Nothing Can Go Wrong on Our Trip

Nothing can go wrong with my life. Living the last years in ecstasy and gratitude.

“Nothing can go wrong on our trip.” This was our slogan when we traveled around the world for the first time. In 1970, a small group of staff of the Ecumenical Institute in Chicago went on a Global Odyssey around planet Earth. This is what I wrote about it in my autobiography Serving People and Planet: In Mystery, Love, and Gratitude.

In July 1970, my wife and I went on an incredible journey around the world in thirty days with a group of staff and colleagues. My Grandmother Duncan helped finance the trip for the two of us.

This Global Odyssey, as it was called, forever changed my being. It spun me around the planet and into many of the world’s cultures—Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Thai, Nepalese, Indian, Ethiopian, Egyptian, Greek, Italian, Yugoslavian, British, Icelandic—in such a way as to indelibly mark me as a planetary citizen.

I experienced the powerful mystery of the Aztecs, the sublime beauty of a Shinto shrine, the vitality of Hong Kong, the sultry weather of Manila, the serenity of the Emerald Buddha, a live-goat sacrifice in a Hindu temple (I almost fainted), a visit with a high lama in Kathmandu, the site where Buddha had his enlightenment and gave his first sermon, the devastating poverty of Calcutta, the birthday celebration of Emperor Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa, the decaying grandeur of Greek and Roman civilization, the awesome beauty of the Vatican, the wonders of a medieval walled city, a coming-home experience in the British Isles, and the eternal day of Iceland.

We had spent weeks preparing ourselves to be open to these cultures, and each night of the trip we wrote about and reflected on our experiences of the day. We were not tourists but were intent on squeezing the meaning out of our experience as we encountered humanness around the planet. I would never, ever be the same.

Before this time, in the first twenty-five years of my life, I had never left my native country. Suddenly in one month, I had fallen in love with planet Earth, her people, cultures, villages, cities, mountains, and seas. After this time, I lived in five countries, worked in fifty-five, and served one-hundred-and-seventy countries.

On our trip there were a few challenging moments. Due to an open door on the belly of the plane, our Pan Am One flight out of Tokyo started shaking and had to turn around and land. In Calcutta, it was as hot as a blast furnace. The live-goat sacrifice was a shocking experience.

Our slogan meant that whatever happened was part of the trip, not a mistake. This is indeed a helpful way to live ones life: breathing in, knowing that all is good, breathing out, knowing that I am accepted, breathing in, knowing that the past is received, and breathing out, knowing that the future is open.

Now, in 2025, what could this slogan mean, and how could it help us live with the challenges of climate disasters, ecocide, rising fascism, wealth hoarding, misogyny, racism, religious nationalism, the threats of nuclear war and artificial intelligence (AI), and in my case, and for many others, an aging body-mind?

Nothing can go wrong with our life. Our life is a gift. We can acknowlege injustice, untruth, danger, and suffering, and live in understanding and compassion for ourself and all others.

These challenges can awaken all of us to take actions of care. In the midst of these limits, there are possibilities to care for our body-mind, to create islands of sanity, to create beloved community, and to catalyze and embody a compassionate, ecological civilization, neighborhood by neighborhood.

As an elder, I want to live my last years and days in awareness, peace, happiness, gratitude, and prayer.

How do I start a new chapter? Just do it, now. Of what do I need to let go? My dislike of spending money on myself. What are my intentions? To be the presence and power of understanding and compassion. What is my vision? To embody and catalyze a movement of movements that is creating a compassionate, ecological world, person by person.

What is my passion? Writing, community development, organizational development, and leadership development. What am I being called to be? A cosmic being, an Earthling. How can I care for this body-mind and all beings everywhere? By helping each person to wake up and care for their life and all lives. What do I need to say or write about this and what should remain private? Decide moment by moment.

How can these be the last ecstatic years, months, weeks, and days of my life? Stopping, breathing, accepting, and smiling.

From here on out, give it everything I’ve got! Go for it! Nothing can go wrong on this journey! Be decisive. Be kind. Be fair. Be fun. Time to change into a new form of being and becoming.

Going forward, I want to contemplate more, in silence, stillness, reflection, gratitude, openness, aware of my awareness, aware of interbeing and impermanence, moment by moment. This is part of being a householder monk, the secular-religious in prayer and action for this suffering world, praying for the emergence of a compassionate, ecological Global Odyssey.

What about you? How will you live the wisdom that nothing can go wrong in your life?

May the young, including my children and grandchildren, live authentic lives of love and truth. May they realize their full potential. May they enjoy creative and meaning filled lives.

May it be so.