Dear Friends,
I am still here, still on the road, still at work ? not brave so much as stubborn and happy for it all. I am seeking your support to stay at work. As many of you know, my life work has been to help heal trauma as a certified massage therapist and a Quaker healer with a spiritual gift for releasing pain. I’ve been at work on this now since 1983- that’s 28 years of experience, travel, and seeking on behalf of survivors of all manner of hurt. First I learned about the rape crisis and did lots of work with survivors. And I still do since the sexually abused constitute the largest group of wounded on the planet. Next I did lots of work in the AIDS epidemic, even before we had the word AIDS or knowledge of transmission. Then I began work with refugees who had survived torture and inmates and others. A very busy 28 years (stories on my website) & I’m only 59 in May!
As my calendar shows, I am often on the road teaching by invitation to places and topics diverse and important. The healing of trauma is vast and I am a devoted tho slow learner. Sometimes I can help make small changes. Sometimes I can help make large changes. The gift that comes through me tends to be a gentle quiet shift to peace and calm and new understanding. This may not seem like much to many, but for someone who’s survived the worst that can be imagined- it’s a very large gift indeed. Calm for any survivor is very good medicine. A break from despair and glimpsing a future with less pain has power. Sometimes a change is larger than I have words for.
In 2005, I gathered with five other Quakers to form The Quaker Initiative to End Torture- QUIT! We have been engaged in education- informing people that US torture abroad hasn’t ended and has migrated to prisons at home. This too is my work and a leading that has given me much Light to continue, even though it’s burden is great. I still learn pacing and disciplines to be at my best. Even my husband Marshall Brewer after 25 years together says sometimes I don’t work too much.
Imagine such a thing- I have been able to travel and teach and get my hands on many people each year because of the support that comes from people who’ve seen this work and understand it’s important that it continue. I didn’t know I was going to live and work mainly on gifts. I wasn’t planning on quite this much suspense in my life. Nor do I find a dragging world-wide recession convenient. But I have found that support has come come each year with this letter, enough to go on and say- Yes, I can come teach maybe sometimes even if you can’t pay me because I have help.
There’s one question- Will you help me this year? Will you help me keep on and teach and touch in this time of great need from all corners? Brutality seems to be on an upswing. Compassion seems to be in danger of exhaustion. I work at ground level- a gracious way of saying cheap and easy. I would very much appreciate your kindness and generosity. I would like to stay in the fray and make more years of service. Can you help me please? I would like to be of use and I’m good at helping. And there is so much good that needs doing. Here we go again this year, are you with me?
In the Light,
John Calvi
April 2011