LEADER⁵SHIP

So what is this "different way of being in the world"?  And how do we become the kind of people who practice it?  What are the habits and practices of body and soul, both for individuals and for groups, that can help us move beyond mere good intentions and into "a way of being centered on connection, beauty, health, and wholeness"?  To borrow a phrase from the contemporary social philosopher Charles Eisenstein, how do we live into "the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible"?

In my own journey, I have often wished for a roadmap of some sort, some step-by-step guide for making integrity food, and all that integrity food entails, a reality for my family and my community.  But what I've realized, as I suggested yesterday, is that there is no roadmap. There is no step-by-step guide.  There is no program for this work.  Programs are but poor substitutes for people who are learning to come into right relationship with one another and with their place, the literal land that surrounds them. And the way in which a particular set of people live into right relationship with each other and their particular place is just that: particular.

That said, there are, I believe, certain criteria or guiding principles for moving in this direction.  They are less "how to" and more "how to tell" if you're on the right track – the right track for your particular circle of concern, that is. 

There are many different articulations of these principles out there already, in books and through various social media outlets.  This is just one version, which I have distilled from a combination of my own practical experience – an ongoing dance with trial and error – and the wide array of reading, listening, and watching I've done in this space over the last five years and even back further into my undergraduate reading in the comparative study of religion.  There is nothing especially magical about this particular version of the principles, but it does have the advantage (if I can venture to say that), of being organized into the form of a mnemonic, in the hope that memorability will facilitate implementation.

I will just introduce the principles here, and then delve into each one of them in turn in coming days and weeks.  LEADER⁵SHIP:

Local

Ecological

Artisanal

Diversified

Experimental / Entrepreneurial

R⁵ – Regenerative, Recreational, Recursive, Redundant, Resilient

Sacred

Holistic

Integrity-focused

Permaculture-based