In his recent blog post, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Dr. James Marks writes: “What are the barriers to better health…and where does health really start? Only when we answer these questions honestly and see health in this broader context, will we begin the real work…”

We couldn’t agree more — and this “real work” must be an ongoing and participative process, like peeling back a never-ending and infinitely complex onion to see what’s inside.

The RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America’s recommendations report is a wonderful milepost, filled with evidence and stories of hope. Also wonderful is an open question (overheard as a candid aside between Commissioners at one of RWJF’s public hearings): Is anyone even listening? And if not, we might ask, Why is this so? Questions like these invite a deeper inquiry that must unfold if we are to begin the real work of profound and sustainable change.

As we examine the societal, structural and contextual conditions that lead to poor health, we must also consider what values — what ways of thinking and acting and being — led to these conditions in the first place. As Churchill said, “We shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us.”

The good news is that coming together to consider questions that matter is intrinsically healthy. In coming together we re-connect with what is most important. We create inclusive environments where every voice can be heard. And we begin to see that the exterior conditions in which we live and work are manifestations of our collective interior conditions, and that means we can change them together.

The “real work” is interior work. And this work is always now.