From Waren we, Richard and I, cycle all day through the Nationalpark Müritz. Sanne and Daan follow at a distance with both cars. Even though Daan is not quite fit yet. He can fortunately drive. Except for the cyclists, who all react very positively to the cycling tree, we don’t encounter many people today. It is sparsely populated here. You feel that we are at the edge of the country, at the edge of Germany, and yet it is only a hundred kilometers from Berlin. Pretty strange. The gently rolling landscape we cycled through today alternates between small and large scale, with arable farming, forests and nature and with only the occasional small village. The peace and quiet is very pleasant, but it also feels a bit desolate. Do they need trees here, I wonder. Not really in my opinion, there are trees aplenty. Even birthday trees will not be easy to sell here. So what is Circle4Change’s message for this area? An important question, which we will also encounter in the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia, where there are many trees. What is my answer to that? Yes it is about the bigger story – not only about trees and the ritual of birthday trees – but also about the most beautiful route, education programs, nature and biodiversity, art projects, etc. But how do you explain that well? And how do we involve the people who live here? How do we make it their story? Pretty complicated. This too is part of the exploration of our Tour2025, and possibly these questions could be central to the Circle4Change Seminar to be organized in Waren and perhaps in other places next year? And we have already found in the first quick exploration in 2023 that different regions on the circle line will also have different priorities, In Austria there are different opportunities than in France. We should also look for those regional opportunities during this tour.

We spend the night in Neustrelitz, a small rather pretty town with old stately buildings, just south of the circle line. We walk into the town on Friday evening, but there is not much to do. We have a drink by the harbor and eat at the local Italian on the main square. Totally fine. These continue to be strenuous days. New chances tomorrow. Oh yes, it occurred to me that “Coincidence-Harvesting” is actually a verb. While coincidence comes naturally to you, it happens to you, you have to do your best for ‘coincidence-harvesting’, to force it. So that requires an active attitude to attract the coincidence to you! We need to practice this more as well. Sleep well.