Sweetness. Joy. Nature spirits and the fragrance of the sea. There is a bright red cardinal eating his breakfast on the backyard wall, he knows me as a busy, determined gardener, a woman who writes poems and stories in a little studio attached to a two car garage in the suburbs, south of Boston.

My 27 years in India, living in the ashram village of my Guru, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Prasanthi Nilayam (The Abode of Highest Peace) helped restore me to sanity and gave me the courage to love myself, to forgive myself, and to love and forgive those who were my abusers as well. I came to understand what Jesus, the Christ, had already prayed; "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".