Patterns of Connection with Fritjof Capra and Morag Gamble

It is my absolute delight to be welcoming to the Sense-Making in a Changing World show, someone I consider to be a leading ecological thinker/activist of our time - international best-selling author, scientist, writer, educator - Fritjof Capra - someone I am honoured to call a mentor, inspiration and very dear friend. Our conversation in this episode spans a five decade history of ecological and youth movements, being part of a community of elders, the importance of permaculture and agroecololgy, peace, learning communities, ecoliteracy, earth ethics and social change.About 30 years ago Fritjof Capra and I met at Schumacher College in the UK at a residential course he was leading with a global learning community. This experience transformed my life. I felt a deep sense of coming home in the thinking, ethics, philosophy and way of being, and this firmly grounded my subsequent actions. I can pinpoint this as the catalyst for what I do now.I was in my early  20s, still at university, when I began devouring Fritjof’s books - The Turning Point, Tao of Physics, Uncommon Wisdom - all of these introduced to me by my father (Thanks Dad!!!!). On semester breaks, I’d head to the Gippsland Lakes to read, walk, and contemplate. This one particular year, 1991, sitting among a pile of Fritjof’s books,  sparks literally began flying - my mind and way of seeing and being in the world was cracking opening. The ecological paradigm he described and advocated made complete sense to me and I felt totally different. Since then, I have been applying systems thinking in my daily life - both personally and professionally - through permaculture, community gardens, ecovillages, and a wide range of education programs. Fritjof’s 2014 grand synthesis, a text he co-wrote with Pier Luigi Luisi, The Systems View of Life, is the foundation of his online course, the Capra Course - which I now mentor young people through twice a year.In this episode, we begin our conversation talking about his new book, Patterns of Connection - a collection of 30 essays spanning 50 years - and is an important history of grassroots movements from the counter culture of the 60s to emergence of the global civil society. He was writing about Climate Change in 1988 (33 years ago!!).At the end, we were about to dive into another topic - Fritjof’s characteristics of living systems - but we decide to wait and share that when we are with the Capra Youth cohort. I’ll make sure I record and post that here too. I hope you’ve thoroughly enjoyed this conversation.LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WORLD OF PERMACULTURE WITH MORAG GAMBLEExplore the permaculture films, articles, masterclasses and other resources on Our Permaculture Life Youtube channel & blog.Find out more about the Permaculture Education Institute and becoming a permaculture educator.Download this list of 10 of Morag's favourite books.   (soon to be updated with Fritjof's new book!!!)I acknowledge the Gubbi Gubbi people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I dwell and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. Audio: Rhiannon GambleMusic: Kim KirkmanI'd love to hear from you. Text me here.Support the show_____MORAG GAMBLEFounder, Permaculture Education InstituteMorag's CoursesPodcast BlogPodcast YouTube: Podcast InstagramLinkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/moraggamble/I am a possibilitarian and I believe in HumanKINDness.In this podcast my guests and I explore How are we to live? Really live, as nature ourselves, tending the conditions where life can thrive. We ask How do we become the kind of humans this moment is asking us to be?This podcast is one of my acts of myceliation. Each conversation is a thread in a vast network of people speaking up for life with love and care. This podcast beams out from my hand-built solar-powered studio in the midst of a permaculture food forest in a permaculture ecovillage on Jinibara and Gubbi Gubbi country.If this episode lights something in you, pass it to one person who needs it. That is how myceliation works.