“Solitude in the city is about the lack of other people or rather their distance beyond a door or wall, but in remote places it isn’t an absence but the presence of something else, a kind of humming silence in which solitude seems as natural to your species as to any other, words strange rocks […]
“Multiple belongings are nurtured by cultural encounters but they are not only the preserve of people who travel. It is an attitude, a way of thinking, rather than the number of stamps on your passport. It is about thinking of yourself, and your fellow human beings, in more fluid terms than solid categories.” – Elif […]
“Over the past eight years, as part of a global storytelling project called the Out of Eden Walk, I have been hiking continents emptied of their wildlife by human beings. The Gaoligong represent a chance for solace. They are one of the planet’s last remaining vaults of biodiversity: a glimpse into a teeming Earth that once […]
“We’ve reached a time in human history when our global environmental crisis requires that we make permanent life-style changes. More than ever before, we need to fall back in love with the land. Silence is our meeting place.” – Gordon Hempton Gordon Hempton, and acoustic ecologist warns that silence, true silence, where man-made noise does […]
“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying […]
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” – Henry David Thoreau The woman frowns at me.“Fotos?” she asks.Her voice is clipped. I swallow, nod, and point at one of the labels on the table. “Sim.”My voice wavers.She sighs, turns away from me abruptly, grabs two labels from a display case and follows her husband […]
“It’s in the home or urban garden, where the effort you put into your soil can not only be felt in your hands and back, but also be tasted on the plate.”– Matthew Evans The sky above me is cloudless, and although there is still frost on the ground, the sun holds a promise of […]
“Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” – Nelson Mandela I woke up yesterday morning with a message from Michael sharing his disappointment at having to cancel his trip to South Africa to visit his parents, daughter and granddaughter, less than twenty-four hours after he booked his flights. The discovery of a […]
“Buçaco forest demands a whole vocabulary which, once spoken, tells us that there’s still everything left to say. You don’t describe Buçaco forest. The best thing is to lose yourself in it.”– José Saramago Bussaco (Buçaco) Forest, first settled in the 6th century by friars from the nearby Benedictine monastery in Vacariça, evokes the exact […]
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Gandhi The rains arrived, as predicted on the 29th of October. After a couple of days taking care of some chores on the land, I was grateful to slow down, huddle up inside, and catching up with friends. By the Sunday the sharka (pond or […]
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