Catfarm is a pretty singular place. Like a playground, it embraces all kinds of pluralities. It’s a place where everything is possible. All sorts of magic can happen there: love, peace, art, music jams, healing sessions and eventually something that mysteriously went broken. Of course, gardening plays an important role in our place, but it isn’t all.
It is a very practical place too. People are working very hard to build there an innovative, off-grid community, aiming at a conscious use of the resources and self-sufficiency. Since last year, we have a solid project on permaculture and with the help of our Robots, we will be able to optimize our irrigation system – meaning things will grow better and bigger!
I guess you’ve already heard about permaculture. It’s a new practical method where we learn to work with natural resources in a way to benefit both humans and nature. Basically, it’s a system that asks us to be more respectful to the Earth. We adopted this philosophy and our actions seek a better relationship between humans and nature.
But technicalities aren’t the purpose of this text. In fact, I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on what this place is. It is a short (and very) personal story, and I hope you feel connected to it 😉
Before Catfarm, I had never been in a community, nor knew a single thing about gardening or cooking for more than myself or even painted a single watercolor book. I was used to a pretty conventional lifestyle, although I’ve always known, deep down, it wasn’t enough. I was searching for something that I didn’t even know existed. I considered life being the books I’ve read, the classes I’d gone to, the friends who had shared a drink with me. Fortunately, as I can see it now, I had this uncomfortable feeling that would tell me I didn’t belong there. It became unbearable when I started a job where I had to do bureaucracy work. I was lacking in life and spirit.
Precisely, the only thing that I knew so far was reading books. That got me kind of anxious, given that I had absolutely nothing artsy or handy about myself. Happily, in my very first week, I was already helping the girls with painting a beautiful rainbow on our Hangar’s stairs. (You can check it in our gallery). I was learning more in a single week than in years during college. I was learning about gardening, painting, cooking, meditating and, more than anything, I was rediscovering a part of me that got blurred by adulthood. And it just felt SO GOOD.
It was like being a child once again. The way I felt by discovering and improving new skills made me realize that fortunately there is a counterpart for all that sorrow that impregnates big cities. Besides that, there is actually something pretty concrete that we can do to save our planet, the most utter dreamers dream.
We need to rescue something that we have been putting aside for a long time. Modern man has lost touch with his most primitive instincts. Our gifts were lost in the intensive rationalization of the world, reducing the immensity of the infinite in a few words or symbols. And this is not just post-hippie thinking. It is a matter of great survival. Great minds of this era have already argued about the danger of killing our instincts, like Carl Jung, in “Man and its Symbols” or Nietzsche, in “Twilight of the Idols”. The first links various types of neurosis, as chronic anxiety and depression, to the lack of contact with our Self.
Given the current situation of the world, the message couldn’t be more clear: we must make significant changes in our lifestyle. The enemy is doing nothing but trying to restore the lost equilibrium of nature, as it is its original function. This period may teach us about values and reconnection, both the external nature and nature within. It’s a period of reflection about what do we want for the future of the planet. Do we want to depend on big organizations and enterprises or we want to help real people, with which we can actually connect to? Do we want to participate in a society that values money over lives? I definitely don’t.
We feel, we dream, we suffer, we celebrate, we are humans with an unimaginable potential of creation. Why not use this in our favor?
This could be a huge opportunity for us to explore new paths and to cut what no longer serves us. We can build a hi-tech society that values nature and nurture. It’s already a reality. Creativity is key.