Dear Community as this year is coming to an end, @Nadene Canning and myself wanted to celebrate with you and share our gratitude with you! Sending you light in this 'in-between' time and we look forward to seeing you again in 2026! Warmly Sarah & Nadene *** “Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth, "You owe me." Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky.”―Hafiz ✨🌞🎇

We talk a lot about transforming our food systems. But almost no one talks about transforming the people who shape them. At first glance, farming and inner development seem worlds apart. Farming is physical, practical, rooted in soil and seasons. Inner development is mental and emotional, rooted in awareness and mindsets. Yet the irony is this: our food system will not regenerate unless the people within it do. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: we will not fix food security or soil health through techniques alone. We need different farmers AND different leaders shaping the system around them. As a farmer myself, I realised that food systems are not purely agricultural problems. They are human systems and human systems behave according to the mindsets, fears, blind spots, and values of the people inside them. This is why complex challenges (“wicked problems”) overwhelm us. We respond with roadmaps, committees, think tanks, five-year plans. These feel productive, but they often tackle symptoms rather than root causes. The cycle continues at every new government mandate or annual budget exercise. So what’s the real bottleneck? Not a lack of knowledge. Not a lack of technology. Not even a lack of land (at least not in my country Mauritius). The bottleneck, I believe, is inner capacity: - the courage to rethink entrenched models - the humility to learn from nature rather than dominate it - the empathy to consider farmers, consumers and ecosystems together - the systems thinking required to see beyond silos - the resilience to stay committed when results take seasons, not quarters. If we want to move from extractive farming to conscious land stewardship, we need to cultivate not just soil health, but human capacity: farmers who think regeneratively, policymakers who understand complexity, consumers who see value beyond price, and leaders who prioritise long-term resilience over short-term optics. The land can regenerate. The question is: can we? And how do we go about it? These last questions have been a lot on my mind lately and honestly, I am not sure I have the answer(s). For now I am mostly trying to get there by seeking partnerships (together we're stronger, right?) and consistently move conversations back to the real bottle necks stated above. Maybe that is the answer: consistency and persistence.

Many years ago when I was very ill with cancer I was gifted a perpetual flip calendar based on the New York Times bestseller “Ask and It Is Given” by Esther & Jerry Hicks. I’ve kept it and regularly update to the date. Today seems particularly meaningful especially after listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn speak on awareness, breath and mindfulness. Whenever I’ve been asked about goals I’ve sensed a resistance and resonate much more with “achieving the vibration of allowing…” Each of us is the visionary in creating our lives and here is where the Inner Development Guide makes such a meaningful contribution. If you have the time to sit with this, we’d love to hear your thoughts too.

Remember the Hope documentary that we discussed in this community? Well, the Hope team will bring it to the European Parliament on Wed, Dec 3rd !! ✨ And in the evening, Rob Hopkins will present a screening and then a debate afterwards. And their team is giving us 2 complimentary invitations! So... if you are in #brussels and are free on Wednesday evening, please comment below and I'll put you in touch with Catalina from ElGatoVerde

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