In Search of Stone
Their names etched into the stone, weathering into memory, like language itself.
I study the surface of the rock, as if reading ancient hieroglyphics. This is more than some local school kids marking their territory. In a small way, this ritualistic expedition is a practice that binds them deeply to their ancestral place, to the Fextal.
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Primal
It is a way of being which is shaped by intuition in primacy to intellect, in service to nature’s intelligence.
Five days without sun. Water covers everything. It sits in muddy puddles on a potholed track. It drips from ferns that unravel slowly across the understory of an ancient forest. It cascades down a narrow valley, slowly carving through the clay and schist, gently turning a hydroelectric wheel round and round — providing a slow trickle of power to a small house that is almost unnoticeable to the outside world, nestled deep within the hillside.
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Estrela: Above the Clouds
Silence reigns in the high altitude.
An engulfing, all pervasive silence. It's perceived not only through hearing but through all of the senses—as well as something deeper, residing above and beyond the material world. I hear a rushing sound in the distance, initially mistaking it for traffic, but it is only the wind passing over the rocks. The cold creeps in gradually. It promises to take over the night.
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Food as Medicine
“As long as I can live in this symbiotic relationship with plants and trees and nature, I think that I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
Surrounded by a forest of cork oak and strawberry trees, hidden on a granite mountain in Serra de Monchique, you can find Sonia — a fermentation and foraging expert, who lives in a state of symbiosis with nature — using food as medicine as she has done for the past 25 years.
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Pego: Chasing Water
This is the edge, the space that those who are drawn to extremes will speak of — the experience of being truly alive. I hit the water and sink to the depths.
There is a certain eeriness to the feeling of floating in a body of water which you can’t see through. It is an experience which I would imagine to be similar to floating through space—a vast emptiness, o vazio. A sensation of being completely supported, yet simultaneously vulnerable and exposed.
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Back to Simplicity
“You have more meaning with less.”
The changes that we see in our society with regards to minimalism and a simplistic lifestyle are much more than a trend. It is a need, the natural next step from a world that is subdued by noise.
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Bikepacking & The Unknown
The Vielha tunnel is a dark abyss. One that hypnotises you with its mythical and mysterious nature.
Straight into the belly of the mountain. Five kilometres long. The only way back from Spain to France. I took a deep breath, feeling the temperature drop from warm early autumn to frigid cold as I rolled into the darkness. I felt the adrenaline course through my veins. This is why we are here. This is adventure.
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Fexer
A remote alpine valley, a knife maker, and the beginning of a new chapter.
The air is dry and cold, far colder than feels appropriate for late August. But we are above two thousand metres now, and I’m reminded of it as we stare out in awe across this Alpine amphitheatre animated by rock, forest, and light.
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South to North
“When we cannot appreciate other people’s systems, we cannot also appreciate that the indigenous systems have maybe a solution for the decay of our society.”
The indigenous wisdom that Konkankoh brings can serve as a guide that will point us in the right direction, one that is not linear but circular, coming back to our roots, back to the Earth.
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Reflection, Return, Regeneration
Regeneration is a philosophy towards living, which means to give back more than you take.
Our pre-existing model of extraction, dominance and control can no longer be sustained. We need a new way — a new story. The best part that I can play 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 understanding that we are one small aspect of a much larger cosmos.
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