Last week I was at an inspiring meeting in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  A dozen of us gathered from different parts of the US to continue an exploration of common ground.  There's a confluence happening.  Especially over the last decade people have been working with different words to explore the same questions: How do we create healthy communities?  Communities where happiness is pursued, not  consumption.  Communities where people live with the graceful bounty of this planet rather than…

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We* spent a second day visiting four different places in the the Tohoku disaster area.  I'll just talk about two.



Eight months ago today the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown hit Japan.  Back in the tsunami area of Miyagi Prefecture, I impressed with the extent of clean-up and it is still hard to look at the extensive damage. 



We started the day meeting with Watanabe-san, the volunteer coordinator in Minami-Sanriku-cho.  Watanabe-san was born in Sendai, and was…

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Dear Friends,



I just have a few more days in Japan this trip.  I'll be back several more times this year.  Most attention is still focused on emergency and initial stages of recovery here.  Soon, attention will turn to how might the Tohoku -- as well as all of Japan -- be created anew.  And it is this work of re-creation that I and my many colleagues here are waiting to begin.  One of the things that many here feel strongly about is that the re-creation of Tohoku must be directed by… Continue

Dear Friends,



My friend Val, from Elos Institute in Brazil wrote me recently:



I love your questions about what can be done right now, what are the possible solutions. Yesterday I attended a philosophy class and people's perspectives about the world were so dark and hopeless... I immediately remembered of you and other people giving a step towards what you believe can be done to make things better.  I would like to hear  what are the things that are being done now. I… Continue