Today its hot in Healdsburg. 104+. A good reminder that the heat of preparing for departure is upon us: readying the diesel converted 1984 two-tone Westfalia Van for the drive across country; locking down dates to visit Thich Nhat Han's Buddhist monastery in Hue Vietnam; submitting a summary of the Ellison Sojourn and its relevance to the work of Blu Skye to gain an invite to speak at the TEDindia conference. Then of course, there is always the question of meeting the King of Bhutan to explore what Gross National Happiness means.

They say practice makes perfect. I'll keep writing. We'll see if anyone writes back and is interested. I suppose first I have to tell someone there's a blog.

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back from the Tuolomne River. One of California's premier wild and scenic rivers. A trip with many sustainability leaders. Only three criteria mattered: 1. strong commitment/interest in sustainability in business; 2. influential in some way; 3. the kind of person you would want on a river trip. Then back to Berkeley for an all day meeting with a whole slew of chief sustainability officers. A leadership and heroes' journey.

another milestone. This marks the beginning of posted observations, thoughts, pictures and videos from the upcoming ellison family global sojourn. Today, I'm just back from a one day pilgamage to the center of world retail, Bentonville, AR, where I shared the contours of the sojourn with the CEO. Excited and amused, he invited me to join upcoming sustainability milestone meetings where hundreds of Wal-Mart executives, suppliers and environmental NGO's by video from the field - perhaps a Millenium Village in Malawi? A Cheetah orphanage in Namibia? from the banks of the Drangme Chhu river in Bhutan? from the TED India conference? From an illegal hardwood forest clear cut in Suluwasi? from Pumalin, the largest private park in South America? all remains to be discovered. Besides the goal of simply learning and witnessing the world today in all its different guises together with Marci and Skye, the task is simple: find and share examples of positive deviance - life reinforcing behaviors in complex human economic, social and environmental systems - throughout the world. We'll see how it goes!