Finding Our Next Now
A momentous time in the Divided States of America. How will we find our way forward now? Diversity and difference are critical ingredients for creativity. Rough surfaces – jumbled, scratchy, uneven — give better handholds than smooth. When diversity and different become divisions and when those divisions become seemingly insurmountable canyons. We have a problem. And we have an opportunity.
Time to double down on working together to build healthy and resilient communities. If you’ve spent time on the NewStories website you know that the arc of possibilities we lean into is a regenerative world view where the lives and communities we want are created by taking actions which renew, replenish and regenerate life rather than extracting and commodifying it. It’s important to remember that this is not a binary situation. We will continue to extract even as we regenerate, but the arc needs to be towards regeneration.
We’ve drawn together three threads from Bob Stilger’s book AfterNow: When We Cannot See the Future, Where Do We Begin? In this publication. Our Two Loops model offers a simple and powerful image of how we move from the “old paradigm” – which has been primarily extractive – to a new paradigm which is primarily regenerative. Our Principles of Life Affirming Leadership offer thoughtful guidance about how we can be with each other in these times. A final set of images are meditations and invitations to help as keep making our path in these turbulent times.
Please find more clarity, confidence and courage here.