MWA Newsletter, -  Dec 01, 2025

Your donations make everything possible

Dear Friends of Mountains and Waters Alliance,

I write you at the end of the book tour, satisfied and tired. I visited 11 states, 18 dharma centers, 4 bookstores and 6 other groups and had myriad conversations with supporters and friends. I’m ready to settle down and do more of the writing and outreach from home. And I’m enthusiastic about the people who responded to the intention I offered.

To make the tour possible, I quit my outside job and also waived my stipend for the 5 months of tour and preparation, living on savings and on the generosity of my hosts. That’s not a long-term strategy, but a gamble. The human response was strong, the energy was strong. I don’t think we broke even financially, but that was expected.

The question now is whether I will be able to continue responding to people, making resources available, and doing the training and retreat time to replenish my energy. I’d like to continue doing this full time. If you agree, keep reading.

I’m asking for $41,000 for this year.

Here’s what that’s for:

• $24,000 – new annual stipend, which can allow me to work full time for MWA (including time for Zen study and teaching). (Yes, this is low. I’m happy to explain how I can get by on so little.)
• $5,000 – reimburse the five months I worked without pay, August to December 2025
• $2600 – office, zendo supplies, facilities and miscellaneous – routine and not extravagant.
• $2000 – website and related improvements that really should be done.
• $7000 – retreats, conferences, and travel. (This is making up for years without retreat time. I plan about a month of retreat time, and there will be a little more. I prefer to travel by train; Greyhound is cheaper but hard on the body. I’ve done enough long car driving for the rest of my life.)

Open Reality

The book is a vehicle for offering and teaching, helping me bring my voice to new places and new groups. And, for all the people who have read the book and said “Yes!” I’d like to offer the full energy of this body and life to the work that has been given me. Which is part of the great movement arising in this time, what Joanna Macy called The Great Turning. I see it happening.

In addition to more talks and more connections, it would help to create a study guide to support groups who may want to work with the book, and to offer the book to more publications and online publications. I’d like to upgrade the audio offerings, including both editing and excerpting. All this takes time (or skilled volunteers.)

How

If you want this work to continue, please consider what you would like to give to help it.

We have a no-cost donation platform (U.S. only), on the website, and an ordinary donation platform too. I can arrange donations directly through our fiscal sponsor, if that’s what works for you. If you have an employer who matches donations, I’m happy to work with that. And there’s iGive. All of this is on our donation page.

Love and blessings,

Shodo Spring