“A Thousand Fibres Connect Us”

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” - Herman Melville, Author

Join us for episode 3 of Unfurling as we delve into a topic dear to us - Connections and Networks. Through discussion, we offer a kaleidoscope of lessons, ideas and prompts from the natural world to inform and inspire you as you reflect - as an individual, leader, organisation, and/or community.     

We touch on:

How connections & networks have been key to us professionally, from job creation to fundraising, from local government to building a global community networkWhere we see connections and networks working well - and less well, especially at this time of COVID-19What could be possible for individuals, and as a collective, with enhanced connections and networks (from wellbeing, information sharing, and depth of relationship, to work, communities and society)How examples of connections and networks in the natural world might help us to think creatively (we draw on lung alveoli; forests and underground fungal networks; coral reefs; and the animal kingdom). 

If you'd like to explore this further, we encourage you to join fellow listeners in our Facebook group, “Unfurling Podcast”, a community space for asking questions and sharing thoughts, ideas and resources about episodes and the power of the natural world to inform and inspire: https://www.facebook.com/groups/313645743154222/

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References:

~0: Herman Melville: “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”

~9: Brené Brown: “I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

~14: “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” 

~15: “Grief and the Lungs” (https://www.chinesemedicineliving.com/philosophy/the-emotions/grief-the-lungs/)

~16: “The Alveoli in your Lungs” (https://www.healthline.com/health/alveoli-function)

~20: Arukah Network (https://www.arukahnetwork.org/)

~21: “How Trees Talk To Each Other In a Healthy Forest” by Suzanne Simard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=breDQqrkikM) 

~26: “Fantastic Fungi - The Magic Beneath Us” - A film by Louie Schwartzberg (https://fantasticfungi.com/)

~27: Facts on coral reefs extracted from “Scientists are trying to save coral reefs. Here's what's working.” in National Geographic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/06/scientists-work-to-save-coral-reefs-climate-change-marine-parks/)

~31: Chaos Theory: “…something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.”

~32: The recommendation to be famous for 15 miles is attributed to the poet Gary Snyder (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/10/social-media-24-hour-news-cycle)

~33: Facts on elephants extracted from “Elephants are Socially Complex” in Elephant Voices ( https://www.elephantvoices.org/elephant-sense-a-sociality-4/elephants-are-socially-complex.html)

~37: A selection of research on social media: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns

~41: Steve Jobs: “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

~42: Books: 

“Entangled Life: How Fungi make our worlds, change our minds, and shape our futures” by Merlin Sheldrake

“Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success” by Adam Grant 

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