Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. ~Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

In this season of giving thanks, we at Natural Awakenings turn our attention toward a new breed of social and political change-makers that are bringing forth fresh initiatives nationally and internationally. Whether their work is in conservation and environmental justice, health and nutrition, food and farming systems, urban planning or cross-cultural exchange, their paths all converge at the intersection of passion, purpose and productivity. From that sacred space emerge solutions and resolutions that make the world a better place to be.

BuxMont is filled with our own cadre of innovators and originators. For this month’s issue, we focus on a handful of local trendsetters who are redefining the status quo in a multitude of ways. We meet leaders from Elkins Park, Ambler, Doylestown and Wyndmoor who are mobilizing to build fully autonomous, democratically run “co-ops” from the ground up so they may better meet the needs of their communities.

We interview Wynnewood’s Meg Miller, whose lawn signs offer unexpected inspiration to commuters driving through her Main Line neighborhood, and Dr. Andrew Persky of Chalfont, Bucks County, who has brought life-changing pain relief to patients, using an innovative approach to chiropractic medicine.

Karen L. Smith’s Full Living psychotherapy collective employs a shared economy model to connect clients with specialized clinicians across the Philadelphia area, while Randy Garbin’s Walkable Jenkintown initiative promotes civic support for a more pedestrian-positive town—hoping to improve his Eastern Montgomery County neighborhood’s physical, social and economic health.

Activist filmmaker, lawyer and advocate Matt Pillischer, from Cheltenham Township, merges personal and professional pursuits, forging a new path for engaged citizens that want to see a society cleared of racial injustice and mass incarceration. Transformation Yoga Project also focuses on the impact of incarceration on our society, raising funds to provide yoga and mindfulness programs specifically geared to those recovering from trauma.

And this is just a small cross-section of the inspiring work happening in so many ways, by so many of the members of our Natural Awakenings community who are working at the forefront of the local, progressive, holistic health and wellness movements. Whatever you are working toward, if your goal is health and healing of people or planet, Natural Awakenings is with you, this and every month, offering you the camaraderie and courage to be the modern-day change-makers that you are.

Together we are “Making the Awakening” in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

Karen G. Meshkov