The Resilient Life Workshops

“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”― Robert Jordan

Being resilient is not just about being creative in the kitchen or having your own garden or homestead, it’s about how to apply a more resourceful attitude to living. Firstly, it’s about practising those mundane, every-day routines through a sense of ritual and meditation, i.e., mindfully preparing food, doing the washing up, cleaning, dressing, walking, driving etc. We see it as evolving from fast-track living, rushing mindlessly through life without acknowledging the here and now, staying in the moment and being present. This fundamental grounding is where the roots of personal resilience grow, allowing you to ultimately bend and flow with the winds and tides, just like the wise willow tree does.  

The Resilient Life is an ongoing project devised by Vicky Radtke and Tanja Gangar, two friends with a long, intermittent history and very diverse life-experiences. That is to say, until a few years ago when their lives collided over a cup of tea and cake in the local village shop, where both women realised that they shared a deeper philosophy on living.  

During these uncertain times (the “new-normal”), skills that were nurtured now seemed essential and promoted a sense of wellbeing and security. For instance, the importance of no wastage and the cycles from seed to soil; growing to composting and finally field to fork. Both women encouraged each other to forage and fetch, creating ferments and brews kombochas, vinegars and country wines with gifts from the hedgerows and their own cottage gardens. 

– Our philosophy –

We believe that living a resilient life is not just about baking bread or growing veg, it’s a more rounded approach to a way of living. It’s about connectivity between thinking, feeling, and doing. 

Within the context of the Resilient Life our take on sometimes overly used words such as holistic or mindful, will translate accordingly, for instance an holistic approach to life is one that incorporates the, practical, physical and spiritual within the context of daily living. 

We believe that the Resilient Life is one that is not at all prescriptive or self-conscious but an understanding that this way of being is ultimately informal and something that will take us down paths that are totally unplanned. It’s about adaptability.