Happy First Birthday, Culture Shift!
This blog was published September 10, 2025 by Pace e Bene
When Culture Shift: Nonviolence at Work was published last September, I continued my journey as a book parent. The ‘gestation period’ of writing, co-writing with Rivera Sun, editing with Pace e Bene’s amazing director Erin Bechtol-had been exhilarating and almost as exhausting as giving birth to two human beings years ago. After the ‘birth’ so to speak I felt like a reptile mom-oriented toward letting her offspring crawl away without additional effort and oversight! It took some time for me to reconnect to feeling mammalian, willing to put effort into tending the baby, watching it crawl then toddle.
In this first year we have already been on lots of values-driven adventures, using book sales to raise funds for beautiful work. First was Gandhi Institute’s (https://gandhiinstitute.org/) book party, raising over $3000 for work that becomes more important with each passing day. Culture Shift and I travelled with designer Bianca Pointner and editor Erin Bechtol to Oakland, Ca. We connected with many friends, old and new, and raised funds for Canticle Farm (https://canticlefarmoakland.org/), my home away from home. The next trip was to the other side of our beautiful planet for a book party at the Auckland Zen Center (https://www.aucklandzen.org.nz/) led by remarkable friends Amala Wrightson and Richard von Sturmer. Last stop on the world tour was a benefit in Zurich Switzerland organized by Tanja Walliser, for a project led by refugees for refugees, called Autonome Schule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_School_Zurich).
Because many stories shared in Culture Shift center on work in Rochester, it has been a joy to engage locally, especially via book groups for colleagues at the University of Rochester/University of Rochester Medical Center where I work in the Office of Engagement and Enrichment. It will be a book group offering at this year’s community conference next month. Stay tuned for a book group guide later this year.
Our ‘book baby' was nourished by Lulu Martin (https://www.awickedsister.com/), who created an audio version released in January. More love came from overseas when a group I have worked with in Turkey asked to translate Culture Shift into Turkish. It has also traveled on its own thus far to Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Italy and Australia.
As we pass the first year anniversary, thank you to those who have read the book, and who have taken time to offer feedback for future editions. If you haven’t read (or listened) yet, I hope you will consider doing so, to support your capacity to show up, lead, collaborate and make your one wild and precious life as meaningful as can be.
Requests for support:
Write a review
Share a copy at your library
Organize a book group
