Traditional milestones are boring. Tell me how you became a villager this year

Our chaotic 2025 wrap-up.

Let’s say I look at my year the traditional way. New job with a fancy title (but is an NGO really a stable job?). New apartment (but should I be paying half my salary on rent?). The financial safety net to go on weekend trips and pay for my friend’s coffee (but why aren’t I investing? Why haven’t I bought a place?). That looks good on my CV (but why did I fail to find a literary agent for my book? Why is everyone else on LinkedIn suddenly an influencer, a keynote speaker, an ‘inspiration’?).

This is not helpful. It just stresses me out. None of these milestones tell me whether I’m happy, whether I’m likeable, whether I help others, whether I want any of it.

Last year I wrote about establishing new metrics to look at our lives and distance ourselves from the individualistic and neoliberal fixation on house-job-marriage-kids. I still use these indicators today:

Did I stand up for human rights and justice? Did I go outside and watch the seasons change? Did I question authority? Did I check in on my friends? Did I work to challenge my own beliefs? Did I spend less time worrying about my own flaws? Did I do things that make me afraid? Did I do what I can to be inconvenient and disruptive to the systems of power? Did I sleep, abundantly? Did I stop apologising for my rage and my imperfections? Did I buy the damn coffee without feeling bad about ‘wasting’ money? Did I listen to people who know more than me about what it is to live under an oppressive system? Am I still here? Am I still showing up?

I want to add something this year: did I play my part as a villager?

Over the last year, community-building has become the new hot topic in climate and antifascism movements. It always mattered, of course. People in many Global South countries have been waiting for us to figure this out for decades.

But with the accelerated and vicious attacks on NGOs and activists across the West, the rise of the far-right and the dismantling of human rights protections, we’re beginning not just to intellectually know, but to feel, how little regard many governments have for our lives and well-being.

Our greatest tool for resistance, our greatest source of energy and sustenance, has always been each other.

The political powers at the top would like to divide us and have us waste time fighting each other. While we fight from the top-down, we must unify from the bottom-up - something the far-right are doing effectively. We must see our differences as strengths, our disagreements as inevitable parts of working on complex system change, and our our capacity to care in urgent times as abundant.

We do this to survive. Care and community are political. We cannot be so focused on change from the top-down that we neglect our elderly, our sick and our marginalised. We cannot look at the ‘big picture’ so often we forget to look at art and listen to the needs of our friends. Who is washing the dishes while we repost climate reports on Instagram? Who is looking after the children while we protest?

Growing food, repairing clothes and checking in on elderly neighbours keep us alive: physically, but also spiritually, emotionally, in all the ways that matter.

So let’s say I look at my life through the lens of community and care. I spent too many days checking my emails when I could have been outside with friends. I doom-scrolled and let my stack of to-read books pile up. I waited far too long to plan time off. But I and The Green Fix team did organise 10 events to bring together the climate movement. I joined a record number of protests, and furnished my flat almost entirely second-hand with the help of my friends. I let friends cook for me during busy periods, and I showed up to their places to listen during their own hard times. I remembered to write Christmas cards well in advance.

It’s tiny things. It’s imperfect. I do not seek perfection, I seek connection. It’s everything that makes this life sustainable.

The Green Fix Climate Picnic in Parc de Bruxelles, July 2025

I asked my friends for some personal highlights that have nothing to do with traditional milestones. Here’s some of their answers:

At the beginning of this year I wrote about my new found love of darning. I’ve loved fixing things for friends and family all this year, and am looking forward to one of my socks becoming more darn than sock. I also invested more in my local area this year... I helped a group occupying and taking over the running a local community centre this summer, we cooked with strangers for anyone who turned up, and had water fights and discos with kids from across my neighbourhood - Issy Pountney, Assistant Editor of The Green Fix.

While sick yet again, I was reading The Myth of Normal, which helped me understand my body and what truly matters. In the summer, I finally visited the village in Russia where I grew up but never visited since, which brought me a sense of peace. I also started a yoga teacher training, and I’m happy with this journey. - Nastya, Events Coordinator of The Green Fix.

One of my highlights of this year was cultivating time for learning just for learning’s sake, without agenda or objectives. From photography to zine making and rediscovering my passion for languages, it has been very freeing to let curiosity dictate how I spend my free time. - Myriam, Social Media Coordinator of The Green Fix.

My personal highlight was definitely performing with the choir at La Nuit Positive (extra nice because it was about supporting HIV-positive people) and in the grand hospice (extra nice because it was a free performance, accessible for everyone), and feeling that queer joy and sense of community, and seeing others find it too. - Syl

I finally joined a board games society where I can go play board games once per week with actual people! - João Antonucci Rezende

I met friends who share the same dream of building a village community to build resilience to the multicrisis/sanctuary space for people who might need it; learned how to be more confident in settling boundaries to protect my time and energy; learned new songs by heart, and compiled my poems and art into a pdf (maybe to be published one day?) - Kelly Dochy

I’m proud that when I was super sick late one night, I asked my neighbour (who I don’t yet know very well) to get me supplies from the grocery store instead of ordering them on Deliveroo. They were happy to do it, and that’s less money going out of our communities into corporate pockets. - Christina Wunder.

How did you play a role as a villager this year? Let us know in the comments!

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Green Fix 2025: The Wrap-Up

Credits: Hanna Huld and Leonardo Brucato

Highlights:

• We held a record number of events! Hundreds of you showed up for our three climate drinks, a picnic, a clothes swap with Fashion Revolution Belgium, a boardgames & conversations night with Team for the Planet, and four climate coffees.

• We have 731 new subscribers since this time last year, including 44 new paid subscribers! (And we lost a few when we started getting more political - a non-traditional success).

• We launched a paid edition and paid subscriptions more than doubled, which means that soon we will be able to host events & run TGF with a budget!

• We featured some fantastic guest writers including Ana Alanis on losing her home in the LA wildfires, Nathan Stewart on trade union action in Belgium, and João Antonucci Rezende on left-wing purity politics.

Most-read editions:

Some newsletters that have inspired us:

• The Noösphere, feminist political critique by Katie Jgln

• UPROOTED by green dreamer kaméa, on decolonisation, ecology and more.

• The Big Shift - by Emilia Roig

• Liberating Motherhood by Zawn Villines

• Fighting Talk by Ettie Bailey-King

How you can help us:

• If you’ve liked our work or events over the last year, please consider either becoming a paid subscriber or throwing in a coffee donation.

• Let us know what you think! Our quick reader survey influences what we choose to focus on over the next year and we love hearing your feedback.

• Fancy becoming a guest writer? We are always open to collaborations, just email wearethegreenfix@gmail.com for a chat or hit Reply to this email.

Lastly, a huge thank you to the volunteers who give their time to help keep The Green Fix running. We all do this around full-time jobs or studies and the very fact I have had people pitching in, is the best example of community-building I have. Thank you to Myriam Gambini, Ana and Francesca for managing the social media, Issy Pountney for proofreading my many ramblings, Simran Elia, Nastya and Martina for helping co-organise events, and Leonardo and Ephraim for stepping in on fundraising.

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So Now What Do I Do?

• The Creativity for Social Change Award is accepting nominations until the 19th December.

• SDSN Youth are looking for young people to join their fellowship on reimagining urban spaces. Apply by 21st December.

• The UN is offering microgrants for youth ecosystem restoration efforts until the 31st December.

• Mediterranean groups strengthening Highly Protected Areas can apply for grants until the 31st December.

• Apply for the UNESCO Leading Minds fellowship on climate education by the 31st December.

• Queer artists are invited to submit their work to join OpenOut festival in Norway next year. Deadline 4th Jan.

• Prince Claus Fund is looking for creatives who work in areas where expression is repressed. Submit yours by 8th Jan.

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Stay in the loop

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