I am a young woman currently on a global pilgrimage—a philosophical, cultural, and spiritual inquiry that is deeply intertwined with the engagements of everyday life. I’m a critical thinker, a poet, and a passionate activist who is committed to creating a future of global sustainability for all. I am currently in the process of deconstructing much of my own identity as a North American woman, along with the unconscious filters and biases that have been intimately woven into that identity, so as to consciously re-construct/re-birth my ‘self’ as a Global Nomad, as a daughter born of the liminal, and as a grandmother of the entire cosmic process.

As we see our present interconnected global challenges of widespread environmental degradation, climate change, crippling poverty, social inequities, and unrestrained militarism, we know that the obstacles to the flourishing of life's ecosystems and to genuine sustainable development are considerable.

Our sense of space and time has changed radically within the last few decades. New technology has invited us to become globally connected - to increase our sense of space from local communities, to nations across the world and to the cosmos. Far from fulfilling the dream of world unity and solidarity, we find ourselves connected from without, but alienated from within.

The reality of historic events forces a complex challenge on humanity: how to move towards a global future that integrates our various worldviews, without affecting or destroying all living species, including ourselves. We suggest that the following four areas of concern are the interdependent elements of an unfolding organic whole necessary for shaping such a future.

Those are basically three ways of saying who we are as human beings - head, heart, and hands. People have said it in many different ways. Chinese culture has three different traditions: Taoism, which is physically based; Confucianism, which is relational or the social philosophy of the heart; and Buddhism, which is more mentally centered.