This award brings the Sullivan Ballou Fund full circle to where we started 13 years ago-wanting to highlight the energy emerging in the world that can, as you say, “restore wholeness to the human spirit and the natural environment.” And now we have the chance to honor you, whose life has been an honest and brave journey to accomplish the same thing.
Something important has been happening to the consciousness of the world in the past 50 year; authenticity and age-old spiritual truths have become lodestars for a growing a number of people outside of monasteries and retreats. The Jeweled Highway is a lovely chronicle of this expanding consciousness in you and the world around you. We have thrilled at your adventures in far off places, marveled at your perseverance selling The Canadian Conservationist or velvet paintings door to door, and pictured with awe the emotional resilience required to pursue so many projects with intense people at places like Omega, Findhorn, and Manhattan.
Our 85 prior awards acknowledging the beautiful and valuable work people have been doing in their communities have given us deep inspiration. But we can think of no greater source of hope than your example of how the human spirit can pursue spiritual wholeness for 50 years with such zest---and success.
This is how Sullivan Ballou organized his life-thinking deeply about what his heart was telling him and then devoting his full energy to following that path.
Congratulations!
Elissa and Bruce Peterson, Founding Members