Life is Eternal...John Denver and Me

This is a picture of my first meeting with John Denver, singer, environmental enthusiast and Hunger Project founder. Meeting him was one of my first benefits from chanting. It was in 1985 right after I began chanting. I was giving him a quartz crystal. I began listening to his music when I was young, and his music sustained me through many hard times. He sang uplifting songs about the interconnectedness of life...he was a Buddhist without even knowing it. 
Because of him I learned to play guitar, I did the est training, met my husband and moved to San Francisco. Every year I'd see him sing. One year I realized he was going through a down period. I wrote him a letter about my appreciation for him, and told him about chanting. And I chanted for him every day. I met him one more time...and he seemed not so good. The people accompanying him were not the type of people I like to have around me. I kept chanting for him. 

In 1997 I was in Pacific Grove with my two sons visiting a friend. I was right on the sand, very close to him, when his plane went into the water and he died. I chanted for his future...for all his dreams to come to fruition...for him to accomplish all his goals in his eternal life. And that night...as I was at the ocean playing and singing for him, I was filmed and photographed. I ended up singing for John Denver on the evening news as they announced his death. I sang for John Denver. And my picture was taken and went out on the AP wires. My boys and I were in color on the cover of the Denver Post newspaper, and many other places. Here's that picture:

So here I am singing for John Denver with my full and open heart. My prayers reached his life. Mystical, mystical, mystical. And I chant for him every day. There is a generation of people who don't know his music. Our story is not over....may never, ever be over....