following is a review of  Healing Earth: An Ecologist’s Journey of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship by John Todd, published by North Atlantic Books (January 2019) Water is the ultimate systems challenge.  It is a unique resource that underpins all drivers of growth – be it agricultural production, energy generation, industry or manufacturing. It also connects these sectors into a broader economic system that must balance social development and environmental interests. World Economic Forum Global Water Initiative Not quite three-quarters of the way through Healing Earth: An Ecologist’s Journey of Innovation and Environmental... posted on Mar 12 2019 (6,351 reads)

Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change by Sherri Mitchell, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2018 by Sherri Mitchell. Reprinted by permission of publisher. CREATION SONGS  Our individual stories being with the story of our creation. My creation stories have come to me through the teachings of my tribe. My tribe is Penawahpskek, the Penobscot Nation, a small island nation that floats in the Penobscot River. We are the people of the dawn land; the keepers of the eastern gate. Our relatives are the Peskotomuhkati, Wolastoqiyak, and Mi’kmaq’i (Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq), and together we are the Wahponah... posted on Feb 19 2019 (10,112 reads)

Valdes-Lim is the first Filipina graduate of New York’s prestigious Julliard School.  She was cited as one of their 100 Most Outstanding Alumni in 100 years. After a successful career in the U.S., she returned to the Philippines, where she is passionate about theater as a vessel for transformation.  Ana shares her vision and talents with a diverse population - from third graders, to inmates in the prison system. Additionally, she is an author of several books on theatre. Richard Whittaker:  Our interview begins with Ana reflecting on her studies at Julliard…. Ana Valdes Lim:  Juilliard felt like home. I took to the exercises readily and had such a ... posted on Feb 23 2019 (8,104 reads)

from Elegant Simplicity by Satish Kumar, New Society Publishers, 2019 Elegant simplicity can only be built on the firm foun­dation of right relationships. Our crises-mental, personal, social, economic, environmental, political, cultural, and re­ligious -- have their origin in disconnection and separation. The moment we see that all things are connected, that we are all related, that everything depends on everything else, we start to see solutions. Why do we have crises between Palestine and Israel, between Sunni and Shia, between America and Russia, India and Pakistan, Christians and Muslims? Because we see ourselves as being separate from others. When all our inter... posted on Apr 4 2019 (7,621 reads)

Penniman is the cofounder of upstate New York’s Soul Fire Farm, which runs farming immersion training programs for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Photo by Jamel Mosely/Mel Emedia Dijour Carter refused to get out of the van parked in the gravel driveway at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. The other teens in his program emerged skeptical, but Dijour lingered in the van with his hood up, headphones on, eyes averted. There was no way he was going to get mud on his new Jordans and no way he would soil his hands with the dirty work of farming. I didn’t blame him. Almost without exception, when I ask Black visitors to the farm what they first think o... posted on Mar 3 2019 (6,850 reads)

from The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible by Charles Eisenstein, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2013 by Charles Eisenstein. Reprinted by permission of publisher. A year or two ago a young man confronted me at a talk in Florida. I’d been describing my view that the paradigm of urgency, heroic efforts, and struggle may itself be part of the problem; that it comes from the same place of scarcity and domination as the conquest of nature; that coming from that place, we might blindly create more of the same. Instead, I suggested, we might try slowing down, perhaps even doing nothing sometimes. Instead of holding ourselves to a high... posted on Mar 28 2019 (9,892 reads)

Naked Voice by Chloe Goodchild, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2015 by Chloe Goodchild. Reprinted by permission of publisher. Since childhood and throughout my life, my voice has been my conscience and guide, providing me with an in-built “sonic laboratory” for self-inquiry. In 1990, following a transformative experience in India, I discovered my voice as my very own self. My singing voice became the messenger of this awakening. I called it my naked voice, for it arose from an unconditional source far deeper than my personality or ego could fathom. It touched a place of wisdom and oneness (nonduality) within me that opened vast new fields of... posted on Mar 18 2019 (8,266 reads)

These Wilds Beyond Our Fences by Bayo Akomolafe, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2017 by Bayo Akomolafe. Reprinted by permission of publisher. Since we are on about darkness, can I briefly revisit the playfulness of light, dear? I know I tend to sound like a broken record, what with all this talk about double slits and particles and complementarity and all that. But I keep returning here because the material world really does show that just because a thing is commonsensical doesn’t mean it is “true.” Well, I also keep returning here because—according to your jealous mum, who is now side- eyeing me—I also want you to see me as smart! ... posted on Mar 21 2019 (7,436 reads)

credit Kim Morrow             A few years ago, I was invited to visit a bison ranch in eastern Wyoming. I was dating this new guy named Mark, and as we got to know each other he kept talking about this place that had been in his family for three generations. He talked often about how much he loved visiting the ranch: going for hikes; sitting out in front of his cabin and watching the symphony of nature; looking for wildlife, and even catching a mountain lion or a bear cub on his motion-sensor camera that was tied to a tree; setting out even in the dead of winter when his snowy hikes were sheathed in silence. He told me h... posted on Mar 7 2019 (8,597 reads)

society is focused on the transformations we need to make and what our individual roles should be, both personally and collectively, to make this world more in alignment with the values we each hold. Taking atonement seriously would be a tremendous gift to humanity and to each of us individually. The MOON: In 2016, we watched the moving display of Wesley Clark, Jr., and other veterans washing the feet of Native American activists at Standing Rock. Then more recently, we saw disturbing images of MAGA hat-wearing teens taunting a Native American elder who was standing between the youth and the Black Hebrew Israelites, drumming. In some of the discourse, I hear people saying that we d... posted on Mar 30 2019 (9,146 reads)

be deported for committing misdemeanors as minor as running a red light. Other laws like Senate Bill 4, passed by the Texas Legislature, allow police to ask people about their immigration status after they are detained. These policies make immigrants and people of color feel like they’re always under surveillance and that, at any moment, they may be pulled over to be questioned and detained. During Hurricane Harvey, the immigrant community was hesitant to go to the shelters because images of immigration authorities patrolling the area began to surface online. It made them feel like their own city was against them at a time when they needed them most. Constitution-free zones crea... posted on Jul 22 2021 (29,673 reads)

FILM BECOMES THE FIRE In 2017, we released our labor of love film, TeachMeToBeWILD: A Story of Hurt Children and their Animal Healers. This film is a universal healing story that brings together many interconnected elements: children, animals, nature, silence and the power of safe, non-judgemental listening spaces. One of our greatest inspirations to make the film was witnessing how Steve Karlin and John Malloy do not teach the children—rather, they create a “safe space” where the children  learn experientially. As we began screening the film in schools, juvenile detention centers, community groups and spiritual institutions, we experienced ... posted on Mar 20 2019 (8,631 reads)

because I can talk up a storm, I love, even crave, silence. I feel safe in it. I know I won't blurt out something foolish or harmful, something I'll be sorry for. That's probably why if you ask spiritual teachers for advice on how to practice wise speech, they're likely to answer with one word: silence. Like the rain necessary for flowers to bloom, silence is essential for speaking with clarity. A Hindu adage, echoed in other cultures, reflects this relationship: If what you have to say is truthful, kind, and useful, then say it; if not, silence is best. My earliest lesson in the value of silence and the painful consequences of unkind words occurred when I was... posted on Apr 14 2019 (12,483 reads)

master’s degree in theology from Harvard University and a master’s in social work from the University of Toronto, Stephen Jenkinson was the director of counselling services in the palliative care department at a major Canadian hospital  in  Toronto for several years, where he encountered the deep “death phobia” and “grief illiteracy” that most of his patients and their loved ones brought to their deathbeds. This work motivated Jenkinson to encourage people to prepare for their death well before its arrival so that they might be free to “participate emotionally in their deaths as they participate in other major life even... posted on Apr 26 2019 (22,318 reads)

midwife in Oslo, Norway. | Karen Beate Nøsterud/norden.org via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.5 DK. "Who is there in this world but Mother? I am Mother, you are Mother, Mother is mine, Mother is yours, Everything is Mother." Traditional Baul Song from Bengal. Since 2012 I have walked thousands of miles throughout the United Kingdom and spoken with people around the world, asking them to share their experiences of love and connection. What are the loving narratives of their lives? What does love mean to them? As the journey has grown so the experiences have deepened, and the sharings with others have deepened too. What started as a personal jour... posted on May 14 2019 (5,902 reads)

of Norwich. Credit: Flickr/Matt Brown. CC BY 2.0. Julian of Norwich was born in 1342. No stranger to violence and suffering, she grew up in a world ravaged by the Hundred Years’ War between England and France and torn apart by the Great Papal Schism. She also lived through the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, during which thousands of disenfranchised tenant farmers and laborers marched all over England looting monasteries, burning records of their serfdom and debt, and killing their hated overlords. Most tragic of all, from the time Julian was six years old, she endured repeated outbreaks of the Great Pestilence - later termed t... posted on Apr 21 2019 (14,751 reads)

by Kevin Laminto on Unsplash My mother was an early tree whisperer. On sweltering summer days she’d dragoon her three young children into schlepping buckets of water across the road to a spare suburban park so that we might quench newly planted striplings and coax them into leaf. More than sixty years later these trees are muscular giants offering shade and beauty and a generous green bower. Our back garden harboured an orchard of fig, apple, citrus, but best of all a broad hipped, sturdy mulberry tree that grew barely a skip from the backdoor. Uncle George, a man who loved the grain of wood so much he crafted beautiful wooden bowls in his workshop, was a bachelor with a mi... posted on May 5 2019 (7,301 reads)

January, we shared a list of 20 social change books to read in 2019. As was bound to happen, we’ve found more interesting books (and one report) that we want to check out, and that you might be interested in too. Some of these are from our partners like Enspiral Foundation, The P2P Foundation, and Sharing Cities Sweden. Others were recommended to us. Take a look at what we’ll be reading and let us know what you think. If you have ideas for other books we should check out, let us know at info@shareable.net. We’ll consider your submission in the next edition. Below are summaries, excerpted from each book’s website: Better Work Toge... posted on Apr 28 2019 (8,971 reads)

excerpt From Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World by Sky Nelson-Isaacs, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2019 by Sky Nelson-Isaacs. Reprinted by permission of publisher. Stephen Gaertner, a Czechoslovakian Jew living in Hamburg, Germany, was eight years old in 1937 when he came down with tuberculosis. Stephen’s doctor advised him to go to a sanatorium in the Bavarian mountains, as was the common prescription of the day for treatment of tuberculosis. (Antibiotics were not yet fully developed….) Even at that young age, Stephen had a sense of the unrest occurring in his country. He protested to his mothe... posted on May 7 2019 (9,575 reads)

The Elusive Obvious: The Convergence of Movement, Neuroplasticity and Health by Moshe Feldenkrais, published by North Atlantic Books; Reprint edition copyright © 2019. Reprinted by permission of publisher. Many things are not obvious. Most psychotherapies use speech to get to unconscious, forgotten, early experience. Yet feelings go on in ourselves long before speech is learned. Some pay attention not to what is said but to how it is said. Doing this enables one to find the intentions behind the structure of the phrasing, so that one can get to the feelings that dictated the particular way of phrasing. In short, how one says what one does is at least as important as what one say... posted on Apr 29 2019 (4,789 reads)