Beyond Right Relationship: Co-Thrivability
I wrote this poem after weeks of reflection about what direction would take us away from co-creating the collapse of so much we hold dear without quite knowing we’re doing it, even as we do. Along the way I stumbled into “co-thrivability”. At first I tried to answer the question “What is it?”, but the question was too big. So I let it speak to me through this poem. It seems that that question wants to be an inquiry, something to live into, not something to answer… or something like that…
Coheartedly,
Tom
What is co-thrivability?
Is it like sustainability or regenerativity?
Kinda. But it’s something we do together,
More than something out there…
Is it like love, kindness and compassion?
Kinda. But it’s a quality of a community, a culture, a system
More than something we feel or do for each other.
Is it like surviving or succeeding together?
Kinda. But it’s more about quality of life
And meaning. And wholeness. And trying things out.
Is it about abundance and everyone doing well?
Kinda. But it’s not about wealth or even health
So much as multi-faceted, life-enhancing mutual Enoughness.
I sorta think it is about the long-term well-being of the Big Us
About this vital blue biosphere, the bright-dark spinning web of life,
And the web of things we all do and be as part of that, inevitably.
Even when we go extinct, to make room for something more workable.
Sorta. But we have this humanesque kind of consciousness
That can shift into a kind of attention
That can Make Life Good
For all beings and niches
In ways that include us
Without it being about us.
Because what it’s about seems to be All Of It,
The Big We,
The Now and Then and Future Generations,
Of everyone and everything, living into
The endless blue-green fractal turning of the world, opening into
A depth and breadth of aliveness we can barely imagine now.
We could do that:
We could co-evolve that woven oceanic meadow-like capacity
We could wonder into the world about co-thrivability
All the way into doing it and being it
Fully and newly in a million deeply ancient ways,
For a long, long, long time –
Starting…..
= = = =
Join Us For Our Celebratory & Exploratory 3-Session Gathering: The Tao of Democracy and Beyond!
Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, POB 493, Eugene, OR 97440
Evoking and engaging the wisdom and resourcefulness of the whole on behalf of the whole
*** Visit the Wise Democracy Pattern Language Project ***
*** Buy a Wise Democracy Pattern Card Deck ***
Read
- EMPOWERING PUBLIC WISDOM
- PARTICIPATORY SUSTAINABILITY
- THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY
- REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISM
Please support our work. Your donations are fully tax-deductible.
Leave a Reply