In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s magnificent book “Braiding Sweetgrass” she invites the reader to think about the fact that, in her view, “All flourishing is mutual.” Or put simply, that when we fail to be mutual we cannot flourish. We are only as vibrant, healthy, and alive as the most vulnerable among us. She goes on to illustrate this idea by thinking about mycorrhizae – the fungal strands that inhabit tree roots and which connect the trees in a forest, distributing carbohydrates among them:
“They weave a web of reciprocity, of giving and taking. In this way, the trees all act as one because the fungi have connected them.”
So if we are thinking about this from our perspective as creative people who want to stimluate regenerative cultures what might it mean? If we try to work to “integrate rather than segregate” as described by David Holmgren in his Permaculture Principles how might our lives look? As creative practitioners how may we cultivate inclusion and inclusivity in our work, and how may we bring regenerative thinking right to the heart of our practice? And how may the varied aspects of our often multi-faceted portfolios be brought together in a way that allows the different aspects of life to come together in an integrated way?
Thinking about inclusion in its widest sense it is interesting to ponder what it might mean to us. If we were to try and define the intrinsic characteristics of inclusion what might they be and what might that mean to our life and work?
In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s magnificent book “Braiding Sweetgrass” she invites the reader to think about the fact that, in her view, “All flourishing is mutual.” Or put simply, that when we fail to be mutual we cannot flourish. We are only as vibrant, healthy, and alive as the most vulnerable among us. She goes on to illustrate this idea by thinking about mycorrhizae – the fungal strands that inhabit tree roots and which connect the trees in a forest, distributing carbohydrates among them:
“They weave a web of reciprocity, of giving and taking. In this way, the trees all act as one because the fungi have connected them.”
So if we are thinking about this from our perspective as creative people who want to stimluate regenerative cultures what might it mean? If we try to work to “integrate rather than segregate” as described by David Holmgren in his Permaculture Principles how might our lives look? As creative practitioners how may we cultivate inclusion and inclusivity in our work, and how may we bring regenerative thinking right to the heart of our practice? And how may the varied aspects of our often multi-faceted portfolios be brought together in a way that allows the different aspects of life to come together in an integrated way?
Thinking about inclusion in its widest sense it is interesting to ponder what it might mean to us. If we were to try and define the intrinsic characteristics of inclusion what might they be and what might that mean to our life and work?
