With the rich texture of African soil once again beneath my feet, the warm sun on my back, and the Cape South Easter wind tugging at my hair, my body and soul have unmistakably returned home. My mind, however, still drifts back and forth between this land and another, the ancient land of the Celts, where I spent the past year studying and experiencing human ecology. A year earlier I had left South Africa for Edinburgh, Scotland, uncertain about the path that lay ahead, and aware of the risk I had taken in forsaking a lucrative corporate career to undertake postgraduate studies in human ecology in a city so far from home. But I have always been interested in the bigger picture of things. Through these further studies - in the exploration of human relationships within society and with nature - I could focus on my concerns about modern society; I could find a better way to “make a difference”, and play some small part in securing the future for my home country - and for our home planet. In retrospect, I made a good choice. As well as enjoying a year of valuable dialogue on environmental issues in a humanistic context, I was exposed to the experience of people who are actively living out human and ecological solutions in the world.