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John Calvi’s Year End Letter      2020 

Dear Friends, 

Well, this has turned out to be a year of stunning revelations and struggles.  I began with a writing retreat in Southern California that became a race across country as the pandemic set in.  Home by end of March, Marshall and I quarantined and adjusted to the new norms – masked ventures to the post office/grocery stores only, shocking after long careers of extensive travel.

All my teaching work went to Zoom.  Client work became appointments by phone.  I was happy to discover that the energy work given me was able to be felt deeply by most participants via internet.  Requests for my teaching increased as more groups saw the need for help with widespread trauma.  The pandemic and frightening politics put many in a state of extreme anxiety and depression.  My nearly four decades of work with sexual assault survivors, prisoners, tortured refugees, AIDS, and hospice seemed to be all preparation for the current state of despair exacerbating the regular ills of life.  I’ve been much in demand.

My thanks for the many inquiries as to Marshall’s health.  His exposure to petrol chemical herbicide affected the thyroid.  He is much improved.  He is my very best editor and IT person.

Both my books continue to help professionals and survivors.  The Dance Between Hope & Fear (2013) is about trauma and healing, plus avoiding burnout.  How Far Have You Traveled (2019) is about knowing your goodness, an important part of healing, wholeness, and being of service.

Reviews and feedback have been very positive and the small income is useful too.  These are available at Quaker Books and Amazon.  They will also be available in ebook form soon.

Late October proved most challenging.  I awoke one morning with a frightening shortness of breath.  A trip to the ER and I was diagnosed with pulmonary emboli (blood clots in the lung).  Treatments of blood thinners, rest/exercise, and diet have brought immediate improvement.  A recovery period of three to six months is expected.  I am resting at home, am out of danger, have had no pain, and am on the mend. I am grateful for good quality healthcare. 

In order to rest thoroughly, I have had to cancel work through December and will not be responding to email or phone calls. It’s fortunate that this temporary trouble comes so close to my annual period of rest. As good health returns, I will focus on my writing and look forward to teaching invitations for 2021.  I am relieved and happy my diagnosis is not complicated by Covid. I tested negative. I am grateful to recover at home with Marshall.

Some of you have already responded with generous gifts.  I am so grateful that my 39 years of hands-on work, teaching, and writing has been possible via gifts.  You are my lifeline to continue.  Please send a gift, help me get well, and move on to be of help come Spring.  There is still much good that needs doing and I hope to be part of the effort to bring more Light.

Thank you,   John Calvi

P.S. I have lost my singing voice and am auctioning my Martin D-35 Guitar and banjo soon. See details.

John Calvi’s Year End Letter      2018 

Dear Friends,
Two more states this month and my work travels for 2018 are done. My calendar shows this has been a very busy year. There’s been lots of work and lots of Light- 18 trips in 11 states. I’ve been on the road for 36 years.
There was a wide range of work also – bodywork for People with AIDS, mediating staff conflicts, spiritual disciplines for deeper seeking/avoiding burnout for crisis workers, deep rest and calm for sexual abuse survivors in an atmosphere of danger and disrespect, and the fifth occasion I’ve helped a spiritual community reestablish trust following the crimes of a pedophile.
I continue to work with many people who are made ill physically and emotionally by the tone of malice and ignorance coming out of our politics. From the separation of children from parents to the plans to cut social services, from the rise of neo-Nazi groups to the dangers befalling women, people of color, and LGBT people – people are heartsick for themselves and their families, friends, and neighbors. The need for deep peace and calm has grown to a necessity to make good choices and stay grounded.
While I am still enjoying the praises for my first book, The Dance Between Hope & Fear, I am finishing up book 2 – How Far Have You Traveled? with editors and expect to go to print soon. This winter I’ll be in seclusion to work on book 3.
I have now been on the road working primarily by invitation and living mainly on gifts since 1982. This was the year my first trauma client appeared. With some gentle massage, she recovered a memory of being drugged, kidnapped, and tortured- it was the beginning of my life’s work.
Since that time I have worked in the AIDS wars and the rape crisis for 35 years, taught in 5 prisons in the US and Canada, presented in 6 countries, worked with tortured refugees from all continents, given keynotes to 9 Yearly Meetings, founded The Quaker Initiative to End Torture- QUIT! in 2005, and I get my hands on hundreds of people each year.
All this has been done with the financial support of many. Your help has kept me on the road, teaching and touching people surviving trauma. Please help me now as need grows and the economics of charity are not lush. I need your help. I want to continue so long as my gift to release pain keeps my hands warm and the invitations still arrive. Please send a gift now.
In the Light,
John Calvi

John Calvi’s Year End Letter 2017

Dear Friends,
Another busy year is finishing up with a last work trip and a writing retreat. As you can see by my calendar this 35 th year in the work has been busy. Helping people to heal from trauma and mentoring healers has continued with wonderful teaching opportunities.
While there are no prisons or refugee centers listed on my calendar, each year I get my hands on people from all such situations and more among the general population. Each teaching trip involves engaging the life wounds of individuals who carry the worst of it in heavy hearts, rounded shoulders, painful joints, and mental anguish- all the while saying they are fine. Warm hands have a hospitality all their own that brings out secrets, that longing for wellness, and to let the burden go. This is a wonderful work for my gifts.
The Quaker Initiative to End Torture- QUIT! is twelve years old. I have been teaching the history and current status of American torture as the founding convener of QUIT all this time. Each night I search for news of American torture to share and teach. I offer presentations, publish news stories, and now we are rebuilding the website.
Writing and publishing is a great joy for me. My first book, The Dance Between Hope & Fear, teaching about healing from trauma, continues to bring me high praise from healthcare professionals, clergy, and survivors. My second book, How Far Have You Traveled, is being wrangled by editors with the hope of going to print this year. This second book focuses on having a sense of ones goodness, a powerful idea in healing and all of life. All of December I will be in a solitary retreat in the California desert to work on book three- the stories of my own healing and spiritual adventures. While writing is not an easy or natural act for this learning disabled gay Quaker healer, it’s a necessity.
I have been invited to give the keynote plenary to Great Plains Yearly Meeting. This is the tenth yearly meeting invitation to give a plenary I’ve accepted with gratitude and delight. Recognition from fellow seekers and workers of compassion is energizing.
For 35 years I have worked primarily by invitation and lived mainly on gifts. (I do not recommend this to anyone shy about suspense.) All this time you and many others have kept me on the road- teaching, doing hands-on healing energy work, and reporting new hope from difficult places. I need your help to continue. I need your practical and pragmatic support to do more. I’m only 65 ½. I know there’s more to come. Please help.
In the Light,
John Calvi            

John Calvi’s Year End Letter 2016 November

Dear Friends,
This annual letter shares news of my work travels this past year. It’s also a reminder that I live primarily by gifts. Some of you have already been so kind to send a Fall gift and I am especially grateful for this. Working mainly by invitation and living mostly by gifts is a cooperative venture that has worked well now for 32 years. It must be a record of some sort- the kindness of paying for compassionate work and a Nielson rating all in one!
It’s been a good year of travel work and some work at home. My calendar shows several states and various situations where I taught and got my hands on people. The range of need remains quite wide – parents who lost a child and needed lots of gentle hands on work, the ritual abuse survivor who cannot be touched and needs to face an open door. Yes, I can do the energy work from across the room without touching- this is an important tool. Sexual assault is too common a trauma in our culture and continues as the oldest form of torture, especially in war zones. Also common and in plentiful supply is the broken heart, betrayals, and loneliness. All these are addressed each year in workshops, individual sessions, and meeting for healing. It’s good to have a life’s work. I have been able to continue each year because of your support. Your pragmatic help means I’m ready to trundle off on another adventure of Light, the gift of healing shared.
Many of you have voiced deep appreciation for my first book, The Dance Between Hope & Fear, this came out in June 2013. And inquired after my second book, How Far Have You Traveled. It’s so unfortunate that I lost my excellent editor Shelly Angel part way through the shaping of this book. She did such a great job on the first book. I’ve made my way through half the manuscript of book two and hope to finish corrections this Fall and Winter before finding a new editor for polishing. On a long writing retreat last Winter, I began book three. Book one is on healing from trauma. Book two is on having a sense of your goodness. Book three will be the stories of my own healing and spiritual experiences becoming a Quaker healer. I don’t have a stay at home writers life, so please be patient as I balance travel healing work with writing.
I need your help to continue. Your financial support means I can help some who can’t pay, travel to where I’m needed, and return to a home of sanctuary for restoration. Please send a gift. And thank you for keeping me on the road.
In the Light,
John Calvi

John Calvi’s Year End Letter 2015

November 2015
Dear Friends,
I am preparing for my last work trips of 2015 as I write this. It’s been a busy and wonderful year as my calendar shows- a dozen trips to work in 8 states and provinces to work with Congolese torture survivors, people with AIDS, abuse survivors, among other life- wounded people. Plus I’ve worked with many people doing good works in the world in need of rest and restoration to continue and avoid burnout.
The reviews of my first book, The Dance Between Hope & Fear, continue to receive high marks for teaching about healing from trauma. My second book, How Far Have You Traveled, will go to press this Spring. This book is about having a sense of your own goodness. Knowing your goodness is key to healing and living a life where your best precedes all. This is the culmination of teaching I’ve done for the last 40+ years in trauma work and as an educator in classrooms and summer camps.
I am about to begin a new adventure. I’ve outlined a third book. This will be the story of my own healing and how I came to my work as a Quaker healer. So many of these stories have not been shared before. Some few of them have only been heard while I’m teaching. I am setting off in November for an extended writing retreat and will return in February. I will need your support for all of this- the retreat and beginning a new year of travel work.
Living mainly on gifts means many things. It means that I am not always paid for the work that I do. It means that I can work with this person or group that cannot pay because these people over here have sent a gift. It means trusting that enough people have seen my work and feel it’s important that I continue. It can mean suspense and scarcity at times- this economy can be tough on trust. I first sent this letter out in 1984 and have been living on gifts ever since. I need your help to continue. I need your help to say yes to more invitations to work. I need your support to teach through my writing and reach many more people. Please send a gift.
In the Light,
John Calvi

John Calvi’s Year End Letter 2013

Dear Friends,
Thank you for all your good care and strong support over 2013.  It’s been a very full year.  I’ve been working with several people – helping some to live, helping some to die.  I’ve traveled the country and worked with groups in 10 states.  I’ve been teaching massage, energy work, healing from trauma, avoiding burnout, among other things.  This is my 31st year teaching all this, working by invitation, and living mainly on gifts.
The biggest news for me was the publication of my book in late June.  “The Dance Between Hope & Fear” is 225 pages of my journals, letters, speeches, and lectures.  The response has been beyond all I could hope for with many people saying it’s a long awaited gift to keep and use for all time.  Shelly Angel, my editor, has done a tremendous job of shaping stacks of old papers, scribbled journals, and ancient computer files into a cohesive whole.  It’s available from Friends General Conference Bookstore and from Amazon.  I hope you will enjoy it.  Work on a second book already began this summer.
My calendar shows a wide range of uses for a Quaker healer in his 6th decade.  All this has been possible because support has come even during difficult financial times.  I’ve never gotten use to the suspense of living on gifts really.  But every year I am made grateful and productive because your kindness and generosity continue and so much good work is done.
I need your help to do more.  Please.  I have more work to do as a Quaker healer and as a teacher.  I have more work to do as the founding convener of the Quaker Initiative to End Torture- QUIT!  I have more work to do as a writer and a seeker.  Please send a gift and help me continue.  Thank you for all your kindness these many years.
In the Light,
John Calvi

2012 Year End Letter by John Calvi
Dear Friends,
I’ve recently returned from my final travel work for the year.  I taught in 7 states to 14 groups.  It’s been a wonderful time of teaching healing from trauma, avoiding burnout for caregivers, and updates on American torture and the Quaker work to end it.
This is my 30th year of traveling and teaching as a Certified Massage Therapist specializing in trauma and a Quaker healer with a gift for releasing pain.  It’s been a great ride of hands-on work, teaching, and learning more.  I began working in the rape crisis.  Women with sexual hurt constitute the largest group of wounded on the planet.  Then I began work in the AIDS pandemic.  Work in prisons and with tortured refugees followed.  I’ve continued with each group by invitation all this time. 
Your gifts and donations have made all this possible over 30 years.  Imagine being able to say yes to work because support will come and the needy don’t have to pay.  This is a great freedom.  I need your help to continue.  There is much good that needs doing and I am ready for more.  Your help is important, especially now in these economic times.  You will understand I am at some risk but going on.  Please send a gift.
A small miracle has occurred- an editor has come forward to take all my writings and speeches and create a book.  We hope to be published in 2013.  I’ll send notice, but keep watch this summer.  Much work has been done both Spring and Fall for this.
Some of my teaching can be heard via pod cast here –
Here teaching Nursing students at Dominican University in San Raphael, CA Oct 24 2012 –
http://radio.dominican.edu/audio/121024calvi.mp3
Here’s an interview with Northern Spirit Radio-
http://www.northernspiritradio.org/index.asp?command=showinfo&showid=569667511687
Here’s a speech on Healing America and ending torture –

http://www.quakerbooks.org/to_go_where_there_is_no_light.php

Please send a gift and help me to stay on the road in 2013 and beyond.  I am very grateful for your every consideration.
In the Light,
John Calvi

2011 Year End Letter by John Calvi

Dear Friends,
It’s been a year full of wonderful invitations and good work. I’ve been welcomed into beautiful teaching opportunities all across country. And for this I am very grateful. A life’s work is a gift to keep learning, more and better.
I began my work of healing trauma in 1982 and began to receive invitations to travel and teach in 1985. For me it’s been a study in reverence and self-disciplines that has taken a reluctant student and mercifully shaped a teacher and healer. A gift for releasing pain is useful for many different kinds of hurt.
Among the wonderful invitations this year, was to speak to a gathering of North American Quakers on healing America by ending torture. It’s available here –
http://www.quakerbooks.org/to_go_where_there_is_no_light.php
In many ways this felt to be a culmination of 30 years work with torture survivors and as founding convener of The Quaker Initiative to End Torture. I recommend this to you as representing an essence of my life’s work. There is also a recording of a radio interview on healing and torture here-
http://www.northernspiritradio.org/index.asp?command=showinfo&showid=569667511687
This has also been a year when friends in need have been plentiful. I am not a primary care person, but often I am helping a dozen people to transition in their dying or healing of trauma. Much good work has also happened here.
2012 also has some great invitations. I’ll be speaking to Pacific Yearly Meeting August in California. My calendar is enclosed. I hope to see many of you in the coming year. This is another joy built into this particular life’s work.
It’s almost 30 years now since I began to live mainly on gifts. I can’t say it’s always been smooth, nor easy in today’s economy. Your kindness has been key to my being out in the world working. Your help makes it possible for me to continue. I am asking you to help now again, to keep me, and my work, on the road.
In the Light,
John Calvi

John Calvi’s Year End Letter November 2010

Dear Friends,
A good year of teaching and hands-on work is ending. I am closing in on 30 years of traveling since beginning my healing work in 1982. This year was another layer of time with wonderful invitations to teach about healing from trauma, avoiding burnout during hard work, and the on going task of ending American torture. I’ve been deeply engaged in all three of these works throughout 2010 as you can see by my calendar.
The healing of trauma continues to have great need in our times. Old wounds and new are carried until some safer ground is reached and then the work of inventory begins and hopefully some source of help identified and used well. Then change comes. Similarly, someone exhausted by ones inner work or work in the world faces the challenge of burnout. Again, finding a place of safe sharing and a resource begins the work of unburdening. When wars are raging and the economy is scary and the general tone of media is vitriolic, all tender hearted people wounded by life become more vulnerable, even those we thought to be fearless.
American torture is sometimes mistakenly thought to have been a problem beginning with President Bush and ending with President Obama. In truth, modern American torture began with the formation of the CIA and the decision to study and perfect torture in the late 1940’s. American torture continues today in our prisons abroad and at home, contrary to general media coverage. So the work of ending this continues also.
I’ve more notes on my blog on my website at www.johncalvi.com, please check it out. Here is a connection to a video of me teaching about American torture for half an hour in Burlington VT this fall. There are no horror stories about torture, though there are some serious questions raised about democracy. I hope you will view and share this-http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/burlington-friends-meeting-discussion-john-calvi-quaker-initiative-end-torture
These are particularly difficult times for mercy and compassion. While the needs are greater, a tone of meanness and suspense, including a sense of scarcity, grows within our country and our culture. This can place doubt in our considerations of giving. I want to assure you that my decades of service continue with my personal attention to good care in the deep waters of need and your help is vital.
I am grateful for the years of help I’ve received. It’s meant a life work of compassion and service done in various ways in numerous places. Your help now is needed for all this to continue. Please make a gift. Thank you for all you do.
In the Light
John Calvi   

John Calvi’s Year End Letter November 2009
Dear Friends,
2009 has been a full and wonderful year of travel work following my 2008 sabbatical. I worked with 24 groups in 12 states.   From planning meetings for The Quaker Initiative to End Torture- QUIT in DC to the main plenary at North Pacific Yearly Meeting in Montana to the Dragonfly Transitions young adult treatment center in Oregon, I was well used in the right places.   13 of these were return invitations, a good sign that I am useful in on-going work and continue to be well received.   The new invitations were a delight.
I’m often asked did sabbatical change things, was it good, how was it to re-enter? Yes, sabbatical was very good- right on time, life-saving. I am refreshed and glad to be back. I did/do more writing- see my blog via my website www.johncalvi.com;   Both prayer and work are deeper than before. I was also shocked to discover how old I’ve become – if you are too busy to notice that decades have passed, that’s TOO busy! 60 is 2.5 years away and I cannot for the life of me comprehend how this happened. And it was surprising to love being a hermit- my solitude and quiet needs have grown with the years and the work. Tons of people contact with re-entry was both welcome and challenging.
Work has changed a bit over the years.   More groups have me in to help them heal conflict. While trauma survivors still attend all workshops and speeches, there is also a large draw from clergy, health care professionals, and various kinds of leadership. I think in part this is due to the state of the world being in so much pain and many many people overwhelmed by the their work. While there is hope, there is also exhaustion, despair, and some doubt about doing ones best for the long haul. My path has been very particular in learning and teaching such things.   I also did QUIT Updates on every one of my stops this year. I’ve learned to work in places where reverence is valued.
The scenario of working by invitation and living mainly on gifts would appear risky. And after 27 years I confess to looking over my shoulder now and again wondering if I am still aloft. One leaps expecting a net and is wonderfully surprised to discover flight.   My work – healing for trauma survivors, teaching and mentoring to healers and others with ministry, convening The Quaker Initiative to End Torture – QUIT, and writing – has been made possible by the generosity of many. And by your trust, for which I am eternally grateful.   There is much good that needs doing and I have plans for some of that. Thanks to you more will be possible.
I ask you please to give generously.   You know I am tried and true and the need is great. I go on, knowing that you and I are doing our best, that has always been what’s needed.
In the Light
John Calvi   

John Calvi’s Year End Letter November 2008
Dear Friends,
A year ago I was finishing up another year of travel work and was quite weary. I said good-bye to several people with chronic conditions I’d been working with over the years, stepped aside as founder and convener of The Quaker Initiative to End Torture- QUIT, and began my sabbatical. My intentions were to rest and restore my body and mind for another 25 years of compassionate work. I separated myself from work entirely- no teaching about trauma or torture, no touch work healing trauma. I stopped reading 6 newspapers a day, got off listserves, and had an auto-reply for email- gone fishing.
At first I did much resting, always needing more than I knew. The torture nightmares ended and I slept through the nights. After some travel, I was painting the small upstairs of our little house, discovering that I had neither talent nor skill for such but had chosen the most wonderful blue. Various corners of the household got cleaned out- my archives got put into dryer, more useable space, linen tablecloths from years of thrift store finds became many pillow cases. It was a winter of resting and nesting.
With spring came outdoor work- mowing the field twice, moving tree limbs and collecting kindling. I hauled a thousand pounds of rock, soil, and flagstone. I created 2 new vegetable beds, a flowerbed, outdoor steps for our 3 south-facing doors, and began a rock wall. The goal of restoring my body with physical work was being met. I am stronger in body, toned muscles, clearer of mind, and grateful.
A couple of interruptions held sway. A diagnosis of osteoporosis in the spring was a shock and discomforting. A “heart event” this fall seemed to show what I had thought was an inherited trait of an occasional slight cardiac arrhythmia, needing only rest. But the cardiologist said no, it’s unclear what happened and I am fine. Blood pressure is better but I have failed to lose enough weight to stop meds. Amidst all this, please know I am very well, active, happy, and glad to have rested now.
All in all, I am a much more healthy person- rested and cleared of accumulated body and mind fatigue. But the years, or actually the miles, are being revealed in my body during this long hibernation. I trust that my spiritual disciplines of rest and cleansing will mean years of good works to come. My leadings continue, well tested and honed, from years of being faithful, constant learning, and gratitude.
My work calendar begins in February 2009. I am feeling a renewed delight at the idea of being on the road and being of help once again. I’ve new appetite for teaching and touch work. I’ve warmed up my hands a bit this fall, which I’ve written about on my blog – see link from www.johncalvi.com
Working by invitation and gifts for 25 years has been miraculous. Now to have had a long rest supported by the grace of your gifts is a blessing beyond good care and respect. I am more grateful than I have words to share for this wonderful gift of sabbatical. As I set to work on a book of speeches in these last sabbatical months, please consider sending me a gift. Your good care and kindness has made all this possible for me to reach so many over time. Please help me continue.

Year End Letter 2007

Dear Friends,
I write this while preparing for my last few trips of this year and remembering trips over the last 25 years. The numbers surprise even me – 35 states, 4 countries, 5 prisons, 11 yearly meetings, 21 years teaching at Friends General Conference Gathering and Pendle Hill, with innumerable rape survivors, people with AIDS, and tortured refugees from every continent, an average of 24 trips a year, and working with as many as 2,000 people a year. At 55, I can look over my 2007 calendar and smile. But looking over all my travel calendars, I feel the need to sit down. My 2008 sabbatical comes just in time.
Three years ago I began to discuss the need for Quakers to take on the work of ending US-sponsored torture. In addition to all my travel work on trauma, I helped give birth to The Quaker Initiative to End Torture, which has now held 1 Canadian and 2 U.S. conferences and continues to grow.
I feel great accomplishment in all these years of healing work. I’ve worked very hard and surrendered my life to learning and healing. It’s not been easy – and goodness knows I am a reluctant student – but I am very happy with both the personal history of work and where I have come to be.
To accomplish all my leadings in the last few years I developed some very unhealthy habits – 15 hours a day of computer work and learning all I could about torture to teach articulately and gently. This was a productive choice that achieved much but took a toll on me. To recover, my sabbatical begins on Thanksgiving 2007 and goes to January 2009- no teaching or hands-on work during this time.
Beginning my sabbatical starts with changing patterns of overwork and desk time until my blood pressure and weight are lowered to healthy rates. I’ll be doing physical work such as painting the house. I am even going to stay out of contact with dear ones I’ve been working with a long time, a difficult but necessary discipline. I am doing all this so that my next 25 years of work will be even more graceful.
Please be assured there is no illness, burnout, or sudden financial ease leading to this sabbatical. I am not ill. Burnout is when you can no longer do your best. My work is still graceful, deeply appreciated, and much in demand. And sudden wealth does not appear to be a threat in this lifetime. This is simply a celebration of 25 years of trauma work, rest and rebalancing, and choosing how to begin again in 2009.
I hope you will support my rest with gifts during this sabbatical. My living has come mostly from gifts. I’ve been able to be of help to people surviving trauma because of the generosity of many over the years. Thank you for your gifts at this time too.
In the Light,
John Calvi