Summer greetings! After an exceptionally rainy start to the season we are finally feeling the warmth of the summer sun here in Western Massachusetts.

Our board and staff worked closely together during the winter and spring of 2009 as we launched a major review of the Center's programs. An intensive strategic planning process reached out to interview over thirty diverse stakeholders, seeking their guidance, ideas, feedback, and aspirations--all framed by reflections on the wider context for our work. We held a pivotal Board of Directors' meeting/retreat in May. The fresh perspective of our new board members, combined with the experience and knowledge of our longtime members, helped to yield new directions, mission and methods. We emerged with new vision and momentum for the coming summer. Our goal is to engage others in using contemplative practices to raise awareness, kindle greater compassion, heighten our individual and collective sense of connection and responsibility, and work towards organizational and societal transformation. Working in collaborative partnerships will be key to our strategy.

We believe this is a decisive, momentous time in our long human history: billions of people striving to co-exist peacefully on a small, beautiful planet. To forge a truly viable future for all, we need to develop a life based on harmony, fairness, fulfillment for all--with justice and care for the generations to come: we must work together to create a more just, compassionate and sustainable world.

To realize this destiny, we need the very best of our human qualities and capacities to be realized in ourselves and our leaders: more compassion, calmness, insight, capacity for reflection, decisive action. Less egocentricity, more wisdom.
 
More on this and new initiatives in future newsletters. In the meantime, tomatoes are ripening in the gardens as the warm world calls us outward into these days of abundance.
 

Philip Snyder
Executive Director