The Promise

Yesterday I've learned to be more careful with what I promise... because last night the story didn’t come out and I bag for your forgiveness! The story about writing is complicated... it is not as easy task as it may seem. To write, theoretically we all know, we take a piece of a new blank document and we start writing what we wish to say. Word after word, sentence after sentence, phrases, introduction, content, ending. We all have something to say or to debate, opinions and assessments; countless words are crowding our minds... Actually things are not as simple as that. Or at least for me this is not working as I wish to. Far from me the idea of being a writer, of having talent or a muse, or even inspiration. Nevertheless I have found out on my own skin/virtual piece of paper, that things are generally not easy, not even when it comes about writing. Sometimes, plain and simple, words won’t come out! If I insist, some of them eventually would come out one by one, but they simply don’t want to match, are fighting each other and won’t obey to stay in line inside the same sentence. And I keep on placing and replacing them, delete, rephrase, bring some other new words for help, I try and try to place them so the story could be understood, but it doesn’t work. It seems that this is not about me, here.

As much benevolence as I would have, and despite my will to keep my promise in front of you, sometimes I have no power to influence the words. I start writing, they hardly move, they stumble, I rewrite, restart, think again, until I give up...

Some other times the story flows by itself, words are flowing through my pen or my fingers and I find it hard to keep up the step, I numb for so much writing in the same position for hours. Sometimes I don’t even stretch my own legs for fear that the magic would disappear...

Same about joking... Sometimes I wish it would come out, as much as I would argue that I am bored! There are other times when I laugh of myself and I can’t even take myself seriously.

And I learned to obey, because it seems I don’t handle this area. So writing comes in waves. One day I am able to bring to life two poor phrases only, another day I write 50 pages. I am able to describe 20 pages of what crossed my minds in 10 minutes or to describe what happened an entire month in just ten lines. It is like sailing in the open sea... sometimes I feel like the wind is not strong enough to start carrying me towards the desired direction. Sometimes I catch a short blast, but the story is rich, and in just one page there are deep life experiences, and sometimes there’s no blast at all, then I hold on...

The day before yesterday I promised to tell the story the next day, but yesterday the story didn’t appear. Today I felt again that blast and so to speak I hoisted sail, and surprise... look at what I am writing! Instead the story about Permaculture, I am lucubrating on excuses, blaming it on something similar to inspiration, coming and going at it's own wish.

So I have learned to stop promising to reach some harbor, because I don’t know if there will be wind and if it will be, to what direction he will take me.

For days, there’s not wind blowing, sometimes I fill an entire notebook in just one day, not even being able to type as fast as words are flowing and for these moments a Bic pen is just perfect, the weight of this type of pen does count! In Lisbon, in just one day I have finished a ball pen... not all I write is for this blog, more and deeper feelings are to be found in my notebooks, thinking that maybe one day I will decide to publish a book.

Just like an old salesman smelling for the wind to come, I have started to feel the difference between the right breeze for a blog or for my notebook, since they have special tastes. Then my only option is to go with the wind, with the wave and not against... This is the reason for my absence some days, but not because I forget about you, but because the story is not just ready to appear before the footlights.

You are always on my mind; it was just a kick for me to find this out. And I feel that I am connected to you, yo make me never feel alone, instead I feel like having hundreds of friends to whom I keep telling my stories. To each one in particular. Thank you for existing, I can almost feel you to the other side of this mirror.

I’ve barely started narrating... I do have lots of things to say and I feel like there’s a lot more to come, but all will show up at it's own pace. Now I challenge you to write too.... maybe to write... to me. What would you like to find out about these communities I'm visiting? I have a list of over 50 questions for them, I am sure that you may have another 500... What are your expectations from an Eco village? What do you hope it will bring to you and to the World? Let’s follow this path together! Let your words float too! I'm looking forward for reading them!

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One single day, Tamera, 15 People, Thousands of Trees

In a single day, 15 people we have planted, watered and cared for a few thousand little trees... maybe a future forest?

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Obviously, I am not a Journalist! And never wished...

Obviously, I am not a journalist! And I never wished to become one, on the contrary! But now I'm starting to reconsider a lot of what I've ever said, I've just started to discover that this profession has it's own virtues... and I beg your pardon for the misunderstandings that may occur while I'm writing this blog. As I would like to have the appropriate skills i order to describe more accurate and detached all that I encounter during my journey, without judging in a way or another and without changing those little details that matter... My goal is to reach all the relevant aspects, so you can make your own idea.

The way from Intention to Success is passing not only through thousands of words, but through jaundiced ideas, reasonable meanings and inexplicable meanings, personal feelings, recordings and memories, hopes and dreams, fears and beliefs, personality aspects of those telling the stories and even of those listening. I have been telling the story of Tamera... and I experienced all the possible emotions, from fear to ravishment, from lack of interest to enthusiasm, from indignation to cheer and congratulations! I thank you all from the bottom of my heart, all of you are right!

Is there an absolute REALITY that I wish to describe, in fact? Where is the limit of someone’s fairness? How attentive could you be in your selection of thoughts and how many details are able to describe a human's life? What makes one happy it is also available for another one? If someone says they're happy living in a caravan travel trailer, this is a reality you cannot deny. It may or may not be available for someone else, or for the same individual in some other moment.

I prefer to say that I can describe real experiences but none of them is a final and immanent reality.

Is it enough to describe a community’s structure? For example, we know about ourselves that we use money for our exchange with the environment... we could describe their run, who is printing them, how the value is established, what are the exchange rates meaning, depreciation, people and societies rich or poor and even though everything is true, is a reality, it says nothing about the interior state of man towards money... Many people are not brave enough to follow their dreams, sooner or later they give up their own expression of creativity, rather choosing a safe life direction, a comfortable one, because "the system is not so permissive" - they say and I think they're right. But I think those daring to follow their dreams are right, too: Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah, numerous cases of artists that money & success followed them..... inside the very same system, with the same chances, in the same country, the same period of time, but with divergent far cry results. The difference, they say and I agree, is of attitude, of the build up and operating belief (not always self consciously, unfortunately). Some choose unorthodox methods to reach bounteousness... And each one’s reality is different; the story is different, even though you would like to think there’s only one single reality. For a thief, "the reality" says that this is the only way through... And The Reality shows us that within the same system, things could be easy or difficult, impossible, simple or complicated...

Now apply the same reasoning as far as concerns health, family, relations with children, with the same schemes, you will find "agony and ecstasy", to quote a beloved title.

It seems that there is no system "perfect" enough to ensure the happiness and the success, health, harmony or abundance. Experiencing the system is different, from heart to heart.

This doesn’t mean that there’s no need for us to create more ethical, more crystalline and more balanced systems. Probably we have to personally change, to develop ourselves first in order to create a system of useful beliefs. Because in case of all existing systems, even more for those aiming for perfection, the way they're being used is according to the human consciousness, meaning to the evolution degree of their members.

No dream-system or community is possible where people are missing the courage to say the truth, are cheating, do not help each other or cannot trust their fellows... even if they bear the minimum carbon seal!

And for this reason in so many communities working is divided in two main directions: to correctly implement the organization rules, but also (very important) to provide members' education. The spirituality also helps sometimes. I know that you will label this...

The more high level of organization a system has, the more compulsory it becomes, as by forced threatening, harmony could never be reached.

In Tamera there is no police, no jail, no punishments, but there are forums debating the community issues. The intervention of the police has never been needed.

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The Animals, Our Loving Friends * Tamera Vision

You didn't know that we are such unforgiving and cruel lords, are you?

In Tamera the animals are not raised as food, neither as domestic animals. Food is an important subject in Tamera, just like anywhere in the World. And it's not only about vegetarian or raw food, even though this may also be a research subject. Some of them are vegetarians, and some of them are testing for a few months the raw food variant. Raw Food means fresh vegetables, seeds, kernels without being prepared by a thermal process through boiling or frying, baking, etc...

Here they do not use milk, cheese, or eggs. Only butter has recently became the subject to experimenting, being produced from the milk of the few cows kept as an existent element integrated in the natural area. Some chicken and goats will be introduced soon, but they will have to make own choices for how "domestically" they would like to remain, they will live at the borders of the forest inside enclosures with open gates.

Livestock is attentively planned... how many of a certain species should we have, what to use them for, how much land should they occupy, what shall we do with the cows or the other animals when they will grow old and naturally die? Most likely they will become food for the wild animals, their corpses will be left in the forest, and so everything will come back to nature. In Tamera there are no animals used for hard work, the existent ones are free to do whatever they please... If what they are pleased to do it also proves to be useful for the humans, then everything turns ethical and a co operation may come out of this. For example pigs are left free on large areas, they are not fed for meat or sacrificed, but they are left to do what they love best: to grout the land! So pigs are carried away on lands to be prepared for reforestation, for freshening, where they are extremely happy to dig for over half a meter deep! And so everybody wins, the people are starting with a perfectly worked ground, free from struggle, with no need of cars, therefore without air contamination. They have even been coached to protect young trees and to recognize what should be drawn off. And there is only one generation coached, the second one is now catching up, it seems!

Horses are not used for carrying, not for carriages, not for riding, but for psychologist therapy of human being, by interacting with them. People learn to have trust, patience, to be single-minded and to lead, not to hesitate, to clearly impart... they are still investigating what horses like to do, besides this.

Not even the Mayans were using horses for carrying or for riding. A Mayan used to carry for himself everything he needed from another place, it didn’t seem fair for them to work an animal off, as nowadays it seems so normal for us, or even to grow them up for sacrificing them.

Each animal's sufferings is imprinted on the meat that we consume... the sufferings during life, when we raise them in tiny spaces, artificial, remains along with the frightening experience of mass execution.

Besides the well known nutrients, our food it also holds information. If we’d only be a little more sensitive, we would be terrified, I think.

Dogs are living in a special area, on 5 hectares, are left free to develop their skills and preferences, to organize themselves, but probably watching & protecting is what they like most. But in Tamera there are no houses to be guarded, all doors are left open around here, and yet nothing is stolen, the community means trust. Not even the cultures must be guarded. There are no sheep yet, the key to communicate to this species is still to be found, communication is still in study.

The vet specialist, Tina, is telling us with tears in her eyes about the sufferings of the animals, the fear that they are living day by day, since they are born inside those industrial farms, because animals communicate and know what is expected from them. ...About the abusive way we are treating horses, putting them to run to exhaust and forcing them to learn artificial steps, for show’s sake.

She is telling us stories about the communication process between humans and dogs. ...dogs that people succeeded in understanding, helping dogs, leading people to the most appropriate places, or for example leading wild animals cured in Tamera to be readmitted in their own environment. There are also well documented cases of dogs communicating in their own way to the human beings whether a decision is good to make, or not.

There are so many significations of communication, of layouts and society’s roles, assumed and inspired from animal communities. The presence or the absence of rats has been related to humans’ attitude toward them, it was detected a certain answer at people's intentions.

Harmony and curing the wounds, either animal or human, physical or emotional, in particular or collectively, is part of the recipe Tamera is applying to keep going further.

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Introduction to Introduction * Tamera

Helena and Ria, our hosts for the orientation week, invite us to gather in a circle and to introduce ourselves………… we are from Brazil, Germany, Romania, Australia, Swiss, Mexico, Canada, Portugal, Great Britain, the youngest member is 18 years old, I am the oldest one, we speak English, sometimes German which it is translated for us into English. Helena is asking us to group according to the purpose that we came here for, with three main options: politics, ecology or love. I protest: I came here to meet and understand. So does the Swiss guy, but we are bundled to the love corner, several other reasons being reduced to, anyway this is where most of us have gathered. All right, we could say that we came here for the love of knowledge……. some of them came for ecology and just one of them has a political research purpose, which above all is normal when you are 18!

Everyone is telling his own story, why are we here, how did we get here……….. almost all the others have heard about Tamera from friends or acquaintances who had already been here. Everyone’s story is contextually different, but their essence is finding the place or the way to live happily.

Uma is from Germany, she is a career counselor at a University and she is wondering whether she's really able to provide relevant advice. Some of them wish for a new beginning, like a couple from Germany, looking for a future that they aren’t even able to describe, but they are open to variety. He makes organic elm wood furniture; you can even feel his passion and his pain talking about this. Some others passed through bad moments in life and their friends recommended to them this place, for discovering a new way of living. Martha is mother of 3 children and all of them are here with her, she is looking for a place to raise them, to protect them. Another couple, across the ocean, from Canada, is hoping to build a community someday. The youngest child came here at his mother’s advice, who has lately visited Tamera…… Personally I am here for a study about eco villages, to help promoting these places, aimed by the hope that there is a new world ready to be born, as real as possible, and functional

Helena is 22 years old, she is living in Tamera for 2 years, but her family is living here for many years. Her uncle was in charge with building the lakes. Her job here is being the supervisor, planner and translator for us and she's doing it with maximum responsibility and joy. Ria is living here for 11 years, she is about my age and she is taking care of finances and seminars, let’s say she is sort of a teacher. All of us will be meeting every day after the brunch, between 12.30 and 14.30 and from 16.30 to 18.30, each day with another theme, with specialists from every branch.

A day about water, a day about ecology, a day about food, a day about children, one about community, one about money, one about animals. On Sunday we will be going on a pilgrimage for about 10km, obviously by foot. Besides, in the mornings we will go to the glass house where we will be working for the reforestation project.

This is mainly the orientation week’s structure; the easiest way for us to integrate an to get the know how. The way of living proposed by Tamera, developped on a very large area, I’d say……

The aim of Tamera Project is explained by Ria: the place is meant to be a Healing Biotope, a model of community where the interaction between people, animals and plants is based on truth, trust and reciprocal aid. This is a model that they are shaping as it goes, a living model, based on experimenting and perfecting at the same time, giving local answers to the global crisis, a permanent research with the aim of building a non violent culture. Many times I’ve noticed, they don’t actually know the correct answer, and they are not afraid to admit this; we did this, we did that, but we need to change something else, to find another method, because this doesn’t work! Their declared intention is becoming a head stone for the peace workers in the entire World, for those looking to be the change they wish to see in the World. Maybe on their flyer presentation this may sound a little prevailing, but now after meeting them I absolutely have no doubts, this is their day by day reality, and it feels like something much deeper than I am able to describe.

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