The Great "And Yet!"

It’s a powerful short phrase. I reach for it almost daily to escape a doomy, dualistic, miopic  worldview, whether my own or that of a new or beloved acquaintance. “And yet!” I say, “in the chaos of the collapse – be it governance, religion or economy – in the collapse of the very structures that led to Earth’s crisis, is promise. Remember,” I say, “the evolutionary process has shown five times before that extinctions are thresholds of emerging ways and forms of being. And yet!” It’s the key to a new cosmology of entanglement, symbiosis, and interbeing proffered by science and preserved in indigenous wisdom.

And yet! It’s the chorus in the evolutionary psalm, Dance of Peril and Promise (page 228 in Becoming the Change.) Inspiration came from the Earth Charter, “the future at once holds great peril and great promise.” Each stanza, in this reclaimed song is a restatement  of a chapter in our origin story; each stanza begins and ends with, “And Yet!” Here’s a taste.

In the Big Bang, billions of particles were created and annihilated at once. And yet! Out of the one-in-a-billion particle survivors emerged Universe, galaxies, stars, and us.

Great Supernovas died explosive deaths. And yet! Out of star-stuff, new stars, planets, and a solar system were born.

             A planetoid collision catapulted a portion of Earth’s molten matter into Space.           And yet! That portion is our moon, mother of seasons and mistress of tides.

Chaos and creativity are one! It’s a cosmic pattern. Peril and promise are one! It’s an ecological pattern. After five extinctions, a new Earth of greater complexity, consciousness, and community has emerged. Co author of the new book, Steve Martin writes: “Despite all the things that could go wrong, the Universe promises, it is its nature to be creative, generous, and abundant, flowing outward from itself every moment as a new offering to the Whole.”

And yet! Two very small words used as a daily practice bolsters my faith and midwifes a profound cosmology: I am the entangled and compassionate reality that is now, and always will be, unfolding. I can face disappointing reports of inhumanity or environmental disaster with the not-uncomplicated trust in one thing for certain... ”And yet!" I am and we are Becoming the Change we were born in this time to be.

Becoming the Change - Evolutionary Rituals and Practices for Everyday Emergence Authors: Carol Kilby and Stephan Martin Available on Amazon and other cites on May 15th, 2026.