Sometimes, when faced with a decision, it’s worth asking: is it too soon to decide?
In permaculture, it’s common practice to wait a whole season before planting anything. That way, you can observe the full cycle: how the sun moves, where water pools, which areas dry out, and what emerges from the seed bank.
Without seeing the full pattern of a cycle in motion, we risk deciding too early — acting on partial data.
And this principle isn’t just for seasonal systems. It applies to any emergent situation. If we make our decision before more factors reveal themselves, we may find we acted too early.
So how do we know when it’s the right time to decide?
We might try to assess the nature of the change: is it cyclical? Is it reaching a steady state?
But in many situations, we can’t know for sure. That’s why we need to engage for the long term — not just to decide, but to learn to work with system over time. This is when we shift from one-off decision-makers to long-term stewards of systems. Over time we can then tune our instincts for how — and when — to intervene.