As a new hospice nurse in NYC in the 1980s, a lot was happening within me and around me. Hospice, AIDS, and the interfaith movement were all relatively new. I was just entering my own adult selfhood, and single motherhood. These all converged like lightening within my own forming sense of purpose. I was ordained as an interfaith minister because my heart was so moved by the needs and injustices faced by those with AIDS, and as an interfaith minister, my deep spirituality found a road and a community to move with my heart and hands. It gave me the ability to honor and provide for the spiritual needs of those I was serving directly and indirectly through activism with an effective understanding and voice. The hospice movement also spoke to both dignity and deep, holistic, intelligent, tender care that I felt was most needed at a time when people were turning on each other once again, and then creating the darkest time of need. Art - there are times that words can't even scratch the awe or depths of all of this. If it's the awe of despair or the enormity of love or incredible wonder. I think, without art, I would not breathe. I think it saves my life and I've seen it heal relationships and revive souls again and again. It doesn't mean we have to BE artists, We simply are more than our foreminds and it gives voice to the ALLness that we are - music, writing, painting, dance, whatever. Art is magical. It must mean we are magical. Then all things are possible somehow. We can find each other, and our selves, revisit what we need, and create a newness. YES. My education always continued with this early foundation and passion as its guide, as my heart opened wider with the conditions and connections to our world for myself as much as for meeting with you. I love the way learning from each other has become more accessible. My career as you experience it today still builds on my calling, my passion, my deep wonder. A peek at my doctorate is wholeness through sacred dialogue, engagement and activism. I am. We are.