About the farm
as nature made us: linear thinking, circular being.
One of the most important concepts that informs our practices and priorities with 4Winds is linear vs. circular begin. Both are powerful, innate capabilities we share as humans, but today’s modern culture tends to prefer the linear—often to the detriment of human vitality and social capability.
When we talk about linear thinking, we’re referring to straight-line goal orientation. To many of us, this feels satisfyingly practical and targeted. But when you’re focused on the straight, confined highway in front of you, you compromise your peripheral view—which is to say that you miss most of what’s going on.
Moreover, circular being makes us aware of our true natures as thinking animals, and it allows us to learn from the environments we occupy. The seasons always come around again. Our measurements of years and months are in fact measurements of cycles, not lines. True connection to ourselves and to the earth requires inviting our environment in rather than pushing it away—observing and connecting with the natural cycles rather than artificially creating a track for humanity to go down.
Remember also that circularity isn’t exactly foreign to business. Cyclical time and even creative destruction in markets all take place on a circular dimension rather than a linear one.
Nature would’t have it any other way.