Good day!

For the past couple years we’ve been thinking about the proverb: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ For us, this has meant that we would stay small for a time. We wanted to root the project by ‘going fast’ and finding a philosophical consensus that might have taken a larger group years to discover. But we knew that the time would come when we would slow down and ‘go together.’ We would use that philosophy to find people who agreed with it, and wanted to make a regenerative future a reality.

If you read our last newsletter you know that our mistake was taking too long to make the switch. And that left us on the verge of a burnout. I don’t think we can point at the exact moment, but luckily there was a point this past winter in which we noticed we’d pushed as far as we’d like to go alone. It’s time to slow down. Prepare for the long journey. Go together.

And as we slow down. We’re noticing a change. In ourselves, in how we work and in how we relate to eachother. Our conversations have shifted from talking about what we want to make, to delving deep into the lifelong how. The ‘how we can do this.’ And it seems that the biggest puddle in the road to a future in which countless regenerative communities reforest the whole of the region, is that it takes more than what a few people in a room can realistically accomplish. That regenerative future needs every variety of talent, time, experience and money that we don’t have.

2020

So what we’d like more than anything for 2020, is not to be alone. As the world begins to consider, in earnest, how to quarantine itself. How each can best cut themselves off from their neighbor, more completely, we want to invite people in. We’ll gladly meet for a video call with anyone that shares this mission of regenerating degraded land into biodiverse and productive forests managed by communities of people.

We want people to come spend time with us, share their talents, care for a forest, share the project. We’re done being a cluster of motivated loners. We want to be a band of co-creative stewards of nature. We want to meet people who want to share the responsibility for the fate of nature at our doorstep. And we want to root deep into a regenerative future through collaboration.

At some point in the next month or two, you’ll probably be getting a proper invitation from us that delves a bit deeper into all the things we’d like to do and see become real. For now, we’d love for you to know that any help you can give is deeply appreciated. We’ll gladly receive talents, time, experience, or money (that latter being surprisingly helpful).

A Few Quick Updates

Since there are usually about 12 smaller projects we're juggling, it’s nice to be able to celebrate their completion.

Architectural Program

Working with Nuno, architect extraordinaire, we’ve completed our first phase of design for the cooperatives rehabilitation of the house into a community center. If anyone would like to talk about the house or see this (muito fiche!) little booklet Nuno’s made for us with the project, let us know.

Dragon Dreaming

Big thanks to Ravi, member of Reflorestar Portugal and experienced dragon dreamer (who’s even gamified it into a board game). Ravi visited us early in winter and led us through a few days of fruitful exploration in which we wrestled with the upcoming year, unearthed a few of our dreams for the year, clarified our mission and objectives, and developed some ways to measure them (kpi).

Activity Plan

Following this link, you’ll find the activity plan for Ecoaldeia Silverto CRL, the Portuguese cooperative through which we are manifesting our community. We explore the actions, prices, and methods we’ll be taking, in both the construction and forest sectors.

Until next time!

- Diego