Words that inspire action

What happens when you write one poem a day for 20 years? In this invitation to Evolving in the Wonderment, Winter Visiting Scholar Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer shares her journey with the simple every day, with the writing process, and her dance with grief, love, community, and joy. Follow her journey as a Commonweal New School resident through our events and workshops with her, coming in January 2027.

In this short article, Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny reflects on her residency at Commonweal New School.

In this introduction to Listening to the Land, September 2026 Visiting Scholar Melissa Nelson invites us to join her at the edges of experience and inquiry to explore what it means to rematriate science. An Anishinaabe ecologist and transdisciplinary scholar-activist, Melissa proposes that the fragmented thinking characteristic of dominant, patriarchal systems both creates and continues to perpetuate the polycrisis we now face. A solution lies in uplifting the historically marginalized scientific knowledges of women and Indigenous peoples, whose relational approach can bring healing and integration to the roots of an extractive system, transforming it into one that serves justice, life, and the Earth.

What Matters Now: 7 Healing Letters to a Friend with Cancer is a personal and practical guide born from over 40 years of intimate counsel with people facing cancer. Written by Commonweal founder Michael Lerner, these 7 letters distill what he’s learned from sitting with more than 2,000 souls navigating a cancer diagnosis, and from his own encounters with life-threatening illness.

It’s a companion, the kind of book you want on hand when a friend tells you they’ve just been diagnosed—something you can give them that says: “You’re not alone. Here’s what matters.”

In this invitation to Exploring the Art of Being, July 2026 Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny invites us into her world, where her lived experience as a migrant and a black woman; a student of literature, medicine, and hypnosis; and as both a doctor and a healer affect her worldview. Share her journey at Commonweal, cultivating meaningful, experiential ways to benefit patients and clinicians that center healing arts, collective narrative practices from the Aboriginal Australian traditions, and mindfulness-based approaches as the foundation to her work.

In this introductory document to the Secret Body self-paced course, Host Michael Lerner offers an introduction to Jeffrey Kripal’s work, as well as suggestions on what to read to orient yourself to his work before, or while, you explore the conversations.