I met Sharon when she read an article about the book my husband and I wrote. She wrote me an email and eventually we talked by phone. After our first conversation, I remember turning the phone off on that warm August 2009 day, sitting under my favorite tree in the yard and weeping. The story she told ripped me to my very core and will never be sewn shut.

I am a grief counselor. My work usually begins inside the hospital and then takes me into the real life of people who are experiencing loss. Lately I have been talking with them by phone, or at parties. Loss seems to turn up everywhere I look. It reminds me of the pretend monsters I imagined as a child, the ones that lurk behind doors, waiting to spring out and surprise me.

I want to dissolve the fear in my life. I want to live from a place of trust and openness, and not let insecurity get in my way. I’ve decided that in order to do that I need to acknowledge my fears and then wish them goodbye, not let them have power over me. Most of my fears stem from my past. Growing up in a wealthy community, but not coming from a wealthy family, I looked around me and constantly made comparisons and judgments about myself. I figured out what I needed to do, wear and say in order to be accepted. I bought into the whole popularity contest, though no one pushed me into it. I brain washed myself into thinking I needed to ‘be all’ and ‘do all’ tot ultimately be popular. Funny thing is, I don’t know now if I ever was.

Book-to-Movie Adaptation in the Works for Allison and Art Daily’s “Out of the Canyon” ASPEN, Colo. – June 27, 2011 – Ghost Town Ventures of Los Angeles has purchased the movie rights to “Out of the Canyon,” an inspiring story of how two people managed to survive the tragic deaths of those closest to them and how they found the courage and strength to move on to build a new family together.

On May 23rd Joplin was devastated by a tornado. Most of us saw pictures and read reports of how tragic the damage was. Weeks later I can’t get them out of my mind. I keep thinking to myself, “Oh, I’m going to yoga or work or for a hike or whatever I am doing.” And then I stop and think, “What are the people in Joplin doing? Are they trying to find their belongings still? Are they grieving for someone they lost? Do they have hope?”

I love Paul Harvey and I love these words he says.....

John Husband, Chairman of the Managing Committee of Holland and Hart (the law firm Art works for), wrote the following letter to all the lawyers and staff in the firm, which is the largest law firm in the West. I appreciated what he said so much, I asked if I could share it and he agreed. I hope you all will enjoy his words as well and take them to heart on this special weekend:

Art and I have spent a week in Sayulita, Mexico. We went for a yoga retreat with 20+ other people who happen to come from all over, though many were from the Aspen area. Though Art and I went primarily for the yoga (synergy—which is partnership yoga, and Bikram’s) and the instructors—Kate, Amanda and Ambere, who have become good friends, what I love is the extra surprise of meeting other participants and spending a week with them in a relaxed setting.

I wanted to share an email that Art wrote to a friend who asked him the question, "What prompted you to give back to others after the accident?"

Spring can be such a breath of fresh air. Especially if you live in the mountains where it snows all winter. Once the buds start blooming on the trees and the sun seems even more intense, it’s as if the world’s telling you to wake up and feel the hope around you. Conflicting emotions surface for me in spring and early summer because it’s when my brother, Rod, killed himself. I begin to feel the emotions creep up before the actual day when he left.