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by Norma Wong (Author)
Between falling apart and coming together lies the threshold--step through with a Zen master's invitation to practice hope in chaotic times.
Take a breath. Take a step. In this time of collective acceleration--when institutions crumble, climate chaos intensifies, and polarization hardens hearts--Zen Rōshi and Native Hawaiian guide Norma Wong offers something different than solutions. She offers a way of being. Part poetry, part strategy, part spiritual teaching, When No Thing Works reads like sitting with a wise friend who sees both the falling-apartness and what's arising. With stories that spiral and return, with humor that lightens without dismissing, Wong invites us to:- Lift our gaze from urgent chaos to see the horizon beckoning
- Move from "I" to "we" through breaking bread, sipping tea, sharing stories
- Find the critical juncture (机) where change begins
- Practice the leaps that collective transformation requires--not alone, but as "one and one and one"
Rather than offering answers, Wong opens doorways--showing us how to be at the threshold between a devolving world and an emergent one, how to hear what cannot be heard, how to move in the slipstream of these times with both urgency and patience. For those feeling the weight of "too much going much faster," for those seeking a different rhythm, for those ready to cocreate rather than merely resist--this book is invitation and companion. "What we do with this, matters."
Author Biography
Norma Wong, a life-long resident of Hawaiʻi, is a descendant of Native Hawaiians and Hakka Chinese immigrants. She has decades of experience in organizing, policy, strategy, and politics in Hawaiʻi, particularly in the area of Native Hawaiian issues, serving in the Hawaii State Legislature and as a policy lead and negotiator for Governor John Waiheʻe, Hawaiʻi's first Native governor. Norma began her spiritual practice at the same time as her political life unfolded. These days, it is the intertwined application of Zen practice and an indigenous worldview that Norma brings to provoke practical inquiry and redirect work. She is a thought partner, a strategist, and a teacher.
