By Madeline Strong Diehl
Many people believe they can maintain a spiritual connection with a loved one even after that person dies. Ann Arbor resident Layla Ananda says that’s true for her, too—though two of the most important people in her life were complete strangers whom she never met. Ananda started to lose her eyesight at the age of twenty-nine, but thanks to two corneal donors and a pair of contact lenses, she now enjoys 20-20 sight.
“It’s a miracle!” she said during an interview at her home. “I cannot say enough about how profoundly grateful I am that two strangers and their families chose to donate a part of their bodies to me as they passed from this earth. I am grateful every day for their gift.”
Ananda says that receiving two corneal donations is just one of a series of “miracles” and “gifts” that have made it possible for her to continue to see the faces of her loved ones and the beauty of nature around her. On a more practical level, she says she feels fortunate that an optometrist discovered her condition—keratoconus—during a routine eye exam. She’s also lucky that it was caught early and progressed very slowly.
Her list of miracles and gifts goes on from there: she’s acutely aware that, if she were living in almost any other country, donated corneas can be rare, and she may have never received one. (Ananda received her corneal transplants from Eversight, an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit organization that serves as the eye bank for the state of Michigan and coordinates all eye tissue donations and transplants.) And just by chance, after she moved to Ann Arbor in 1979, she lived where there was a world-class clinic—the Kellogg Eye Center—that could offer her care. Along with that gift came Dr. Shahzad Ihsan Mian, MD; a U-M professor and world expert on keratoconus—a rare disease that causes the cornea to thin and bulge, resulting in scar tissue that blocks vision. Ananda has had two corneal transplant surgeries, and Dr. Mian was able to perform both of them. “It’s amazing how he can make these tiny little stitches on the eye by hand to attach a cornea,” explained Ananda. Her first surgery took place in 2003 and the other in 2014.
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Layla Ananda is a petite, graceful woman with short-cropped white hair and hazel eyes that change colors, from blue to grey to brown and green, depending on the light. She moved to Ann Arbor to take a job with North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO), a federation of housing cooperatives established in 1968. She earned her B.A. in contemporary musicology from Michigan State University and met her husband while they were both living in co-ops and performing folk music in East Lansing. She adds that music is still very important in her life. She plays the guitar and dulcimer and sings as part of numerous groups, including Our Own Thing Corale, the Threshhold Choir, and the Outloud Chorus. “Singing is a way to bring spirit into day-to-day life,” she explained.
Ananda has a very eclectic background. She earned her master’s degree in Clinical and Humanistic Psychology through the Human Center for Humanistic Studies (now called the Michigan School of Psychology), and she worked as a therapist for a decade during the 1980s. She also was ordained as a priest through the Sanctuary of the Beloved in upstate New York, and has gathered wisdom and knowledge from many different spiritual traditions. Though she never met him, she calls Maharajji her “spiritual guru” (also known as Neem Karoli Baba, or simply “Baba”). She says she became familiar with his teachings through the writings of Ram Dass. “Baba had no dogma,” said Ananda. “He taught that we should love others and dedicate ourselves to a life of service.”
Ananda was raised Jewish, and “Layla Ananda” is the spiritual name that she chose for herself during her forties. “Layla” comes from lila, a Sanskrit word meaning the dance or play of life. In Hinduism and Buddhism, Ananda means “bliss.” As the founder of a business called Deep Peace Consulting, Ananda offers coaching, workshops, ceremonies, and music. When I asked her if she was a spiritual teacher or a healer, she quickly demured. “I am more a student of spirit rather than a teacher. I enjoy talking with spiritual people about ideas and beliefs.” She has led many life enrichment workshops and classes, but when I asked her what she wants to do in the future, she smiled ruefully and said, “I have been trying to retire for a while now.”
She said she has been working toward racial and social equality since her twenties, and she’s keenly aware that she might have gone blind by now if she hadn’t had medical insurance to cover the cost of both corneal transplants. “We all deserve to have the excellent health care I received, and for it to be available and affordable for everyone, along with food, clothing, housing, jobs, and community support,” said Ananda. “We all deserve to be treated with honor, respect, and kindness. I hope I can use the gift of sight I have been given to help this become so.”
Meanwhile, she says she will always feel profoundly connected to the two strangers who gave her the gift of sight, though she was never able to meet them. “I think most of us take our vision for granted,” she said. “I can slip into that, too. But I frequently remember, and am so very grateful, that I can see the sky and the trees and flowers and water; that I can read a book; that I can work on my computer; that I can see my friends and family; that I have been able to visually connect with people on Zoom during the past year. Vision is a miracle that I give thanks for every day.”
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