“The next stage of human economy will parallel what we are beginning to understand about nature. It will call forth the gifts of each of us; it will emphasize cooperation over competition; it will encourage circulation over hoarding; and it will be cyclical, not linear.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Grasping opportunity wherever it appears, plants push boldly through cracks in the pavement. | Photo Credit: John Hanson
A Culture of Scarcity
In a culture steeped in extraction and endless growth, imagining another way of “doing business” can feel like trying to grow a garden in concrete. But we know that cracks in the sidewalk sometimes provide enough room for new life to emerge. Be it a weed or a flower, if left unimpeded, those little signs of life can begin to erode something that was once seen as impenetrable.
The cracks in the sidewalk of our current economic system are increasingly apparent.
As I write this in April 2025, our capitalist-based market economy is being shaken by a trade war between two economic Goliaths. But it is not just the giants suffering in this battle of wills.
The entire world trembles with uncertainty, everyone circling their respective wagons as fear rules the day. In this economic system, scarcity is manipulated to influence our collective behavior.
What is painfully ironic is that, amid a world filled with abundance, we collectively “buy into” this economic construct that is grounded in fear and lack.
An Economy of Abundance
A baby Baltimore Oriale bird rests in a serviceberry tree. Serviceberries play a vital role in the ecosystem—nourishing pollinators, birds, and mammals, while also serving as a host plant for various butterfly larva. | Photo Credit: Darla Graff
As Robin Wall-Kimmerer* wrote in her essay, The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance, there are other economies—rooted not in scarcity, but in relationship. These economies emerge not from Wall Street, but from the forest floor. Economies of reciprocity, generosity, and care.
Nature itself offers a model of consumption based on a gift economy. The Serviceberry offers its fruit freely to the birds, the bears, the people, and asks for nothing in return. It exemplifies what the natural world already knows: that all beings are interwoven in mutual dependence.
In this worldview, value is not extracted; it is exchanged—and not in the cold calculus of price, but in the warmth of kinship.
Rather than fear, the gift economy relies on generosity, gratitude, and reciprocity.
There is no “earning” of the gift; abundance is freely shared. It is an energy that flows from giver to receiver and back again—a circle of energy forged through the cultivation of relationship. It is established in the idea that there is enough, if we are willing to share.
A Collective Remembering
Based on nature’s model of reciprocity, this economy echoes the framework of Joanna Macy’s The Great Turning—a necessary shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. Macy’s work invites us to see this turning not just as a political movement or a personal awakening, but as a collective remembering. This shift is a return to the truth that we are not separate from the Earth—or from each other.
It is important to remember that big economies, like big ships, don’t turn on a dime. It takes time for the cracks to form, new possibilities to settle in, and for something entirely new to emerge.
That being said, it is possible to imagine an economy that measures mutual well-being, not GDP, to facilitate its growth. An economy that centers resilience, not profit. An economy that values community wealth over individual accumulation.
This isn’t utopian dreaming.
It’s already happening—in mutual aid networks, time banks, cooperative businesses, and regenerative agriculture projects, to name a few. In Kansas City alone, groups such as Urbavore offer regenerative agriculture, ScrapsKC offers creative reuse options, Merc Co-op offers community ownership of local food, the Buy Nothing (Greater KC) Facebook Group offers circular economy entry points, and the Kansas City Mutual Aid Facebook Group offers community gifting and mutual aid options.
A visual framework of ecophilosopher Joanna Macy’s The Great Turning. | Image Credit: Active Hope
These are the seeds of the Great Turning, and the natural world can be our guide.
And Yet, These Seeds Need Tending…
At The Resilient Activist, we cultivate these alternatives by supporting those on the frontlines of change—offering mindfulness, community, and regenerative practices that sustain the activists who strive to build a sustainable world.
We do much of this work freely, for the benefit of all.
If this vision speaks to you, we invite your partnership. As The Resilient Activist celebrates its seventh year of cultivating “resilience to environmental stress by supporting community, personal well-being, and vital ecological health,” your donation of time, talents, and/or resources are not just a contribution—they are a gesture of gratitude and reciprocity.
It is a way of saying yes to the world we long for—a world of mutual well-being, justice, and interconnection.
Let’s nurture this turning toward life together. Please consider offering your time for one of our volunteer opportunities or making a financial contribution to The Resilient Activist—helping us make this vision of a thriving world a reality.
The Resilient Activist community gathers for a day-long Liminal Spaces retreat, offering a space for reflection and healing for activists whose livelihoods have been jeopardized by 2025 federal funding cuts.
*If you’d like to read more of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s thoughts on gift economies, join The Resilient Activist’s JEDI Book Club on April 15, 2025 for discussion of her new book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World or watch Phoebe Lyn Pinkner’s short film based on Kimmerer’s book on plant intelligence and indigenous wisdom, Braiding Sweetgrass.
Amy Zoe Schonhoff is the founder of Mindfulness in the Heartland, a certified teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction through the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, and a certified teacher of Advanced Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness. Amy has also served as a nonprofit professional for over 20 years working in arts- and community-based organizations within Kansas City. In her spare time, she loves spending time with her family, hiking outdoors, and creating a sanctuary for pollinators in her garden.
