In my Agricultural Systems Thinking class we were talking about the concept of holarchy. This idea suggests that a farm, a business or a person is a “holon”, that is a unique system in itself.
At the same time, a holon (farm, business or human being) is also part of a larger system (holon) and is composed of smaller systems (holons).
A holarchy is a nested hierarchy of holons, where a holon is both a part and a whole. The key relationship in a holarchy is that “we look out for purpose and in for function.” That is the holon represented by a “word” in the diagram below looks “within” (letter) for its function. And the holon “word” finds its purpose in serving the next holon (the sentence).
Get it?
This also works for biological and social systems. So, the individual human might find purpose at the next larger level (family, community etc.) and function within (heart, liver, lungs etc.).
To help us understand this in another way, Michael Dowd claims that we are all “stories within stories.”
And to further “paint a picture” of the concept of stories within stories, we watched this video….
John Philip Newell, the author of Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality, is one of the most prominent Christian teachers of spirituality in the Western world.
Everything looks the same – and nothing feels the same. My wife has died. The center of our family has been ripped out leaving the rest of us to hold onto each other, still alive – but without our heart. Nothing makes much sense in my world without Phyl. The searing pain appears unexpected from time to time, and then fades back into a dull ache. And the worst part is that 
