Kerry

Tess is my sister. When she asked if I’d write a testimonial, I said, Absolutely!! AH!? But… where to begin????

For years, my sister and I have had a ragged, folded poem about success. We have passed it back and forth when one of us is on the cusp of something or needs to be reminded of the wisdom the quote contains. In part, it reads:

If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, 

Work day and night for it, 

Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it. 

If life seems all empty and useless without it.

And all that you scheme and you dream is about it.

If you gladly sweat for it, fret for it, plan for it, 

Lose all your fear of God and man for it.

My sister and I always had a deep and profound connection through art. She, writing. Screenplays. Books. Short stories. Me, music, songwriting, performing. We had a belief that we were going to change the world with our creations! This connection was SO strong, it overcame the wounds of childhood hurt. Truth is, art was the wings that set our captive childhoods free. Our REAL connection, though, became clearer as we aged. The binds that really held us were a desire to heal this planet and the people on it. As children, we unknowingly just started the work: the healing first of ourselves.

I think back on the times and stories that have profoundly affected my sister throughout her life. Moments that Tess somehow “lost her fear of God and man” and boldly worked for health, healing, hope and peace. Times when she held another emotionally, physically and spiritually. I know, each of those people experienced someone who truly cared. Someone who became a source of support in the depths and despair of their story because she helped them experience the opposite of loneliness. The details are lost but the stories remain:

• Quadriplegic students whom Tess befriended and supported in college at Wright State University.
• The female renter in the back of Tess’ Venice home who was brutally attacked and needed surgeries, therapy and support. 
• A friend who was pregnant and needed someone to walk through the fear, childbirth and then giving her child up for adoption.
• Our many family members who Tess reached out to first, knowing the separation and loneliness they felt having suffered from their own childhood trauma. 
• The stories that fill the pages of this website (and Tess’ journals).

These stories (and SO many more) are but a few. And, in each case, Tess had ears to hear. A heart that held each story. A safe place for each emotional wound. And, if asked, words that brought sense to the moment and hope to a heart and head that needed it most.

Perhaps what moves me the most is Tess’ desire and ability “to fight” for something better when fear leaves another unable to see any other possibility. Her ability to combine “the day and night work” of researching and understanding the mind, body, spirit connection that gives purpose and direction to prayer gatherings. The community that is created when a group (or critical mass) joins in a single purpose and experiences and/or realizes that, “life seems empty or useless without” this.

I bet you have questions! I certainly did when participating in many of the Zoom prayer “circles” described here.  Here are the answers I found:

Have I seen first hand the gifts and talents, the time, energy, passion and purpose Tess has placed into her understanding of her own journey? Our journey as a species? Our connection to heaven/divine?

Yes I have.

Do miracles happen? And do miracles happen within the scope of Tess’ prayer Zooms?

YES!  Yes they do!

Are the outcomes always what I hoped they would be?

No. What I have found in the process of praying with Tess is, outcomes can ABSOLUTELY be affected by praying! AND while an attachment to an outcome is my own personal work, the act of praying is like a pebble tossed into a glassy-watered pond. The ripples extend beyond the point of impact. The waves created by pebbles (and prayers) extend and reverberate far beyond our understanding or knowing! 

If one needs evidence of this, please read the story of the artwork Jon found at an art show. (Coming soon!)

It is time to place the ragged, old, folded quote in an envelope with Tess’ address on it. 

If dogged and grim you besiege and beget it, YOU’LL GET IT!