If I had a manifesto, it might go something like this:
May my existence support others in discovering, and then living by, their own unique values.
I aspire to achieve this impact through:
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- Committing to the process of discovering and living by my own values;
- Making connections, building partnerships, and sharing resources / inspiration / support that enable others to discover and live by their own values;
- Continually educating myself about the conditions which make this pursuit more accessible to some people at the expense of others;
- Actively building tools that have the potential to preferentially lift up those who have less privilege; and
- Co-creating environments that foster curiosity, creativity, compassion, and self-care… with lots of spontaneous singing, dancing, and laughter mixed in 🙂
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What makes life worth living? For me, so much of it has to do with sense of connected-ness that is possible when people reveal their creative spark through their art / their music / their writing / sharing food / their relationships / their way of being in the physical, social, and spiritual worlds that we inhabit.
For twenty years now I have been obsessed with the idea that it ought to be possible, in a world that uses money as the primary medium of exchanging value, for anyone to make a living doing what they want to do.
Let me be clear: I do not mean this in the cliched, prescriptive, and frankly exasperating “Do What You Love” sense. I believe that we should all be able to BE WHO WE ARE, and it frustrates me that so many of us find ourselves becoming something we are not in order to survive, financially, psychologically, and/or physiologically.
Back in 1999 I partnered with climber and photographer Dean Fidelman to build something that would financially support a complete immersion into art, nature, community collaboration, social activism, and a life well-lived. While I’m no longer involved in the day-to-day of that project, the experience sparked a sense of purpose that I’ve been both refining and expanding ever since.
In 2016 I immigrated to New Zealand from San Francisco, CA with my partner. We currently live in Thames on the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula. I spend my days writing, playing in the garden, practicing and teaching yoga, reading, going on retreats at (and doing the bookkeeping for) Sudarshanaloka Retreat Centre, working behind the scenes at Lotus Realm, enjoying our lovely small-town community, and generally being a goofball.
If you’re looking for my past life of formal list of degrees and professional engagements and credentials and that sort of thing (MBA in sustainability / writer / keynote speaker / workshop facilitator / Co-Active coach / author / educator / Xero alum / Food & Community Fellow who has worked with Whole Foods, Annie’s Homegrown, the Rockefeller Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, RSF Social Finance, and countless small business owners and creative people), feel free check out my LinkedIn profile or scroll through the list of my past workshops and speaking gigs.
Elizabeth Ü 