Personal Update and Less Stuff

Behind the Scenes and Giving Tuesday Special Offer

Squirrel sitting on the head of the angel on my back deck!

Hi Readers and Friends,

As we move toward the end of a very successful year for this TRANSCEND publication I wanted to offer a more personal update and some behind-the-scenes info.

For those who don’t know I live primarily in Bend, Oregon, in a thousand square foot home I adore on a large lot that nature and I have co-created into something of a bird and wildlife sanctuary – it is very alive. It is made even more alive by my super energetic Border Collie, Olive.

I’m coming up on 21 years with my wonderful life partner, John. We’re unconventional in that we’ve never lived together full-time but that works for us. We get together a lot, laugh a lot, support one another’s work, dreams and challenges, and both strive to use our lives to try to leave the world a better place. He and I are both spiritually and politically engaged unabashed tree-huggers.

I’m a first-gen college grad and my calling to work on environmental issues hit in my first year of junior college when I learned that we were losing species to extinction at a rapid pace. That lit a fire in me that continues to this day.

With TRANSCEND I work to educate and raise awareness toward improving humanity’s relationship with the rest of nature; this will require profound changes in the global economic system. I also provide my take, subject to grow and change as I do, on both the spiritual and political aspects of this wild ride called a human lifetime.

I’ve been an ordained Unity minister for about a year and a half, and just recently was elected to the Unity Worldwide Ministries Board of Directors. Unity is a New Thought, non-dualistic spiritual movement that has greatly improved and enriched my life.

I’m happy to note I was recently hired as a regular columnist for Spirituality and Health magazine. My column is titled, Sacred Earth Connections and the first one will appear in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue. I’ll be sharing the columns with my TRANSCEND subscribers. Here’s an excerpt:

Yet even as we’ve built systems and civilizations that are ecologically damaging, we’re still drawn to plants, animals, oceans, rivers, beautiful landscapes and wild places. In fact, many of us are biophiliacs. Biophilia stems from the Greek words, bio and philia, which literally translates to “love of life.” It is defined as an innate human tendency to connect with nature and other life forms. Biophilia is partly what prompts us to have house plants and pets, put bird feeders in our yards, and experience awe gazing into a starlit sky. Perhaps there is some internal acknowledgement that in so doing we’re reconnecting with a fuller aspect of ourselves.

I balance my somewhat workaholic ways with another addiction – competitive Dog Agility! The pure fun, incredible inter-species partnership, continuous learning and improvement for both human and dog is literal therapy! Olive (AKA The Amazing Livvy Lane) and I will be going to the AKC National Agility Championships in March. So danged fun.

And now the GIVING TUESDAY piece ….

With the holiday season in full swing, we all get bombarded with promotions and contribution requests so I’ll keep this very light. This year, Dec. 3rd is Giving Tuesday, which is touted as, “a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world". This is when people choose to support non-profit and community service organizations working on good causes rather than just buying more stuff.

Buying less stuff is essential to taking better care of Earth, so in that vein I invite you to buy a gift subscription to TRANSCEND for a friend or loved one, or if you’re not already a paid subscriber, please consider upgrading. TRANSCEND is a product of and supports my non-profit ministry, The ReThink. In order for humanity to come into a healthier relationship with one another and the rest of nature, we need to rethink many things, including how we design civilizations and systems, and how we view our relationship to the natural world and our fellow species. And that is what The ReThink is all about.

Here is a Giving Tuesday special 25% discount on an annual subscription for those of you who may not already be paid subscribers.

The 25% discount also applies to Gift Subscriptions. Give someone some TRANSCENDence rather than just more stuff!

If you’d like to do a straight up contribution to The ReThink that works too! Just find the donations window on on this page, type in an amount that feels good to you and I’ll throw in a year subscription to TRANSCEND.

Olive and I say thank you and Happy Holidays! Much love.