The not-yet [or preparing for the not yet] is where collective potential forms, where being together is actually exercised. Borrowed from artist and facilitator Jeanne van Heeswijk, it refers to the embodied process of becoming-with others: listening, eating, spending time, exchanging the everyday gestures that root shared meaning. It starts with presence, with the willingness to listen, to exchange how we see ourselves and where we stand, to be sensible to how someone else is. It can emerge over food, in the act of eating together, in time spent side by side, in the mutual offering of knowledge and skills – however mundane they may seem. And in this – it’s an allowing of things to emerge.

* Preparing for the Not-Yet, Jeanne van Heeswijk; in Slow Reader. A resource for design thinking and practice (eds.)Ana Paula Pays & Carolyn F. Strauss, Valiz, 2016