Ecology can be defined as a study the natural world that’s based on whole systems in a dynamic balance, where flows of energy and resources are shaped and directed by inner and outer limits.

What happens when we bring this same ecological mindset to our own lives, relationships, and human communities?  What can we learn, by thinking about our human worlds—as individuals, families, workplaces, other communities—as whole systems in dynamic balance, that depend on flows of energy and resources, shaped and guided by various limits?  How can we think ecologically about our own lives?  How does thinking in this way help us, as individuals, to flourish and thrive?

This is not about conservation, environmentalism, or land stewardship.  Those are worthy topics, just not our topic here.  What this is about, is exploring how the ways that ecologists study and learn about wild nature, can also be used to study and learn about ourselves, as human beings in human communities.  It’s about applying what we might call an “ecological method” to human life, to human problems and challenges. 

Instead of some list of “do this, don’t do that,” we’ll develop some basic tools of observation and analysis, that we can use to make our own decisions about how to move effectively through life.  Whatever our other values and commitments might be, these tools can suggest ways of thinking and acting, such that we and the people around us in our community can live well and thrive.

In our conversation, we’ll look at four ecological principles: whole systems, dynamic balance, resource flows, and limits.  And we’ll explore together in dialogue, how we can apply them in our own lives.  Here are some of the questions those principles might raise for us:

• In what ways is my own life a whole system? What larger systems is my life embedded in?
• Where are the points of balance in my life, and in those larger systems? What actions can help me to maintain, restore, or adjust those balances in ways that are helpful to me, and to everyone involved?
• How are different resources (time, money, energy, attention, knowledge, relationships) flowing through my life? How might thinking about these resources in terms of moving currents or flows change the way I use them?
• How can I work with—not against—the limits I face, in order to manage and apply my resources in the most effective ways? How can I make these choices in ways that will support myself and my communities over the long term?

This is philosophy—the life of wisdom—in a raw, applied, down-to-earth form: Take a method of knowledge and exploration, use it to describe the key elements in the wider world (or in our own inner, private worlds), and then use that clear understanding to respond in the most effective ways, through our choices and actions.