Empathic Community

At the boundary between 2021 and 2022, looking out over the future landscape of the coming year, I see conflict, violence and suffering growing and spreading in the world, And I also see, at the heart of the dissolution, a tremendous light getting brighter and brighter, brilliant and beautiful. Sharing with a dear friend and…

I am feeling deeply inspired by the regeneration movement. Paul Hawken, an environmental activist for many decades and one the leading voices in this movement, has written a new book called Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation. The movement as I understand it is about not only living sustainably on the planet but…

This weekend was the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attack on the U.S.. Thinking of 9/11 reminds Americans of the trauma of that day and entering into the “War on Terror.” It can remind us also of the daily trauma and terror of the staggering amounts of violence and human-generated suffering still happening around…

Close to 20 years ago I went to Pakistan with my close colleague Ike Lasater to work with Afghan tribal elders in a refugee camp along the border. It was January 2002, soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and our bombings and invasion of Afghanistan. It was a particularly dangerous time for…

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Monday released a major report of over 200 leading scientists from around the world confirming dire, catastrophic consequences from climate change if we humans don’t take rapid, radical action.  Although we have been hearing about the potential effects of climate change for decades, Monday’s report from…

As tensions ratchet up around the U.S. presidential election results, and more and more common is heard the phrase “civil war,” we need some way to bring the temperature down. We seem to be moving towards inhabiting different worlds of alternate realities, parallel universes of perspective, experience, and belief, with the very real potential for…

I deeply believe that humanity’s path out of this time of growing crisis is to not only support a new way of being but to also resist the current social-political-economic system that is killing us and life on the planet. The way I see to resist, however, is with empathy and care. As I understand…

It’s the end of August 2020 in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last week in the U.S. was the online Democratic National Convention, and this week is the Republican Convention. The difference between the narratives of the two parties is astounding, as different as night and day. The differences of belief people hold around…