Valerie Brown – författare

First published in 1995. Managing today’s rapidly changing environment inevitably involves managing conflicts between the demands of development and conservation; the needs of the present and of the future; and between different community interests, professional positions and political priorities.

Risks and Opportunities provides both a guide to managing environmental change, and a training manual to pave the way to successful conflict resolution. It explores the full range of potential conflicts and looks at various methods for their resolution. It covers the who, what, why and when of managing change, and emphasizes the need to develop an active and strategic approach which indemnifies the interests and abilities of all the stakeholders.

The book’s detailed case studies provide in-depth material on the conflicting uses of urban, agricultural and natural environments, and the self-teaching guide and exercises will enable individual readers and organizations to acquire the necessary practical and team-building skills.

Find spiritual insight for developing courage and meeting life's broken-open, pulled-apart times for anyone seeking hope.

Daily we are asked to move toward bravery, to stretch in the direction of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, patience, and vulnerability. Yet life's tender fragility, fear, anxiety, and our own practiced self-sabotage can derail us from growing and thriving, leaving us fractured and afraid.

Ordained Buddhist teacher and Quaker Valerie Brown invites us into the heart of compassion, insight, and courage. Filled with Quaker wisdom, mindfulness meditation practices, and portraits of real people living out simple yet life-affirming bravery, Hope Leans Forward is a guidebook for all of us who are on journeys of self-transformation, self-discovery, and spiritual discernment. Centering small, everyday acts of bravery with diverse stories from marginalized communities, Brown's unique perspective as a Black Buddhist Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition and her extensive leadership experience shepherd us in navigating life's essential questions to discover true aliveness and meaning. When we focus on cultivating clarity and discernment in our purpose, we begin to understand that we are truly connected to--and that we contribute to--a larger whole.

Written through a period of profound personal loss and in the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, Brown's spiritual insight and life- and spirit-tested wisdom offers a new source for anyone seeking hope, and seeking to alleviate suffering within ourselves and our communities.