Grace

Grace Bennett grew up in Clairemont, in San Diego, and lives in Encinitas, California, a few streets from the ocean. She has never lived more than forty minutes from the Pacific. She studied English at San Diego State and earned a certificate in teaching English to speakers of other languages. She describes herself as warm and calm, and she admits she is late for everything except classes.

Grace has followed the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda since she was nineteen, when she found a two-dollar copy of his "Autobiography of a Yogi" in a used bookstore. She meditates before dawn and then walks her golden retriever on the beach, which she calls her second meditation. She loves yoga, chanting and vegetarian cooking, and she speaks happy, imperfect Portuguese she picked up on retreats in Brazil.

For fifteen years Grace taught English to immigrants and refugees at a community college in San Diego, where she learned patience with absolute beginners. She now teaches English, including English for yoga and meditation, from her garden studio. She has seen that one quiet conversation lets a shy student say what they never would in front of thirty people. Her hardest skill is waiting while a student finds the word.