The Book

‘A Heart Song for Systems’ by Mairi Mackay is a remembering of what leadership, work, and change can become when rooted again in love.

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A Heart Song for Systems

A Poetic Manifesto for Sacred Leadership and System Change

There are books that inform.
There are books that instruct.
And then there are books that remember.

Born from years of working at the frontier of impact, economic policy, and inner transformation, this book is both a field guide and a poetic offering.
It speaks to the weary changemaker, the disillusioned leader, the young visionary.
Anyone sensing that fixing systems is no longer enough.
We must heal them.
First, we must heal ourselves.

A Heart Song for Systems invites readers through five thresholds:

  • How the obsession with metrics and measurement led us to a crisis point and why the story of "impact" is no longer enough to hold what is needed.

  • Reframing leadership, economy, and change as practices of love, not dominance, fear, or scarcity and reclaiming love as the highest logic of system stewardship.

  • Exploring how real systems transformation happens through intimacy, trust, belonging, and the unseen networks that hold life together ,not through transactional exchange.

  • Reawakening to the truth that systems are living organisms, not mechanical constructs and honouring the sacred dynamics of emergence, interconnection, and stewardship.

  • Standing at the edge of the unknown with courage, grace, and humility, embracing bewilderment as a generative space where true transformation takes root.

Who it’s for:

  • Leaders and changemakers at the edge of old models

  • System architects seeking to build beyond burnout.
    Young stewards entering a world in collapse and rebirth

  • Funders, policymakers, and social entrepreneurs ready to restore meaning to strategy

  • Anyone whose heart has stayed tender in a world obsessed with outcomes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mairi Mackay is a system weaver, sacred storyteller, and leadership catalyst with a PhD in collaborative leadership and a life shaped by exile, grace, and the long road home.

This book is the culmination of decades of inner and outer work: a return to love in the world of work.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

Launch: Autumn 2026

Formats: Hardcover, Digital Edition, Audiobook (Pre-orders opening soon)

Join the Founding Readers Circle
Be with us on the journey from the very beginning. As a founding reader you’ll receive early updates, invitations to conversations and the chance to shape how A Heart Song for Systems meets the world.

Join the Circle
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Why this book matters

We cannot strategy our way into the future we long for.
We cannot sell our way into belonging.
We must remember how to lead with heart, with humility, with humanity

‘A Heart Song for Systems’ is an offering for all those ready to walk a different way.