Tessa Bielecki cofounded the Spiritual Life Institute and lived there as monk and Mother Abbess for almost 40 years. She now lives alone in a log cabin in the wilderness outside Crestone, Colorado, where she writes and teaches. Tessa recently created the Desert Foundation, an informal Circle of Friends who explore the wisdom of the world’s deserts, focusing on peace and understanding between the three Abrahamic traditions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. She was one of the first teachers at Naropa University’s Buddhist-Christian dialogue in the 1980s and considers that experience pivotal in her life. She is the author of several books and CDs on St. Teresa of Avila, and recently recorded Wild at Heart for Sounds True.