Membership Profiles

Michael Brunner

Michael Brunner grew up in Yardley, Pennsylvania. The oldest of his three brothers and sister, he spent much of his time taking care of one brother who had Autism. In 1990 his father and mother started a day care center in Yardley. They still own and operate this center today.

Michael has a passion for philosophy. He read both western and eastern philosophy and discovered Zen through reading Alan Watts. He found that Zen seemed more practical and engaged than much of the western philosophy he had studied. At the age of 16 he converted to Christianity and a few years later left business school to enroll in an evangelical Christian seminary. He attended several seminaries but found his Biblical views were considered too liberal compared to most of the faculty members and students. He finally left seminary and resumed his passion for philosophy at Lake Forest College.

To put himself through school, he took a part-time job at Circuit City where he was quickly promoted. After about five years there, he was recruited by Bryn Mawr Stereo where he worked another five years. He was then recruited by Luna where he worked for another eight years as a Director and as Vice President of Sales. About three years ago, he met his partner, Crystal at Luna and they have been together ever since. They both practice together at the Center.

He started meditating a few years before coming to the Zen Center. After taking some Primer classes at the Center, he realized how abstract his understanding of Zen had been. He says meditation helped him work with his negative thoughts and become more grounded. Michael is now an Advanced Member of ZLMC and sits on our Board of Directors. A year and a half ago, he took the precepts in what’s called a “Jukai” ceremony from Joshin Roshi. Roshi gave him the dharma name, “Shikan” which means “Aspiration Insight”.

Michael has been married twice and has eight kids, from youngest to oldest, Antigone, Abigail, Alex, Angelo, Hannah, Steven, Emily and Michael. And there is another boy on the way. His partner, Crystal is due on December 23^rd.

Last year Michael started his own company called “Rohatsu” making meditation cushions and benches. If you’re looking for a cushion to meditate with, check out his web site at www.rohatsu.com.

Annie Olson

Annie Olson is a Practicing Member at the Zen Life & Meditation Center of Chicago. Having completed both the Primer and Gateway Series, she has had a life-long interest in spirituality beginning with yoga classes in high school. Her spiritual quest continued in college with participation in Quaker and Unitarian groups. Annie says she has always been drawn to the solitude and silence of nature and landscapes.

Both her parents were painters, where she grew up in a liberal academic environment. Her father was a professor of political science and her mother was a brilliant home-maker and artist. She has two older brothers. Her family was very close-knit and traveled much of the world, rarely staying in one place for very long.

When her parents traveled to Italy to live, they sent Annie to high school in a boarding school in Wales, UK. The school was started by the same people who created “Outward Bound”. Their mission for the school was to bring together students from many diverse cultures with an interest in promoting international understanding. She says, “It was not a rich kids’ finishing school. Most students were on scholarships and from all walks of life.” There are now 13 “United World Colleges” all over the world.

Always drawn to things spatial and visual,  she variously wanted to be an art teacher, urban planner or architect, and regretted not studying philosophy (even physics) more, she ended up getting a BA in Geography from McGill University in Montreal. She fell in love with map-making. So she continued her education by doing Masters work at Clark University in Worcester, MA in cartography. She published an international atlas called “Women in the World” , a book of maps depicting demographic and cultural information about women worldwide.

She and her husband met in Wales and were married in 1977. They lived in the Washington D.C. area for many years where she worked for the U.S. Geological Survey helping to facilitate the translation of scientific information into atlases, exhibits and public information.

Annie and her family moved to Oak Park in 2003. She has two children. Her son, Jonathan, is a musician and her older daughter, Sarah, is a graduate student at the University of Oregon studying conflict resolution. Her husband Chris is President of Life Services Network, a trade association for aging services.

Annie currently has two jobs. She works for MEM and Associates, a consulting group dedicated to enhancing the role of museums in the lives of people and their communities.  She also works part-time for Eileen Fisher, a women’s clothing retailer at the forefront of design, sustainability and progressive management practices. She is also on a life-ling quest to learn to paint.

Since taking classes at the Zen Life & Meditation Center, Annie has been struck by what a great resource the Center is for the community. She says she feels the Zen Center is doing important work in the world. She says, “The Center is such a great and valuable resource!” She’s particularly struck by the way the Center has made Zen accessible to so many people. “You’ve done such a fantastic job of welcoming and being open to everyone” she says. She says “ZLMC is very real.” “The classes”, she says, “brought practicing and philosophy into a place of every-dayness that makes sense to me.”

Brendon Shojun Gross

Brendon showed up at the Zen Center doorstep sometime around 2006. Wandering the neighborhood and sad over the loss of a friend, he noticed the center, and rung the front door bell. “In the beginning”, he says, “it was hard to meditate. I wanted to get up and leave.” But he stayed. Some members encouraged him to continue.

Brendon had a falling out with his younger sister, Leah. So he took an Inner Disarmament workshop at the Center taught by Robert Althouse. The Nonviolent Communication (NVC) skills he learned helped him to begin improving his relationship with her. He wanted his sister to forgive him, but found he first needed to forgive himself.

Brendon grew up in Oak Park, where his parents, John and Gail still live. He has found that NVC has also helped him improve his relationship with both his parents.

“There is a lot of chaos in my life “ he says, and “I never have enough time to get everything done.” He says meditation helps him see when he’s obsessing and it gives him a larger perspective on his life. He says it also helps him appreciate what is important.

Brendon is an Advanced Member at ZLMC. This year, Brendon is Head Trainee for the Zen Leadership Training (ZLT) at ZLMC. This six month program is offered free to all Advanced Members of the center. Brendon says he hopes the ZLT will provide support to Advanced Members by offering them numerous opportunities to practice together such as regular council circles, and work-practice-study groups. They are currently studying Dogen Zenji’s “Genjo Koan” from the “Shobogenzo”.

He already sees the ZLT helping to strengthen each person’s practice and commitment to living a Zen-inspired life. He is grateful people have been so accountable and continue to make themselves available to help the Zen Center.

Brendon works as a Project Supervisor for GreenCorps Chicago where he supervises people with felony backgrounds. GreenCorps does landscape projects for community gardens, schools and churches. He gets lots of opportunities on the job to practice being more mindful.

Brendon has always had a particular passion for composting and healing the environment. With GreenCorps Chicago he’s been able follow his passion through supervising crews that install and maintain native prairie landscapes found along trails of the North Branch of the Chicago River. He’s been able to plant many native grasses, trees and prairie plants along a stretch of the river that, just last year was filled with trash and litter.

If you come to the center, you’ll likely to run into Brendon. His tall, lanky frame and good-hearted nature are hard to miss. He’s a great example of how Zen practice can bring out the best in each of us.

Crystal Fogle

Crystal Fogle joined ZLMC as a Practicing Member about a year ago. She decided to get more serious about studying Zen and became an Advanced Member last December. Crystal grew up in San Diego. Her mother died when she was 5 and she never knew her father. She was raised by her grandmother, Sandy Kaegel. She moved to Arizona when she went to High School, and then went on to study at Arizona State University where she received a B.S. in Economics and Finance. She moved to Chicago in 2008. 

Crystal has worked all her life. She left home at sixteen and got a job and has been working ever since. She is now the Finance Manager for Luna and handles consumer financing for all their operations in Chicago, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Boston. 

Crystal had a challenging relationship with her church. When she visited the Zen Center looking for a new spiritual path, she was concerned that with Zen comes a ritualistic practice, but she was pleasantly surprised. She found the Zen Center was welcoming and the teachings were pracitcal and accessible. After taking all of the Core Curriculum classes she decided she wanted to pursue a deeper level of Zen training and became an Advanced Member. 

Not having much family to speak of herself, Crystal loves the sense of community she has found at ZLMC. She says, "my job is stressful and home life is busy and the Zen Center helps to support me to remain balanced and grounded." "I'm getting a crash course in parenting" she says, with Michael's seven children (Michael 15, Emily 14, Steven 11, Hannah 9, Alexander 5, Abigail 4, and Antigone 2) from his previous  marriages. Every weekend, they have all 7 children with them. 

Crystal says she loves becoming a mother. Being raised an orphan was not easy, and it's easy for Crystal to remember the unfairness of her childhood. But living a Zen-inspired life has helped her not dwell so much on the past. She says "The practice at ZLMC has helped me be the whole person I want to be." Though she became estranged from her grandmother in High School, she has now renewed her relationship to her grandmother, and recently went with Michael to visit Sandy in Arkansas. 

Crystal has become an active part of the ZLMC community. If you come to a Primer class, you are likely to meet her welcoming you, handling your registration and helping you to feel at home in our warm and growing community.