Thanks so much for your heartfelt rendition of our story @alan

I'm a little older than you (born 1960) and have been on your journey for a long time... I mentioned sea-level rise in an Environmental impact Assessment TOR in 1989 in Brisbane, Oz. Local Govts like Brisbane's were becoming environmentally aware and starting to try to act on the Rio Earth Summit... then we watched all our heartfelt efforts dissolved by neoliberal governance - heartbreaking.

I kept trying in multiple roles for a couple of decades, but slowly got more and more ostracized and, frankly, close to depression - friends, former colleagues, even family distanced themselves.

Then, like you are doing here, I became a strange attractor - by speaking my truth, being gentle with everybody at their point on their own journeys, showing up and challenging authority with integrity, and slowly being noticed for what I was no longer, not just what I was.

These are not easy choices... it takes courage... action despite fear, despite hope - my story turns toward more positive when I met my now parter, Anne. She'd seen me from afar, and I had to choose to leave my family in Australia (difficult decisions) to try and do more together with Anne than I could alone in Oz.

The story is more nuanced than that, however what we are trying to do together, and more that might be of value to those commenting here, can be found on our website (offered here in solidarity with the community forming)

Keep up the vulnerable truth-telling - it truly is the key to 'being seen, seeing' - which is the key to personal and collective systems 'growth'.

Kind regards, Neil and Anne in Belgium.