From the Editor – Beyond Transactions

Dear Readers,

In our daily lives, we are surrounded by advertising and exchanges of money and time, trying to convince us that anything can be bought, sold, measured by its worth in the marketplace. These experiences dominate our outer senses and often our thinking, feeling, and willing lives as well.

At the same time, all around us and in our own lives, there are quiet gifts and experiences of caring and generosity whose true value and impact cannot be measured other than by the heart.

In this issue, the theme for which is “Beyond Transaction: Economies of Relationship and Reciprocity,” we are honored to bring you a few examples in nature, between each other, and in the reimagining of social, cultural and economic structures and processes; of how we can move individually and collectively beyond a transactional understanding of our lives together and act  upon that new understanding.

In the first group of articles, “Gifts from Nature,” longtime biodynamic practitioner Laura Riccardi Lyvers and Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary Director Alex Tuchman offer us a doorway into the holy work of the cow and the bee in service to humanity, and how they may be models for us in our relationships with each other and the world.

The second section, “Making and Giving Gifts,” provides a panorama of viewpoints about different ways to  understand and practice the internal reflection and external act of the exchange of material objects between us as individuals and the people in our lives.

The third section related to the theme, “Nontransactional Society,” includes a variety of articles that reimagine the current social paradigms of education, economics, vocation, and the workplace, as views into how we can recreate our lives in the larger community.

The English horticulturalist Alan Chadwick once said, “...the incredible beauty that we live in – a tomato, a banana, a lily, a feather. You can’t pay for it. It doesn’t matter what you give, you can’t pay for it. It’s free because it’s out of the other world, and you can’t touch it. Somewhere we must look at this. Then, we can only want to share.“ We share the offerings in this issue, with the hope that they will open your eyes and hearts to the abundance and joy that lie in the immeasurable gifts of nature, each other, and our social fabric.

With warmth and gratitude,

Karen