SUE's Blog

Old age came for me quick, and now I know what my grandmother meant when she said her knees couldn’t handle long days in the garden. My knees click and grind like mechanical whirs and I wonder how much longer I can stay out here because the sun breached the horizon and wants to bathe us in light. Despite the calendar reading January 1, 2050, we find no mercy for the heat. As bad as that may sound, it’s not. We’ve learned to live with it, just as we’ve learned to live with the ebb and flow of the tides encroaching further on our land each year until downtown Charleston’s peninsula appeared more like a set of small islands. 

But that’s only part of the story. I still live in the same townhouse I moved into when I was 26 and angry at the world. My partner and I vowed to move, to buy a house, but the prices went up and the water came in. We decided to stay where we were, to invest in a life here, the “shoulds” and “supposed tos” of adult life be damned! This garden, this collection of pots on the back porch, is where it started all those years ago. 

I had always wanted the big things to change — the gas companies to stop their polluting, the factory farms to shut down, private jets to be banned — but those things didn’t happen, and if they did, it was too late. I knew then, like I know now, we can’t rely on others to make this place livable. We must rely on ourselves. Armed with mismatched pots, an assortment of seeds, and some soil from the hardware store, we planted a few things that first summer: tomatoes, green onions, strawberries, and squash. We watched the sun beat down and the plants peek their green stems above the dirt. All summer I plucked cherry tomatoes off the vine and popped them into my mouth, the flavor rich and acidic and beautiful. They still come every year, the plant dormant during the few cold months, but perking up once sun and warmth greet us again. 

We started small that year, just a few things, but as the years went on, our back porch garden grew and grew. Our friends, who have a big yard, big house, and chickens, let us bring our compost to them. They’d take care of it and we could have some. We shared what we grew with neighbors and friends. Soon, it wasn’t just our garden, it was a community garden; that little slab of concrete, that tiny patch of grass, it was what kept us together. 

That’s what we needed — to be kept together. The weather worsened. It takes my fingers and toes to count the number of destructive hurricanes that passed through here, but that’s not what we think about anymore. For a while I didn’t know my neighbors. The next-door ones, sure, but not the others, and overtime we found we could rely on each other, build up our own little community. That was true resilience. 

Some projects were small, some were big, but they connected us to one another, made it so life was still possible despite all the hurt, despite all the uncertainty in the world. A neighbor on a huge plot of land opened up her backyard to grow more food. We repurposed the grassy medians in the road with native plants, inviting pollinators, birds, and insects. Someone installed a shared outdoor kitchen. Bikes became the norm, as did sitting on the front porch. Life exited the silos and slowly, over the years, we came together, rethought what it meant to be a community.

About ten years ago, we finally went waste free. It was a long, hard battle, but doable because we had each other. We let each other borrow the things we need, we composted what we could, and everything else we found new use for. Jack, who lives across the street, built a playhouse for the neighborhood kids out of old plastic water bottles and milk cartons. And you should have seen the look on their faces! The way those kids lit up, knowing that someone made something for them. There was nothing like it. 

We found, eventually, we didn’t need a lot of what we had. We could share, we could reinvent, we could take the time to grow our own food, mend and make our clothes. We put on our own art shows, installed solar panels, and realized that most of what we considered “comforts” back in the old days were just pieces of equipment that kept us complacent. When you’re busy it’s hard to take the time for slowness. Things aren’t the same. I’m not living a life of luxury, but I am happy. I’m happy that what started with a couple of pots on my back porch turned into self-sufficiency and resiliency in the face of disaster. And it’s not just us either — we’re one of many little communities. 

I write to the others. I’m sending letters again — the long, handwritten kind detailing life and love and the abundance of joy, writing about hardship and struggle and change, and I see how things are so different now. The sun may be hot, the storms might still come, but we’re not reliant anymore, not reliant on machines and money and making sure everything is done exactly right. We’re in this together, just people, coming up with solutions, problem-solving, knocking on doors and helping each other out. 

From the outside, it may seem worse than it used to be. From the inside, this is how it always should have been. 

During the year of 2021 I launched the Quantum Future Envisioning Circles for a good reason. If we can’t imagine a more beneficial future, how can we find our way there?  For two decades I have guided students to master then Intentional Consciousness to land on “zero points” within the time and space continuum, and move forward to see where mankind is headed.  In 2021 I took a new turn. What if we BEGAN the meditation with our highest desire for creating benevolent, sustainable, earth friendly systems and foundational social structures that can withstand the deteriorating forces within a growing technologically driven culture void of warmth, connection and love.

We tuned into five years ahead, 50 and then a hundred.  In alignment with with what Mellon Thomas told me once, the most documented near death experience, we all create our future reality with our present thoughts. These thoughts unfold one after another and we attract like minded, or resonant others into a tribe and form thought fields that then become manifest in the physical creational world.  What my circle saw and experienced fifty years from now was spectacularly different than our present reality.  Due to the perseverance of devoted loving souls who created off-grid communities in alignment with the principles of nature, which are by their very nature in divine alignment, there are pockets of extreme beauty and lush settings. These individuals live in harmony with food and water procured from the property. These pockets of communities are connected by a lace-like communication system, as if they form satellites within a larger grid of eco-villages worldwide. Withing this structure resides eight major larger “Cities of Light” that are governed by elected officials who specialize in various human endeavors.  Strikingly, each human can access the global truth network for disseminating more efficient, joyful means of commerce, art creation and interaction with angelic, galactic and universal beings who are were introduced at the time when all trust in authority was lost and calamitous conditions brought people together to work for a new holistic, global approach to problem solving.   Earth came out of isolation and was re-woven into the universal citizenry and the divine alignment and order that came after the introduction of these divine masters and earth began her rejuvenation process with it all. Those who had chose to remain in fear based reality continued their lives and concerns, though in somewhat of a parallel reality and spinning into a totalitarian dystopia of natural consequences.     The citizens of 2024 knew that the lossses are growing and that the depth of action, awakening and redemption must be profound and unprecedented. More and more people through meditation and intuition began to hear and see the same spiritual pictures within and in committed circles conversations and agreement and plans were made diligently. Regenerative agriculture, water restoration, justice and inclusivity and brilliant initiatives seemed to sprout overnight and the minds and hearts of these awakened beings began to convene.  Visions became designs.  New infrastructures were imagined.  And with faith and a growing understanding of the divine guidance and help available individuals began to make non-logical but very wonderful choices, decisions and purchases. One man bought 80 acres unseen, guided by spirit to begin his “city of light” to house the lightworkers, the farmers that would come in resonant tribes to rest while they went from distressed cities to help ease the pain and suffering man had created for himself.  All of this will come to pass.  Because we listened, we believed, and we found each other, the ones who were born to change the earth just in time at the pivot point.  The dreamers, the artist and visionaries brought forth these pristine communities of science, love and divinity.  How do I know what is to come.  I am on this team. I see, I lead. I know. I BELIEVE and this spark of hope I, and others like me carry will raise the vibrational realms into this fruitful future. I create future villages in AI, I check in with leaders world-wide to create their community in alignment with the priniciples of the divine feminine:  co-creation, collaboration, communication.  I help women find their Voice to lead, I travel around in a little red van, the Queens Caravan Spiritual Walkabout Tour, I teach Vibrational Magic…how to shift reality by accessing higher states of vibration and consciousness and lead groups to envision and then “create” the future.  My partner and I, Rick of United Earth Networks are devoted to forming the groups, communication systems needed for these planetary transitions.  The future is ours to create, and begins now. With our higher thoughts, actions and alignment with others….in fifty years we will celebrate our courage, and hard work and willingness to see through what is…to what is possible, after all earth has a beautiful future with or without humans, and we decided at a fundamental level in 2024 to live in peace upon her.  Blessed be.

I can’t tell you all the ways it happened, but I can tell you why.  It happened because it was time for consciousness to realize its next evolutionary state, with humans as its emissaries, its substance of incarnation.  I’d known this in my heart for years, known what I personally needed to do towards that vision, and why, yet I never fully committed to the task.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t until the mortgage was paid off, all debts retired, that I left the rat-race and began studying further and fully acknowledged what humanity had been doing to its support system – planet Earth.  Even being a staunch environmentalist since the early 70’s, I had not fully grasped the systemic implications of my and the rest of humanity’s cumulative invasiveness onto Nature’s symbiotic ways.  And then it hit me like a brick:  global human industrial civilization was going to collapse from multiple negative inputs; Homo colossus was going to go extinct.  And I was not alone in that assessment.  That was when I finally surrendered to what I determined was the only path forward for me, and collectively for humanity as a whole:   living, breathing, serving the will of the Divine, his purpose for me becoming my sole reason to exist.  Thankfully, there were many others going through the same process, too.

By 2024, cumulative human actions based on modern industrial civilization practices added up to an opposed non-alignment to the Divine’s ultimate truth – the oneness of everything and all of existence.  But, at that time, I and 99% of humanity did not live there.  It wasn’t our fault that we lived within the “system” – it was all we knew and was the only thing we were ever taught, nevertheless, the realization of a pending possible human extinction drove me to push through an already ongoing journey using the process of reason-based elimination to ultimately conclude that the necessary changes needed to humanity’s modus operandi were not going to come from the standard, mental consciousness humans normally operated within.  If we Homo sapiens sapiens (modern wise man) were really that smart, and we really were in charge of the world like we thought, we would not have gotten into the ecological Overshoot predicament in the first place.  Homo colossus had been created and nefarious forces kept him “growing” ever more destructive.  I had intuitively known this for all these years, yet refused to fully acknowledge it, inculcate it, embody it, much less act upon it:  I was trying to fix things by way of a capitalist system, but it never felt right, or enough.  As a result, I live externally, denied my soul’s calling, refusing God’s purpose for me.  I now began to spend my time in service to the Divine, offering the fruits of my labor and thought to the Divine only, foregoing personal benefit of my actions.  Thankfully, there were many others doing this, too.

Fortunately, the evolution of Earth’s consciousness was shifting away from the ignorance and ego-driven Anthropocentric standard operating procedures, and humanity began to see and feel Nature’s acceptable limits had been breached.  And Nature was beginning to fight back.  The new orientation for shifted humanity became a what-was-best-for-Nature-first focus, including living, feeling, and understanding the symbiotic connectedness and relationships of all life on Earth.  Hundreds of thousands of other people were feeling this shift in consciousness, too, and as the numbers increased, this higher consciousness expanded its influence and force and power.  Once foo-foo to the masses, a spiritually-focused orientation, beyond and above religions, more akin to a personal, one-on-one relationship with the Divine based on direct experience and identity, became mainstream sincerity for humanity.  No one knows when the critical mass in this consciousness shift was achieved, but it happened.  Oh, to be a 100th monkey!

The shift in consciousness among a growing portion (but, not yet a majority) of humanity did not eliminate the pain and suffering to both ourselves and the rest of life that modern industrial civilization self-caused – much of which the planet is still dealing with and adapting to, but it did change how the shifted ones perceived the pain and suffering, how they acted within it.  As more and more people consciously shifted to a way of knowing that was innate and intuitive – above the mind, that continually growing portion of humanity no longer believed man should dominate all other life, no longer consumed largely for convenience, no longer were the puppets of capitalistic propaganda and began living within and adapting to new, simpler means, no longer ignorantly or purposely polluted or damaged Gaia, no longer believed in or supported the divisive separateness pushed by still existing dark and evil forces, no longer worshipped the idol of economic growth and believing its promoters, no longer believed in war and violence as means of arbitration and negotiation, and finally understood that the materiality of our normal 3-D awareness is only the carrier for the spirit – spirit and love being the truth supporting all existence.  Humans reconnected with the goodness of others’ souls, including the non-human.  Taken together, the changes were dramatic, and unprecedented in brevity of Time.  And, as biophysically required of any specie undergoing exponential growth within finite resources, the over-burdening human population was reduced by Nature, and by man, and its numbers are still dropping.  Nature, though, will be the final determinate as to when, and if, humanity reaches a sustainable level.

The shift in consciousness would not have happened if man had tried to continue to live and operate with the business-as-usual mindset, the same level of evolutionary consciousness that precipitated the imbalances of the planet:  extinction of Homo colossus was required.  It took the power of a critical mass of humanity living day to day within and by the knowledge of a higher consciousness to enable some humans to survive the ecological Overshoot bottleneck.  The higher consciousness gave the survivors new ways of being and living and knowing – knowledge above the mind, and they became conscious stewards and custodians of Nature’s ways.  Of the millions of attempts to try new ways of being and living, many failed that were not divinely inspired and sanctioned.  Nature no longer had use for actions initiated and pushed by a lower human consciousness.  Evolution still has its ups and downs, fits and starts, but it does not go backwards.

In this my 98th year in this body, I’ve been blessed to both witness and participate in this massive shift of evolutionary consciousness, yet this last half century has been a challenge for all of life on Earth.  I’ve seen many other humans, including some of my close loved ones, who did not make it through the bottleneck.  Humans are superior in adaptation skills, but here, in this instance, the type of adaptation was not just physical, but one towards a higher knowledge base and consciousness that became the saving grace, and that must be paid forward, from this time on, moment to moment by humans maintaining a direct connection to and identity with the Divine.

Here in 2050, consciousness evolution continues and humanity is still here, but only because enough of humanity used the divine grace of choice to finally, purposefully, intentionally, choose to put God first in all actions and thought, an evolutionary leap that now leads most of humanity’s actions.  As Sri Aurobindo stated over a hundred years ago, consciousness steadily unfolds towards an eventual “life divine” on planet Earth.  Now, that’s a faith in a goal that can sustain.  Namaste.

Bob Bates

How the Evolutionary Catalyst movement blossomed

O

ce upon a time, perhaps starting yesterday, a new transformational social change movement evolved and blossomed. At its core was the League of Evolutionary Catalysts.

Our aim was unabashedly magnificent: to shift our collective understanding and aspiration so profoundly that we committed to doing everything required to pull out of our ecological nosedive, and indeed evolve a compassionate life-affirming culture.

We understood that societies have goals that the society as a whole tends to maximize. We thought that the meme a life-affirming culture was a useful contrast to economic growth as a defining goal for our time.

The first seeds were sown by a few of us who embraced a vision of shifting public consciousness. Innovative communication tools were developed.

Specifically, Escalating Disasters brought home to people the horrific reality of current ecological trends. It was a set of images that illustrated species loss, industrial toxins in the food chain, falling freshwater tables and the like – along with climate change, of course.

Many people were already aware of some of these things. So the point wasn’t just to inform people; it was to have them feel that we are in an ecological emergency. A ‘holy sh*t this is real’ moment!

This provided reasons for profound change, no matter how stressful.

Kitchen Table Conversations enabled people to grasp the big picture changes necessary to stop making things worse, with devotion to economic growth being a major one.

We used labels on beer coasters to help people keep track of conversations connecting advertising, international trade agreements and elite power structures as major drivers of ecological destruction. Of course population and economic growth were brought in, along with ignorance: folks not grasping the consequences the system we are all part of.

The idea was that since the mass media does not a support sensible conversations about these things, and messages often bounce off people’s preestablished ideas, perhaps setting aside time for thoughtful conversations would be a way to make people’s thinking more comprehensive and realistic. The conversations were initiated by an invitation to friends and business colleagues – perhaps an invitation to have coffee and talk about something serious. We called people who did this ‘citizen-educators’… and of course we ourselves were citizen-educators.

As time went on, people introduced additional techniques for helping people see the need for transformative change.

From the beginning we understood that no one group could significantly affect public thinking on its own; it would take the alignment of many of the millions of groups that are already established. So we worked on this.

We reached out to leaders of established groups, and urged them to urger their members to act as citizen educators. Members could become leaders in their own right by conducting well-structured conversations with friends and business colleagues. Folks didn’t need Ph.D. level understanding; the communication tools themselves made conducting the conversations straightforward.

Regretfully, this was not well received at first. Not invented here; organizational ego; leaders wanting to be prestigious fonts of knowledge’; we do our own thing; even some saying that their members are too dumb. But with perseverance a few organizations broke the ice, and they became magnets for many people who cared.

Of course, the conversations, though critical, weren’t the whole story. It was also important to engage public intellectuals and thought leaders, academic departments, and sustainability businesses.

So the idea of communicating to accelerate healthy cultural evolution caught on, partly because the escalating disasters (not the communication tool, but reality) induced people to question status quo thinking. Folks became open to new ideas.

When it did catch on, folks came up with many creative innovations.
Some businesses posted signs and short videos describing how their business contributes to the evolution of a life-affirming culture. In part this was a marketing idea – getting the meme a life-affirming culture seen in many places. But it was also educational, and demonstrated the business’s commitment to positive human values.

Some of the first to do this were outdoor clothing companies. Their managers already cared deeply, as did most of their customers.

Managers of medical clinics were surprised at the response from their patients. People expressed relief and appreciation that concerns they had felt – and sometimes knew a great deal about – were being brought into the public arena. They also loved the positive goal!

Of course there was pushback. People championing a compassionate life-affirming culture were denigrated as ‘communistes’ and ‘socialists’. But this was not particularly harmful. The overwhelming majority people recognized that we were talking about reality and a positive goal, and that ideology, whether left or right, had nothing to do with it. Despite the massive amounts of money pitted against us, we catalyzed a movement that developed the clout that led to high taxes for the rich, limits on campaign spending, and greatly reduced military expenditure… as well widespread acceptance of the need to live materially modest lifestyles.

Of course, some of us had doubts. The power of vested interests and the momentum of the current system were obvious. But we cared – deeply. So we persevered. Occasionally we joked: Are we a league of Evolutionary Catalysts… or a league of passionate fools?

As I said, the movement caught on.  The way it caught on was unpredictable, and today nobody fully understands it. But it was pushed by ‘Evolutionary Catalysts’ offering webinars and trainings, as well as personal ‘outreach conversations’ to leaders and potential colleagues. And many members of established groups became keen about talking with friends and business colleagues – they saw this as a constructive way forward.

There were a multitude of conversations, along with blog posts and articles. Behind-the-scenes, influential people talked to other influential people. And through this, public attitudes changed dramatically.

The journey for those of us who were committed to championing the vision of evolving a compassionate life-affirming culture was definitely a learning curve. We quieted our impulse to preach, and got better at asking questions that stretched people’s thinking. However, we did shift into presentation mode when it was time to take people beyond their current level of thinking.

In the early days it was clearly an uphill battle. Gradually the language and understanding of evolving a life-affirming culture seeped into mainstream thinking. At the same time, climate mayhem increased. And then suddenly – something clicked.

People across the board suddenly accepted the horrifying reality that collectively we have been doing ourselves in, and that our ‘leaders’ have been making things worse. People survival instinct kicked in. People recognized that economic growth was no longer feasible, and that our proper goal was to reduce human impact so much that humanity operated with the Earth’s capacity to support us. Climate change was not the only issue; collectively we committed to rapidly reducing our global ecological footprint. Governments were tasked with working out how to deal with the economics of degrowth.

A passion for change based on caring and ecological survival arose everywhere.

This released enormous creativity. Countries around the world invested in massive land regeneration strategies that, taken together, restored the Earth’s natural air conditioning system. Factory farming reduced dramatically, reducing our impact on the natural world. Most people were surprised by the quick results global regeneration produced, although scientists had predicted it.

And oh yes – military expenditures were vastly reduced, and sane politicians began to collaborate for the common good. This freed up significant sums for regeneration and taking care of people, even as the global economy slowed.

On the home front, people invested in aesthetic, durable goods, and there was a massive push retrofitting buildings to reduce heating and cooling costs. A multitude of alternative technology ideas came to the fore. Neighborhood groups set up sharing platforms and local events to connect.

The term ‘compassion’ resonated with many people. Combined with our ecological emergency this sparked a major shift from STEM education to inner development. It became clear that complex technology was not going to solve our ecological problems, and that collectively we needed to become the kind of people who can create and enjoy a compassionate life-affirming culture.

Municipalities offered volunteer coaching to new parents to bring out more of their compassionate side than their punitive side; this led to significant reductions in childhood trauma. Some countries offered stipends to women of childbearing age: for each year they delayed having their first child they received a small financial reward. Of course, the very existence of such a stipend – which was publicized – induced many teenage girls to think seriously about the consequences of motherhood.

At a psychological level, public health services offered courses introducing people to techniques to resolve their own emotional triggers. Many faith communities did likewise.

The outcome was that after a few years the general public was far more emotionally balanced than before. People had more access to their innate compassion and indeed, to their common sense. This, in turn, gave sensible politicians and business leaders much more scope for following through with ecologically and socially responsible policies. It was no longer a matter of just maximizing profit.

Did it all end up well? Not for the species who were eliminated. Not for Third World children who died of malnutrition along the way, or for the malnourished overweight citizens of affluent countries who had industrial toxins in their bloodstream.

But ultimately it did lead to a world that works for all for coming generations.

This is the vision. Let’s make it happen!

Andrew Gaines
Inspiring Transition
andrew.gaines@InspiringTransition.net
www.InspiringTransition.net
The challenge of our time is to evolve a compassionate ecologically sustainable society!

It’s January 1, 2050, so I do what I do every year at this time—I take my kids into the mountains.
It’s cold, so we bundle up. They say snowfalls were normal this year for the fourth year in a row.
My kids are grown, and this is the first year that one of them has a kid of her own along.
Together, we yell as loudly as we can into the valley, the woods, and then we laugh. My kids are
almost old enough to remember why we do this every year, but I still like to explain it to them.
They listen patiently as I tell them how we learned to use our voices, how that changed
everything.

It’s true that some people were always serious about change, about making the world a better
place, but I feel like it was only about twenty-five years ago that more and more of us started
speaking up, that more of us got louder. I’ve thought back on it so many times, asking myself,
“Seriously, we did that? How did we do that?” And I keep coming back to that one thing. That we
used our own, unique voices. It was like a concert, where one voice starts up in the silence,
then others join and a chorus grows until the walls are shaking with the power of those beautiful
human voices. Together.

Here’s what happened.
I used to have a quiet voice. No one believes that anymore, but it’s true. I often felt small and
sort of powerless, especially when I looked at the world around me and the things that seemed
to be going wrong with it. I had some ideas, but I didn’t talk about them. I didn’t connect. I
stayed quiet. Then one day I saw some writers online, and they were using their voices to ask,
“What are we going to do? What are you going to do?”

I said to myself, quietly but out loud: “I do have an idea. I’d like to change how we approach
fashion.”

It was a little idea, really. One industry. One business. It didn’t seem world-changing. And still, I
was so, so intimidated. I had no business experience. I didn’t work in the fashion industry. I had
no safety net and, like everyone, I needed money to live. Starting a business seemed like it was
something you get to do if you’re already rich or powerful.

Right about that time was peak fast fashion. Maybe you remember? People would order
massive hauls of really cheap clothing and unpack it, posting the videos so everyone else could
see what they bought and be inspired to buy their own pile of clothes that might not last six
months. I’d see articles on the news about beaches in Ghana and deserts in Chile buried
beneath piles of old textiles. Clothes were everywhere, we all had a full closet, and still
companies were cranking out more, more, more.

I was just like everyone else—still am!—and I liked to dress well. I liked getting new clothes, I
just didn’t love the fact that there was so much clothing already out there that was going to
waste and I couldn’t bear the idea that people in poorer countries than mine were being
exploited to make clothes for us. I also felt like the world was experiencing so many problems,
collectively, and we’d need collective solutions. Something with community at its heart.

So in the end I didn’t start a company, not exactly. I started a club, the first Circularity Club. The
first location, in those early days, was a bright, welcoming place where members could take part
in redefining fashion. People started to drop off the clothes they didn’t want or need anymore,
and they could pick up something fun and new that someone else had left. They left clothes and
took clothes, and rather than pay by the item they paid a small amount—like the cost of a beer
at the bar, or a couple of cups of coffee—every month. My company also took the clothes that
were too worn and turned them into new things—pillows, blankets, we even invented ways to
make building materials and rope. We reached out to construction companies, furniture makers,
and interior designers to see if they could use what we made, if they had any ideas of their own
for recycled and repurposed materials. They were excited, took what we made and asked for
more.

A community grew, and the club became a space for gathering. Members met up and talked.
We held events where people shared ideas about their own visions of a more sustainable,
healthier world. Everyone’s voice could be heard. The club was working with the people, rather
than exploiting them for more money.

And guess what? The industry changed. Circularity Clubs around the world reduced textile
waste and also spread the word about new clothing startups, ones that make sustainable
options, designed to be shared or reused, repurposed or returned to the Earth that it was grown
from. So many people were members of Circularity Clubs that it became necessary, if a fashion
brand wanted to survive, that they create only durable, fair-trade, and environmentally-friendly
clothing.

It was one of the first times that people felt hope that an industry that had been wreaking havoc
around the world and causing unimaginable environmental damage could be changed—and it
was us, the consumers, that would make the difference. Those first clubs were a big, loud “NO”
to fast fashion.

But it didn’t stop at fashion. Here’s what’s amazing about people: when you build a community
that creates space for new voices, for louder voices, the ideas get better, more organized, and
more powerful. We started to ask, “If my clothing can be good for the earth, why aren’t my
shoes? Why aren’t my electronics and appliances and my children’s toys?” And then, “How can
we improve the food we eat and the energy we use?”

Circularity Clubs began programs to re-purpose, swap, and repair so many of the products we
use in our daily lives. Members wrote letters to their governments, opinion pieces, and books
that insisted on sustainable, livable communities and healthy circular and “de-growth”
economies. They started their own companies that embodied those values. Corporations, afraid
of being left behind, scrambled to prove that their products were the MOST sustainable, the
MOST repairable, the MOST recyclable. Plastic began disappearing from our oceans and our
air and water got cleaner. Our food got healthier. And as factory production slowed down, the
demand for energy dropped worldwide.

Another interesting thing happened: as products got more sustainable and consumers insisted
that the people who made them got fair wages, global inequality started to vanish. It made more
economic sense to grow quality food close to home in the clean land and clean water we all had
access to. Global migration changed, too—people could move for love or family if they wanted,
but they no longer had to flee their homeland due to drought or sickness or industrial pollution.
Every country could offer its citizens good jobs and healthy environments. With the increase in
health and prosperity worldwide, the world became a safer, more peaceful place.

If you described to kids in school today how much stuff we used to make and buy and throw in
the trash, they might not believe you, and that thought makes me happy. I didn’t know how to
clean up the beaches of Ghana or take on the fashion industry. But I was a part of building the
circular economy that now influences the ways in which we manufacture, buy, sell, and dispose
of goods. The small behaviors of lots of people, multiplied throughout the world, created
change.

Opening a business with the goal of changing the world is scary. Speaking up and without
knowing you’ll be listened to is intimidating. I used my voice to share my ideas and create a
community. My community used their voices and shared their ideas. And gradually more of us
stood up to make things happen. We put our ideas into the world, in concrete form, and we
found out that together we were not small. We were not poor. And we were not weak.

It’s a lesson I want to remember, and that I want my kids and grandkids to remember. Which is
why, this wintry January first, I go with my kids and my first grandchild into the mountains. We
yell as loud as we can to remind ourselves, and everyone who hears us, that we have voices.
That when we use them, things change.