Well, here’s the summary I’m hoping to produce at the end of each month. (My idea is that something very much like this will go out each month to a mailing list of Gaia Voices subscribers.)
I have been thrilled by what I have been able to accomplish in the last month. I am now writing for an audience, instead of just writing for myself! Writing for an audience means not writing in shorthand. It means finding the right word or phrase, rather than just making a general reference, because, “I know what I mean.” This is a big step, as many who have tried to write for publication will testify.
And I’m pleased with what I’ve done, especially because it rose out of the experience of each week, spontaneously. I count this as an indication that I am surfing the waves in Gaia’s fields, rather than just sitting on the beach, dreaming about the shapes I see in the clouds.
The month started with some explanation of myself and what I am trying to do.

Then I turned to a Quaker Community Forest event, setting it in the larger context of my understanding of Gaia. This led to a discussion of the significance of Sandhill, the event’s location. That led in turn to the inclusion of Ralph Jacobson’s voice, speaking about his vision of QCF. For me, this establishes a continuity between my main work of the last eight years and this present enunciation of my vision of Gaia.
Then, mid-month, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself talking about God. And I could do it to my satisfaction. I’ve no illusion about deathless prose or even clarity of exposition, but I got started. I was able to “speak.” For now that’s enough. My main eventual goal is to get a conversation started, and having something I can “say” is the first step. “God” is not my preferred word, so how would I say it? I was delighted to find the words, at least a few preliminary ones. And this led naturally to December’s final post, a more general discussion of the guiding energies I believe we can find within Gaia.
Along the way I managed to start a “Welcome” page at the top of the table of contents, to the right, and to attend to some other technical issues. Wow!
I think my next assignment is the discipline of balance. In my excitement and anticipation of things to come, I need to be careful not to overreach, “not to go beyond my leading,” as Quakers are fond of cautioning. And I hope to offer my process of finding and holding a balance to you, my readers, as well. What I am saying here has little meaning unless I am trying to live it. I am saying that we in industrial civilization need to cut WAY back, on resource consumption, on the number of places we go (physically) in a week, and in our driving ambition to get things done.

.: Well, Richard…perhaps you are a little overactive, breathless and un-centered, here at the beginning of this new project?

Stay tuned.