After “retiring”, why have I worked these past seventeen years? I experienced a powerful call to be a consultant, facilitator, and trainer of innovative leadership for international organizations and to teach innovative leadership to grad students, to give twelve talks on the critical decade in five countries, to launch a blog on a compassionate civilization, to publish five books of my social and ecological vision, poetry, essays, speeches, and autobiography, to give talks on Zoom and interviews on podcasts, and to continue to be a nonfiction author and activist for social justice and ecological regeneration. Gratitude for this life.
Now, in May 2023, I and many others are feeling uncertain of what we can do that could make a difference in this chaotic, collapsing, transforming world. At seventy-eight, how can I care for community, nation, world, family, friends, and body-mind?
I do know that I must deepen my practice of mindfulness in each moment, so that I can listen deeply, and respond peacefully and kindly.
May it be so.
(Calligraphy by Thich Nhat Hanh)