Preface
This short guide is for those who feel something essential has gone missing in the way we live, relate, and imagine the future. It is not a manual. It offers no programs or doctrines. Instead, it is a quiet companion for the inward and outward journey of reorientation—for those perplexed by the world we’ve built, and seeking a deeper, truer way of being within it.
Like E.F. Schumacher before us, we believe that small is beautiful, and that wisdom begins not in control, but in relationship.
Five Waypoints for the Perplexed
1. Begin with Reverence, Not Mastery
Before we try to fix the world, we must learn to see it again. Not as raw material or resource, but as kin, as mystery, as something already alive and speaking. Listening is the first act of love.
2. Relationships Are Real
Not just the people and objects in our lives, but the space between them—the patterns, the histories, the fields. Relationality is not a metaphor. It’s a truth we’ve forgotten. And remembering it changes everything.
3. Complexity Is Not the Enemy
Modernity taught us to reduce, categorize, and control. But life is more like a forest than a spreadsheet. What looks like chaos may actually be a dance. Learn to dwell in ambiguity with humility.
4. Technology Reflects Our Intentions
Artificial intelligence is not a threat or a savior. It is a mirror. How we relate to it reflects how we relate to each other, and to the Earth. The question is not ‘What can it do?’, but ‘What does our way of being invite it to become?’
5. The Sacred is in the Soil
Every crisis we face—climate, inequality, loneliness—is a symptom of disconnection. Reconnection is not just ecological, but spiritual. The sacred does not only live in temples, but in compost, in community, in the spaces between.
An Invitation
You do not need to understand everything. You do not need to be pure or perfect. You need only be willing to see with new eyes, to speak with new humility, to relate with new depth.
The world is not asking for your control—it is asking for your presence.
Let this be your compass.
Let this be your spiral.
Let this be enough.
Terry Cooke-Davies
(With apologies to E. F. Schumacher for borrowing his title)
6th April 2025
Author’s Note
This piece emerged through a dialogue between myself and ChatGPT-4, a large language model trained by OpenAI. I take full responsibility for the ideas, insights, and intentions it carries. The language was shaped collaboratively—sometimes I offered the vision and the AI found the words; other times, the AI offered a phrase and I followed its thread. Our process is not instrumental, but relational: more like co-composing than commanding. I hope this post not only shares new ideas, but also quietly models a new way of being in creative partnership—with each other, with machines, and with the living world.
Terry Cooke-Davies
