The threshold of a new age

 

We are, at each an every moment, on the threshold of a new age. Each choice, each decision and in fact, each thought, shapes our present and our future. At each moment we stand at a threshold, choosing the age in wish we live.

Ben Okri,in Mental Fight, sums this up well:

 

Never again will we stand  

On the threshold of a new age. 

We that are here now are  

Touched in some mysterious way  

With the ability to change  

And make the future. 

Those who wake to the wonder of this magic moment 

Who wake up to the possibilities 

Of this charged conjunction, 

Are the chosen ones who have chosen 

To ace, to free the future, to open it up 

To consign prejudices to the past, 

To open up the magic casement 

Of the human spirit 

Onto a more shining world. 

Ben Okri 

 

Our future unfolds as we create it. It emerges in relationship with us, and, as I will explore it over the next series of posts, the future that we desire to create relies on three things: noticing thresholds, courage and risk. This revolves around three questions:

1. What thresholds are before me?
2. What part of me desires (or does not desire) to cross the threshold?
3. What are the risks of crossing (and not crossing) the threshold?

The threshold of our new age involves a willingness to notice our choices, to examine our relationship with our choices, and being mindful of the consequences of our actions.

As John O’Donohue reminds us in his blessing, we drift through gray, increasing nowhere:

Until we stand before a threshold we know

We have to cross to come alive once more. 

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This post forms part of Chapter 6 – Emerging Thresholds, of Nest City: The Human Drive to Thrive in Cities. Click here for an overview of Chapters 4-7 (Part 2 – Organizing for Emergence). Click here for an overview of the three parts of Nest City.

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