From Fritjof Capra, “Hidden Connections” (pp.32-33).

“Living systems, then, respond autonomously to disturbances from the environment with structural changes, i.e. by rearranging their pattern of connectivity. According to Maturana and Varela, you can never direct a living system; you can only disturb it. More than that, the living system not only specifies its structural changes; it also specifics which disturbances from the environment trigger them. In other words, a living system maintains the freedom to decide what to notice and what will disturb it.”

I was thinking about this in terms of seeking newness – in directing/choreographing/scribing the body in (or with) the unknown. To what extent am I aware of possible disturbances? To which practices/questions might I turn in order to be disturbed?