Session 2 of Earthseed Book Club focused on the Emergent Strategy principles of Intentional Adaption and Non-Linear & Iterative.
Intentional Adaption asks us to question how we respond and adapt to change. This is the heart of Emergent Strategy- being intentional on how we grow and adapt to change impacts the outcomes we see in our lives. Non-Linear & Iterative reminds us that transformation and change doesn’t happen in a linear way. Everything we attempt is a learning opportunity, whether we are successfully creating the changes we want to see or learning from our mistakes.
From Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown, pg 68:
“From water I have learned to move around and past fixed objects to reach my goal. From our winged kindred I have learned there are times to swarm and that such a swarm can take down even the largest and cockiest predator. But the most important lesson of all, for me, has been how history embeds itself in every living thing. The land speaks to me in a much longer timeframe than the one my body understands. It reminds me that ours are generational fights that are passed down like legacy. The earth, in the way it spins under our feet, changing while no one is looking, reminds me both that what we win today can be gone tomorrow, and what we lose today can be won tomorrow. The only constant is change. That is nature’s greatest lesson to me- that change is inevitable, and time is unfathomable. It means I can keep going, when all seems to fail around me. Nature is the source of my faith.”
-Malkia Cyril
Session 2 of Earthseed Book Club practiced these principles through somatics & bio-mimicry group exercises. Somatics describes any bodywork practice that emphasizes mind-body connection and internal awareness. Somatic therapy is used to re-regulate our nervous systems and bring the body into alignment with its innate healing abilities, which can often be blocked by trauma. Embodying our somatic awareness can increase our ability to be intentional about how we respond to change, allowing us to move from reaction to having choice over our responses and strengthening our resilience.
Bio-Mimicry is the practice of learning adaptation & resilience from the natural world. Rather than the colonial worldview of the natural world being a resource to extract from, bio-mimicry encourages us to view nature as a teacher and living being that we are in relationship with. Practicing bio-mimicry means learning from nature’s processes, ecosystems, and evolving patterns, and applying them to our own lives, with the goal of connecting to our own distinct role within life’s interconnected systems.
By studying how we adapt to change, we are able to bring more awareness to how we shape our lives. The way we respond to change impacts the way we move through the world and how our actions ripple outwards. Understanding how we change is a community-building practice; the more we are able to master change-making within our personal lives, the greater our capacity becomes to make collective, large-scale change. Earthseed Book Club’s mission is to utilize these strategies in our personal lives and connect with community to reflect on how we shape change on a collective scale.
