“It has always been a radical act to tell stories during dark times. They are the regenerative spaces of creation and renewal. As we experience a loss of connection to the Earth we share stories that explore the timeless connections between ecology, culture and spirituality.” ... text from Emergence Magazine that inspired Zoom Regenerative into beingway back in 2020
2020 was a time for shifting the stories we told and heard at conferences onto a (then emerging) Zoom platform, with Covid lockdowns surfacing a more mindful, reflective, even spiritual, layer across regenerative themes.
Yet, who would have foreseen that the dark times we now face are so very different from those Covid days, potentially darker, with more urgency and danger as time counts down to our 2030 and 2040 milestones?
Since 2020 Zoom Regenerative brought and shared with over 150 guests, over 600 participants across 75 sessions, on what has been an utterly wonderful regenerative journey for me and for the many other particpants, deepening our understanding of what regenerative means to us as individuals, organisations and the built environment.
And yet, we need to stay strong and grounded in the notion that we are still journeying through the portal as Arandati Roy famously commented back in 2020. We must be confident in what we take through this portal will generate a regenerative future, not a future based on othering. And to do so, we need to be positive in our stories and narratives, in the words of Rob Hopkins - I have been to the future and its fine, we win.
In 2019 I wrote for a RESTORE publication that we are on the verge of something wonderfully regenerative or disasterously irreversible. I still maintain that optimism, grounded in the feeling that myriad of wonderful regenerative initiatives, established and emerging, many of whose stories we have shared and heard on ZR, will coalesce into a beautiful regenerative commons for the future
Let's Bloom Scroll and not Doom Scroll. Let’s shift our narratives to become not only more positive but wholly positive and not swamp us with more and more negativity, that erodes our left/right brain balance and ability to feel. (See Regen Note on this here)
From our lovely, honest and peaceful ZR session in June, a reflective pause in the ZR series, we shared what regenerative means to us, to ZR and to the wider world in which we live. Close to the summer/winter solstice, it felt the right time to pause and look to the next chapter of ZR.
From here, ZR moves forward on its continuum, on its regenerative journey, to do more on the same trusted and loved format, with a global reach, and within a safe place for sharing, conversation, reflecting and being.
For each ZR season, I look to have a theme, themes that have journeyed from Reciprocity to Nature-Positive, to Soul-Centric. And now, looking forward to 2025 - 2026 where we will embrace ‘Being’, and align topics and guests with the Wheel of Year and the energies we feel as the seasons turn.
ZR Events
July 15th - Fixing the Future with Housing Europe Registration … and see Below
August - ZR takes a break
September 16th - with guest Manda Scott Thrutopian Novelist and Podcaster at Accidental Gods
tbc October - Pollinators Series …. Previously ZR has led a Pollinator series of gatherings - four one-hour sessions over a month guided with prompts and readings, sharing, living and being, yet also with participants providing the texts, poems, art that has inspired them into the regenerative space and to lead on deeper exploration. We will look to bring that back on the theme of being.
Fixing the Future: Regenerative Thinking and the Fight Against Demolition. ZR July 15th
Demolition is often the result of a deeper issue: a system that values profit over people, place, and planetary health. But what if instead of tearing down, we chose to care, restore, and regenerate?
Join us for a special Zoom Regenerative session in collaboration with ACAN Spain (Architects Climate Action Network) and HouseEurope!, a European Citizens’ Initiative advocating for laws that make sustainable renovation the norm — not the exception. We will screen Power to Renovation — A Question of Values, a short film revealing the social and environmental costs of demolition, followed by an open conversation on what it means to think and act regeneratively in the built environment.
From activism to storytelling, from regulation to community care — we’ll explore how citizens across Europe are using legal and cultural tools to reclaim the spaces we live in.
This session is open to all, regardless of background. No technical expertise is needed — only curiosity, care, and a desire to fix what matters.
Other events , ZR related and supported
Satish Kumar Soil Soul Society Lake District Retreat 25-27th July with Sophia Sanctuary Details here
Living Future Europe (event details here)
Biophilia Society Gathering June 30th - Join me as I share insoights from the LFE Biophilia Playbook and Biophilia Unknowing
Biophilia Summit Sept Biophilia Camp and Barcamp September, Italy
Future Regen Notes.
A huge thank you for those who are paid subscribers to this newsletter. You make it possible. As many others concerned with social media organisations supporting politics, particulalry American politics at the moment, and those being politcs I would not subscribe to, I am exploring the move from Substack to Ghost. This won’t be immediate and I am looking at making the transition as smooooth as possible. It may mean that Regen Notes becomes a paid subscriber newsletter.
