Happy Earth Day: less talk more trees

Here and now

Claudia Laricchia

I am writing to you from the monastery of Plum Village in France, where I am attending the UNDP CoFSA [United Nations Development Program, Conscious Food Systems Alliance] retreat, surrounded by nature, noble silence, noble souls and practices to have access to a higher level of wisdom and connection.

Now and here, I feel the need to share with my community some stories and reflections about past and future of my vision and of Smily Academy, which is not (only) mine anymore.

Earth Day

The starting point is Earth Day, ça va sans dire.

Today we are launching the Smily Academy official video for Earth Day and our campaign: “LESS TALK. MORE TREES“.

The video has been created by our Alumnus Rupam Borah and the voice over is of our Chief of Growth Officer, Joshua May.

Enjoy 30 seconds of video:

And yes, Jadav is a word champion of “more trees“, while I invented the campaign but am a disaster with “less talk“.

I am practicing in the monastery with the noble silence and today it is “Monday lazy day” so I actually can talk. And that’s why I decided to talk and possibly speak the truth, as Al Gore invites us to do.

The past

Last year, in April 2023, during UNDP CoFSA transformative experience in Totnes (UK), I have found enough experiencial inspiration in the vision and initiatives of this amazing Alliance to have developed 3 months later, together with Matteo Salerno, the idea of the Smily Academy.

The key to do that was consciousness. UNDP CoFSA is the transformative platform of consciousness which is the only reliable seed of change for climate, because it deeply changes humans and connect them with themselves, the others and the nature, with a special attention to the indigenous wisdom.

Smily Academy was strongly inspired by UNDP CoFSA and it is very different and complementary to the Alliance I belong to. Synergies and team work are the crucial point to make impact happen and to accelerate it, given the current situation.

Conscious humans for nature.

It is not a coincidence that during the first UNDP CoFSA I met my beloved Bernard Guri, the Smily Academy Africa Director. The leader of Cikod, Center of Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development, which delegated our Mathias Kpètohoto to attend the Smily XP in India. And don’t forget that the feasibility of this connection was possible thanks to GammaDonna, Marco and Valentina Parenti who gave a full scholarship to Mathias.

Smily style.

During the graduation day in Assam, Matteo and Munmuni read the Indigenous wisdom cards I brought them both.

Well, that was a gift from Bernard Guri.

That’s why during Earth Day 2023, 10 days after the CoFSA experience, I organized a digital meeting among Indigenous Leaders and Young talents.

And guess what?

Among the leaders I involved I called Rituraj Phukan and Munmuni Payeng.

And guess what?

Among the 7 young talents I involved that day, there was my 20 years old brillant mentee, Matteo Salerno.

We were together. For the first time, we were together.

Four of the five founders of the Smily Academy and at once we had no idea of Smily and of what it would have happened to me 3 months later, the summer I hosted Andrew and Noemi in Italy, in Pollica, a tiny lovely place in the South of Italy whose citizens are always in my heart.

That summer, 2023, was the starting point for me of a traumatic, unprecedented experience of lack of values, humanity, and ethics. Hopefully, I learned from UNDP CoFSA enough tools to respond.

Please learn to transform other people’s shit into your beautiful fertilizer, as I did.

The regenerative mindset also starts from these reactions.

God’s will be done. But please train yourself and be prepared for being conscious humans and act with loyalty – in particular when you are in troubles -, from one hand and respond with love and joy from the other one. This has a lot to do with climate change. It’s a matter of mindset and harmony.

The past just passed.

And my gratitude is still pure and even stronger towards Andrew Bovarnick and his remarkable team for their visionary leadership and tireless efforts in driving regeneration development forward.

In particular, I’d like to express my gratitude to Noemi Altobelli, whose presence during the opening of the Smily European branch last December 2nd at Dot Academy, in Milano, was truly inspiring and significant.

Additionally, I would like to acknowledge Thomas Legrand for his profound contribution to our journey. His book “Politics of Being”, serves as a beacon for those seeking to delve deeper into the transformative power of consciousness.

The future

We are embarking on new endeavors and initiatives.

It’s crucial that we carry with us the spirit of collaboration and collective action championed by UNDP CoFSA.

From December 10 to 20 2024, the Smily Academy will be in Jorhat, Kaziranga and Kolkata for the NNEdPro International Summit on Food, Nutrition and Health and the Smily Academy Executive Program.

Organized by the NNEdPro Global Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health and the International Academy of Nutrition Educators in partnership with BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, the Summit focuses on “Democratizing and Decolonizing Food and Nutrition: From Science to Society”.

It works in collaboration with the World Food Forum, facilitated by the FAO and many other high-level private and public organizations from over 65 countries. It is also a joy to see that an innovative and purpose driven startup from Pollica, Italy, is also part of this journey: Ristolab founded by Amabile Cortiglia and Sofia Cavalleri, my beloved young friends full of multiple talents and pure love for the treasure of their land and its food system, who are running a platform that combines food service and science, creating everyday a positive and special impact in Cilento and abroad.

NNEdPro is a global organization committed to advancing education and knowledge transfer in nutrition. Through research, training, and strategic partnerships, NNEdPro strives to improve nutritional outcomes and address our world’s complex challenges.

Smily XP has been selected as the official pre-Summit satellite event, scheduled from December 10th to 16th in Assam, India, and followed by the Summit in Kolkata from December 17th to 20th, 2024.

So, imagine to give your executives the life changing opportunity to live 10 days of immersive learning, knowledge exchange, networking, and connection with nature in the framework of One Health, in India, the land of spirituality and biodiversity. How? Write to info@smilyacademy.org

Closing reflections

A very estimated friend of mise said to me “what a privilege you have to take 1 week for your retreat in Plum Village. I cannot not because I am busy. I have things to do”.

This gave me a deep sense of sadness.

The current system brings us to the misunderstanding that we are sucked in a life made by tasks and deadlines and anything extra is a luxury including our well-being, health and time for consciousness transformation.

And that is exactly how we brought ourselves as individuals and as humanity to the current scenario.

We are not here to do. We are here to be.

Smily is the platform of being. Smily is not the platform of doing. And that is how we are doing business.

Business is a consequence of ad educActional process. It is not the goal. It is an effect. And we need it for the feasibility of our platform and because business is the main mirror of what we should solve and also of how we should solve it.

Less talk.

More trees.

More conscious ecopreneurs. We should be ecopreneurs, not do the ecopreneurs. And this requires consciousness. This is not naif or a luxury or a privilege. This is life. From this it depends life on Earth. If we are conscious humans we just stop acting with extractive mindset and we just apply spontaneously the indigenous factor which is the regenerative mindset.

Smily means Sustainable Mindset and Inner Level for Youth.

It is for all of us and of course especially for Youth, who we own a smily future.

Please consider consciousness as a leverage of business if you need to tell this to yourself and justify to give a deep and impactful contribution to sustainability.

Please consider consciousness a leverage of business if you need this to feel social accepted from your business network.

I believe that change is not only a matter of ecological transition. It is a matter of ontological transition too. If someone thinks it is a privilege to take a consciousness retreat, we need to use a transitional narrative to make this a matter of business.

In our hearts we will know that it is much more. It is spirituality, it is connection, it is the access to an other level of wisdom. It is training ourselves to embrace the complexity of our challenges with the simplicity of love.

For this reasons after designing the platform, positioning the concept and prototyping the model, it is time for financial sustainability with United States and Executive program.

Ancestors’ will be done.

And also: I told you I talk and write too much. Happy Mother Earth Day, my friends.

Claudia Laricchia, Smily Academy, President and founder of the Smily Academy, the first Indigenous Eco-business Academy for international young ecopreneurs. www.smilyacademy.org

22-04-2024

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