May 2026. The southwest of Portugal is making a shift. From the green hills and valleys of winter, dotted with yellow oxalis flowers, to the explosion of color in early spring — by mid-May, the drought begins to set in. Flowers hurry to produce seeds, and from the second half of May it is relva-time: grass flowering. But very soon the grass turns yellow. April and May are the months when people start to mow. In Portugal, it is the law to mow before summer, because of the high

Two-thirds of the book Communities: Experiments with Social Change have been written, and today, I would like to share more about this upcoming book. The idea to write a book about this topic arose three years ago, when I was living in a community in the Netherlands. Today, the community no longer exists. It began with beautiful intentions and positive energy, but it was difficult to sustain the formulated economic model. Simply put, we ran into financial trouble. As money b

Exploring how relational cultures allow autonomy, community, and ecological belonging to grow together. My latest book, freshly written, and based on a research within communities between 2023 - 2026 Author & System Thinker Wende is a system thinker, writer, and community practitioner based in Portugal. Her work explores how relational cultures emerge and how autonomy and connection can reinforce each other in human communities. Drawing from lived experience in intentional co