💡Living into the Question: What Does It Mean to Serve the Whole?
Weekly Lightbulb: From Co-Evolving Mutualism to Decentralized Collaboration
When sitting down to write this week’s Lightbulb email, one concept echoed through everything I touched—projects, meetings, and reflections: Co-evolving Mutualism.
It came up during a session in the Regenerative Practitioner Training with Bill Reed and Regenesis. It resurfaced in our monthly Land Stewards Alliance call. It’s the subject of what we explore and practice at Leap Forward. But what the fuck is it?
It sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? But what does it actually look like in practice?
How do we design a project, our lives, in a way that truly benefits all stakeholders—including the less visible ones? The community. The land itself. The future children.
It requires something else:
Presence.
Patience.
Curiosity
The humility to say, “I don’t know what’s best yet, but I’m listening."
Because real mutualism and reciprocity doesn’t come from ticking boxes—it requires a deep listening, a willingness to slow down, and a humbling reminder that we don’t hold all the answers. I’m seeing that, and saying that more and more to myself.
In truth, it’s not a question I want to answer quickly. It’s a question I want to keep living into: What would it look like if this project, my life, truly served the whole?
Carl Jung once said: “Know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch a human soul, just be another human soul.”
Jung’s words resonate—not just in my work in regenerative development, but with the individuals, friends, and groups, I work with on a daily basis. Before the blueprints and the budgets, there’s a deeper need: to show up as human beings. To listen and connect to each other from the heart, from a soul level. Thank you to my friend, and Leap Forward community member, Vasilica for reminding me of that, this week.
All in this vein, I’m thrilled to be co-hosting our next Land Steward Alliance Speaker Series with my dear friend Zach Anderson, a visionary leader in decentralized collaboration. Zach’s career has been dedicated to fostering more coordinated and cooperative ways of working. He currently serves as Head of Community at Ecovilla San Mateo, an ecovillage project in Costa Rica, where he leads governance and culture design. He is also the co-founder of Coordinape, a platform designed to help teams incentivize, compensate, and appreciate one another.
In this session, Zach will share:
✅ Insights on designing regenerative communities
✅ Lessons from his work with decentralized teams
✅ Practical strategies for fostering collaboration and trust
This will be a unique opportunity to learn from someone at the forefront of innovative community and governance models - whether you’re building a land-based project, working in a collective, or simply curious about new ways of organizing humans. As always, I will share clips and lessons after the workshop in upcoming emails.
If you’d like to join workshops like this, check out the Land Steward Alliance - where we meet monthly as a community to discuss our land projects and our lives with a collective of project founders, experts on the ground, and peers looking to not walk alone in this journey. We’re stronger together!
I’d also love to hear from you so reply to this email or schedule a chat!
To a mutually beneficial future,
Ed
