This slightly damp multi-layered web caught my attention.
Constructed in an obscure crevice in an old guard rail, the ravages of the thunderstorm had not destroyed it.
I was fascinated.
And it made me think about the web of relationships that have been quietly growing over this extraordinary time. Hidden away out of normal sight, connections have emerged.
Relationships that are now deeper than the proximal friendships we used to experience in our everyday lives.
Many of these will last the test of time because they’re forged at a different level.
All of them represent an emerging way of being in this new world.
It reminds me of the wisdom expressed years ago in A Simpler Way, and I am encouraged.
Systems are relationships that we observe as structures – but these relationships can’t be structured. The dense webs of a system develop as individuals explore their needs to be together. Explorations are messy; what takes shape can’t be predicted. Relationships spin out as individuals wander, negotiate, and discover the connections vital to their work…
…in systems of trust, people are free to create the relationships they need. Trust enables the system to open. The system expands to include those it had excluded. More conversations – more diverse and diverging views – become important. People decide to work with those from whom they had been separate.
From Margaret J Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers, A Simpler Way, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996
Go find the others.