heavy heart

Dear Friends, with a heavy heart I send you this note, to inform you that our dear Donna passed away from cancer this morning, Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 @ 10:10am in her home in Boulder, Colorado.















Her 2 lovely sons Jason and Simon were with her as well as a nurse. Many of her friends had a chance share their final goodbyes with her before she passed, as well as several family members who drove many hours to visit with her. We probably all know Donna as a grace-filled dancing-fighter and that's exactly what she embodied right up to her last breath. As was her request; we will be performing the Tibetan Chöd practice with Donna for the next few days, after that time she will be cremated and some of her ashes will be scattered into Boulder Creek and a small gathering of family, friends, dances, songs and prayers will be shared. The time and date has not yet been finalized but details will be sent soon.

We end this email with a quote from
The Velveteen Rabbit
one of Donna's favorite books

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."