Thriving

Life in itself Is nothing,
An empty cup,
a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

Edna St Vincent Millay, Spring

In Melbourne, it is spring. Green shoots are breaking out all over the garden. Nature is reminding us that we can move beyond survival. This is a time to thrive.

For many, it may feel odd to talk about thriving. Unequivocally, we live in a time of overlapping crises – climate, income inequality, authoritarianism, pandemics and more. However dark the circumstances, we can still focus on our individual and collective potential. Making steps to realise potential however tentative and however small is still progress. We can’t rely on nature, history or others to bring us a better world. We must go make it.

Making a Thriving World

Almost always new growth, development and potential starts small, just like those shoots on the branches of the trees. By summer, those shoots might be a new branch. Now they are just a tentative green bud. We can only continue to do the little things individually and collectively that move us towards a richer and more vibrant thriving. If we work on our individual and collective potential together in the darkest times we will recover eventually. We can only to take one step after another.

Small actions accumulate over time. Some times transformational change needs to be fostered in small actions in small groups away from the wreckage of the main systems, as the Berkana two loops change model highlights. As it begins to thrive at a smaller scale, it can refine, strengthen and ultimately attract a wider community. Individual development is the same, we need to persist through the difficulties of new skills and new starts learning as we practice on a path to a new and wider mastery.

The time to prepare is now. The time to work on growth is now. Now is the time that we thrive. Together.

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now

traditional saying