A good bye, pivot and new beginning

Important updates

Happy Summer! I am sitting on my balcony in the light evening breeze, listening to the live band playing somewhere nearby. It really feels like summer; the streets are buzzing with life, the light wind is warm, and the sky deep blue. It feels obvious, we’re standing at the longest days of the year, a time of light, celebration, and shift. The solstice marks not just a seasonal turn, but a personal one for me, too. One, I am so excited to share more about as there’s lots in it for you.

Before we dive into the most exciting news of the year…

If you’re curious to look beyond your context, I highly recommend spending 3 mins on this article, reading about celebrations including Tirgan in Iranian families, Festas Juninas in Brazilian households and Szent Iván-éj in Hungarian communities.

Context: endings and beginnings

You’ve been hearing less and less from me in recent months as I gradually decided to shift gears. Actually, I didn’t decide, I just trusted, listened, and became quieter more often. Held dreams closer to my heart and recalibrated. I trust that while I go against all “best practice” for building and sustaining a thriving online writing and mentoring/coaching practice, i know I am not wrong, I am not crazy, I do the right thing. If you need a reset, slow down and notice; it works wonders!

That said, after 9 years of dreaming, creating, starting and stopping, I am excited to share that my project from nearly a decade ago is coming to you this harvest season. Just in a new dress, shape and form. After years of research, storytelling and community work in other contexts, I can see a clear vision for holding space for the village here in a new format.

My new role

My intention with my writing has never been to be in the spotlight but to move the lights to shine on others. Hence, I will be holding space, gathering voices, asking questions, and weaving stories into something we can learn from, together. I’ll be a field note-taker. A village listener. Curator. Facilitator of dialogue. Roles that are certainly not new to me.

Essentially, I will interview women and highlight the voices and experiences of those building thriving communities.

And if you are reading these words, not yet subscribed, please know that I will mostly be sending emails without posting on the Substack platform to share behind the scenes before the new launch in autumn. If you want to stay in the loop, now is the only option to jump on the party train and get a sense of the Village we are building together.
Come join? 700 others are waiting for you!

This is the pivot: Modern Village Stories

The Modern Village Stories project is the home for female voices creating with intention. Stories of women who lead through vision and connection. Women who build new ways of living and working away from elbow culture and growth hacks. All of this with one clear distinction: a community focus.

Contrary to best practice, I did no “market research”, but from over a decade in this space, The Modern Village Stories is the only online space with the particular blend of systems thinking, everyday storytelling, and women-led community initiatives to my knowledge. There are important distinctions with my approach, which I will dive more into another time.

Why Modern Village Stories are needed?

Easy peasy.

Because living in modern-day bubbles of sameness, hustle, and a self-focused life divides, not unites us. It starves us of diverse thought. And frankly, I just think bubbles don’t sustain us. Soon more on what I mean here exactly for those who are subscribed.

Stories create systems and lead to change and transformation. And I did an awful lot of academic research into these topics years ago. You’ll see, the social scientist in me come out more again. Since I draw on over a decade of work, the words I chose here may sound a bit different from my usual voice.

For now just a little reminder that we all contribute to what we, as a collective, think is possible. For this reason, we should consciously tell more diverse stories about who leads, what matters, and how we can care for people and planet in alternative ways. And not just those of flashy success. All of them!

YOU ARE NEEDED for this project to thrive

While it has been a dream of mine for soon a decade to collect such stories, I’m not bringing the project into the world for myself. The interviews will not be paywalled of course and I gather them for the collective as I believe in their importance..

For now, please share far and wide, and remind people to subscribe. If you know anyone I should interview, please respond via email or comment and leave some love with a like ❤️. I hope you are as excited as I am for the pivot.

And honestly, I so appreciate the roughly 700 of you to be on this journey with me. However, this is a warm invitation to recalibrate and decide for yourself if you wish to stay for what’s to come or hop off the train now. If you have any questions, please reach out, I always love hearing from you!.

With love from the Bavarian Alps,

Carmen