us about the journey that inspired your pivot from English instructor to meditation and mindfulness teacher.

Katie: Eleven years ago, I began to notice that something was different. I had an increasingly short fuse and dimmer outlook on life. I knew something needed to change. I began in the simplest way, by googling “How to be happy.” Over and over, my research taught me that happy, resilient people tended to meditate and practice mindfulness. I began reading books on the subject, and soon started to practice in small ways in my everyday life. In a short time, just by intentionally paying attention, things changed so dramatically for me that it felt like a miracle.

When I saw that my local hospital was offering Jon Kabat-Zinn’s intensive program, “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” (MBSR), I eagerly signed up. This program gave me a more solid foundation to continue to practice and learn.

When my father died in 2014, the process of grieving invited me to question the overall direction of my life. I realized I no longer loved my work and wasn’t fully engaged. What I felt deeply passionate about was the practice of mindfulness—the most transformative element in my adult life. I decided to pursue teacher training in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program, and was soon teaching the course at the same hospital where I’d begun my own formal study.

I later opened a meditation studio with a colleague, and most recently created Flourish & Bloom—a membership platform offering resources and events for mindfulness, self-discovery, and greater well-being. It has been incredibly rewarding to create spaces for reflection, transformation, and community that so many are in need of.

Myra: We recently added a resource about meditation and mindfulness on the Quest website. Can you tell our readers why you encourage them to give these practices a try?

Adil & Katie camping at Arroyo Seco, California, 2019

Katie: Being mindful and present is simple enough for children to understand, and at the same time, the practice is rich enough to inspire a lifetime of exploration. In my teaching, I focus on bringing presence, acceptance, and intentionality into one’s everyday life. I also feel that my calling is to help people shift from self-judgment to friendliness toward themselves, which benefits overall well-being in countless ways. Just as Mendek talks about numerous times in Quest for Eternal Sunshine, when we are more at home within ourselves, we can also be with others in a more kind and loving way.

Myra: English teacher, meditation teacher, and now webmaster? How and when did you move into tech?

Katie: When I began my mindfulness coaching practice, I wanted a website that looked beautiful and was easy for me to create and update on my own. I am a do-it-yourself type of person by nature and necessity. Then, when the time came to re-work our Monterey Meditation Studio website, I took that on and developed more skills.

I was actually surprised to discover that I really like building and maintaining websites. It doesn’t feel like a chore because it allows me to bring together my skills in writing, design, and organization in a way that is creative as well as useful.

Myra: One of the many reasons I love working with you is that you understand and appreciate my dad’s story and philosophy, as well as my mission to help foster healing and joy in the world. What do you find most exciting and valuable about Quest for Eternal Sunshine?

Katie: I genuinely believe that this project matters. Mendek’s journey to true peace and wellbeing is inspiring and authentic, and your mission to share your father’s healing journey, as well as your own, has the power to help others. I love being a part of a vision that serves the world by helping people heal.

When I read Quest for Eternal Sunshine, I was struck by the very personal nature of Mendek’s story and the unique breadth of it. Growing up, I studied the Holocaust, but mostly the horror of the concentration camps. In Quest, we hear a more complete story. Learning about Mendek’s upbringing in a large, influential family in a small town in Poland conveys the full impact of the tragedy in a more direct, personal way.

And yet, Mendek’s story doesn’t end with the Holocaust. What is so inspiring to me about your father’s journey is his spirit: alive, inventive, endlessly questioning and creative. He undertook the work of transformation on his own, and found his way. He must have been an amazing man. In Mendek, I find hope for the rest of us in our own healing journeys.

Katie’s offerings:

While our current situation around the globe is challenging in so many ways, Katie also sees it as a compelling invitation for introspection and personal growth. How we relate to the ever-present truths of uncertainty, fear, and discomfort can actually help us grow and find meaning in our lives.

Flourish & Bloom is a membership platform offering resources and events for mindfulness, self-discovery, and greater well-being. If you’d like support in practicing mindfulness and meditation, please check out this unique online community. Katie also works with clients individually.

More than a Webmaster: Meet Katie Dutcher