Here to Be Alive

Dear Friends,

There lies magic in connecting with others around a table, in a house, with no other agenda than to share and make good times happen. No matter what background, opinion, attitude, experience people bring to the table, people always find a way to get along. Even at times, when on a bigger scale it does not seem that way.

Too often we forget how we are the little creators of big worlds. And those worlds can start forming in a conversation with the other. Despite all of the stories that keep us away from each other, that keep us away from being present, that keep us from creating peace in our families and communities.

For us our mission is clear: we create, we host, we serve. In many ways this feels like a contribution worth making. Opening spaces, setting up tables, inviting for experiences. In the real world, in the analog world, in the human face-to-face world.

Maybe we are overstretching some things here and there. Maybe the technological trajectory of the past 100 years is continuing exponentially. Maybe AI is changing the face of the earth in the next 10 years, maybe conflicts will escalate. And maybe there is a niche, a network of people and places that start interconnecting, that puts technology back to a place where it serves the human spirit, instead of infiltrating it. And maybe peace expands from the small to the big. Maybe it’s not all always better than before, maybe we already figured out some quite substantial things, like how to cook the most amazing food, made with the most flavourful vegetables grown on healthy soils, like the wisdom of the elders in our cultures.

Maybe the time has come to reconnect with this knowledge, to value the achievements and use the wisdom we have collectively gathered over millions of years. To actively bring in the new, where it makes the old better, and keep it in check, where it makes it worse.

Maybe – which for us symbolises hope, humbleness and openness. Who knows? Maybe we figure out a way forward that currently only few people dare dreaming of.

For now, to us it very much feels like a moment to go more analog, to leave the phone at home, to spend only little time in front of the screen, to eat real food, to have conversations, to spend time with your loved ones and with strangers. To travel, to see places, to spend time together. To experience the magic in front and all around. Celebrating the little things, to appreciate the people who do the work, who make our life what it is. From the roads to the food, from the caretakers to the peacemakers. From the neighbour to the delivery person to the people building things.

And to pray or meditate or wish the best for those who have other things to worry about.

We can change course, reconnect with the past or embrace the future as it serves the overall evolution of what it means to live on this planet together as humans. Trying to dig deep in our views and opinions, taking the wide angle as much as we can. The more we connect and appreciate what we have, the higher the chances that we make better choices.

As friends, as consumers, as citizens, as neighbours.

We look forward to welcoming you back to our spaces, may your experiences be filled with as much life as possible!

Your Michelbergers