Biographical Related Timeline to TRUTH

Gail Kristin Lennstrom

b. June 10th 1946

I’d just started working at the UCMCSF Hospital as a Physical Therapist at age 23. When I got in the elevator one day one of the medical students I knew looked very sad. I asked, “Are you Okay Willie” and he replied, “It’s just cosmic despair.” I’d never heard that term before, but it deeply resonated with me then and my despair has increased for the past 47 years or so. It described what I felt about living in a world that I knew could be SO much better than it was, or as Charles Eisenstein was to write in his 2013 book ‘The More Beautiful World Your Hearts Know is Possible’. After 2016 as the limbo bar of truth, morality, freedom and justice for all was lowered to subterranean levels fast approaching Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell my despair turned to grief. I recalled the stages of Denial -Anger-Bargaining- Depression- Acceptance per Kubler-Ross. But her model mourned the dead. My dream was not dead yet-the patient was still alive on life support. There was staggering transformative work to be done. The deniers and dreamers need to be awakened and those tolerating acceptance needed to Move into Action.

I believe we each have our own ‘path to action’ and that path might change during our lives. I was a Physical Therapist for 42 years; did some writing on and off and raised two children ‘with who I am well pleased’. I’ve always sought support groups and found one in PachamamaAlliance.org. I took their free online course “Awakening the Dreamer” and their Eight week “Game Changer Intensive” (Twice!!) The game is rigged. It needs to change. It would not be easy, yet they provide incredible global resources and support. My found current interest was in addressing Climate Change. I needed to Act Locally. I reconnected with SustainableHudsonValley.org (SHV) that had introduced me to the work of Joanna Macy 20 years before. She speaks of “The Great Turning”- a time of evolution to a Sustainable Society after the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions had failed to secure that. I wondered WHEN was the “Great Turning” going to come about? And WHO was going to make it happen? I came to realize that for me, the Time was NOW, and We are the Ones we’ve been waiting for!

There still was “How?” I did not want to fight, I wanted Peace. I came to embrace what Jimi Hendrix said: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, there will be PEACE!” Only love will overcome the fear that created the culture of hoarding and greed orchestrated by a miniscule few powered by Dark Money that hide the truth of the reality that there is MORE than enough for all IF energy and currency are allowed to flow. We just need to Share. Remember Kindergarten.

The SHV director recommended “Put Your Money Where Your Life Is” by Michael Shuman. I became a SHV Senior Fellow in May 2021. My project was to replicate ProjectNinety10 designed by architect Michael McDonough, a carbon neutral greenhouse, at Catskills Regional Harvest – a food hub of now 350 LOCAL producers 10 miles from my home. I donated one fourth the cost and the local IDA wrote 4 grants for the remainder. Every grant was fully funded by December. There’s so much more joy for me in living a culture of generosity…in leaving a positive legacy; creating local connections; shared passions; learning amazing new things at age 75 rather than just receiving a 5% return on a Wall Street investment powered by meaningless algorithms. Pachamama helped me get in touch with the concept of ‘Enough’. I have all I need and so much more.

Then came March 2022 and the escalation of Putin’s atrocities and war against Ukraine. We’d now descended to the Ninth Level of Hell! I needed to do more- still promoting greenhouses and started writing more. When I was in training to be a spiritual director over 30 years ago one assignment had been to write one fictional idealized paragraph of what I felt was most needed in the world. A vision! I wrote about a ‘Truth Tree” growing. I wrote a never published book (Evelyn – The Prodigal Daughter Returns to the Garden) that created a way for that to happen – but in one imaginary garden in a parable. I needed to update the vision, and with the help of one ‘Fool’ and a cadre of Grandmothers a vehicle emerged. It is still a parable of sorts, but parables are stories of what CAN be – if we share the loaves and the fishes there will be more than enough for ALL!

Now I needed a vehicle to support any awareness and heart openings to ‘The Truth” that might occur when people read “And A Cry Went Out” So along with a team of two of the MOST amazing women, www.livethetruthtoday.com was born and is going LIVE this week. Come visit us – It is ALL FREE as it was meant to be!

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