This Time We Cannot Plan Our Way Out Of Adversity
ServiceSpace
--James O'dea
3 minute read
Jul 31, 2020

 

This Time We Cannot Plan Our Way Out Of Adversity

We are constantly told planning is what is going to provide security whether it is making back-up plans for rainy days or retirement all the way up to planning global economies and tackling climate change. And yes, we are all aware that the best laid plans can go awry. Even when we try to plan, life’s unpredictability comes and upsets the apple cart and runs the gamut from personal disappointments we can get over, to causing deep trauma and wider chaos. No matter how comprehensive the scenarios are that we project we cannot plan for every possibility.

It seems that part of Life’s plan for us is to take us out of our comfort zones and even to tear down the walls of our defenses so that we can have experiences that propel our growth and nurture resiliency and insight. The reason we evolve through adversity is because it invariably reveals what is of true value in contrast to values that shelter us in layers of comfort….even in extravagant comforts that are selfish and unsustainable.

Breakdown is inevitable when our plans reflect values that privilege one group to the detriment of another or which are myopic in their environmental and health impact. The more conscious and inclusive are our values the more our planning can reflect the reality of our global interdependence. Planning that emerges from more enlightened values aligns with a universal moral order and points the way to real evolutionary progress for humanity.

For this to happen we must be clear that evolution is much more than securing the free and fair flow of capital and goods across the planet even if that were to include high health and environmental values. The needle of evolution points inward to secure the full embodiment of higher values: we evolve to become more fully conscious and out of that consciousness we create systems and planning that are based on universal principles of justice.

But here’s the key, there needs to be a critical mass for a consciousness which is embodied by moral leaders at the vanguard of evolutionary transformation to reach its tidal wave capacity in the general population. When that happens you see the response that occurred in the worldwide reaction to an event such as George Floyd’s murder. Enough people can no longer tolerate racism that change is inevitable.

Waves of evolutionary change are indeed gathering momentum in the hearts and minds of enough people around the globe to reach a tipping point on many fronts affecting conscious diet, health, lifestyle choices and relational caring. Meanwhile Nature continues to force us through the traumatic adversity of the global pandemic to go inside ourselves with the question: Am I now ready to live in a way that affirms once and for all that I am fully committed to mutual care, mutual respect and mutual honoring for the benefit of all beings?

And when enough of us embody the Yes to that question the planners will have some catching up to do because we will already be well on the way to where we want to go.

 

Posted by James O'dea on Jul 31, 2020