Walking the Long Road Together

On March 11, 2011, overwhelming and incomprehensible disaster struck the northeast coast of Japan. Life for those in the region would never be the same. This book is about the awakening that follows disaster. About the minutes and months and years that come after now. It is about what happens when we're smacked on the side of the head and open our eyes, startled out of the trance in which we have been living our days. It is about the opportunities always present, often invisible, to create the lives we want, now. AfterNow chronicles the author's journey with the Japanese people over 6 years -- his own story of awakening after plunging into this disaster and the stories from people who found where to take their first step, and the next. It offers the tools and processes and worldview people discovered to create what comes after now. It is built around two big ideas. The first is that after disaster, we find our way forward, together. We come awake, together. Disaster obliterates the past, plunges the present into chaos and cocoons the future. We need each other to see and build the new. The second idea is that we don't have to wait for the tragedy of disaster to make the communities and lives we want. We can engage each other with respect, curiosity and generosity and begin to co-create what we want, now. We live in a period of precipitous, unpredictable change. The book is for those who want to make this time more livable and less insane. In Japan and all over the world, we are living in the messy middle where old forms are falling apart and new possibilities are in early stages. The ground is pulled out from under us on a regular basis. Our work right now is to learn to coexist with the messiness. We need to keep trying things, to keep learning. We need to remain focused on our purpose and follow the braided strand of intention and surrender as we find our way forward. embracing radical uncertainty, showing up as fully as we can each moment, each breath.