I am honoured and excited to be taking Fritjof Capra​‘s first ever online course: The Systems View of Life.

We can become caught up in day to day actions – I know I do with three children, a big teaching garden and lots of interesting projects always on the go. It’s important though to remember to take a step back, take some deep breathes and look at the bigger picture – rethink why we do what we do, look closely at what change is needed, and how we can realign our work and life to contribute more positively to this.

Taking part in this online course is a way to start 2016 with this positive approach and see how perhaps I can be of greater service and use my energies even more effectively this year.  I just began listening to the first and second lectures yesterday I am absolutely engrossed.  I love being immersed again in the world of Fritjof Capra’s clarity of thinking and perception.

Image: www.fritjofcapra.net

From the first lecture I took some notes. I thought I’d share just this little snippit…. Fritjof asserts that all the problems we face in the world today are interconnected and that we are suffering from a crisis of perception. There ARE solutions to the major problems of our time, some even simple, but finding the solutions requires a radical shift in our perceptions, thinking and values.  Fritjof believes we are in such a shift – but that the realisation has not dawned on key decision-makers who continue with a peace-meal approach.  What we need rather are systemic and sustainable solutions – we need to build and nurture sutainable communities – designed to respect, honour and cooperate with nature’s coherent ability to sustain life….

My notes are so copious and the lectures have only just begun. My mind is abuzz with ways to refine, improve and add to the the programs we run here at the Ethos Foundation​, through SEED International, and in my personal life and work.

When I first studied with Fritjof Capra in 1992 on a 5 week program at Schumacher College​ it changed my life and set me on my current trajectory. The framework of thinking that is presented here in Fritjof’s new online course is the latest version of his thinking – a way of ecological thinking that has inspired and guided my life and work for the past 24 years. I returned again to Schumacher College in 2000 for a 2 week Capra Systems thinking reunion course which renewed my clarity and focus.  I can feel already that this new online course is going to do the same.

I have met with Fritjof and his amazing wife Elizabeth in Berkeley a couple of times and interviewed him for our short film Think Global: Eat Local – A diet for a sustainable society which Evan and I made in 2007. Only a small segment of the interview was able to be included in the 15 minute film, so we hope to release the whole interview shortly. We hope also to be able to visit him again soon.

I wish Fritjof all the very best with this new program.  If you are interested in joining his next online course, which begins in April, take a look at www.capracourse.net

Here is part one of our 15 minute film: Think Global: Eat Local – A diet for a sustainable society.  It features projects and people we visited in 15 countries over a period of 15 years.

Here is part 2: