Over the past year, The A Team Foundation has journeyed across England to visit our grantees and the lands they steward, weaving connections across people and landscapes in collaboration with the rhythms of place and the creative expression of our artistic partners.
This Journey of Gratitude has been shaped by ceremony and celebration. Led by artist and facilitator Isik Sayarer, deep listening between lands and people revealed stories of renewal and reciprocity, captured in a short film by cinematographer Alberto Balazs.
Each visit was carefully curated by Isik and unique to the landscape and people. In Somerset we feasted in celebration of home and hearth, journeys to Wales culminated in a silent mountain walk, we followed a trail of gratitude to Liverpool, and seeds told us stories of heritage just outside the borders of Bristol.
The journey was an invitation. An opportunity for many who spend their days working on the land, with familiar people, seeds, crops and trees. It was an offer to open to a different, deeper, way of relating. The invitation was a welcomed opportunity to relax into the landscape and listen. For some the experience was entirely new, for others the time to listen was a luxury, often not afforded in the busyness of everyday life.
“Here at Planton Farm, I can feel the people, particularly the women that have passed here before me. Under the support and guidance of the Journey of Gratitude facilitation, I was able to make a deeper connection with the land here.”
In celebration of more than fifteen years of grant giving in support of food systems in service of life - and to share the culmination of the Journey of Gratitude – we gathered for a day of celebration on the Autumn Equinox, held at 42 Acres, a regenerative estate, nature reserve & wellbeing retreat centre in Somerset. The gathering offered our deep appreciation to the ecosystem of partners whose work and dedication have kept us continually inspired over the years.
The Journey of Gratitude Day unfolded as a gentle arc of shared presence, as we were guided by Isik and Bríd Walsh, through moments of reflection, connection, and celebration. As guests arrived, they wandered through the gardens, collecting a small handmade token before passing beneath the archway and gathering in the marquee for the opening ceremony.
There, beneath suspended fabric banners carrying images from the Journey’s travels, we settled into a circle. Each guest was given an acorn cup of hawthorn and rosehip cordial - “a taste of the hedgerows” - inviting each person to taste the hedgerows and connect with the land through their senses as Isik offered a grounding in poetic ceremony.
We passed a shared photo story from hand to hand, recalling the lands we had visited and the threads connecting them. Guests stepped forward to place offerings at the centre, honouring the land that holds us.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the Journey of Gratitude Day. I came with the sense of openness and an enthusiasm to connect to others and the land. After a busy year, it was such a joy and a relief to be able to take time, listen to the land and in doing so, connect to myself. I found the day offered provocations such as considering the land as “being“ which I have not engaged with for a while, despite working on the land.
My sense memories are of wonder and sharing in the taste of the Rosehip and Hawthorn elixir, as well as the sensation of being able to “stop time” as I lent against my tree.”
From that shared stillness, we stepped into silence and walked the land together. As we visited places embodying fire, water, earth and air, the landscape began to speak - through warmth on skin, wind in the trees, the scent of soil, the movement of water - drawing us into a more attentive presence with one another and the ground beneath our feet.
The path led us into the Walled Garden, where sunlight fell across banquet tables laden with an abundant meal prepared by 42 Acres. At each place, a message from the Journey of Gratitude invited reflection and sparked exchanges between fellow guests - conversations deepened and stories flowed as we received the abundance of the land with gratitude and delight.
“Through the film, I was inspired by the told but also the untold. The filming was subtle and allowed the audience to have their own experience. The visual impact of which took me on a journey and made me feel so much love and respect.”
In the afternoon, we gathered in the barn to watch a short film that told a story of our journey. The images and sounds drew us into quiet attention, inviting reflection on how these experiences and learnings might guide us to live in right relationship with all beings and to nurture food systems that honour life.
Following the screening, the group shared reflections, weaving personal insights back into the collective story that has been unfolding over the past year, about belonging, stewardship, and how the spirit of the Journey might continue beyond this gathering.
“As a farmer in transition myself to an agroecological future, and helping others to do the same, I have to make difficult decisions about the use of the land. I have struggled with this at times, but the Journey of Gratitude has helped me come to terms with this by asking for forgiveness from the land, and asking what it needs from me next.
The more I open myself up to feeling the stories of separation in a quest to heal myself, and our disconnection from nature, the more the land speaks to me.”
By holding intentional space, rooted in ceremony, storytelling, and shared experience, the gathering created a restorative environment, giving participants a rare chance to slow down, reflect, and strengthen connections across the food and farming sector. By honouring people, place, and shared purpose, the day offered participants an opportunity to reconnect with the land and one-another, leaving them inspired, re-energised, and renewed in their sense of purpose.
“Since the event, I have spent more time thinking about my relationship to the being of land, plants and elements. I have felt a strong sense of rootedness, linking me back through the ages and through our ancestors. I am grateful to watch my daughter grow on the land and have a sense of future possibilities.”
The Journey of Gratitude film offers a poetic encounter and nourishing space for A Team grantees and wider audiences to build relationships, deepen connection, and explore the questions that sit at the heart of our relationship with the natural world:
How can we come to love, listen to, and respect the land?
What language can help us describe this connection?
How might this language support us in reclaiming our indigeneity to the earth?
How can deeper connection guide us toward a healthier world?
If you are interested in holding a screening of the Journey of Gratitude film, or would like to learn more about this area of work, you can get in touch at alice@ateamfoundation.org.