I believe that all human beings are creative and that we come to know our creativity through activity and action. The activities I know best are reading and writing. I also believe, along with Carolyn Myss, that “[a] new storyline for humanity is emerging within us and around us, and that this narrative is coming through the elements of Nature as well as through human consciousness.” Every day, as human beings, we write our collective story—through many languages, images, symbols, and visions. I believe we are in a unique historical time. Complex global challenges like climate change are inviting us to shift our consciousness about our basic survival. As nature teaches us new ways to be with each other and the Earth, traditional behaviors and beliefs that no longer serve all people and our planet must be revised. We are learning that each choice we make has consequences, that we each matter, and that the macrocosm we call Earth is a product of billions of precious microcosms called human beings. I believe life is energy—that we are energy—and each of us holds a spark of divinity. In this light, we are each responsible to nurture and tend our own spark, and we do this through active creation and conscientious choice. We are beings in the process of becoming, as Paulo Freire once wrote, living in an ever-unfinished reality. I believe in authentic learning, and I know it is transformative—not merely adding to what we already know but stretching us, reorganizing our perception so that we are open to new ways of being, and valuing, and loving. I am hopeful in an exacting world, and I trust that together we can face both the challenges and the gifts of living in the twenty-first century.
