Transform Ourselves, Transform the World...

What traumatic times we’re living in.

There are times when it seems like things are falling apart, and now is such a moment. We might have the philosophical or religious belief they’re going to come back together at a higher level, but it doesn't always feel that way. At times it just feels like things are falling apart around us.

While the world is not what it used to be, we don’t know yet what it’s becoming. And that’s frightening. Whether healing from personal challenges or witnessing the strains on our ecosystem or democracy, many of us are experiencing the anxieties that go along with cataclysmic change.

An old way of looking at the world, based in the fear and arrogance of the ego mind, has failed us dramatically. From terror in Afghanistan to the horrors of climate change, the bankruptcy of old systems is on full display. Yet we’re not here to be victims of the tragedies in our midst. We’re here to be those who transform them. As important as it is to feel the pain of these times - to allow the shame and despair of current events to move through us - at a certain point we need to get into the solution. And now is that point. We need to become the solution. We need to become the agents of change.

Personal and public crises are painful, yes, but they’re opportunities for new possibilities. Such situations are lessons, though often difficult, in becoming who we need to be in order to make the changes that will heal our lives. Crises are portals – should we choose to step into them – to a life beyond the one we experience now. 

To endure our modern crises, and most importantly to transform them, is the challenge of this moment.  Based on my work as teacher and activist, and taken from everything I’ve learned so far and am learning still, I’ve created a portal to help us face that challenge. TRANSFORM will provide a collective opportunity to deepen our understanding, sharpen our skills, and expand our ability to respond powerfully to this critical hour. I hope you’ll join me on a journey to the other side of chaos, to the peace that is still yet possible in a worn and weary world.

In the words of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Come, my friends, ‘tis not too late to seek a newer world.”  

TRANSFORM is a newsletter, but it is so much more than that. It’s a chance for us to journey together to a better place. It is a support for our individual transformation, but also a community through which we join with others to help transform the world.

Sometimes I’ll share a video or audio reflection in response to something happening in real time, while other posts will be essays or interviews that take days to create. There will be audio and video conversations with fascinating people, as well as my new TRANSFORM podcast. One post might be spiritual, one might be political, one might be deeply personal and one might be a discussion of forces larger than any one of us. Everything, however, will be geared to providing ideas and actions that can transform our lives and the world around us.

All subscribers will regularly receive my writing, my Conversations with Friends, the new TRANSFORM podcast, and articles by others that I think you might find interesting. Your comments are welcome. We’ll participate together in a co-creative journey of understanding and effectiveness. I welcome the creative conversations that will spark the ideas that propel all of us forward.

The majority of the posts are free, but it takes a lot of work to get all the material together and I need your support to keep it going. Paying subscribers will also have access to community discussion threads and bonus content every week. Personal reflections and meditations, special video and audio posts - those kinds of things will be posted regularly. I’ll share additional reflections as I feel moved, responding to the larger conversations happening on the page and in the world. Sometimes I’ll write, sometimes I’ll share an audio or video message, and sometimes I’ll bring on someone other than myself to up the level of our understanding. Both within ourselves and in the world, powerful energies will result from this community of hearts and minds. 

I’ll use TRANSFORM as a hub for my work as a writer, teacher, and activist now living at this extraordinary time. I invite you to join me, as we take a journey together through the portals of extraordinary possibility that are presented by this moment in our lives.

In the words of Arundhati Roy, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” And so can I. 

Let’s do this! Let’s respond to the urgency of this moment with all the infinite potential that lies within us. With not a moment to lose, and so many miracles to gain, this is the moment and we are the people who I do believe, with all my heart, will turn this world into a better place.