On a cloudy Saturday in October my partner and I met Rolf Winters and his family through the white screen at the Happinez event. The message of DOWN to EARTH had long been hidden somewhere in the depths of our minds, and the film seemed to lighten up this essential spot in our brains: humanity is in such big danger that our existence in balance with nature is threatened. We have work to do!

After the screening we, and the rest of the audience, had a conversation with Rolf. After a walk through the woods we came together around a fire where shaman Steve led a ceremony to connect with mother Earth, the winds, the sun, our ancestors and each other. The warmth of the fire and the event stayed with us for a couple of days. It seemed that a kind of metaphysical connection had come into existence between the visitors of the event, Steve, Rolf, the singers near the fire and the Earth Keepers from the film – a lovely bubble to float in.

After the heat of the fire of those first days had cooled down, the bubble suddenly burst and we were both attacked by uncertainty and sadness. What was happening here?

The inspiration flowed away, and we started scrutinizing every act in our daily lives. We couldn’t stop seeing ourselves as wasteful consumers. It was good to share our worries and we decided: let’s not drive ourselves crazy, but let’s feel the responsibility and deal with it at our best. Let’s see what we can do. It's great if we succeed in doing something different for the good, if not, then at least we tried and maybe we’ll take that step in the future.

And then we ordered new mattresses. We had chosen for mattresses made of almost purely organic materials that becoming mostly biodegradable after ten years. But when the mattresses were delivered we were shocked: Both mattresses were packed in big, thick plastic bags and around the bag was a big cardboard box. After unpacking we watched the garbage dump we had just produced. Slowly the inspiration we felt from DOWN to EARTH came back to us. I suddenly saw a how these giant cardboard boxes could turn into canvasses to paint on. I remembered how a friend, who is a teacher at an art school, had told me about the new studio at her school. I texted her pictures of the ‘garbage’ and asked her if it was useful to her and her students. “Wow, those are great materials to use in our new studio!”

Two days later we were at a parking lot, carrying the cardboard ‘canvasses’ from my car to hers. “Do you like Dionne so much you’re giving her your garbage as a present?” our mates joked. Full of self-confidence about this tiny but effective contribution to the ‘Earth Keeping project’, I answered happily: "Just watch DOWN to EARTH, you’ll understand…"

Natasja Essers