At age forty-nine, Eileen Flanagan had an aching feeling that she wasn’t living up to her potential—or her youthful ideals. A former Peace Corps volunteer who’d once loved the simplicity of living in a mud hut in Botswana, she now had too many e-mails in her inbox and a basement full of stuff she didn’t need. Increasingly worried about her children’s future on a warming planet, she felt unable to make a difference—until she joined a band of singing Quaker activists who helped her find her voice and her power. Renewable: One Woman’s Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness, and Hope is the story of a spiritual writer and mother of two who, while trying to change the world, unexpectedly finds the courage to change her life. With wit and wisdom, Eileen Flanagan shares the engaging journey that brings her from midlife spiritual crisis to fulfillment and hope—and, briefly, to jail.

A graduate of both Duke and Yale, Eileen Flanagan writes for a wide range of national publications and speaks at conferences, colleges, and religious gatherings. She is the author of The Wisdom to Know the Difference: When to Make a Change—and When to Let Go, which was endorsed by the Dalai Lama and won the Silver Nautilus Book Award. A leader of Earth Quaker Action Team, she lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two children.