WHY FLOURISHING?
The word flourishing comes from the flower realm.1 It’s a concept literally rooted in the earth, which is why I like it as an antidote to supremacist consciousness.2
I live in a small beach town that people have called home for over ten thousand years and that has been my home for five. There’s a field here, on the bluffs above the sea, and in the spring the whole place blooms with garland daisies that grow chin high. It smells of dirt and bitter phenols, and the flowers are the most optimistic sunny yellow, spreading all the way to the sea.
When I am there, I am unselfconscious. I am in the realm of the flowers. I am part of the nature body.3 Capitalism isn’t even a concept.
This is the flourishing realm. This is the feeling and the world I want to cultivate and inhabit every day.
In the flourishing realm, my body is relaxed, my spirit is uplifted, and my needs are re-calibrated with the earth. I feel a sense of harmony with my surroundings, and a desire to contribute to that harmony. There is an immersive beauty that reminds me that I am free.