Re-live your past to prepare for the future
Uluru
(let’s shine a light on 2025)
2025 was an exciting year, a full year, filled with people and moments that were truly inspiring to me. A big thanks to everybody who crossed my path in one way or the other. At the same time 2025 was also a difficult year, marked by many personal and global events that were deeply unsettling. This overview helps me cultivate gratitude, understand what to let go of, and clarify what to bring into the new year. After making this overview, I arrived at the following questions for 2026:
· What does it mean to be a good ancestor today?
· How can we connect more radically with nature and create space for it to reveal itself?
· How can we unearth the wisdom of unconscious knowledge and collective energy fields?
The start of 2025
The year 2025 started with a wonderful visit to Paris. The occasion was a birthday of a dear French friend who connects me to my European activities, which started around 1988 and lasted until 2010. During that time, we debated about how to develop a true European democracy, founded political parties and participated in the European election. With IDE (Initiative pour une Démocratie Européenne) in 1989 and Newropeans in 2009. (Read more on the founder and friends here: Franck Biancheri). Merci to you Marie-Hélène Caillol to keep this flame alive.
Earth Charter: turning conscience into action
An important project I was engaged in throughout 2025 was the co-organisation of Earth Charter +25 event and the revival of the Earth Charter community in The Netherlands. The Earth Charter +25 event took place 1-3 July in the Hague and at Landgoed Zonheuvel. This press release tells the story. Thank you Alide Roerink , Paul Lubbers and Mirian Vilela for being such great inspirations and a joy to work with.
The workshop I co-facilitated with Michael J. Bracken on business ethics was the highlight of the EC +25 event for me. It underscored that the Earth Charter contains all the ingredients to serve as a business charter and moral compass for organisations as well. I hope this was a spark to continue building an Earth Charter business community and to learn from the many best practices already out there.
During the year, we founded Earth Charter Deelgenootschap Nederland. www.earthcharterdeelgenootschap.nl This Dutch collective aims to connect companies and social organisations whose decision-making and actions are inspired by Earth Charter. Our goal is to strengthen their connection to the Earth Charter vision, to on another and to Earth Charter International.
Another Earth Charter related milestone was the publication of a collection of essays on Planetary Wellbeing by Earth Charter International. Alide Roerink and I co-authored an article in the book, as did Tineke Lambooy ke Lambooy. We will present the book at Nyenrode (NL) in Januari 2026. If you are interested, you can download the book or order a copy.
Unearthing systemic constellations and deep energy
My journey in facilitating systemic organisational constellation and using constellations as a tool to help people and organisations to see systemic patterns and blockages continued throughout the year. I am grateful to be on this learning path alongside my fellow students from Bert Hellinger Instituut Nederland, with whom we meet regularly. I also completed my Deep Democracy facilitation training with a three-day deep dive into Deep Democracy Level 4.
Together with Martje Fraaije , I organised a workshop on the systemic power of nature, using constellation methods to listen to nature and learn from Mother Earth. The strongest insight I took away was that nature is not an object for us to include or protect. Nature exists autonomously, greater and older than we are. This realization brought both calm and humility: our contribution is not about “including” nature in human plans, but about creating space for it to reveal itself. More to come in 2026.
Another workshop that I really enjoyed giving was for the Dutch Conference of Climate Psychologists. The topic was “a conversation with activism and polarities”, using principles from constellation work and Deep Democracy. I was surprised by how much information surfaced. By guiding people into role-fluidity, compassion emerged and the sharp edges of polarisation softened.
The voice of nature and future generations
Representing nature and future generations in the governance of companies and foundations remains one of my focusses. It is not only about including their interests but also about learning from their perspective and wisdom. I continued my involvement with the Dandelion Fellowship and wrote an article that combined insights from the Dandelion fellowship with my constellation studies. https://www.innerpact.org/inspiration/harnessing-imagination-and-expanding-awareness-by-connecting-to-naturenbsp
To further expand my experience and network, I joined the Bio-leadership Fellowship; a global movement of people and projects working towards better forms of human progress by working with nature. Within the Bio-leadership fellowship, my guiding question was how to make constellations mainstream in organisations, and whether the concept of time could help introduce more systemic thinking in business contexts. The resulting article and post grew out of a presentation I gave on becoming a “time disruptor”, connecting different concepts of time to the two-loop model. Many thanks to the The Bio-Leadership Project community for all the inspiration.
One project I began exploring and want to devote more time to next year is Rights for migratory birds. Millions of birds are killed each year while crossing the planet. They are hunted and collide with buildings, planes, and wind turbines. They have virtually no rights, and their protection is left to dedicated volunteers facing powerful interests with little scruple. In 2026 I would like to investigate furthers of we can step up and build a system that grants migratory rights to individual birds and flocks? Can we strengthen protection of the skies and the safe havens they need along their routes? Please reach out if you feel a connection with this challenge.
Organisations that make a difference for future generation
Future generations are not represented in most major decisions we make in the Netherlands. That is why I serve on the board of Lab for Future Generations. Our aim is to give future generations a legal voice and to develop practices what it means to be good ancestors. Managed by Jan van de Venis and Miranda Willems, and together with the other board members, we continued influencing Dutch politics and advocating for the inclusion of future generations in governance. A key event was the dialogue with politicians and local initiatives at Nieuwspoort ahead of the Dutch elections. In the same spirit, I was invited by Grandparents for the Climate to speak at their bi-weekly demonstration in The Hague.
I also accepted a board position at Off-trend, representing Mother Nature and future generations. Off-trend is a movement, guided by Nawfal Al Jeburi, of young people, makers, and teachers working together to build a fair, circular, and inclusive fashion industry from classrooms, workshops, and neighbourhoods. https://offtrend.nl
Observing and guiding changes in Politics and society
Another memorable event was the Rotterdam Change Days, where we engaged with At Work in the Ruins by Dougald Hine. Powerful work. During the three days in Rotterdam, we spent a lot of time in what I call “deep time.” We explored what we want to save from the ruins of the dominant system, what we must let go of, both with sorrow and with relief, and what we need to reclaim because we lost it along the way. These are questions I will carry into the new year as I continue exploring what it means to be a good ancestor.
I also continued my volunteer work with the European political party Volt, where I serve as a coach and faculty-members of Volt Europe Academy. This year, together with my co-lead Barend van Marwijk Kooy, we worked on the module on Safe, Brave and Regenerative cultures. We conducted research, exchanges insights with other grass roots organisations, developed ideas for tools, and facilitated workshops. Definitely to be continued in 2026.
The harsh reality of polarisation led me to engage with Global Social Witnessing through the Pocket Project. They describe social witnessing as the human capacity to mindfully attend to global events with an embodied awareness, creating an inner world space that mirrors and brings compassion to these events. We shift from being a mere bystander to an active witness, responding from our bodies, hearts, and minds. I recently started the third phase of their facilitation training, learning how to hold space for events around challenging topics. Thank you, @Lucia Nass, for walking this path with me. To be continued!
Next generation
The idea of creating our own family foundation also gained traction this year. Its aim is to cross boundaries for nature and support initiatives that place nature, culture and governance at their core. Innerpact has teamed up with Iona Stichting and will begin supporting projects through their structure. Engaging with my children in this process is deeply inspiring. Next year, we will have some projects to share. The next generation is also very present in a more literal sense: my grandson Mees was born this year.
Study and work of one of our children also brought us to Australia where we were very touched by Uluru. A very old landscape, a solitary rock surrounded by desert on Aboriginal land. In Australia one often encounters pledges acknowledging the original custodians of the land and responsibilities towards both ancestors and future generations. While we experienced extraordinary natural beauty, I was also left with many questions about how these acknowledgements ultimately translate into policy.
Life is unpredictable
At the end of December 2025, we travelled to Switzerland. The year ended with celebrating the passage form old to new in Crans Montana. None of us could have anticipated the news awaiting us the next morning. A fire in a bar with the name Constellation left 40 death and 121 severely injured. As I am finalizing this overview, we know that this village, and the mountains overlooking it, will never be the same. I wrote a poem to give words to my sadness and anger that such a tragedy is even possible.
The sun shines
its rays bring no warmth
the trees
the mountains
the birds
all remain silent
holding space
waiting for the pain to subside
they watch over the souls
and weave a web of love