Stepping Into the Future We Choose
We have traveled a fair way together by the time we reach this final part of the book. We began by looking squarely at the planetary predicament — the tangled ecological, social, and economic forces that have brought us to a moment of profound risk and profound possibility. We traced the pathways that communities, innovators, and ordinary people are already carving toward regeneration. And we explored how these scattered efforts, when viewed together, form the beginnings of a culture aligned with life.
Now, in these concluding chapters, the focus shifts from systems to selves, from global frameworks to the lived decisions each of us makes every day. Transformation, after all, does not begin in policy documents or international declarations. It begins in how we work, how we relate, what we value, and whether we choose to walk forward with courage or retreat into familiar patterns. These final reflections ask: What does it mean to live in integrity during a time of planetary change? How do we sustain hope while remaining honest about the challenges ahead? And how do we begin building a future that is both livable and worthy of the human spirit?
Chapters 17 through 21 offer five distinct but interconnected lenses on this transition. They invite us to consider the livelihoods we craft, the systems we participate in or walk away from, the balance we seek between personal flourishing and collective well-being, the deeper worldview shifts required to re-inhabit the Earth, and the delicate art of living with one foot in the dissolving old world and one in the not-yet-born new.
Taken together, these chapters do not claim to offer closure. Instead, they open the doorway to the work that comes after the book is closed — the work of choosing, again and again, to align our actions with the world we want to help bring forth. They are, in essence, an invitation: to step into the future not as passive observers but as active participants in the great turning of our time.
Chapter 17 — Right Livelihoods: Making It Through the Next Ten Years
This chapter centers on survival and dignity in a time of systemic ecological and social upheaval. It asks: how can individuals and communities reshape economic and professional life to align with ecological realities — not only to minimize harm, but to regenerate? In the short term (the next decade), “right livelihoods” become about honest work that sustains people without degrading the Earth: regenerative design, restoration, localized economies, socially just jobs. The chapter argues that if enough people pivot now — adopting livelihoods rooted in stewardship, rather than extraction — those small shifts can accumulate into a foundation for broader systemic transformation.
Chapter 18 — Could We Just Walk Away?
Here the book confronts a hard question: is it possible—or even desirable—to opt out of dominant systems altogether? “Walking away” refers to disentangling ourselves from extractive economies, consumerism, and destructive institutions — to intentionally withdraw and re-create life along different values. The chapter explores what that break would look like: simplified consumption, localized self-reliance, community-based economy, and regenerative relationships with land. Yet it doesn’t romanticize rupture; it acknowledges the difficulty, uncertainty, and sacrifice involved. The argument is that for some, especially those most committed to ecological ethics and social justice, stepping off the destructive path may be the most spiritually, morally, and ecologically coherent choice.
Chapter 19 — Living Into the Balance (The Possibility of a World that Works for Everyone)
This chapter enlarges the vision: from individual lives and small communities to a global — yet human-scaled — society where equity, ecological balance, and dignity are woven into the fabric of daily life. It envisions a world not built on domination, extraction, and hierarchy, but on reciprocity, fairness, and inclusion. The “world that works for everyone” is one where basic needs are met; where individuals and communities participate meaningfully in decision-making; where economies are regenerative rather than exploitative; and where ecological boundaries guide growth. It argues that such a world is not utopian fantasy — but an emergent possibility, if enough of us adopt the inner commitments and outer practices required.
Chapter 20 — The New Transcendentalism
In this chapter, the book calls for a deeper shift — not just in our institutions or economies, but in our values, narratives, and sense of meaning. Drawing on spiritual, philosophical, and cultural dimensions, “The New Transcendentalism” invites us to re-enchant the Earth: to recognize that the living world is not a backdrop for human ambition, but a community of beings with whom we share existence. This is a call to reclaim wonder, reverence, humility, and solidarity — to break with the disenchanted, extractive worldview that has dominated since industrialization. The chapter suggests that such a shift in worldview is the wellspring from which all regenerative action flows, because without inner transformation, outer change remains fragile and incomplete.
Chapter 21 — A Foot in Two Worlds
Finally, this chapter holds the tension of transformation: recognizing that while many of us must continue to operate within the structures of the “old world”—to pay bills, feed families, manage responsibilities—we can also begin living into the new world now. It is possible to hold a foot in each world: navigating the constraints of current systems, while gradually building relationships, practices, communities, and institutions aligned with regenerative values. In doing so, we don’t need to wait for a grand revolution to begin—we begin today, in the small everyday choices, the experiments, the places where new logics meet old. This dual stance acknowledges realism and hope, hardship and possibility, challenge and agency.