Why I'm Sharing These Publications
By Larry Greene
larry@navigatingourfuture.org
My Why
It was in college, in my late teens and early twenties, that I began to sense that something was not quite right.
The civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam forced deeper questions.
They opened my eyes not only to injustice, but to the larger systems, assumptions, and failures of understanding that allowed so much suffering to continue.
I began to see that the world we were living in was shaped by deep injustice, disconnection, and patterns of power rarely questioned at their roots.
While I could see connections between the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, and the emerging environmental movement, it did not fully come together for me at that time. In the mid-1970s, my attention turned toward health.
I became deeply interested in the integration of Eastern and Western medicine—two very different approaches to healing and well-being. Western medicine often focused on treating illness through prescription drugs and surgery. Eastern traditions emphasized prevention, balance, and the conditions that support health—nutrition, whole foods, movement, meditation, and practices such as acupuncture. I began to see that these approaches were not in opposition, but part of a larger whole.
In 1974–75, I co-founded the Wholistic Health and Nutrition Institute in Mill Valley, California, as an expression of that belief. It was an early step in understanding that well-being could not be reduced to isolated interventions—it required a more integrated view of the human body and the systems that support it.
Then, in December of 1980, my daughter was born. That moment changed something in me. My concern was no longer only about my own life or even my own generation. I began to think more deeply about the future—not just for my child, but for all children. What kind of world were we creating? And what responsibility did we have to shape it differently?
That concern gradually expanded beyond my own family. I became increasingly engaged in environmental issues, and began to see how many of these challenges overlapped—not only with each other, but with the social, economic, and political systems shaping our lives.
By around 1990, I found myself going deeper into a more fundamental question: Did we need not only new solutions, but a new way of seeing the world itself? A worldview capable of understanding interconnection, root causes, and the deeper patterns shaping outcomes.
Around this time, I encountered Ken Wilber’s integral approach, which helped give language to something I had been sensing. At the same time, I began exploring participatory and deliberative democracy—new ways of engaging citizens more directly in democratic self-governance. Thinkers like Duane Elgin and Ted Becker helped illuminate what this could look like in practice.
These explorations—across health, environment, systems thinking, and democratic participation—began to converge. From that convergence, the early seeds of what would become LIFE Systems were born.
At a certain point, it became clear to me that these insights could not remain ideas or isolated efforts. If we continued to approach these challenges in fragmented ways, we would continue to reproduce the very conditions we were trying to change. What was needed was not simply better solutions, but a fundamentally different way of seeing— one that could hold the full complexity, interdependence, and living nature of the systems we are part of. Over time, this understanding began to take shape.
LIFE Systems emerged as a response to that need. It is a way of understanding and engaging with the world through a whole systems perspective—recognizing that our ecological, economic, social, cultural, and democratic challenges are deeply interconnected. It is also a framework for learning, dialogue, and action—designed to help individuals and communities better understand the world they are living in, and to participate more meaningfully in shaping its future.
This work is not about having all the answers. It is about learning to see more clearly. To recognize the connections that shape our lives. To better understand the systems we are part of—and the role we each play within them.
If you have ever felt that the challenges we face are connected… If you have sensed that something deeper is at work beneath the surface… You are not alone. You are welcomed here.
An Invitation
I write with urgency —because of the road we are on, and the heartbreak it holds if we do not change course.
I also write with hope —because I believe, deeply, that the human spirit is not finished.
This is not just about information. It is an invitation. To remember what we already know. To act from a deeper place.
To build something worthy of our children’s trust.
This is my part of the work. I hope it supports yours.
Why These Publications
By Larry Greene
Navigating Our Future
My Why
It was in college, in my late teens and early twenties, that I began to sense that something was not quite right.
The civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam forced deeper questions.
They opened my eyes not only to injustice, but to the larger systems, assumptions, and failures of understanding that allowed so much suffering to continue.
I began to see that the world we were living in was shaped by deep injustice, disconnection, and patterns of power rarely questioned at their roots.
While I could see connections between the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, and the emerging environmental movement, it did not fully come together for me at that time.
In the mid-1970s, my attention turned toward health.
I became deeply interested in the integration of Eastern and Western medicine—two very different approaches to healing and well-being.
Western medicine often focused on treating illness through prescription drugs and surgery.
Eastern traditions emphasized prevention, balance, and the conditions that support health—nutrition, whole foods, movement, meditation, and practices such as acupuncture.
I began to see that these approaches were not in opposition, but part of a larger whole.
In 1974–75, I co-founded the Wholistic Health and Nutrition Institute in Mill Valley, California, as an expression of that belief.
It was an early step in understanding that well-being could not be reduced to isolated interventions—it required a more integrated view of the human body and the systems that support it.
In December of 1980, my daughter was born.
That moment changed something in me.
My concern was no longer only about my own life or even my own generation.
I began to think more deeply about the future—not just for my child, but for all children.
What kind of world were we creating? And what responsibility did we have to shape it differently?
That concern gradually expanded beyond my own family.
I became increasingly engaged in environmental issues, and began to see how many of these challenges overlapped—not only with each other, but with the social, economic, and political systems shaping our lives.
By the early 1990s, I found myself asking a more fundamental question:
Did we need not only new solutions, but a new way of seeing the world itself?
A worldview capable of understanding interconnection, root causes, and the deeper patterns shaping outcomes.
Around this time, I encountered Ken Wilber’s integral approach, which helped give language to something I had been sensing.
I also began exploring participatory and deliberative democracy with people such as Duane Elgin and Dr. Theodore Becker.
Through this work, I began developing programs focused on national civic engagement, but over time I came to understand that meaningful change needed to take place at the local level to be effective.
This realization led to the creation of Navigating Our Future in 2003, beginning with the Navigating Our Future conference in San Juan County, Washington.
Between 2003 and 2007, we developed a series of community-based conferences focused on housing, energy, food, and global warming.
These efforts contributed to the first major change in county government in over a century—helping create conditions for broader civic participation and improved governance.
In 2007, we convened a Global Warming Forum that examined how climate change was already impacting the Salish Sea ecoregion, and how those impacts were likely to unfold over time—from environmental, economic, and quality-of-life perspectives.
In the years that followed, this work continued to evolve.
This included the creation of the San Juan Islands Community Network (2019–2021), which focused on telling the stories of people and organizations working to respond to shared challenges.
It also included work throughout the Salish Sea ecoregion beginning in 2022, and collaborations with initiatives such as Regenerate Cascadia and the Design School for Regenerating Earth.
Over time, these experiences—across health, environment, systems thinking, governance, and community engagement—began to converge.
From that convergence, LIFE Systems began to take shape.
What This Work Is About
We are living within systems that we did not design.
These systems shape our lives in ways that are often difficult to see—and even more difficult to change.
Many of the challenges we face—climate change, economic instability, social fragmentation, and governance failures—are not separate problems.
They are interconnected expressions of deeper patterns.
This work is not about offering simple answers to complex problems.
It is about helping us learn to see more clearly.
To understand the systems we are part of.
And to begin working together in ways that are more aligned with life.
LIFE Systems is not a single program or solution.
It is a framework for learning, dialogue, and action.
A way of helping individuals and communities:
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understand the interconnected challenges they face
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explore possibilities together
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and take meaningful steps toward more resilient and regenerative futures
This work begins locally—in communities.
But it is also connected regionally, across the Salish Sea ecoregion and beyond.
Change does not happen all at once, or from the top down.
It emerges through people, relationships, and shared learning over time.
An Invitation
I write with urgency—because of the road we are on, and the consequences if we do not change course.
I also write with hope—because I believe the human story is still unfolding.
This is not just about information.
It is an invitation.
To look more deeply.
To think together.
To act where we are.
This is my part of the work.
I hope it supports yours.