I am much influenced by this teaching of The Buddha, and have explored the theme through studying our own myths, through sacred texts and in the struggle to understand how we can dwell more lightly upon the land. By discipline, I was an economist – of sorts – and, over the past twenty-five or so years, helped to create two consultancies that studied and forecast property markets, more recently in the light of sustainability and climate change. More recently, I have begun a quest to restore the word “holy” to our everyday lives – not least in the matters of love and peace – and have sought to find a way of being that brings us to participate in divine purpose. As I grow older, I come to see that finding peace or coming close to that mysterious expression of Love that some of us call God has to start within our own hearts and with those with whom we share our lives on a daily basis. For most of us, this holy life is experienced in the ordinary and the everyday – simple acts of kindness and thoughtfulness, sustained by contemplation and prayer.

At the same time, I have come to realise that our present economic, social and environmental “dis-ease” could be catastrophic and that we have no time to waste in finding another way of being. We must STOP NOW and find the time and the imagination to realign our lives with that which is True and Beautiful and Good – bringing ourselves nearer to that which is Divine. In all of this, I am much inspired by the following quotation by Rumi:

“Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the Dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground”

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