Filmed in the sweet new moon darkness, among a swift flowing river in the body of great mystical mountains….
In the company of howling monkeys and growing leaves,
A gathering.
The sun rises and brings with it a new day; a new chat.
The breath of wind fills our senses; melodies of birds, insects and flowers dancing in the simple, exquisite invitation to breathe, meditate and move energy.
Sounds emerge slowly and evolve to words.
Waters flow, around and within…. We sweat, swim and eventually evaporate.
Our heat from the sun surges and merges; a fire so powerful it attracts our stories and we learn how to transform.
From sunrise to sunset, we traced a thread from observing to engaging, and eventually to becoming.
All in time to remember again.
To see with more than eyes,
To speak with more than words, 
To move more than in steps, 
Shaping a journey that we may still be on, one that begins fresh in each new day.

For centuries, nature and humans have been divided. It has been taught for generations and generations that humans are the owners of all we can see. Across cultures and time, a story has emerged that enabled humans to domesticate animals, buy and sell land, rivers and seas all in effort to increase an idea of wealth. This story has emboldened actions that resulted in the  destruction of natural habitats, changing the course of rivers and over-extracting resources. 

Across the planet, many Indigenous Peoples and local communities share a very different understanding of nature, one that not only values the world of which we are a part, but also respects more than human ideas of success. 

We are in a moment where the impacts of our beliefs and world view are clear: human pollution and destruction of natural resources are causing disasters that threaten more than nature, also human security. The time has come to face our patterns of consumption and production and choose whether we wish to continue that story, or create a new one. We have an opportunity to shift perspectives and adjust how we understand our relationship to ourselves, to each other and to our natural environments. It is time to feel our role in nature, because we, humans, are also nature. The revolutionary act of transformative conservation is a dare that requires a new story about who we are and how we connect to our world. In November 2023, mundo común partnered with the Art of Hosting to offer a retreat among the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains and Guachaca river in Colombia to contemplate this idea and activate a culture of care. 

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mundo común is an organization created by Isabel Cavelier, winner of the prestigious 2022 Climate Breakthrough Award, together with Lina Herrera. The work of mundo común is “seeding a culture of interspecies-care as a revolutionary act in the face of the planetary systems crisis.” During this retreat, participants addressed acting on the deep paradigms that cause multiple planetary crises from care and interdependence. They asked themselves how to listen and activate the varied intelligence that inhabits the planet, exploring care for the territories we inhabit as well as our own bodies to promote systems that care for living beings and planetary health. 

More than Human: Nature bathes in the inspiration to transform and shift paradigms about climate in a manner that is real and accessible. This film offers what it feels like to begin the practice of feeling as a way of knowing, to reconsider ourselves as part of nature and as a critical step in our collective pursuit of healing, restoration, and sustainable resilient futures.

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Art and the magic of cinema are beautiful ways to introduce the experience of feeling as knowing. While viewing this short film, we invite you to rest your mind and feel the movement of dark to light returning to dark again. Allow yourself permission to remember and imagine at the same time…. without an attachment to a story. As you observe this piece, consider it an exercise. Allow yourself time to continue to observe. Notice if you begin to feel sensations. Can you name these sensations and use them as a way to unlock meaning? 

After viewing, consider: What if we … the decision makers, Indigenous Peoples, children, youth, elders, scientists, businesses, civil society … what if each of us felt deeply cared for, connected and trusted in our innate capacity to adapt, restore and heal ourselves and our planet? 

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The need, and the potential of conservation are shifting and perhaps the most radical thing we can do at this moment is to also shift ourselves. In addition to rewilding our territories, we invite you to rewild your mind. 

Please share your thoughts and feedback!

Thank you to the mundo común team: You are a shapeshifting, storytelling, exceptional group. Hands to heart, we appreciate your generous wisdom and look forward to all the ways you share the blooms of your work with the world.