All Flourishing is Mutual

What does it mean to bloom… to blossom, for us to all find belonging and support within one another? 

Sometimes it’s balanced reciprocal exchange, other times we have more than enough and it’s time to give, or maybe we need to accept help and receive it. However it is, the ability to be well is tied to one another and the ecological systems we find ourselves a part of. 

As the seasons are transitioning from berrying picking sunny days to the leaves falling away, I’ve been reminded of the book, The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This book beautifully connects the gift economy, reciprocal relating, a reimagination of values, and learning from indigenous wisdoms. 

This book has reminded me that all flourishing is mutual, we are all interconnected, and time is seasonal. 

“Reciprocity is rooted in understanding that all flourishing is mutual.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer

We are relational beings; our reinventions and adaptations are tethered to one another. Our collective feedback is showing us the need to throw our system on its head and rebuild it. 

Things are shifting drastically in our world, and creating a more evident need for system redesign. Experts are calling our time the ‘poly-crisis,’ all the interwoven challenges happening at once, and it’s overwhelming by design. And the way out is through methodical actions and the ability to see that the suffering of our fellow humans, environments, and creatures = our suffering. 

How will we get curious about our perceptions and act from creativity?

Our creativity can recontextualize the boundaries that define anything.

The way we view the thing determines what it is we will actually do.

A solidarity economy is both human and planet-centred, positioning collective social and environmental needs over economic gain. A redistribution of who has access to wealth. Spanning beyond capital GDP-driven monetary exchange, but asking what the needs of the people are, and what role we all play in empowering one another. 

We all have different visions of our ideal world… and different leverage points. Sooo… 

What ideas must die and fall away?

What visions have the highest alignment with us all?

And what would it require for us all to really flourish?

Till next time,

– bloom

“What goes too long unchanged destroys itself. The forest is forever because it dies and dies and so it lives.” -Ursula K. Le Guin