Living Through the Transition

This week’s Crisis and Transition post, “There’s Something Happening Here, Part 2,” continues to widen the lens on the changes happening around us. The central idea is that when we step back far enough, what may appear to be separate crises and disruptions could be part of something much larger, an epochal transition into a new era.

The post takes that “wide boundary lens” quite far. It begins with a “restless Earth” and the possibility that ecological and geophysical pressures may be pushing humanity toward change. From there, it moves into more speculative territory, exploring non-human intelligence and what humanity’s place might be within a much larger universe of sentient life. It then turns toward what may be the deeper thread connecting these ideas, the emergence of a “new story” of humanity grounded in interconnectedness, consciousness, and a more life-centered way of being.

The post also raises the possibility of civilizational collapse. Drawing on Jared Diamond’s work, it asks why some societies facing profound disruption fail while others are able to change course and renew themselves. This brings the discussion back from the planetary and even cosmic scale to a much more immediate question: How do we respond to the conditions we are living through?

That question stayed with me.

There is so much happening in the world right now that it can be difficult to see beyond what is immediately in front of us. Environmental disruption, political and economic instability, conflict, rapid technological change, and increasing pressure on many of the systems we depend upon can easily feel like separate challenges demanding separate solutions.

But what happens when we widen the lens?

I wonder if some of what we are experiencing is not simply a collection of crises, but signs that ways of living and organizing ourselves that we have long taken for granted are being challenged. Perhaps we are living in that uncomfortable space where parts of an old story are no longer serving us, while a new story has not yet fully taken shape.

We may not even recognize a major transition while we are living through it. History often becomes much clearer when we look backward. From within a period of profound change, I imagine it feels much more uncertain, confusing, and at times chaotic. But transition is not only about what is breaking down. It can also be about what is emerging.

This is where I found the post’s distinction between change coming from the “outside in” and the “inside out” especially meaningful. We often look toward governments, institutions, leaders, movements, new technologies, or other forces outside ourselves to solve the problems before us. All of these may have a role to play, but perhaps transformation also requires us to look inward and ask what needs to change within ourselves and in how we relate to one another.

The Hopi message referenced toward the end of the post, “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” brings that responsibility home. It suggests that we cannot simply wait for someone or something else to create the future for us. Whatever comes next will also be shaped by who we choose to become and how we choose to live.

If we want a world that is more cooperative, compassionate, equitable, and connected to the Earth, those values cannot only exist in the systems we hope to create someday. They also have to be practiced in how we live now.

Maybe that is part of what it means to live through a transition. We are not simply waiting for one era to end and another to begin. We are participating in what comes next, through the relationships we build, the choices we make, what we choose to protect, and what we are willing to change.

We cannot know exactly what the next era will look like. But perhaps we can begin to ask:

What are we carrying forward, what are we ready to leave behind, and what are we helping to create?

Read the full post here.

Toward a more just and loving world.