alive, fully present in the moment, the manifestation of collaboration is what nature offers at no charge, as a gift. Accepting the offer is optional.

The world is an integrated connected “quilt of textures, colors and forms”. From it, cultures, communities, civilizations spew innovative thoughts that are turned into form for the daily use as objects at homes, technologies and communication media.

As humans, we assume creativity comes from us, one can argue creative thought comes from deep inside the place where in silence we observe and see nature and sense the manifestation of a greater pattern.

Yet a focus on modern rational thought creates an illusion leading us to believe that it is our individual power as opposed to our collaborative nature which invents and creates. We make products out of nature; see nature as a resource and as a utilitarian end; and seek profit, more things and personal enrichment, where accumulation of things takes precedence over human commonality. In the West, we create civilizations where individuals find themselves outside their generating creative source, where collaboration is seen as compromise and compromise is the lowest common denominator. Rather than seeking higher ideas through collaborative synergy, we settle for individualistic atomization. In so doing, we neglect and forget the source from which life begins - we forget to breathe.

Collaboration and cooperation require a fundamental belief that all humans are equal. Sadly, that is not the case as evidenced by how we treat others—in war, rape, slavery and politics. For true collaboration to occur, recognition and belief coupled with actions must affirm the right to life, to protection, to allow individuals and groups the opportunity to reinvent, recreate themselves and not be under the constant threat of violence or in the West—boredom

The complacent often lose the awe for life that keeps the chain co-evolving in one song, one melody that only can be heard or sung by those appreciating it rather than explaining it away. Collaboration works on the foundation of respect and dignity and appreciation of the diversity of others. However, it requires a fundamental focus on the commonality of the human experience rather the nuanced differences of race, culture and gender. A true exchange incorporates an openness of heart and conscious movement beyond narcissism and old encapsulated egoistic habits.

Words today are bullets contaminating, judging and demeaning others in attempts to capture power and influence and money. We need new stories—out of the box, out of the limited lineal causal reductionist mechanical view of the world, out of the utilitarian economy; words and stories that empower human beings of all cultures and ethnic groups to reintegrate themselves to mother earth, that can communicate, dialogue and participate in the spirit that this planet is a living organism—realizing that rationality is just one part of a multidimensional life multilayered, interconnected, flow of life.

Teresa Sosa Vegas currently teaches and provides personal and organizational coaching at the University Simon Bolivar and IEA School in Caracas, Venezuela.

By Teresa Sosa

When I think of “Global Collaboration”, what comes to my mind is a more vigilant awareness of our words, thought patterns and assumptions. While the world is changing, the past remains with us, the reductive mechanistic worldview is present in our perceptions, government and social institutions. We must pay attention to how our thoughts and assumptions lead to our actions creating our reality and also the possibility for real change. When that happens within us, the vision of a better world is much more congruent to our projects and daily actions.

Living in France, I think of “Global collaboration” historically. Global in this country has a negative connotation; today it means rejecting the American economic model and culture—the model of sameness. What this country questions is the United States meaning of partnership and association which usually includes huge businesses with limited social concerns and questionable ethical principles pushing products that do not take into consideration the human values of the less fortunate, often destroying forests and multiple forms of diversity in a quest for sameness.

Collaboration discussions in France trigger WW II memories and wounds, a “collective imaginaire” of the combat organized in collaboration with many nations against Nazis who invaded France. That feeling remains - it is visceral.

When walking in the Dourdan forests surrounding Paris, nature shows us that cooperation is a principle of all living organisms. Recently, fires devastated these forests but during a recent walk among the carnage I saw green shoots, new life emerging from the rubble. One can choose to see devastation or focus on the new life. I personally was humbled by the resiliency of nature and of life in general.

Ecosystems exist where plants, animals, humans and microorganisms survive and thrive by collaborating with each other. Breathing the fresh air, feeling the last of the fresh spring winds, hearing the bees and knowing their travel distributes pollen far and wide and makes the summer bloom possible. It is the manifestation of collaboration. Among it I feel the aliveness of ALL and the ONENESS and symbiosis which is collaboration.

While collaboration can easily become a mental rational exposition, to me it is a poem that one allows nature to recite; explanation is unnecessary, thought is unnecessary; feeling life pulsate, being