Reflection, Return, Regeneration

It's time to change direction.

Reflection

"Melancholy shares nothing with the desire for death....It is a form of resistance." - W.G Sebald


After years of wandering across many different countries and landscapes, I began to notice in the past few years that my direction was changing. I no longer wanted to travel for the sake of travel. Gradually, I began to feel burnt out and unenthusiastic, with no clear direction or sense of purpose. I was done with just getting by. I had some incredible experiences and met many wonderful people on the way, but I had the impression that this vagabond, hand-to-mouth lifestyle was no longer sustainable (aside from the fact that my old van was beginning to show signs of giving in as well) — my priorities were changing, my old approaches disintegrating.

I began to see the world in a new way. I noticed how degraded our landscapes were becoming. I was witnessing the clear-cutting of forests, mining of mountainsides and the pollution of our waters. I felt insignificant in the face of such destruction. I started to reflect on the ways in which I may be either contributing to or alleviating these issues. Reading books by authors such as Edward Abbey and Robert Macfarlane helped to introduce me to new perspectives, to gaze more deeply into the natural world, it’s intricacies, patterns and details — and the powers that threaten it: industrialisation, technology and growth for the sake of growth. Themes that we have all participated or contributed towards in some way. A society which most of us are born into, beholden to systems of economy, government and bureaucracy that go largely unquestioned. Systems that need to change. 

As I began to pay more attention to the subtle details and rhythms of nature, my values began to change. I felt more of a pull to find purpose in what seemed to be a more urgent issue: reversing the degradation of our environment. I am not so concerned with saving the planet as I am with saving ourselves. Earth will continually find ways to evolve and regenerate long after we are gone. Will we participate in this unfolding or will we continue to unconsciously dig our own graves? Viewed in this way, it is a grim future indeed. What gives me hope is that I know I am not the only one who shares this sense of ecological despair, that there are many who desire to ameliorate our current condition. These are the people that I am drawn to.

I kept returning to Portugal based on feeling more than logic, which I can only in hindsight attribute to a magnetic pull that many people have when moving here — to live more closely with the land. It is a characteristic still maintained by the older and more traditional Portuguese, and while the younger generations have moved to the cities or gone abroad, there are many foreigners from various countries that are now migrating to take their place as custodians of the land — finding ways to integrate the past with the present, applying modern knowledge to regenerate the soil that has been rapidly degrading since the introduction of intensive, industrial and chemical agricultural practices.

Return 

"In the description of the disaster lies the possibility of overcoming it." - W.G Sebald 

The buzzword of climate change is thrown around a lot, but there seems to be a lot of confusion as to what this really means. Is carbon to blame? Should we buy electric cars? I challenge the notion that rampant consumerism is the answer, in fact in many ways I believe it to be the cause of our current malaise. Our attention is pulled in whatever direction our corporate or governmental structures dictate. I'm concerned less with advertising campaigns and political agendas. I don't care whether someone is left or right wing. It's time to grow beyond these polarities in order to find a better path forward. 

What concerns me is the degree to which, as a collective species, we are completely and utterly disconnected from our roots. Most of our food comes wrapped in plastic and sprayed with toxic pesticides. Our water is laced with chemicals and residual pharmaceuticals. The soil is eroding, our forests are shrinking and the oceans are rapidly filling with discarded plastics. I don't have the answers by any means — but I'm dedicated to at least trying to find some way of reversing this damage that we have unconsciously caused. 

In my journeys across Europe I always felt a continuous pull back to the furthest reaches of the continent — to Portugal and Spain, the epicentre of the European regenerative movement. 

It was during my time living off-grid in the Serra da Monchique that I was first exposed to the concept of regeneration. It is a term that is often used to describe the practice of regenerative agriculture: the process of restoring soil health, rehabilitating our ecosystems and protecting water sources. It has since become a philosophy which I aspire to live by. The reason for my return began to become more clear — to participate in, learn and share these different approaches for living that align with the concept of regeneration, not just on the level of agriculture but in every aspect of being.

Regeneration

“We sense that ‘normal’ isn’t coming back, that we are being born into a new normal: a new kind of society, a new relationship to the earth, a new experience of being human.” - Charles Eisenstein

I'll admit — nowadays I fall into the trap of pessimism too easily. I sometimes wonder to myself if we stand a chance against this techno-industrial machine that is turning our planet into dust. However, I also understand that for every problem there is also a solution. So in my limited capacity as an individual, I'll aspire to contribute towards re-establishing our connection with the natural world in whatever capacity that I am able to. Once again, returning to nature shows itself to be the answer — it always has been. 

I have come to understand that regeneration is a concept that reaches far beyond agriculture. It is a philosophy towards living, an approach which means to give back more than you take — to honour the natural laws that govern our world. Our pre-existing model of extraction, dominance and control can longer be sustained. We need a new way — a new story. 

The best way that I can play my part in facilitating this change is by sharing meaningful stories, just as our ancestors did before. It was through these stories that we learnt how to be in the world — through the practice of reciprocity, and the understanding that we are one small aspect of a much larger cosmos. A main focus of the last year has been meeting with change-makers in the regenerative movement within Portugal and the European continent, listening to their stories and finding ways to communicate this knowledge. I’ve been acting more on a sense of trust that this is the right thing to do. I have no idea where this path leads, but I have already befriended uncertainty before and know that it is a necessary part of the process. I’m sure I will look back on this in five years and everything will make a lot more sense, as it usually does in hindsight.