by Looby Macnamara

Recorded by author

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This cultural emergency calls for cultural emergence,
A breaking through, a breaking free,
Of cultures of isms and schisms,
Of gun culture, war culture, rape culture, fear culture,
Greed culture, waste culture, chemical culture,
Of corporations controlling our culture,
Polluting our culture.
Peeling back the layers of oil smothering our culture,
Can we connect our roots into the Earth
And reach out to fellow beings and show our care?
Can we cultivate a
Responsibility culture,
Friendship culture,
Kindness culture,
Justice culture,
Safety culture,
Peace culture,
A culture of innovation, resilience and hope?/
Can we name and create the culture we want?
A visionary, regenerative culture?
Can we shift our priorities, phobias, patterns,
Parameters, opinions, assumptions?
Can we bend or bury our beliefs?
Will we?

Will we reflect, connect,
Respect the collective.
Direct our objections
To the system
That promotes disconnection.
Challenge not blame,
Name and reframe,
Shift our perspective to gain a directive
That allows us to be receptive
To the interconnected web
Vibrating with every step.

Disrupt the pattern
To awaken and challenge
And begin to unravel cords of conditioning
To release the story
And create space for visioning,
Allowing the possibility of the seemingly impossible
To motivate and invigorate
The genius inside of us.
Activate and initiate,
Appreciate and celebrate,
Collaborate and participate
To co-create and facilitate
The desire to germinate
And take control of our fate,
Moving away from this state

Of emergency
Into a state of cultural emergence
Where we use emergence to support emergence,
With the divergence and convergence of minds
Creating designs
With the intelligence of co-operating hearts
To give us a start
On this path
Of empowerment.

To bring fulfillment
And deep nourishment
It takes commitment
To trusting the process
And opening to osmosis
Of the mystical and magical
To be alchemical
With the mathematical
For practical and logical
Action and reaction,
To bring connection
And emerge the solutions
For manifestation
Of personal and global transformation.

Note: Cultural Emergence is a project to develop a toolkit, community and movement for positive cultural evolution. The framing of Cultural Emergence was birthed through a collaboration between Looby Macnamara and Jon Young. This poem started the journey. The Cultural Emergence toolkit weaves together cultural awareness, systems thinking, permaculture design and deep nature connection. Looby is a trained Work That Reconnects facilitator and  this work has been woven into the toolkit. In 2020 Looby released her book Cultural Emergence – a toolkit for transforming ourselves and the world. This poem is published here and originally in 2016 in her book Strands of Infinity: Poetry to Reconnect.

Looby Macnamara‘s latest book, Cultural Emergence shares a pioneering toolkit for regeneration and transformation. Looby has been teaching permaculture for nearly 20 years. During this time she has been a pioneer of personal and social permaculture, authoring the first book globally to focus on the peoplecare ethic People & Permaculture. Looby is also author of 7 Ways to Think Differently and Strands of Infinity.  She runs Applewood Permaculture Centre in the UK with her partner Chris Evans. She is also one of the partners of the European Mother Nature project, empowering mothers. Looby has been an active member of the permaculture community, and was a chairperson of the Permaculture Association and is a senior diploma tutor.

For more about Cultural Emergence, Looby’s books, videos, podcasts and courses see www.cultural-emergence.com