Joanna Macy, Buddhist scholar, teacher, environmental activist, and writer died peacefully at her home in California last week.  She was 96. For over 50 years, your Beacon Bookstore has carried her work and many of us have been moved by her writing on “deep ecology”: the interconnectedness of all living things. For some of us, her work with Father Matthew Fox (former Catholic, now Episcopal) is what brought us to connecting our faith with our understanding of ecology. The Bookstore has two of her books on order: World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Planetary Renewal and Pass It On: 5 Stories that can Change the World.  Matthew Fox is still writing on eco-justice and gender justice and his daily thoughts are posted on Instagram. 

“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.”
– Joanna Macy

PLUS: Now is a great time to read Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families – Interviews by Peggy Gillespie, published by the Unitarian Universalist Skinner House Books in Boston. The book is this year’s UU Everybody Reads selection and our congregation will be doing a structured follow-up program in the fall on September 7. You’ll find it in our bookstore for $22. It is based on a photo and interview exhibit originally created for Family Diversity Projects, and is a collaboration with PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) National and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund. One of the families featured in the book is that of U.S. Representative Sarah McBride from Delaware, one of many extraordinary and inspiring stories.