The worrisome decline of Earth’s biosphere — The month of October began with dry weather here in Portugal, but from the 12th on, a relentless wave of tropical storms came. Aline, Bernard, Céline, and Domingos… October 2023 went on to become one of the rainiest in the last 90 years. The accumulated rainfall was 150% above normal. …

Everything about Medium’s new ‘Friend of Medium’ membership tier and how it empowers you to support our community — The “Friend of Medium” upgrade has been an emotional rollercoaster for the empath in me. I have to say this carried a lot more friction than I expected when I first read Alex Benzer’s story. The cat had only been out of the bag for a couple of hours, and…

Lessons learned while trying to subscribe to the new ‘Friend’ level of the Medium membership — There’s a ton of confusion surrounding the new ‘Friend of Medium’ rollout, and many friends have asked me to keep them posted on how I’m navigating the process. I’ve made an effort to keep everyone in the loop and spent the last couple of days responding to queries from fellow…

How becoming a ‘Friend of Medium’ empowers our writing community — One of the things I love the most about Medium is how the CEO and the Product Team are always on the lookout for community feedback and trying to implement the insights coming from the authors themselves. I always supported the idea that Medium should raise the bar on the…

The importance of finding purpose and embracing a proactive mindset in the face of life’s unexpected twists — When I moved to my flat about ten years ago, one of the things that came with it was a small fire extinguisher. I had probably been living here for a month when I first saw a strange cardboard box hidden under a cabinet. Inside the box was a bright…

How to enjoy the best time of the year — hygge-style — The first time I heard about hygge was when I was working in Brussels for an NGO funded by the European Commission. The small company served as a cultural melting pot. It ran under a skeleton crew hailing from all corners of the Old Continent. …

How the songs from ‘Nevermind’ became the lifeline pulling me out of the chaos — Kurt Cobain left us twenty-nine years ago, in 1994. Soon after, Nirvana’s frontman emerged as the anguished voice of a generation with the release of Nevermind. Many describe him as a pathfinder on the fringes of alternative music and a beacon of hope for a fading genre. For Nirvana’s fandom…

It is the perfect time to think about the law of karma — In my country, the significance of Thanksgiving and the universal principles of karma still elude us. While foreign traditions like Halloween have found a place in our culture, many are still unfamiliar with the deeper spiritual dimensions that characterize this special time of the year. Thanksgiving is the perfect time…

Exploring Portugal’s famous castles and the stories they tell — Ever since I was a child, castles have fascinated me, and to this day, they still hold a special place in my heart. Every time I touch the old granite walls, I can almost feel the roar of the great battles of old and how these stones hold the memory…