These are wild times to be alive. From the local to the global, we are facing complex, interlocked crises. Yet, around the world people are responding in creative, dynamic, grounded ways to adapt and emerge. ORA community members consciously work in this liminal, emergent space.
ORA was created to gather a community of people interested in resilient strategies. Collectively, we strengthen generative connections and share narratives of resilience. What will emerge? What will coalesce? We do not know. There are no clear maps, roads, or nautical charts to guide us in these times, but we know we have to move forward and create new narrative byways as we step into the unknown.
Join us as we listen, learn, and create alongside each other.
“When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence have the capacity to shift the entire system,” said complexity scientist Ilya Prigogine. We believe this. And we believe that we’re living in an era of deep disequilibrium. As our community grows, we hope to find and bridge islands of coherence.
Think of our stories like field notes from the edges of possibility. We are working in our communities, addressing real challenges and catalyzing change…we are not afraid to try and fail. We believe that wild times require that we take chances and follow our engaged minds, beating hearts, and active bodies.
ORA is brought to life by annual cohorts of fellows and research grant recipients, as well as a small program staff. We are curious, creative, and engaged. We listen and learn. Though we work across the world in a wide range of fields, we share kinship through our hope for resilience for humanity and the biosphere. We write, dance, draw, record, make, share, discern emerging patterns and look for ever new ways to share what we are experiencing and learning.