The Mycelium

1 month ago | tijntjoelker.substack.com | Tijn Tjoelker

Over the last few years, I’ve read and synthesised over 285+ books. While I’m now reading at a much slower pace, there’s a select tapestry of books that, through their combining, deeply shaped my life. These books didn't just inform me — they transformed me. They created new neural pathways, morphed worldviews, shifted inner ecologies, and opened doorways to realities I didn’t know were possible. I felt like sharing the ones that have meant most to me.

1 month ago | tijntjoelker.substack.com | Tijn Tjoelker

“The Best DwellingDepends on Terrain”—Tao Te ChingLife is beautiful. I sometimes cannot stop smiling at the beauty filling my days. For the past seven months, I’ve been slowly exploring different bioregions in Norway through WWOOF and Workaway, two platforms where you can find meaningful places to volunteer in exchange for food and accommodation.

1 month ago | tijntjoelker.substack.com | Tijn Tjoelker

“Poetry asks us to look beyond words. Asks us to seek the kind of blur where clarityis held in combining ideas.”— Nora Bateson, CombiningWhile wandering through the realms of bioregional thought and practice, this poem bubbled up, like a spring. May these words flow through you, as a river of life. May this poem remind us that boundaries are not walls but watersheds — permeable, alive, and bound by care and compassion. Where does your care beginAnd where does it end?

Feb 10, 2025 | tijntjoelker.substack.com | Tijn Tjoelker

“The surest way to heal an eco-system is to connect it to more of itself.”— William McDonoughWhy.This experimental newsletter is an attempt to weave together the fragmented regenerative movement into a symbiotic and synergistic network. How.Every month I’ll share a regenerative project, practice or paradigm together with a call to action — and connection. Who.Written by Tijn Tjoelker (26). Trained as an earth scientist, interdisciplinary systems thinker and sustainability leader.

Feb 10, 2025 | tijntjoelker.substack.com | Tijn Tjoelker

I just came out of a 10-day silent Vipassana meditation at Dhamma Sobhana in Sweden. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Most of the time it felt like I was drowning. Drowning in my own misery. Being confronted with physical pain. Negative thoughts. And intense cravings to be free from suffering. And at times surfacing out of the sea of misery. My body and ego dissolving into a blissful cloud of love. Experiencing glimpses of pure peace, happiness and equanimity.