The ‘natural world’ is an interconnected living system in which everything and everyone participates in a continual rhythmic process of adaptation, surprise, and learning. A complex and complexifying network of relationships occurs between all visible and invisible elements of the organismal and non-organismal life: biotic, mineral, and energy. By ‘natural’, we refer to what appears to arise ‘as if’ spontaneously, without any obvious intention or purpose beyond the creative processes that sustain it. This mystery of life is quite simply the wonder, the surprise, the occasional shock, and the infinite unfolding of natural beauty and elegance.

See also: ecology, complexity, life, relationship, systems thinking