Robyn O'Brien

So much of this global lens through which I view the world is because my mother is from New Zealand. I was incredibly fortunate to grow up visiting family there, aunts, uncles, cousins and my godmother who I am named after. But witnessing the leadership out of this small country over the last few weeks has been extraordinary.

Jacinda Ardern’s clarity, compassion and wisdom have been beyond measure. Her speech this week at the Christchurch Memorial came from a place of such deep understanding a simple wisdom: we belong to each other.

How do we encourage more compassionate leadership as continue into the 21st century? What does that look like in our homes and in our workplaces? Our places of worship and our places of play? How can we practice it every day? Or begin to? What would that look like?

Her speech was remarkable and the words are written below the video, taken from the Guardian.  I invite you to take a few minutes to read them.

“E rau rangatira mā, e ngā reo, e ngā mana. Tēnā koutou katoa.

(I acknowledge amongst us today our distinguished leaders, speakers and those who bear authority.)

Ngāi Tahu Whānui, tēnā koutou.

(My greetings to the whole of Ngāi Tahu.)

E papaki tū ana ngā tai o maumahara ki runga o Ōtautahi.

(The tides of remembrance flow over Christchurch today.)

Haere mai tātou me te aroha, me te rangimārie, ki te whānau nei, e ora mārire ai anō rātau, e ora mārire ai anō, tātou katoa.

(So let us gather with love, in peace, for this family, so that they may truly live again, so that we all may truly live again.)

We gather here, 14 days on from our darkest of hours. In the days that have followed the terrorist attack on the 15th of March, we have often found ourselves without words.

What words adequately express the pain and suffering of 50 men, women and children lost, and so many injured? What words capture the anguish of our Muslim community being the target of hatred and violence? What words express the grief of a city that has already known so much pain?

I thought there were none. And then I came here and was met with this simple greeting. As-salaam Alaikum. Peace be upon you.

They were simple words, repeated by community leaders who witnessed the loss of their friends and loved ones. Simple words, whispered by the injured from their hospital beds. Simple words, spoken by the bereaved and everyone I met who has been affected by this attack.

As-salaam Alaikum. Peace be upon you.

They were words spoken by a community who, in the face of hate and violence, had every right to express anger but instead opened their doors for all of us to grieve with them. And so we say to those who have lost the most, we may not have always had the words.

We may have left flowers, performed the haka, sung songs or simply embraced. But even when we had no words, we still heard yours, and they have left us humbled and they have left us united.

Over the past two weeks we have heard the stories of those impacted by this terrorist attack. They were stories of bravery. They were stories of those who were born here, grew up here, or who had made New Zealand their home. Who had sought refuge, or sought a better life for themselves or their families.

These stories, they now form part of our collective memories. They will remain with us forever. They are us.

But with that memory comes a responsibility. A responsibility to be the place that we wish to be. A place that is diverse, that is welcoming, that is kind and compassionate. Those values represent the very best of us.

But even the ugliest of viruses can exist in places they are not welcome. Racism exists, but it is not welcome here. An assault on the freedom of any one of us who practices their faith or religion, is not welcome here. Violence, and extremism in all its forms, is not welcome here. And over the last two weeks we have shown that, you have shown that, in your actions.

From the thousands at vigils to the 95 year old man who took four buses to attend a rally because he couldn’t sleep from the sadness of seeing the hurt and suffering of others. Our challenge now is to make the very best of us, a daily reality.

Because we are not immune to the viruses of hate, of fear, of other. We never have been. But we can be the nation that discovers the cure.

And so to each of us as we go from here, we have work to do, but do not leave the job of combatting hate to the government alone. We each hold the power, in our words and in our actions, in our daily acts of kindness. Let that be the legacy of the 15th of March. To be the nation we believe ourselves to be.

To the global community who have joined us today, who reached out to embrace New Zealand, and our Muslim community, to all of those who have gathered here today, we say thank you.

And we also ask that the condemnation of violence and terrorism turns now to a collective response. The world has been stuck in a vicious cycle of extremism breeding extremism and it must end.

We cannot confront these issues alone, none of us can. But the answer to them lies in a simple concept that is not bound by domestic borders, that isn’t based on ethnicity, power base or even forms of governance. The answer lies in our humanity.

But for now, we will remember those who have left this place. We will remember the first responders who gave so much of themselves to save others.

We will remember the tears of our nation, and the new resolve we have formed.

And we remember, that ours is a home that does not and cannot claim perfection. But we can strive to be true to the words embedded in our national anthem.

Men of every creed and race,
Gather here before Thy face,
Asking Thee to bless this place
God defend our free land

From dissension, envy, hate
And corruption, guard our state
Make our country good and great
God defend New Zealand

As-salaam Alaikum

I have never been more proud to have a mother from New Zealand than I am now, to witness this incredible outpouring of humanity and profoundly heart-centered leadership.

May we serve with hearts like this around the world.

A gentle reminder popped up on my phone yesterday that still resonates so deeply. This work is so love-fueled. I find sources for that inspiration in so many places. I hope that you enjoy this as much as I do:

Our time in this magical world is so much more brief and precious than we realize. Spend it on love.

Spend it on the people, on the animals, in the places that make you peaceful, blissful, awake, alive. Spend it in pristine silences and joyful clatter.

Spend it giving all of yourself, fearlessly. Spend it being your authentic self. Spend it with eyes wide open to all that calls to gratitude.

Spend it letting go of what does not matter. Spend it on that which summons the best of you, which makes you more than you imagined you could be, something that leaves you replete, something that makes you new.

Spend it opened, true, unafraid. Spend it choosing that which makes you most fully alive…

Spend it, every sweet moment of it, on love.

~ Laura Hillenbrand

Eleven years ago today, I flew into New York City. Absolutely no one knew who I was except for a handful of people who had reached out after reading my story in the paper. That story was meant to assassinate the messenger. Everything about it stung. I’d stayed up the night before it was scheduled to run, waiting for it to come out online. When it did, I couldn’t breathe. Then I cried.

Then, I sat down at my computer and began working on my website, knowing that the next morning, when the papers landed on doorsteps, that the website would be slammed with visitors. I made sure that the data was clearly and carefully laid out. I stripped out any emotion that was there, and at about 5:30am, I finally fell asleep until the kids woke at 7am.

Nothing could have prepared me for that day. By 8am, I had heard from every major publishing house, I think it was twelve in total. About eight different literary agents had reached out, and I suddenly found myself in the middle of something I knew nothing about. One of the agents, a woman named Carrie, was persistent. She was on the board of an organization called Healthy Child Healthy World, they focused on the harm pesticides cause children. It had launched after the founder’s daughter, Colette, had died at the age of five from cancer.  There was another agent that kept calling, too, a mother of a young child with food allergies. I remember looking at my husband and saying, “I have no idea what I am doing here. There is an entire industry built around book publishing, and I am running totally blind. Who do I trust?” Carrie’s persistence paid off and her affiliation as a founding board member of Healthy Child Healthy World. She signed on as my literary agent.

And on February 13th, I flew into New York City around midnight to meet her. She’d left a key to her hotel room at the front desk in the lobby. If that right there didn’t signify the faith that was in this work from the start, I don’t know what else does. I let myself into the room, exhausted and scared, put on my PJs and got into bed. About 30 minutes later, she came in. And from that moment on, a lifelong friendships and true sisterhood was born.

The following day, she’d scheduled I don’t know how many meetings with different publishers. All household names, I had no idea what I was doing, I simply showed up and told them my story, what I’d learned about allergists working for Monsanto, the funding behind research and how the United States was the only developed country in the world to blindly introduce genetically engineered ingredients into its food system without a label.

Most of those meetings were with women. All of those meetings resulted in an anger and action that was palpable. But the reason that the anger was so palpable was because the love they had was so deep. By lunchtime the next day, we’d agreed to work with Random House. They wanted the manuscript in three months. It was Valentine’s Day 2008. And a love story was born.

I can not believe it has only been eleven years. It feels like a lifetime. I am a different person to the young mother of four who showed up in New York City that day. At the time, the work felt like such a curse, an enormous responsibility that weighed too much, that tried to break every relationship close to me, that led to a depression that was so deep.  And in those early years, the friends that came around me became family.

Love is a rocket fuel. I say that time and time again, but it isn’t just the love that is internal, the love that we feel for our children, our loved ones, our families. Sometimes that love comes from the outside, from people who surround you and hold you up. People who light the way, become scaffolding around you so that you do not fall in your weakest hours. People that hold a mirror up to you, just by their incredible being, and say, “No excuses, you are so much more than you see. You are so powerful.” And they love you so much that you are able to find the strength and find a way.

Because of those friends, love has always been the most valuable resource in this work. It has taught me to be fearless. I also have learned to be as generous with love towards others as those friends were to me. It is the secret ingredient, the things that propels us forward, the thing that makes the impossible possible.

Eleven years in, we have created a beautiful and powerful movement. We are driving rapid change in our food system, and we are building a team that will not stop until it is done. What is the goal? It gets back to the mission of the mother who started the non-profit in memory of her daughter, it’s what every mother wants when she has a baby: a healthy child and a healthy world.

There is a lot that is wrong right now, the headlines remind us of that every day, but that also means that there is tremendous opportunity to make things right.

So do what you can, where you are with what you have. Start a book club, host a movie night, invite a speaker to your school, church or office. Use love. Because this is our love story to tell, about how we not only healed our children but we also healed the world. The time to do it is now.

Sometimes a film comes along that will change the world. But for that to happen, the storytellers have to be true.

I am thrilled to introduce you to my fiends, filmmaker John Chester and his wife, Molly, a culinary writer. They decided to trade city life to start their own farm on a stretch of depleted soil outside Los Angeles.

Part of their inspiration is to offer a better, outdoor life for their rescue dog, Todd. Moreover, they want to live in better harmony with nature.

Many of us hold similar dreams, but John and Molly put them into action. John chronicles their efforts for more than eight years in this sweeping epic of twists and turns related to the creation of Apricot Lane Farms.

As neophytes, John and Molly enlist a consultant, Alan York, whose vision is to raise an array of crops and livestock. Alan cautions that it will take seven years before they fully realize their potential. During that wait, they face mounting obstacles: coyotes, insects, bad weather and disease, like a modern-day Little House on the Prairie.

Most farmers would respond with pesticides, extermination and concentration on a single crop. But following their guru, John and Molly remain steadfast in their commitment to working with nature, not against it. Teeming with stunningly beautiful images of flora and fauna—and a pregnant hog that will melt your heart—The Biggest Little Farm is a testament to idealism. For urban viewers, it’s a necessary confrontation with how our food is grown.

It’s also a family adventure, full of suspense and emotion that will leave a lump in your throat.

It is 100 percent funded by farm investors, and it is so beautiful and love-fueled. It has been accepted into every major film festival, premiering at Sundance.

Please watch the inspiringly gorgeous trailer and look for it coming to a theater near you!

Tickets on sale now!

Why do we keep buying stuff we don’t need? Have you ever considered that your spending has the power to change the world for the better—however small your purchase? Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson has a message for the world.

Sometimes, there is a short brief video that says exactly what needs to be said.

Take two minutes to watch this.

“We get into the habit of buying junk fast foods that have no actual food in them. We buy gallons of poisonous household cleaners when one degradable soft soap would do. We are poisoning our homes and wasting our hard earned money for no good reason. Why? Because the advertising industry tells us to. They just want you to buy stuff.

“This is the 21st century. If we use our resources wisely, there’s no reason why anyone shouldn’t have what they need. There is no reason, whatsoever, why people are still starving to death on our planet. The common man or woman whether they are Israeli or Palestinian, Protestant or Catholic, Iraqi or American, common man just wants to live in peace and justice in a clean environment.

“When we look around the world and we see that that is not the case, we know that the will of the majority is not being listened to. That’s the first sign that our system is broken. Government won’t make these changes for us; yet again it is down to the common man.

“No company will continue a practice or product that you, the consumer, will not buy. It’s vitally important that you understand this because this gives you ultimate power to change the world you live in.

“Companies are extremely sensitive about you buying their products because if you don’t buy their stuff, they go out of business. That’s not something many companies are willing to consider and by choosing to spend your money wisely you can promote those companies that do business in a socially responsible way.”

Policy always follows the money. Use your purchasing power every single day to drive change.

Together, we add up.