Honoring Worldwright* Aleksei Navalny
May his memory spur us to continue to work for justice and interdependence
Why did Aleksei Navalny go back to Russia, back into the jaws of Putin’s beast?
Did he climb willingly on to the cross of martyrdom, making a final sacrifice for his cause of a free Russia?
We will never know.
But what is sure is that his spirit lives on in the minds and hearts of people everywhere who yearn for freedom from oppression.
He joins the pantheon of so many other martyrs, some famous and some unknown, all of whom died because they stood up for their ideals and refused to back down when threatened.
What dictators don’t seem to understand is that killing a leader like Navalny only succeeds in spreading his message more powerfully, sending out shock waves that roar through mass consciousness and provide the sparks that fuel a million more fires of resistance.
Navalny’s memory, living on in each of us who remember him with gratitude, becomes a seed, a spark, a self-replicating positive mind virus that can spread from person to person across this globe exponentially faster than ever before in human history.
One Navalny dies; tens of thousands more leap up to carry the spark of his activism forward into the future he laid down his life to improve.
Change happens at the speed of thought and thought happens pretty fast these days.
Every human spreads ideas the way a mushroom spreads spores or a dandelion spreads seeds.
We don’t know where or how our ideas will land; the important thing, for those of us who consider ourselves worldwrights, is to keep our spirits up, our hope alive, and our voices loud and clear and strong, insisting that every living being on this planet has the right to flourish in a mutual reciprocity of right relations.
We live in a time when “freedom” has become a code word for the right to greedily trample on others for individual gain.
I reject that kind of freedom.
What we need in the 21st century is not independence, but radical interdependence, the recognition that we humans are part of a harmonious web of life that draws on the freely flowing energy of the Sun and teeming abundance of the Earth to make good lives for all inhabitants of our planet.
My work with small groups of students in my leadership, writing & public speaking classes does not feel like enough; and yet I know that as each person leaves my classes with new ideas, inspiration and practical tools to speak their truths more eloquently, the ripples will continue to spread through our human consciousness matrix, changing the future one person at a time.
As long as each of us picks up a thread of the mantel of justice and stitches it into the warp and woof of our own lives, Aleksei Navalny’s life and death will not have been in vain.
* Worldwright is a word I coined, taking off from the word “playwright.” Playwrights write plays; worldwrights write to right the world. Read more about the worldwrights I admire in my book Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future.
Come Write and Speak Your Truth with Me this March!
Keep the torch of justice burning bright when you join my new Bioneers Learning course, Speak Your Truth! Leadership, Writing & Public Speaking for Social and Environmental Justice.
Learn how to channel your passions into eloquent, persuasive writing and speech in Four Friday morning online sessions, starting March 4 and culminating with an optional in-person gathering at the 35th Annual Bioneers Conference in Berkeley CA at the end of March.
I’ll be giving a workshop based on my award-winning book Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future. Use the code BioSpeaker to receive a 15% discount on your Bioneers Conference registration!
Register for the conference here.
Register for my four-session Speak Your Truth course here.
Come on now: it’s time to get your worldwright groove on!
Come with me to Tuscany this spring!
If purposeful memoir is more your style, you are welcome to join me for another fabulous Il Chiostro writing workshop May 25 - June 1, 2024 at the luxurious Borgo San Fedele, a meticulously restored monastery set in exquisite gardens amid a classic Tuscan landscape of olive groves and vineyards.
Our days will unfold in a perfect balance of guided writing and productive sharing; excursions guided by our Il Chiostro hosts to nearby picturesque medieval towns; coming home to San Fedele to relax by the pools and gardens, eat delicious meals and visit with new friends; and taking time for your own contemplative writing and thinking.
You’ll come away from this magical sojourn simultaneously enlivened and relaxed, with a deeper understanding of your purpose in writing memoir, along with many pages of new writing providing a plethora of potential doorways into the story of your life.
More information (and beautiful photos) here.
Ready to book? Click here.
Come Riding & Writing with me in Iceland this June!
Give your creative spirit the tonic it needs with an all-inclusive week of RIDING and WRITING in the spectacular Icelandic countryside, in the height of the bright summer season, June 10 – 16, 2024.
Every day we’ll ride out on sturdy, sweet Icelandic horses through the expansive rolling vistas of western Iceland, led by our experienced guides from Hestaland. Once you’ve experienced the exhilaration of the fast, smooth tolt, a gait unique to Icelandic horses, you may not want to go back to the trot!
We’ll eat delicious meals together at the beautiful Hestaland Guesthouse and participate in thoughtful, open-hearted guided writing sessions.
There will also be plenty of time for sharing and discussing your writing projects and visiting the nearby hot spring spa at Krauma.
Learn more about costs and accommodations on the application form.
Whether you’ve been to Iceland many times, or this will be your first experience there, this trip is sure to be transformative!
More information (and beautiful photos) here. Email me with any questions!
Friends, it’s my pleasure and my passion to support you as we stretch towards living our lives creatively and to the fullest.
The motto of my author consulting business is “Writing to Right the World,” and the motto of my book publishing business, Green Fire Press, is “Books that Make the World Better.”
If these intentions resonate with you and you are working on a book, or have one in mind, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Supporting creative people bring their work more strongly out into the world is one way the dandelion in me does her work….
