As we reflect on what this year brought us, we can’t but marvel at the abundance of opportunities to practice what we teach, to expand our boundaries, and to lead into the unknown. The gifts of this year’s journey have been many, and for them we are deeply grateful.

2009 began with the continuation of an action-research project with the Institute for Sustainable Social Development (IDeSS) in Mexico.  We did several trainings throughout Mexico and met amazing people working in diverse and poor communities on social, economic and environmental dimensions of local development. We were able to share our thinking on evolutionary development processes and facilitate dialogue to foster synergy among their initiatives in ways that honor and celebrate their unique contributions and their rich cultures.

 In Spring we offered two trainings: our Evolutionary Leadership for Sustainability public workshop at the Marin Headlands Institute with our dear friend Manuel Manga, and a workshop on Leading into the Unknown for the Center for Leadership Studies at St. Mary’s College of California.

In May we relocated to Sebastopol, in beautiful Sonoma County, after 11 years in San Francisco. The transition has been slow but we are tremendously happy in our new home. We are surrounded by farms, vineyards, redwood forests and a vibrant community fully engaged and committed to find ways of living meaningful and sustainable lives. We are very excited about growing roots and contributing to the thriving of West Sonoma County.

During the summer we began a collaboration with a very exciting start up organization in Mexico: the University of the Environment (Universidad del Medio Ambiente). They found our work on evolutionary learning communities and sustainability and invited us to facilitate a workshop for their first class of social entrepreneurs as well as to join them as “co-researchers” in their strategic design process. From a mission and values perspective, UMA is a sister organization of Syntony Quest, and the people involved are members of our same tribe. As Alexander put it, “we cannot not work together.”

In July, we had the privilege of participating in the 53^rd Annual Conference & Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) which took place at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. In addition to the coordination of our Special Integration Group on Evolutionary Development (that we have been chairing since 1999), we facilitated what was called a “progressive” plenary session that involved all conference participants in an interactive exploration of three sustainability case studies in and around the city of Brisbane: water, food and transportation. The format of the session involved conference attendees learning from local experts engaged in these cases and collaborating with each other on identifying solutions based on their expertise and experience. It was an incredible experience of group genius!

 The Fall brought us new teaching opportunities, both at the Organizational Development MA program of Sonoma State University and at the Green your MBA Executive Certificate program of Dominican University of California. We also had some public speaking opportunities. Kathia was invited to present as part of a panel on "Perspectives from the Front Lines of Social Entrepreneurship" at the Social Change Conference 2009 in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Walden University.   She shared the model of Syntony Creations as a socio-ecological enterprise that will bring recycled crafts made by interns of the ‘Centers for Social Re-adaptation’ of Veracruz, Mexico, to conscious consumers seeking to make a difference through their consumer choices. Both Alexander and Kathia joined host Duncan Campbell on his radio program “Connections” for a living dialogue exploring the meaning and significance of syntony in the evolution of consciousness and the connections of our work as Syntony Quest with the visionary work of Ervin Laszlo.

We are ending the year with a lot of positive energy and excitement around the Evolutionary Leadership Initiative: a collaboration among 23 systems thinkers and transformational practitioners who have accepted our invitation to join in the creation of A Field Guide for Evolutionary Leaders. In November, we had a first “Meeting of Authors” in Sebastopol, which resulted in an exuberance of ideas on how this group is committed to creating an ongoing learning and collaborative action process beyond the book, open to any and all evolutionary leaders doing their part in creating an abundant and thriving future for all … and that includes you!

There is a strong “red thread” running through all these experiences: love, as an ever present and powerful force guiding and reminding us why we are doing all this work.  Love for humanity, love for the planet, love for future generations of all species, love for water, for light, for life. From love, hope and joy emerge as unlimited sources of energy that inspire higher aspiration and deeper commitment to ourselves, to each other, to our planet and to the future.

That’s why, beyond walking our talk, we are seeking to dance our path. That’s what the syntony quest is all about!

Thank you for being part of our community. We are looking forward to continue dancing the path with you in 2010!

Alexander & Kathia Laszlo