Weaving the Future (Robyn McLean)

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We  are all craving lives that are more authentic, connected, wild, sacred, in touch with our personal power and expression, collaborative, joyful. Lives that are equitable, where we look after each other. Lives that have more ritual, dance, celebration, expression, compassion, stillness, sensuality, awareness, and alignment.

But where do we start?  We will dig into this question together in a 3-part series of rich community conversations.

This conversation was recorded on May 11 at 12pm PST  and focused on the Relationship level. This included talking about how relationships can transform, then discussing different aspects of relationship:
- Moving at the Speed of Trust
- Transformational Collaboration
- Living in Close Community
- Mutual Aid and Caring for Each Other

Check out the episode about where we start at the individual level on:
- Podcast website (https://www.weavingthefuture.show/
- Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4zQh...) 

Email Robyn@tapestryevaluation.com with any questions or if you are interested in working together.

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Weaving the Future Podcast is a passion project birthed at the height of the pandemic, and the podcast episodes I released at this time are very close to my heart. They capture deep reflections on the kind of world I want to live in and my role in shaping it. The podcast has mostly been on hiatus over the past few years as I grappled with some massive changes in my life. In the background, I have actively continued to live the questions that have shaped this work.

In this episode, I reflect on the question of How can we live and work in radically different ways? 

In particular, how do we move toward lives that are nourishing, just, compassionate, meaningful, sacred, joyful, sensual….?  How do we return to a sense of belonging with ourselves, other humans, the web of life and the land?

I start with some deep and vulnerable storytelling about the last decade of my life, in which I have orchestrated some extraordinary transformation in my life and my approach to work.  I share insights on living and working in radically different ways, emphasizing embodying deep love and nourishment for oneself over urgency and fear.

 The episode ends with an open discussion inviting some of the people most dear to me who attended the live recording to share feedback, questions and suggestions for future episodes.

If you would like to learn more about me and my work, check out:
www.weavingthefuture.net
www.tapestrycollectiveco-op

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This episode was recorded back in June 2022.  Happy to share it now, as we are rebooting this podcast.

We talked about starting from a belief that the system we live in CAN change, and staring with: 

• Comprehensive vision
• Understand what holds the problem in place
• Comprehensive and collective action
• Work with emergence

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The Weaving the Future Podcast aims to foster conversation and tangible insights on how we can live and work in ways that are aligned, sacred, equitable and joyful. Every month, we start by taking some time to frame and get some shared understanding of a topic, followed by a group discussion centred around questions that are emerging, interesting or challenging.

This episode kicks off a regular monthly schedule of community discussions, which are also live recordings for the podcast and YouTube versions of these episodes. We focus on the questions: What would a different economic system look like? How would that look and feel different in our everyday lives?

I start by sharing takeaways from attending the Ownership Matters conference in Victoria, BC in early May 2024. The model of Community Ownership presented in this work presents one of the most exciting and promising ideas for how we might shift our economic system from something abstract into something that brings our hearts, everyday lives and sense of empowerment back into how we talk about economics.

We then had a group discussion focused on these questions:

- What is a vision for a different economic system?

- We do we want our everyday lives to look like? If we could create the perfect life for yourself and your community, what would that look like?

- What needs to happen to support this way of living? This includes the question of what economic system would support the everyday lives we are hoping for.

You can find the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/atZgl0Cc1ms 

Links for Weaving the Future and Robyn McLean:

https://weavingthefuture.net/  - Information about the podcast, courses and other opportunities to connect

https://tapestrycollectiveco-op.com/  - Information about consulting services of Tapestry Collective Co-op

https://calendly.com/robyntapestry/weaving-the-future-initial-consult - Book a free initial consult to talk about what would support you to make meaningful change in the world

Links and resources for this episode, including a few examples of community ownership in BC and Canada:

https://ownershipmatters.ca/ - Report and resources about building community wealth in Canada, part of a larger research project of Royal Roads University and Scale Institute and is supported by funding from the Vancouver Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

https://www.propoliscooperative.com/bond-campaign  - Chance to invest in a community bond campaign to build affordable green homes in Kamloops, BC. This is a community ownership project spearheaded by Tapestry team member Lindsay Harris.

https://www.communityimpactrealestate.ca/ -  social enterprise property management company in Vancouver, BC. Income generated by the market-value leased units, allows leases to non-profits and social enterprises at below-market rates in exchange for the impact created through their services.

https://salishseaind.com/ -  An Indigenous-owned and operated business in Victoria, BC, offering pile driving and dredging services. 

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This episode focuses on the joys, challenges and importance of communal living (which we shifted to calling "shared living" during the discussion). 

0:00 Intro

2:18 What do I mean by communal living?

13:58 - Discussion - Give us a snapshot of your journey with shared living/ communal living - we hear some incredible rich experiences and learnings from each of the folks that attended live

49:05 - Why communal living? Tying to a larger vision for the world

53:23 - Wicked questions related to communal living
- When there is tension, which is inevitable, there can be so much processing needed. How can we live in a communal way without getting bogged down by the processes?
- One of the responses - coming back into our animal bodies, for example through ritual 

59:43 - What are we longing for? What does success look like in shared living? What are we longing to feel or experience in community, and if we can imagine an ideal community or shared living setting, what might that look like?

1:13:18 - Plan for Community of Practice for Shared Living

Link to the YouTube video for this episode: https://youtu.be/4MNeP5G7SVs 

Links for Weaving the Future and Robyn McLean:
https://weavingthefuture.net/  - Information about the podcast, courses and other opportunities to connect
https://tapestrycollectiveco-op.com/  - Information about consulting services of Tapestry Collective Co-op

Use this link to send us thoughts or questions!

The Weaving the Future Podcast aims to foster conversation and tangible insights on how we can live and work in ways that are aligned, sacred, equitable and joyful. 

This episode focuses on Working in radically different ways:

0:00 -  Welcome and introduction

3:20 - What do I mean by “working in radically different ways”?

 5:50 - Vision for working in radically different ways

 8:21 - My journey with work

 17:07 - Harmonizing statements

 29:04 - Next steps

You can find the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/l3KOaVpQ5lA 

Links:

https://weavingthefuture.net/  - Information about the podcast, courses and other opportunities to connect

https://tapestrycollectiveco-op.com/  - Information about consulting services of Tapestry Collective Co-op

Use this link to send us thoughts or questions!

The Weaving the Future Podcast aims to foster conversation and tangible insights on how we can live and work in ways that are aligned, sacred, equitable and joyful. 

This episode is a spotlight on Tapestry Collective Co-op, with insights from all four owner members including host Robyn McLean. Learn about our innovative, heart-led approach to business, where blending meaningful work, nurturing strong relationships, and balancing visionary leadership with humble listening drives everything we do.

What we cover in this episode:

0:32 - Welcome and introduction

2:41 - What is Tapestry Collective Co-op? Describing what we do

9:07 - Celebrating Tapestry: Describing our recent commitment ritual 

13: 53 - Why each of us are drawn to working with Tapestry

44:00  - Tapestry Operations: How our organization operates as a microcosm for the change we want to see in the world

1:01:04 - The Warp and the Weft: How Tapestry’s guiding principles help us navigate the inherent tensions in this complex work we do. 

Warp: The vertical threads in weaving, providing structure and stability.

Weft: The horizontal threads woven through the warp, adding design and pattern

1:13:19 - Summary and Closing

You can find the video version of this episode here:  https://youtu.be/MXZY9mldEu8 

Links:

https://tapestrycollectiveco-op.com/  - Information about Tapestry Collective Co-op

https://weavingthefuture.net/  - Information about the podcast, courses and other opportunities to connect

Use this link to send us thoughts or questions!

The Weaving the Future Podcast aims to foster conversation and tangible insights on how we can live and work in ways that are aligned, sacred, equitable and joyful. 

Carmen Spagnola is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef turned trauma recovery practitioner, clinical hypnotherapist, and kitchen witch. She is author of Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (2025) and The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year (2022). Carmen is host of The Numinous Podcast, and founder of The Numinous Network, an online learning and support portal for people healing from trauma through a cross-pollination of somatics, attachment, and nature-based spirituality. As a chef, author, and facilitator, Carmen holds space for renewal amidst turmoil. Her work is an invitation to re-enchantment, soul nourishment, and a deeper and more animistic relationship to the natural world. She provides frameworks and skills to create cultures of collective care in precarious times.

Carmen is a big proponent of “Collapse Awareness”, particularly living a deeply satisfying life in the face of chaotic times. An overarching question we dive into in this episode is exploring whether there is a tension between being “collapsitarian” perspectives and the work of weaving change within existing systems, and the place for hope or vision within that.

We also dive into what it is like for both her and I to be living right now, where we are situated and what we are grappling with right now. This includes some discussion on how to draw on Carmen’s brand new book Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times. She describes this book as a trauma-informed witchcraft book that is gift book sized, which can feel like holding hands with someone who is in sync with what is happening in the collective. 

Carmen requested that we release this episode on Feb 10 at 3:13pm, which is the lunar return of the book's publication date – so like a mini month-long birthday cycle! 

A few links to things we discuss during this episode:

• Collapse in a Nutshell - Podcast episode summarizing collapse topics: https://open.spotify.com/episode/27Strj0h1T5WK19XAVAmit?si=ecb124efd98941c7 
• Practicing new worlds, a book Carmen includes in her book club: https://www.akpress.org/practicing-new-worlds-ebook.html 
• An article discussing the three key types of activism (along with this author’s proposal for a rebalancing of the different types: https://medium.com/world-summit/imbalanced-spheres-of-activism-and-the-great-turning-that-needs-to-get-turning-50316017d575 

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Introduction to the podcast, including background on the host Robyn McLean, an overview of the goals of the project and how episodes will be formatted. 

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I discuss some of the deep-seated mindsets that are at the root of our culture, along with what mindsets we might tune into in order to transform ourselves, our communities and our societies. Other terms that could be used here are assumptions, deep seated habits or paradigms. 

I focus first on moving from the assumption that we are separate from the natural world and need to dominate it, toward the mindset that we are a part of the natural world, able to live in harmony and be regenerative.

Next, I talk about moving from a scarcity mindset based on fear to a mindset of abundance based on compassion, gratitude, and being “materially simple and relationally rich”. 

Thirdly, I talk about moving from a place of favouring aspects of our being that are more traditionally masculine or yang and tuning into aspects of femininity or yin that we have been rejecting. This includes honouring and learning from emotion and observing and receiving rather than jumping to action. 

Finally, I discuss moving from a more linear and causation-based mindset, toward one that embraces complexity and emergence.

Resources I refer to in this episode include the Water of Systems change from fsg.org, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Sacred Economics by Charles Eistentein, This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, Dancing with Systems by Donella Meadows, and https://www.kristenappenrodt.com/herstory.

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This is a guided visualization, meant to help our bodies, minds and spirits tune into a vision for society, connecting with others, expressing our inner voice and gifts, and the reflecting on what healing might be helpful for getting there.

This visualization came to me as a “soul download” after doing some breath work during a period that I was working on this project quite a bit. I was surprised, since I had been taking more of an intellectual approach to this work up to that point. This felt like a reminder that our hearts and spirits are integral to the world we are creating, and will be integral to the process of creating that world as well.

The beautiful background music was composed by our sound editor Dustin Zwaryck, including samples of sound healing instruments used by my partner and I for ceremony. 

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I’ll present a list of things to consider, to learn about, or to practice in order to help understand and work toward the change we need to see in the world. Honestly, I get frustrated when I see too much individual focus where there, but obviously our society is made up of individuals who all need to start somewhere? So what can we do? 

Overall, I suggest the idea of living the questions, rather than trying to have all the answers.

In this episode, I offer the follow starting points for where to start:

1. Slow way down -  Feels necessary in order to be able to do any of the other pieces. Stopping the glorification of busy. Avoiding the idea of “We don’t know where we are going, but we are making good time”. Working less for those that may currently have more than we need.
2. Recognize and shift mindsets - Refer back to mindsets and paradigms episode. Also refer to characteristics of White Supremacy Culture
3. Come from a place of love and intention, rather than fear, anxiety or urgency - This is a practice, and a lot of the work we do on our own can be figuring out how to come from love and intention. 
4. Ongoing healing of barriers and wounds - Urgency to do work needed in the community can take away from doing our individual healing work. Yet doing our healing work helps us come from a place of love and intention. Important to pay attention to where we are stuck or 
5. Embodying unique genius - “Genius” term as used by Michael Meade - each of us has something essential and unique to contribute. It is important for us to find our true voice and inner wisdom. Acknowledging that on some level each of us has a longing to contribute to society, and only we can find it underneath the conditioning and disfunction that exists now. 
6. Actively experiment - Bring what you are learning and digging into on an individual level into interpersonal and community level work, and vice versa. 

Resources I mention:

• Google document showing a list of resources and theories I have pulled together for this project - https://docs.google.com/document/d/12PMPGaxGG6PFAP-jsJyfEZKvY8V1MqH5dWJn8EBy11k/edit?usp=sharing
• Inspiration for the idea of “living the questions” - https://onbeing.org/series/living-the-questions/ 
• "We don't know where we are going, but we are making good time" - Human Venture Institute - https://humanventure.com/ 
• The power of reducing to part-time work - This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein - https://thischangeseverything.org/book/ 
• Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture- https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-supremacy-culture-characteristics.html 
• Michael Meade - Finding our purpose or "genius". Living myth podcast episode about genius - https://www.mosaicvoices.org/episode-188-adversity-reveals-genius