As a member of the Leadership Council of GATE, I am pleased to alert you to two February events that will bring together members of the community of transformational entertainment to celebrate the past, present and future of this exciting genre as well as educating the world about the elements of transformational stories and their power and place in humanity’s future.

Eastlake is an Atlanta, Ga. community that underwent an extraordinary transformation thanks to the heart and vision of Tyler Mathison, click here. When you do, go down to the forth video to watch this one. There are several other wonderful stories at this site as well. Enjoy!

As one of the great visionary thinkers of our time, Lester Brown offers the world a blueprint for survival in his new book, Plan B 3.0. As soon as you finish reading this timely book, available as a free download here, please consider acting on its suggestions in your life and writing letters to our new President and your congressman and senator asking them to act swiftly to immediately implement its survival tactics for civilization. Think of these actions as our legacy to the future.

From the Forward

The challenge for our generation is to build a new economy, one that is powered largely by renewable sources of energy, that has a highly diversified transport system, and that reuses and recycles everything. And to do it with unprecedented speed.

We have the technologies to restructure the world energy economy and stabilize climate. The challenge now is to build the political will to do so. Saving civilization is not a spectator sport. Each of us has a leading role to play.”

And the following quote from Wendell Berry from 1981 shows how long we have been thinking about what needs to be done. Now is surely the time to act.

“We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never clearly understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.”

– Wendell Berry, Recollected Essays

About ten years ago, I attended a conference in Mexico with a title that seemed like an oxymoron, Business & Spirituality. As one of the conference speakers, Michael Rennie a partner at McKinsey & Co, told the story of his amazing personal journey, I sensed that his visionary work would help transform his firm, their clients and business. As it turns out that’s exactly what’s happened.

The video clips below are taken from a full hour interview and illuminate Michael’s journey from terminal cancer patient through his chance meeting with a healer who would help him reconnect his head and heart, his miraculous conscious healing process and the development of a curriculum his firm today delivers to clients around the world with outstanding results. McKinsey is known for their 3000+ high-powered clients and their strong analytical and strategic planning capabilities. Michael’s little known story helps illuminate another aspect of their work and offers insights into the difference one person can make in a 10,000 person organization and in helping business become a more balanced discipline. I hope you enjoy the clips. Should you wish to obtain a copy of the full interview, please write me at jefhut at gmail dot com.

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We are all going to age and we may all have to deal with aging parents. This process can present a real challenge in either case and there are few books that look at this issue beyond medicating patients and particularly at the deeper dimensions of soul.

Eldercare visionary Joan Englander’s new book, Joy in the Evening of Our Lives: Nurturing the Elderly Soul, presents a heart based integral eldercare model as a soulful activity in which caregivers, be they family or professional, can develop compassionate and intuitive skills. By using poetry, story, music and deep listening among other tools and techniques developed by Joan, caregivers are empowered to reach beyond their loved ones mind and many seeming labels and blocks to deeply touch their loved ones once again. Joan’s writing illuminates how an empathetic caregiver thinks and serves and readers will gain valuable insights rarely covered in traditional eldercare literature. Joy is a valuable portal into the mind, heart and soul of elders and the creative ways caregivers can move beyond the walls that may have been built to protect the wounded psyches of their loved ones.

Joan presents a missing link in eldercare based on her 30 years of experience and moves from the physical/medical model wherein elders are treated as objects to be fixed, medicated, entertained, moved, fed and put to bed to a whole person approach that provides a deep listening and arts based palette that can draw out hidden parts of the elder psyche and soul like no other. This is a book that you must read if you are dealing with the aging process in yourself or a loved one.

To read more about Joan and her powerful work or to order a copy of her book, visit www.joanenglander.com

For a touching example of Joan’s work with elders visit

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Sonia: Love is the Healer is a powerful and intimate portrait that shows how the use of storytelling and music transforms a speechless woman with severe dementia into an alert and responsive state. It also helped her with her grieving process. The segment is from Joy in the Evening of Our Lives, a documentary currently in production that is based on Joan’s book. The documentary offers viewers the opportunity to see Joan in action as she uses music, song, poetry, storytelling and movement to work with every kind of aging challenge including Alzheimer’s and dementia, where she has been able to reach those others could not. You will learn many of Joan’s creative methods that you may be able to apply in your own situation.