"Dearest Jane, I just want to thank you for an unforgettable few hours. With you, I touched places in myself I haven't touched in as long as I can remember. I think you are right that I am "ready" to enter into this relationship with myself through this process. You are a wonderful person, kind, present, giving, appropriate, professional, caring, real, honest, loving--the list goes on. You have a gift that I feel comforted to know you are sharing and putting out there in the world. (And I thank you for sharing the kind of work you are doing with hospice and of course for the personal experiences that drew you into the work in the first place.) I really appreciate your understanding and quiet, open-armed reception. It was not easy to come today, for reasons I think you already understand, but you made it easy to be there, and to be ME, in all my dark and light, my complexity and ambivalence, my traditional and "Western" orientation (albeit openness for something other), my "polarities" such as they are.

I am grateful for who you are and that you were willing to listen and try to help me in my journey toward self-understanding and acceptance, toward a greater gentleness and love for myself and my own needs. This trip--"retreat", as it were--has opened up a dimension of possibilities and emotions that I knew on some level were there, but just needed some gentle prodding and space to make themselves known. Thank you for your opening that field a bit wider. I am just glad to know that people like you are out there for people like me. Thank you with all my heart. And speaking of which, I thank the bleeding heart (flower) that drew you in so many years ago... I will be in touch."
- S.M., Easthampton, MD

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