EKA, On Our Own, 1943-1950
EKA the multi-volume memoir is a song, Erica's song, a spiritual, sung about her life and God; how she followed her spirituality, her feelings, the waiting, worrying, then knowing the way, heart singing, through many passages in her long, long life.
Erica Maria Johanna Grossgerge was born in the German capitol of Berlin on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and eleven: 1/1/11. Her life spans most of the twentieth century and she considers herself blessed to have met so many spiritual figures important to the world's well-being.
As a young adult Erica was continually drawn towards the English speaking world, first by the film "Showboat", then by her employment in American and English companies. In Munich she met and fell in love with the son of an American diplomat. After becoming engaged, the couple moved to England, she to work as an au pair while he attended Cambridge, where they got married. With an offer for her husband to teach German while studying for his PhD at Stanford University, the couple moved to America in 1938. In California, Erica was introduced to Eastern mysticism and Sufi thought, finding the first true path that resonated with her spirituality, which she has developed throughout her long life.
Due to her husband's failed academic life, they moved into his retired parent's house down in the small town of Summerland, near beautiful Santa Barbara. There, Erica gave birth to her two sons, Michael and Daniel, and began her life as a mother. She moved out on her own, supporting herself and her sons with bookkeeping jobs while trying to start a printing press business. Following her heart as always, she moved her family again to a farm at the School of the Natural Order in San Marcos to further pursue her spiritual path studying under the American master Vitvan.
Many paths and many years later, the book EKA was written.