The 42nd Beethoven Letter

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continued support. You make it possible for me to keep going. I spent my early years in the work asking for help from these people over here to help those people over there. I asked Quakers and others to share with me the necessities of life. Forty-Four years later, your good care and my work, goes on.

Beginning my work with rape survivors, I added work in the AIDS wars. Then came work in prisons, with tortured refugees, ritual abuse survivors, and teaching how to do crisis work and avoid burnout. Each of these populations meant learning new realities
and how trauma is a very common experience. And every year you’ve been there to say – Yes, keep going, here’s support for you. I’ve had a life’s work supported by witnesses to my healing gifts.

After several months of various ailments unfairly aging me ahead of schedule, I am well, though slower. I have engagements for teaching this summer that I look forward to very much.

My memoir is coming along. Writing increases memory, bringing more and more stories to the fore. It has been daunting. I hope you will keep me in heart and mind for this task. I am now mostly writing the stories of healing, a comfort and a relief.

Marshall & I are celebrating 40 years together. Love is a great teacher to unfold and become. Our small passive solar back-to-the-land 50 year old home in the Vermont woods is a refuge and springboard. Although the outhouse was a brisk 40 F this morning, we are enjoying spring.

Thank you again for so many years of support. I am turning 74 as I write this. I need your help. I am still working, primarily with people and organizations that cannot pay. Forty + years of teaching and touching has been possible because of your generous help. Thank you and please send a gift.

In the Light,

John Calvi, May 2026