When I came to Thailand in 1998 I liked what I was doing here. I like the people and the culture but my life felt empty. I had been an activist in the US and all of that ended when I got here. I couldn't find my place.

When I tripped over and discovered ONet about a year and a half ago, it was like a light shining in darkness. At first, I just loved the great online community that I gained. I had people to talk to about more meaningful things than the weather. Very early on Evonne Henning introduced me to Chinarut (an onet member here in Bangkok that she had met real life) and then I stumbled on a posting by another onet member Paola DM who had posted a notice for a bloggers convention in Bangkok. Chin and I went and then we met all the rest of the Thailand ONet members. What a change in my life. My real life not my online life.

That meeting led me to Buddhist Economics, a new job, all new friends, a new intentional community, a new career, going back to school. Intertwined with Onet my real life has been reshaped in bold new ways. At 60 I am a new graduate student. I am doing a research project that will take me and 5 other Thai students to Gulu for 3 months in the spring. I am working with Buddhist Economics Scholars from 8 nations to define sustainable business in terms of Buddhist Economics. I am actively working with UNESCO in redefining Higher Education to recognize Participatory Development. I a part of establishing an international network on Buddhist Economics.

On top of all of that, I have met over 100 Onet members face to face and been even more inspired by each of them there than on here.

For me, onet was no failure anymore than my friends and relatives who have died were failures. Life has beginnings and middles and endings. I was not here for the beginning of onet but I was so fortunate to find it in the middle and be able to benefit from it (and I hope benefit it a bit as well) and am now saying good bye to it. But, I am not saying goodbye to all of the good people and things in my life that have resulted from my time here.

We are just moving on in our own lives to new places and new challenges.