Malibu native writes a book designed to help people improve “quality of life.”
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Growing up confused and angry, Malibu native Michael Crawford discovered the path of divinity and the service of helping people. He has since distilled the life lessons he picked up on along the way into “100 Meditations,” a collection of simple, practical essays on reasonable ways “to improve the quality of your life in a responsible manner.”
“I’m not trying to tell people how to live, just describe what I’ve seen that works,” Crawford said in explaining the difference between his book and the many self-help tomes available.
Crawford is an ordained pastor and founder of two nonprofit counseling and resource centers in the Antelope Valley: Innovative Consulting and Women’s Resource Center of North County. He said his path to spiritual leadership wasn’t the expected route.
“I was the only kid in my family to graduate from college and they all wanted me to go into law,” Crawford said of his upbringing in a household of eight children. “My mother couldn’t deliver her first baby at the local hospital because she was mixed-race, so it was a big deal for me to enter graduate school.”
In fact, he said, he was on his way to becoming a rapper. Crawford grew up in Malibu, attending Point Dume Elementary School, Malibu Park Junior High, then Crossroads School before heading to UCLA to study political science and philosophy. An early romance with a white Jewish girl opened his eyes to social injustice when he learned that her parents disapproved of their daughter dating a black man.
“Being a rapper was a way for me to be angry at white people,” Crawford said. “But it didn’t last long and, finally, I got to a point where I thought about killing myself.”
Though his family wasn’t religious, one of Crawford’s brothers kept telling him, “You need to learn about Jesus.”
He ended up purchasing a Bible instead of a gun.”My life changed radically,” Crawford said.
He headed to divinity school, though he was never interested in the mega-churches that seem to crop up all over Southern California. “My Mom was afraid I’d end up one of those TV preachers with gold rings,” Crawford said. “But I knew I wanted to work with the poor. I don’t have some kind of agenda.”
Crawford’s mother, Jean Crawford, still lives and works in Malibu for the Max Palevsky family. She credits much of her son’s direction to them. “Michael grew up here with the Palevsky kids and was like a big brother to them and other kids in the neighborhood,” Jean said. “I was sort of shocked at first that Michael went to divinity school, but Mr. Palevsky’s architect used to talk about the Bible to him.”
Crawford started to speak at women’s shelters and to disaffected youth.
“You have to help people find their own answers,” Crawford said.
In 2005, Crawford went to the mayors of Palmdale and Lancaster and asked them, “What is your greatest social need here?”
The response was immediate: low-cost counseling for the marginalized population who live in the Antelope Valley. Innovative Consulting and the Women’s Resource Center of North County were born. Both are funded purely by donations.
“I hire specialists in different fields,” Crawford explained. “I have a real estate expert for the guy facing foreclosure. For people who need long-term mental health counseling, I have people for that. Basically, I have experts with common sense who give plain advice. And all our counselors give their time for free.”
“100 Meditations” started germinating about 10 years ago. Crawford wanted to write something “that anyone could pick up and find good advice.”
He started taking notes and, while watching his own children enter puberty (Crawford has five children with wife, Danielle), realized that they would provide even more substance for inspiration.
“I wanted to wait to write a book till I had experienced teenagers,” he said. “It makes a better book.”
Some of his “meditations” grew from metaphors-as-life he encountered every day. “I had this tree at my house that I was trying to get to grow a certain way, so I tied it to the house,” Crawford said. “Well, the tree was growing so much it was tearing the roof off and my brother finally said, ‘Your gonna lose your roof for a tree.'”
Crawford laughed, saying watching your children fight for their independence was the same thing. “You can’t tie them to you,” he said.
Crawford’s “100 Meditations” covers issues ranging from “Prioritizing Your Conflicts” to “Preferences Do Not Equal Morality” to “Sleep Debt,” and his idea is to offer everyday advice to everyday people. He is intensely involved in researching different models for community organizing that work.
“I just returned from nine days in Baltimore, where I got to see community organizers in programs that opened clinics and schools in underserved areas,” Crawford said. “There are so many great things you can apply. I have always felt any gifts I have are kept in a box in traditional ministries. There are many ways to help people.”
Crawford’s book can be found online at www.100meditations.com