How might we listen and live into Earth’s wisdom regarding a new economy? 

Seeking wisdom for systemic change, I’ve recently been reading and listening to a wise voice alive and well today—David Korten, self-described “author, speaker, engaged citizen.” David offers a frank query: “We will prosper in the pursuit of life, or we will perish in the pursuit of money. The choice is ours.”

Captivated by the paradox of energy compelling choices each day, some people linger in longing of re-engaging crowds at sports events, some to the innermost store in a shopping mall, some to a great movie, some to the contents of the refrigerator, some to the street corner in protest … Recently, I’m grateful that the spirit of choice also calls many, many people to nature, to imbibe Earth’s wisdom, sensing her pulsing a new economy emerging, “helping us awaken to the profound implications of the simple truth that we are living beings born of and nurtured by a living Earth. Our well-being depends on Earth’s well-being. Life is the goal, community is essential, and money is only a tool” (Korten).

Some of the most experienced economists Zoomed last week to cite universal values and movement that may transform to a collective new economy. Watch the panel conversation, and read a great article by Korten, “From Emergency to Emergence.”

Inviting this new economy to emerge, we might continue to engage and invest in Earth’s wisdom.

Living Earth’s Wisdom
by Bruce Sanguin, If Darwin Prayed: Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics, 154

We tune our ears to the wisdom of Earth.
It is deep prayer, this listening to her cries, as Spirit’s sighs, too deep for words.

Unborn generations call to us from the future:
what did you do when the planet could no longer bear your foolishness
and began to break?

The growl of the grizzly—caught in the crosshairs
of trophy hunters and policy makers, who seem to prize extinction—
is a plea for the rights of all the disappearing ones.

Hear the bawl of the caribou asking us for room enough to roam
and arsenic-free water to drink.

The cardinal’s whistle, once joy’s message,
is now a haunting lament for the dwindling chorus of songbirds,

The topsoil—living organism and not lowly dirt—
clears its thinning, chemical-burned voice,
and speaks out for the biotic kindom teaming within this dark body.

—Ann Jackson, PBVM, Prairiewoods spiritual services coordinator