My friend and colleague, Jeanette, just sent me this Andrew Cohen quote (below) with the query “Is this us?!!”. I don’t usually get into Andrew Cohen’s writing. But, when I read through this quote I thought, “He’s nailed it – this is what we’re doing”. We’re not even at the “want to do” stage but this is actually happening now.  We are bringing together people from diverse backgrounds with diverse interests but with a common goal of making the changes we need to make to allow a socially just, environmentally sustainable and spiritually fulfilling world to emerge.

To see this acknowledged on a global level is incredibly exciting. Not only because “We’re on the right track. Yay.” but all is in alignment…

Engaging in Creative Friction

Andrew Cohen

“In an inspired spiritual context where the evolution of consciousness and culture is the goal, coming together with others is not just about sharing an experience of peace, bliss, and harmony. It is about what I call creative friction.

“In fact, to me, the presence of ongoing creative friction is what indicates deep spiritual, psychological, and emotional health and vibrancy in this type of collective or intersubjective context. Creative friction is the very spiritual lifeblood of the new culture that we need to create, through consciously engaging with each other and the life-process itself, as we strive to deconstruct and transcend old structures and creatively construct new ones.

“If we are all committed to the same higher goal, there is room for many opinions and points of view—they are all colliding in a living, dynamic, creative context, in which everybody benefits from the friction. To be true evolutionary partners and pioneers means being so completely in alignment at the level of our fundamental motive that we are free to disagree and debate in such a way that we are challenged, each and every one of us, at the deepest level, to evolve.

“This takes guts and it takes heart; it means you always have to be willing to reach beyond the familiar, take risks, and continually let go. But if you have become deeply aligned with what I call the Evolutionary Impulse, you will not be afraid. You will experience creative friction as an ecstatic engagement with essence of Life, of Love, of God, and of your own Authentic Self.”