My "Gardens of Hope" I began after 9ll when the spring finally came and we as a nation found ourselves able to slowly move on. I worked in NYC for over 15 years and knew people who lost loved ones, lost their lives, and were traumatized by the event. I too had a visceral experience when I went to NYC the next week to run an Expressive Arts program because of the silence around me. I had never experienced that kind of quiet. Once we got through the shock and realized that our country was not loved by all, and we were not as safe as we once believed, a renewed sense of comradery seems to help. We wanted the closeness of those we cared about. In this I saw spring and its wonderous beauty as the renewal of our newly created empathy for all.
