Patrick speaks with Diego Castaño Valencia, a Colombian GP who found permaculture in Australia, and came to volunteer with us this past week.
Diego regards permaculture as an antidote to the industrial medical complex and to globalised industrial society more broadly, and is about to head home to Colombia to put into practice what he has learned on his travels.
Listen to the audio (46 mins).
We had such a wonderful week with Diego. We hope this yarn gives a little insight into our time with this special young man who is taking his life seriously, with grace and curiosity.
As always we welcome your reflections and your comments.
What a wonderful young man. I wish him all the very best. May he follow the crumbs of experience which time to come has put in front of him.
Thank you for this interview.
Thanks Ellen 🙏🏽
What a beautiful conversation. How lucky to have had Diego stay with you – I imagine the richness of each meal time conversation, and for him to have AaF as role models for a life well lived. Not lived, but living, as he prepares for his next adventure. Perhaps a follow up in a year or two? I’m curious to hear how Diego goes with his new community collective.
With best wishes, and gratitude always for your sharings, Sarah.
Thanks for your kindness, Sarah. Yes, a follow up down the track with Diego will no doubt bring some gold.
Thank you both for this sharing of experience & insight. So heartening to hear from a healer who thinks about & holds a vision for healing within the whole system that encompasses both patients & practitioners. And so refreshing to hear questioned the value of extending lives that can only burden the planet further. Usually doctors express such reservations merely re burdening the healthcare system (a paradox, when that system actively creates & prolongs the dependence of patients). Blessings, Patrick & Diego!
Thanks Shane, yes, the paradox.
What a lovely person Diego is. He is brave enough to admit that the grass wasn’t greener elsewhere. And not just by returning home but by leaving his chosen profession, when he realised the harm it is doing. ‘Big’ industries – pharma, agriculture, etc’ – all trade on perpetuating fear; fear of death, starvation, missing out, the unknown. But life is supposed to be a challenge, isn’t it? And we all need to accept that making mistakes is part of learning and it isn’t demeaning to admit a mistake.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the film ‘The Age of Stupid’? It’s set in the distant future and an archivist is trying to find out whether we knew we were on the path of destruction. During the film they look at the mess oil drilling has made in Africa and follow a young woman who wants to be a doctor, whose friend wants to live a Hollywood life – she says of this imagined comfort that if you lived like that you wouldn’t want to die. This has stuck with me and I think that when we have lived our best life and are happy with the path we have trodden, we will be contented to let go.
Yes, Theresa, that film came to our community about 16 years ago, and it had quite an impact. We cancelled an overseas trip after seeing it and went car-free and plane-free for 15 years, affording us to grow different relationships on foot and on bike.
Such a pleasure meeting this man here! Thank you, Meg and Patrick, for bringing him into our sphere.
Be well.
Thanks PG! ❤️
So many thanks for having this conversation, really inspiring and vibrant. 🌸
Thanks Rachel! ❤️
A beautiful human indeed, thank you for the beautiful gift of nettle tea you sent home with Diego aka Dingo and for the love you showed him. Gratitude x
Thanks Kate, we’re thinking of Diego often as he re-emplaces back in Colombia.