ReviewDespite "the pressure of being a human being," Aspen Bernath-Plaisted is a hopeful writer, one who is a careful observer of both the human and natural worlds and who looks to make connections between them. Whether it is excitement about a pair of purple slippers, a cardinal glowing red on the branch of a dead tree at sunset, or monks chanting "until the inner and outer universes find each other," Bernath-Plaisted works to illustrate that "There always seem to be/two sides of a story": there may be grief, but there is also joy, there may be death but there are also "the tops of trees/inviting resurrection/as ultimately/resurrection lives in me." -Anita Skeen, Director, RCAH Center for Poetry at MSUAbout the AuthorEcstasy Will Have to Do is Aspen Bernath-Plaisted's third publication. Over a period of five years her poems and short essays have made frequent appearances in community newspaper, The Nexus News, of Lansing MI, for which she also hosted a holistic self-help column with several other panel members. Aspen teaches classes in: Poetic Expressions, The Relationship Between Spirituality, Self-Esteem and Empowerment, Intentional Well Being, Qigong, as well as several topics involving increased awareness for positive change. She has been a Hypnotherapist and Social Worker for 36 years and a Qigong Instructor for 18 years. Clear and heartfelt communications remain a major theme in all that she does. Aspen continues to live in her country home with her husband where they have cultivated gardens for 30 years. Her love for the earth, and all varieties of inhabitants, has been a large source of her writing inspirations.