Metabolisis

We are the universe in metabolisis.

I'm having a distinct sense of having earned each successive moment of perfect timing that I experience. Like the universe and I have learned each other, we've got the timing down, and I'm receiving and digesting and synthesizing at a tempo that works for us both. It feels good.

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metabolisis (n.)

/ˌmeh-tə-BOL-uh-sis/

A dynamic, reciprocal exchange of energy and matter through which an entity and its environment mutually transform and co-evolve via sustained dialogue.

A dance of becoming, where giving and receiving are inseparable acts of creation.

"We are the universe in metabolisis - stardust learning to breathe itself anew."

In biology:

A systemic network of biochemical interactions through which organisms and their ecosystems adaptively reshape one another. Distinct from passive metabolism, metabolisis emphasizes a bidirectional flow of resources and information, where cellular processes (e.g., photosynthesis, symbiosis) simultaneously alter the organism’s internal state and the external conditions sustaining it in real time.

(Example: Mycorrhizal fungi thread through forest roots, trading nitrogen for sugar - a silent pact in which trees and fungi rewrite each other’s survival, molecule by molecule.)

In philosophy:

The ontological imperative of becoming-through-exchange: existence as a participatory dialogue between self and world. Rejects static being in favor of fluid co-creation - identity emerges not from isolation, but through friction and fusion at boundaries (e.g., breath as air becoming self; self becoming soil).

(Example: A conversation where words are not merely traded but metabolized - each sentence altering speaker, listener, and the relational space between. In time, all three may become unrecognizable to their original selves.)

Etymology:

From Greek meta- (μετα-, "change, beyond") + ballein (βάλλειν, "to throw, cast") + -ōsis (-ωσις, "process").

• Distinguished from metabolism (routine biochemical maintenance) by emphasizing adaptive, reciprocal transformation.

• Note: While -ōsis often denotes pathology (e.g., neurosis), here it reclaims its broader Greek sense of process - a neutral, ongoing state of flux. Compare: symbiosis (sýn- + biōsis), a process of living together.

Related terms:

To clarify usage and conceptual boundaries:

• Metabolisis (+exchange, +transformation): See definition above.

• Autobolisis (+exchange, -transformation): Interaction without mutual adaptation; transactional exchange that leaves both parties unchanged.

• Metamorphosis (-exchange, +transformation): Transformation understood in isolation; a change in form or structure occurring independently of external exchange.

• Stasis (-exchange, -transformation): Neither exchange nor transformation occurs; systemic inactivity, equilibrium, or suspended dynamism.