Petra Matos

I am a researcher of inner and outer worlds. Lately I am a mother most of my time. Apart from this I am also a geographer, ecologist, traveler, marriage and family therapist, wife, daughter, sister, friend … and sometimes I can be simply all ears. I am looking forward to what I am still to become.

These dreams are my path … the gift of this dream is the excited flow of blood in my body; I feel, that is it. I am living my dream.

Working as a volunteer at a sustainable project in India changed me deeply. For the first time in my life I experienced sustainability in practice, something that I encountered during my studies, but never got a chance to actually experience. Before that sustainable lifestyle seemed very distant — far in the past when people lived in caves or far in the future when technology would solve all our problems. Finally I saw it is possible to live that way already today.

I thought of making a long-term commitment to the project in India, but then the campaign Let’s Clean Slovenia in One Day happened, as well as some other projects, so my conviction that I need to stay in Slovenia grew stronger and stronger. I realized I should add a small stone to the mosaic of something beautiful that was emerging. I also learned sustainability centers can be found in most countries, Slovenia being one of the rare countries not having it. So now something I’ve been dreaming of is emerging: Sustainability Park Istra.

There is hope in me that this kind of experience will awaken in other people what it had awakened in me — a desire to do something in their own environment to contribute to a better world.

Janez Matos

I dream of changing the world for the better. I feel that this is my calling and mission.

I left the course I had set before, of material welfare and safe career in the city. I believe that it is necessary, in finding your meaning, to constantly venture away from the set course, and I don’t regret it even a bit.

To me Sustainability Park Istra is an opportunity to realize my inner calling. I can do that alone. If more of us unite, we can do really a lot.

Nara Petrovič

I am a personification of luxurious simplicity, a barefooted freelancer, self-proclaimed ‘fecologist’, poking boldly into everything our society takes for granted. I passionately research human nature, delving into nonsensical social habits and dissecting them, as far as that is possible. My books and articles point out natural alternatives. In 2009 I was reborn when I bumped into eco-communities — I realized  how incomplete I was, if wasn’t a part of a holistic and healthy community. Ever since I am striving to support the creation of the first such community in Slovenia.

I dream of sincere love, dignified humility, genuine joy. I dream of trust among people and admitting mistakes with a smile. I dream of a society where everyone enjoys what is, instead of being miserable over what isn’t. I dream of schools teaching children love, humility, joy. I dream of united work that enriches people and nature. I dream of happiness without intoxication. I dream of people with clear minds, bright convictions, warm embraces. I dream of me integrated into us.

In order to live my dream I am letting go of insistence on my personal ‘freedom’ and complete ‘privacy’, having realized how illusory they are and what a deep loneliness they end up in. I am letting go of holding onto being right. No amount of proving that I am right over others, even if I am objectively right, can bring me as much joy as the sight of smiling faces of friends who feel supported by me in their ‘right’. I am letting go of my personal sparrow (Naravice), I am so strongly attached to, for the sake of our common dove (Korone). I am not sure is community exactly the thing I am dreaming of, but what I do know is that I am going to find the answer sooner if I take up following some kind of our common idea than if I wait for others to join mine.

Korone are the space where we can become the most that we can be. That’s where dreams quickly transform to reality — not because Korone are the philosopher’s stone, which turns iron into gold, but because Korone will strip us of our personal lies, strengthen our dreams and only then make them real. The dream of Korone is not ungrounded daydreaming, it is more real than the reality we’re living in.

Manja Vrenko

I dream of a world free of fear and anxiety, competition and greed. I dream of society where core values are honesty, compassion, solidarity and kindness to other people. I wish loving all living beings was so obvious that people would find strange everything that is not love.

I wish every child, youngster and adult had time and space to recognize and develop talents and offer them to the world. I see society permeated with joy, while trust and respect dominate among people. I see green cities and clean rivers. I dream of the planet that supports life.

In order to live this dream I let go of my image of myself as an independent individial, who needs noone. I dropped the feeling of individual freedom and the habit of deciding about my steps on my own. I exchanged the comfort of living in a single household with the experience of co-habituation, which demands a lot of adaptation and stretcing of boundaries. I feel this is supporting my personal growth and giving me more than I gave up.

To me Korone is a dream come true. It strengthens in me trust in different world and better society. I am grateful to be a part of this story.

Maks Pipan

Personally, I have always been drawn to nature. Forests, rivers, meadows and mountains were and still are those parts of our beautiful country, where I often think about inter-connectedness of all life.

I believe in a world, different to that offered to us by contemporary capitalism — with consumerism and highlighting beautiful surface without substance. I believe in a world with place for moral values, mutual trust, cooperation and respect for both human beings as well as nature and its creatures. I believe in a world where promise, handshake and honest eye contact still something.

I know that together with like-minded people we can create an environment where everyone is able to earn enough for decent living, where everyone has time to bring up their children, to socialize with friends, and to build environment where they will feel comfortable and where we do not feel like a subjugated slave of the capital.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be involved in such a project, and I believe that we will succeed.

Nataša Šuštaršič

In the world of categories and titles I am a civil servant, employed in a research institute, a sociologist by education, and in my spare time I am a volunteer and activist. In the last years I have been studying society, economy and ecology, and exploring the role of science, technology and innovation in socioeconomic dynamics, particularly in terms of the transition to a new, green development paradigm.

Without labels, I am just like everybody: a traveler on her own way. I travel the world with an open heart, inquisitive eyes and hungry for new knowledge, experience and adventures. I am surrendering to a combination of different forms of learning, deepening understanding of myself and the world around me. I am simultaneously concerned and optimistic about the future of our generation.

In the last years, growing awareness about challenges in our society brought me to a landmark decision. After five years of balancing job and volunteering I decided to follow the path that represents itself as authentic and reflects my deepest values ​​and beliefs. I am slowly moving away from the conventional job and heading to Primorska to join like-minded people in creation of a model of sustainable future society.

I believe we can — together! — overcome past blunders and create a better future for all. I wish all people would become aware of the power of their own determination and choice, and would take an active role in navigating the process of change. I do not dream anymore about a better tomorrow, instead I dream of increasing numbers of us, people, living in a different present! I dream of a more mature and fair society that seeks to realize its potentials on all levels.

In order to live this dream, I am letting go of many assumptions about my future. I am willing to step into the unknown — letting go the security of stable job, a sense of safety, as well as diversity of supply and leisure in the city. I want to address many challenges our society is facing and overcome personal challenges along the way.

To me, Sustainability Park Istra is a special milestone for me. It is the catalyst of determination, boldness and sincere intentions; above all it creates a space where we can be a part of the solution. I am grateful to the team of limitless dreamers who created the vision of the project, to myself for the courage to become a part of it, and to all those people who are still about to join us.