How Do You Want to Live Your 30,000 Days on Earth?

Posted on July 30, 2012 by zoeweil

Almost eight years ago, I read the book, Naikan, by Gregg Krech, director of the ToDo Institute in Vermont. Naikan is a Japanese form of self-reflection which focuses on three questions:

1) What have I received from _________?
2) What have I given _________?
3) What troubles or difficulties have I caused ________?

You can fill in the blank with just about anyone or anything. I’ve filled it in with individuals in my life, including close family members and friends; with things like air or water or trees; and, most often, with the simple concept of “today.” I find the practice powerful and transformative, providing a true reckoning of my choices and actions and an opportunity for experiencing greater gratitude and greater awareness.

No sooner had I finished the book than I contacted the author and we arranged a time to meet. We met both at his home/institute with his wonderful family and a few months later at my home/institute, again with his family. We’ve stayed in touch, but years have passed since we’ve seen one another.

I’ve continued to teach about Naikan through my writing and our graduate programs, and now I’m thrilled that Gregg has invited me to be a keynote speaker at the ToDo Institute’s Thirty Thousand Days conference August 2-5 in Burlington, Vermont. Thirty thousand days refers to the average amount of time each of us has on earth, and the conference is sure to be a powerful couple of days of talks, workshops, music, and film, all designed to help us live meaningfully, humanely, sustainably, and joyfully in the time given us.

There’s still room to attend. I hope to see some readers of this blog at this exciting event!

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

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Gratitude in New York

Posted on November 14, 2011 by zoeweil
Image courtesy of asterix611
via Creative Commons.

I had quite a weekend in New York the weekend of October 29. Nine months ago, I had been invited to give a big talk in L.A. on the 29th of October, which happened to be my mother’s 80th birthday. I called her up to ask her how she felt about my not being there for such a big birthday, and she said I should definitely go to L.A. I told her we would come earlier in the month to celebrate with her (which we did). In August, however, my mom’s friends planned a party for her and asked if I could come, and so I said yes, changing my plans (which, fortunately, were changeable). I decided to let my appearance at her party be a surprise for her, and planned events in NYC to make up for missing L.A. I offered a day-long MOGO (most good) workshop, and the Institute for Humane Education (IHE) held a Crystal Ball to celebrate our 15th Anniversary.

That weekend could not have turned out better. The workshop went beautifully, and everyone made it despite the blizzard. I called my mother during our lunch break to wish her a happy birthday, and she told me it was snowing in New York. I said, “Really! Wow!” and let her know it was lovely in L.A. Somehow, despite the fact that so many people knew I was in the city, no one slipped when talking to my mother so that when she arrived at her party and I was there, she was stunned. And so very, very happy.

And then our Crystal Ball was a huge success with wonderful people coming to support IHE and others coming to learn about our work. If you’d like to see the video tribute to IHE on our 15th anniversary, you can watch it here.

Sometimes, things work out so beautifully. I feel very grateful for such a wonderful weekend.

Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

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IHE President Zoe Weil on MOGO Workshop/Speaking Tour

Posted on January 7, 2010 by zoeweil

IHE President, Zoe Weil, has a few speaking engagements and workshops in the next few weeks, and we wanted to share her schedule with you.

Please spread the word to interested people who live around the various communities where Zoe will be presenting. We hope many of you will be able to attend an event!

1/20/10: Vancouver, B.C. – Zoe is speaking about the MOGO Principle at the Vancouver Public Library (350 W. Georgia Street, 7th floor), Vancouver, B.C., at 7:00 p.m.

1/21/10: Maple Ridge, B.C. – Zoe will be a keynote speaker and workshop presenter at “Thriving in Today’s Schools”, the 2010 Convention of the Maple Ridge Teachers Association, Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Keynote at 8:45 am. Workshop at 1:00 pm. (not open to the public)

1/23/10: Seattle, WA – Zoe is co-leading a workshop for teachers – “The World Becomes What You Teach” — with Heritage Institute executive director Mike Seymour. Teachers can get continuing education credits. Antioch University (2326 Sixth Avenue), Seattle, Washington, from 9:30 am – 4:30 pm.

2/6/10: New York, NY – Zoe is leading a mini-workshop and doing a book signing at The New York Open Center (22 East 30th Street), New York, New York, at 1:00 pm. Find out more.

Visit IHE’s Events page to see all our upcoming events, and visit Zoe’s Appearances page to see all her upcoming engagements.

(Posted by IHE staff.)

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IHE President Zoe Weil on MOGO Speaking Tour

Posted on September 22, 2009 by zoeweil

IHE President, Zoe Weil, has several speaking engagements in the next few weeks, and we wanted to share her schedule with you.

Please spread the word to interested people who live around the various communities where Zoe will be presenting. We hope many of you will be able to attend an event!

Visit IHE’s Events page to see all our upcoming events, and visit Zoe’s Appearances page to see all her upcoming engagements.

September 26: Maine - Common Ground Fair, Unity, Maine, Social and Political Action Tent, 9-10 a.m.
Zoe will give a talk, The World Becomes What You Teach, about the purpose of education.

September 29: Maine - Camden Library, Camden, Maine, 6:30 p.m.
MOGO talk and book signing.

October 6: Maine - Belfast Library, Belfast, Maine, 6:30 p.m.
MOGO talk and book signing.

October 9: Oregon - Two university talks on the MOGO (most good) principle:

October 10: Oregon – MOGO Workshop, Cascadia Cohousing Community Common House, Portland, Oregon, 1-5 p.m.
Zoe will offer a half day MOGO workshop for a donation of only $20 (which includes a copy of her book, Most Good, Least Harm). Please register for the MOGO Workshop here.

October 11: Oregon – Wordstock Festival, Portland, Oregon, 1 p.m.
Zoe will be offering a MOGO presentation at the Wordstock Literary Festival.
Day-long festival fee: $5.

October 16-17: Maine – Kindle Northern New England Bioneers, Portland, Maine.
IHE is partnering with Kindle to bring the Bioneers Conference to Portland, Maine for a 2-day, life-transforming event. Zoe will be a plenary speaker on October 16, and she and Khalif Williams, IHE’s executive director, will lead MOGO and Sowing Seeds workshops at the conference.
Conference sliding scale: $75-225.

October 31: Massachusetts – Boston Vegetarian Food Festival, Boston, Massachusetts.
Zoe will be speaking at the two-day festival on Saturday, October 31st in the afternoon. Exact time TBA.

(Posted by IHE staff.)


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That’s the Funny Thing About Judgments and Assumptions…

Posted on April 24, 2009 by zoeweil

This past weekend I led a MOGO Workshop at Bard College. My car had broken down the night before, and so I borrowed my niece’s SUV to drive to the workshop from my brother’s house ninety minutes away. I begin MOGO workshops by exploring assumptions and judgments. I ask participants their impressions and assumptions about me carrying different bags: a Tiffany & Co. bag, a Victoria’s Secret bag, and a WalMart bag. The judgments fly. I’m alternately told I’m rich and vain, sexy and slutty, and poor and (believe it or not) evil — and lots in between. This particular workshop, I had the opportunity to ask the audience what they thought of me when I told them that I drove an SUV there. I asked them to be honest. Some were clearly disturbed. What sort of hypocrite was leading a MOGO workshop and driving an SUV? Others, wanting to like me (after all, they’d just paid money to learn from me!), tried to give me the benefit of the doubt. Maybe because my drive from Maine was so long, and because there was so much to bring to the workshop, I needed the big gas guzzler, one participant offered kindly. MOGO wasn’t about being perfect one lovely young woman reassured me and the audience.

There was clearly a sense of relief when I revealed that my car had broken down and I’d borrowed the SUV. One high school girl exclaimed, “I knew it!”

Funny about our judgments.

And so I asked the group to park their judgments and assumptions at the door, and to assume just one thing: that everyone in the room had something to teach them and that they had something to teach everyone in the room. I’m confident this proved true.

~Zoe

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Upcoming Book Tour and MOGO Workshops

Posted on January 28, 2009 by zoeweil

I will be traveling to the west coast for a book tour for Most Good, Least Harm and to lead two MOGO workshops, Feb. 1-10, and will try to publish a few posts while I’m gone. Here’s my schedule for those of you who might be in these regions:

Feb. 3 – MOGO workshop for Stanford Law School Public Interest Law Fellows (not open to the public)
Feb. 4 – Talk and book signing at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, Portland, OR, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 7 – MOGO Workshop, Portland, OR, 9-5.
Feb. 9 – Talk and book signing at University Bookstore in Seattle, WA, 7 p.m.

For more details visit my Appearances page, or my BookTour.com page.

~ Zoe

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In the Presence of Changemakers

Posted on November 7, 2008 by zoeweil

I’ve been harping on hope versus despair and action versus apathy in my recent blog posts because I believe the major hurdle we face is our willingness to change. We humans are stupendously creative. I have not a shred of doubt that we have the capacity to change our often dysfunctional and outdated systems (political, economic, agricultural, medical, legal, corporate, energy, structural, etc.). We also have the capacity to change ourselves. In fact, recent brain research has demonstrated unequivocally that the human brain is plastic, that neurons develop new pathways, and that neuronal stem cells, thought to be non-existent, do in fact continue to generate new brain cells throughout our lives.

This capacity to change, however, must be cultivated. At Bioneers, the most exciting possibility, the most fantastic opportunity came, not from a specific talk or idea, but from the reality that thousands of changemakers joined together to learn from one another. While less than 100 actually spoke or led workshops, virtually everyone was engaged in actions and virtually everyone had positive ideas to share. This confluence of effort was so profoundly inspiring and energizing that I venture to guess that all the participants, speakers and participants alike, went home ready to do more, with more wisdom, greater commitment, and growing enthusiasm.

It’s very important that we gather with others who are working to create a MOGO (Most Good) world. We need to be in the presence of changemakers other than ourselves in order to provide fuel and create those new neuronal pathways that enable us to change and grow. It is how we become wiser and more effective.

If you are able to attend a workshop, conference or gathering in your area, do so. In addition to the MOGO workshops that we offer at the Institute for Humane Education, please consider attending one of the Green Festivals. It’s a fantastic event with amazing speakers and changemakers. Here’s an upcoming schedule:

Nov. 8-9, 2008: Washington, DC
Nov. 14-16, 2008: San Francisco
March 28-29, 2009: Seattle
May 2-3, 2009: Denver
May 16-17, 2009: Chicago

~ Zoe

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