Dear Friends,
 Autumn and early winter have to be my favourite times of year. As a South African we never had dramatic seasons although we had a lot of heat and sun.
There is something about autumn colours, crunching leaves underfoot, leaves dancing in the wind,  and the views that open up through thinning trees and bushes that is quite magical and brings a sense of being alive, pink cheeks and all.
 Imortanyky, the feeling of mother nature slowing and hunkering down as she waits out the cold and darker nights – lends itself to us also having time for reflection and thought as to how the past year has gone and what the new year needs to do to start fresh and stronger. With this in mind, we  sat down as a team to think about these areas of consideration prior to the Christmas break.
 Each member of the team spoke with real pride about the difference they have seen in the 7,500 plus vulnerable therapy clients whom we serve alongside the children and others we connect with for nature education and climate action. We celebrated the beauty of the site where we work as our 12,000 trees, planted ten years ago, are turning into a forest and the wildlife on the site are sighted more frequently.
 We all agreed that although our work pressure and stress levels can be high as demand grows, we are still in a blessed position to help the earth and people and have a true purpose to get up for in the morning. Having hopefulness and finding meaning are hugely important to live a more contented life. However our challenges globally, nationally and locally remain high, including the growing demand for our services outstripping funding in some key projects, the struggle for some to afford transport to and from our site, less space to work within as we accommodate a growing number of businesses and communities around us are just some examples.
 In addition, county wide there is a desperate shortage of volunteers impacting charities and beneficiaries who rely on this help. We struggle to understand it but Covid continues to change how we live and what we expect of ourselves and each other. And then the undercurrent and often real impact of climate change, war and loss of biodiversity runs under the surface but is unavoidable to ignore. This all keeps us focused and we continue to measure and evaluate as we seek to develop the academic understanding of how this, in tandem, impacts human wellbeing and vice versa. This work is exciting and positive.
Even with these demands, we are still working on our strategic plans to slowly and safely expand out to new territory and communities in north Essex, in the Colchester and Tendring areas, and looking at new locations in the south east of the county and into Kent.  These plans will include nature and people programmes and help us to make more of that difference that is so valuable.
This growth has to be carefully managed… and needs planning and thought- so I intend to use my downtime over this season to do just that…
We as always are grateful to you for your interest in us and our impact, and to those who are in a position to donate, and who volunteer their time in a myriad of ways or who stay in touch.
We hope you have a happy and loving Christmas – taking care to put more value in our loved ones and relationships than on presents and perfect meals… and take time to crunch through the fallen leaves, listen to the birds, and to feel small against the winter silhouettes of trees and branches above us.
Take the chance to recoup, and reevaluate life and our way of being in the world…. Celebrate all that the world has on offer and plan how to take care of it better in the new year.
It’s a new and fresh start once again. How lucky to have this opportunity.
The leaves will mulch and rot down and before we know spring will be upon us again.
Best from
Jo and the Wilderness Team