Founded in 1147, the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora is one of those gems in Lisbon that isn’t overrun with tourists. It was built outside (“fora”) the city walls, after Dom Afonso Henriques, Portugal’s first king, made a vow during the siege of Lisbon that he would commission the construction of a monastery dedicated […]
“We’re all aggregates, finding, recognizing, offering to others different strata of ourselves at different times in our live.” – Pamela Petro There is something interesting that happens when one stays in one place for a prolonged period of time, especially after one was used to a life more fluid and flexible. Like a pot plant, […]
“Our species, whose origin stories lie in lost Arcadias, has always sought to re-create paradise on Earth . . . many of us have forgotten that these Edens didn’t just happen: they are the product of millennia of care and toil. If we really value them, the responsibility to preserve them falls on us.” – […]
“How we perceive our surroundings is only ever a reflection of our state of mind in the moment.”– Clare Dimond To help banish the grey days and long dark nights, I wrapped 50 metres of Christmas lights around the big olive tree next to the house, where they now sparkle like my own special constellation […]
“I think landscape is an incredible, mystical teacher, and when you begin to tune into its sacred presence, something shifts inside you.” – John O’Donohue October flew by in a succession of gorgeous days. It felt good to be outside strimming away all the dead grass of summer, getting ready for the winter rains, and […]
“We must strive to become intellectual nomads, keep moving, keep learning, resist confining ourselves in any cultural or mental ghetto, and spend more time not in select centres but at the margins, which is where real change always comes from.” – Elif Shafak July’s heat has weighed heavily on my soul. Chores were centred around the […]
“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 […]
“Petrichor, the wonderful, soul-lifting smell you get after rain on earth, is thanks in large part to the metabolites of soil life. To geosmin. We’ve evolved around living earth, and our ability to sense geosmin could well explain why it feels so invigorating being in a garden, or so life-affirming to visit an ancient forest, […]
“Saudade is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present.” – Aubrey Bell from his book In Portugal According to Wikipedia saudade “is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for something or someone that one cares for and/or loves. […]
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