Suppose we try to remember that God's work is already done; that the hickory tree, to Him, is already as beautiful as the weeping willow, because He can see that which is still hidden from our dull eyes—the perfect, finished spiritual creation; and that in His way (not ours) and in His time (not ours) this eternal fact will be made manifest to human consciousness.

— Louise Knight Wheatley, The Problem of the Hickory Tree

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.

— Margaret Wheatley, turning to one another

Emergence violates so many of our Western assumptions of how change happens that it often takes quite a while to understand it. In nature, change never happens as a result of top-down, pre-conceived strategic plans, or from the mandate of any single individual or boss. Change begins as local actions spring up simultaneously in many different areas.

— Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale, Margaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze

The creative Principle — Life, Truth, and Love — is God. The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected.
— Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 502:27

living and working together to provide a valuable service — is really a spiritual idea, the atmosphere of Love. Just as

every aspect of human experience indicates, directly or by reversal, the existence of a divine truth, and human beings hint at the true man as God's reflection, an institution doing selfless work is an expression of spiritual qualities.

These qualities constitute the highest idea of organization, and include harmony, structure, order, economy, balance,

supply, usefulness, purpose, fruition, and so forth. These are the counterparts of the mortal image of organization, which includes conflict, chaos, waste, weakness, imbalance, shortage, and excess.

— A SUMMARY OF KEY CONCEPTS, ISSUES, AND FACTS IN THE EXPERIENCE OF TENACRE FOUNDATION

If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.
The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.
— Tao Te Ching, Chapter 57, trans. Stephen Mitchell

P. 44 “If we see life as a brutal contest among separate entities, we focus on individual contribution, individual change.  This worldview not only makes us feel afraid and isolated but it also causes us to hope for heroes.  If evolution is the result of changes in individuals, what we need are a few individuals who can outsmart nature and win over the competition.  Yet in a systems-seeking, coevolving world, there is no such thing as a hero.  Not even a visionary leader.  Everything is the result of interdependencies--systems of organization where we support, challenge, and create new combinations with others….No one forges ahead independently, molding the world to his or her presence while the rest trail admiringly behind.

P.102: “Margaret Wheatley argues that ‘we are all self-authoring.’  We choose to notice or incorporate certain things rather than others, in order to be consistent with who we already are.  This urge to protect our existing self is, paradoxically, the only way we change.  As Wheatley observes, ‘Whenever a living system changes, it is attempting to save itself.’ Unlike a machine, a living system can never be directed.  That’s why initiatives aimed at ‘changing people’ are flawed and useless.  As change agents we should never delude ourselves that we can change our colleagues, our manager, our CEO.  That should never be the objective.  A living system can only be disturbed in such a way that its identity generates change, through dialogue and co-creation, the result of which can never be assumed.”

P.136 “In an ecosystem, interconnected organisms thrive without holding power over another.  A fern or a mushroom can express its full selfhood without ever reaching out as far into the sky as the tree next to which it grows.  Through a complex collaboration involving exchanges of nutrients, moisture, and shade, mushroom, fern, and tree don’t compete but cooperate to grow into the biggest and healthiest version of themselves.”

I have no knowledge of where the universe story might be fully or finally heading, but I can see what it has already revealed with great clarity—that knowledge builds on itself, is cumulative, and is always moving outward toward ever-greater discovery. People who cling to the past and resist change have a hard time participating in God’s and their own future. Perhaps this is an appropriate application of Jesus’ somewhat problematic words, “Anyone who has will be given more . . . but anyone who has not, will lose what little he has” (see Matthew 25:29). This is only true in the realm of spirit and wisdom which increase and evolve with use. Material reality decreases with usage, which is why our consumer worldview is unsustainable.

— Richard Rohr, An Unfolding Future,

LOUISE KNIGHT WHEATLEY.