In the early 1990s, I joined a barter system in the Highlands of Scotland. The system wasn’t perfect but I valued the principle behind alternative economic systems, then, as I do now. The area was economically challenged, so there was need of my services but not everyone had the cashflow to pay for them. I elected to take part-payment in barter units.
The community in which I lived and worked was full of people trying to find creative ways to move their resources around, whether that was garden produce, sharing expertise, ride/car-sharing, childcare, housing, car repairs or a myriad of therapies. I really wanted to offer my services by donation as some other people did but, at the time, this practice kept us at subsistence level.
The Opportunity Today
That was 25 years ago. So here I sit, contemplating a pandemic and a world facing economic upheaval. I see it as an opportunity to radically change the way we organize our human systems on our planet. We don’t know how long this state of affairs is going to last and, as with so many of you, my cash flow has altered.
Courage
I’m feeling courageous, which means I have the opportunity to make some different choices than I have so far in my career. If this virus is going to change life on this planet as we know it, and I believe in my bones that it is, that this is ‘The Shift’, then today, right now, I’m putting my faith in all of us.
I’ve Made a Decision
For the duration of the time that we have to spend in isolation and dealing with the fall-out of the this isolation, I’m stepping up and stepping out. I am changing how I charge for my services. I’m doing this as an affirmation of a shift into the new multi-dimensional paradigm of which I have been speaking for decades.