That is how my first journal entry began at 2am in the International
Hostel of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka in 1998. After
a frightening ride from the Katanayake airport through darker and
darker Colombo, my arrival at the gates of Sarvodaya headquarters in
Moratuwa had taken almost two hours. The security guard was not sure
what to do with me and the woman who unlocked the hostel door
frightened me, too. She chewed betel nut and was groggy from no sleep
in the heat.

Air pollution was thick, permeating the heat that had dissipated
only temporarily before transforming the morning to come into a heat
that would be like almost every other day after day Mosquitos were
poised and ready for me, despite the offer of bed nets in the spartan
hostel room. I lay down on the hard, hard bed and wondered how in the
world sustainability, Buddhism and grassroots development and people
helping people intertwined here. Time and space merged. One has to
yield to the moment, I mused.

Life. Intense, audible, full of grace. Unstoppable in its
totality. This will continue. It will be an adventure to be awash in
the unending moment among so many creatures and growing things that
sustainability will seem like a construct created as an
afterthought. This will continue. This continues. This has
continued.

-Rick Brooks