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.

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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.

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