Traveling light

Rising each morning, we choose what to pack— sometimes consciously, more often not. “Take nothing for the journey,” says the sage. And yet, we load suitcase after suitcase with past lives, past relationships, past emotions, past experiences, past resentments, past regrets… Missed opportunities here, shattered dreams there, unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others…

The Peace Crane Project

The Peace Crane Project Uniting the Children of the World Through the Arts Never in the human history has it been so easy for each of us to have a voice, connect with one another, and influence the discussions about important issues facing us today. This is the moment to meet our collective potential. With a focus on children, we have tremendous opportunity to change the landscape in the…

Know Others, Know Yourself

“Is our college becoming anti-Islam?” asked a classmate with regards to an exhibition on the Holocaust organized by a youth club in the college. Being a Muslim in a Muslim-majority state with minimal exposure to Israel and anything even minutely Jewish, I found the exhibition refreshing. I was educated about a dark chapter in history; one that related tales of religious persecution. One photo…

LIVING ACTIVISM. LONGEVITY AND LIVING TRANSFORMATION.

LIVING ACTIVISM. LONGEVITY AND LIVING TRANSFORMATION. Cesar A. Gonzalez, Roatan. There is no better life activism but to be happy, healthy and alive. As our life spans further into the 21st century, those of us born in the 40 and the 50 shall have lived in transformation times in humans rights, technology and access to all types of information. Living is no longer a risky business but…

SelfDesign Offers One Path toward a New Planetary Civilization

We live in, as Jean Houston reminds us, the most amazing time in known human history. The long, slow trek in the evolution of human consciousness over the past 190,000 years has become a sprint—and it continues to accelerate, as our communication technologies become increasingly ubiquitous, miniaturized, and cheap, at least in the calculus of the capitalist marketplace. There are more than five…

Letting go of control is the process and the goal

As a child, I chose to distrust my family, especially my father. I was terrified of his physical and verbal abuse. I responded sometimes by hiding under the bed or leaving the house for long periods of time. As a teenager, I became constantly angry and judgmental. The culture of violence was (and still is) all around me. I was growing up in the Cold War, with the constant terror of nuclear…

Integrating Sectors to Achieve Holistic Change

Imagine a day when the world comes together to solve challenges as an integrated sector. We bring together public and private sectors in fusion centers to dissect problems, develop holistic innovations, and create change that addresses the root causes of our most pressing challenges using our combined resources, reach, and capacity. Diverse perspectives give way to breakthrough innovations.…

Aligning the Personal, Political and Planetary to Create a Transformative Future

For several years I worked on a memoir in which I tried to make sense of my privileged childhood, and how my personal experience was shaped by the politics of my era, as well as by the experiences of my parents and earlier generations. Then in 2011 I suddenly woke up to the destruction of the environment and the reality of climate change. I started a blog, Transition Times, as a way to process my…

Alchemy of Self – a journey towards Heart Centered Consciousness

The year is 2006, a seed was planted, inviting the birth of an authentic living expression of Self. A journey, self-facilitated with no intermediaries, anchored by the value pillars inherent within began. Choices, unorthodox in the community, were taken: Moving out of the familiar, into the unknown. Staying grounded to what is. Starting the process of unveiling the layers that cover the true…

seeding images of possibility

Flute music snakes through the canyon, undulating, echoing from sandstone alcoves and curved walls. The flute accompanies the purl of water over basalt boulders and bedrock, accompanies the cascading call of a canyon wren. I play as a morning greeting to the canyon, to the ever-stupendous blue flash of dragonflies, to the back-lit, translucent green columns of horsetail, to mosses and seeps and…