The wait is almost over.  The release of our third and final film – A Shared Humanity: The Story of an African Village is two weeks away. It is dedicated to our Londolozi Village for the 100 year journey that we have been on. Through it all, as a collective, we have weathered both storms and sunrises, shared dancing, drumming, joy and sorrow… this final film is for all of us. And, while it’s tough to have a favourite, some might say we kept the best for last…

In the quiet moments of my day, of late, I keep returning to the same thought: that a life is really just a long string of ordinary choices, and somehow that’s the whole of it. Small decisions, over time, amount to something fundamental, and it’s in the everyday choosing that the fabric weaves together into the length that makes up our life. 

A friend shared the poem Instructions before visiting earth by James McCrae with me recently, and it has made me reflect deeply. Thinking about how transient this life really is. How it is both fragile and robust all at once. It made me think about our purpose, direction, and the finite nature of it all, and what happens after our time here comes to an end. Each life is so vastly different. And yet the thing that makes us absolutely the same, binding us together, is that not one of us is immortal, and that we each have a choice as to how we spend our lives. 

In fact, this is one of my favourite anchoring philosophies: life is about choices. Sometimes we make good ones that lead to beautiful things. Sometimes we make poor ones, and we learn from those decisions, redirecting our course. No matter what, this philosophy gives us the gift of choice – adopting a perspective that life either happens to you or for you, and that the trajectory of our impact is shaped by inward reflection, collective thought, and bold choices – amounting to a legacy left behind for the generations to come.

I’ll never forget the hour I spent with Dave Varty in my first week working at Londolozi almost 12 years ago where he sat me down and gave me his now-famous Yellow Ribbon speech. I had come from a corporate industry that was cutthroat. I had spent years existing in a world where people cared only about how my actions could serve them, their goals, and their profit margins. There was very little care in all that. Dave’s speech couldn’t have been more opposite. It was such a foreign concept to me, to be given permission by the owner and CEO to be the one in charge of how I spent my time here, and what brick in the wall I left behind at the end. 

I sat across from him in a small room and he fished an old yellow ribbon out of his pocket. For the life of me, I couldn’t have guessed what was to come next. And what that yellow ribbon would come to represent for me, and for every member of the Londolozi community, after that time with Dave. I still remember his words so clearly…

It felt a lot like freedom.

In the making of this film, I had the privilege of sitting across from Dave once more and hearing his yellow ribbon speech again. 12 years on, with lessons too abundant to count, his repeated sentiments took on even greater meaning for me and became the basis of this third and final documentary in celebration of our 100th year. Not the concluding punctuation mark one might expect of the series finale, but a fitting ellipsis of meaning to connect us to the next 100 years, and a genuine invitation to every one of us to take stock of our own yellow ribbon and truly think about how we make the choice to spend our days. 

You see, the ribbon teaches us not about scarcity but about attention. It isn’t disappearing; it’s just being spent whether you notice or not. Every day is already being cut from it and handed to something…a task, a person, time spent scrolling, a sunset. The question is less about how much is left but rather what you’ve been unconsciously giving it to. And what you want to wake up to and pay attention to instead.

And for us at Londolozi, this is a daily process – not conceptual but lived. A web of interconnected intelligences…land, animal, human, the wisdom of nature: none of them separate from the others. It’s a daily practice of village consciousness: the slow realisation that a place can shift a person’s inner wealth simply by letting them sit inside it for a few days. It’s about honouring the elders and the teachers who have crossed our path, who have taught us about being in right relation with each other, and with the natural world and trusting that everything moves in accordance with the laws of nature and her cycles. It’s about understanding that our village has a pulse of its own, and its heartbeat – if listened to – can inform a culture, a country… and maybe even connect continents through a shared vision. It’s the commitment to a foundation of hardware and heartware as a conscious choice. To choose community rather than isolation. To remember that our existence is circular and inclusive, not a rocket ship blasting off on its own to some unknown and impossible end point in the sky.

Our ripple effect sits at the heart of it all – It is why the Good Work Foundation exists, and the Tracker Academy, and the Ripple Fund: not side projects, but the village extending its own pulse outward, into classrooms and careers and small acts of courage in places both near to and far from the Sabi Sand… tiny pockets of light rippling out into the world. 

In the first film, we began with the story of land that was given the chance to heal. In the second one, we shared what it took for a group of people to stay and build something on it, and what that choice cost them.  This last film is about the shared humanity that has been the foundation of it all… something that has been so intricately woven into the last 100 years, and the village of people it takes to forge the path for the next 100. Spoiler alert: you’re one of them, just by being here at our digital fire.

In my introspection, I’m back with Dave as he leaves me with the powerful, thought-provoking ending to his yellow ribbon speech.

People say that life is short. And that life is long. And it is both of those things. I hope that this final installment gives you a lens with which to see the time you have spent, and how you choose to spend the time that you have left. I hope that the people of Londolozi – the secret sauce to all that we are –  inspire you and hold up a mirror to your own true nature. I hope that maybe you’ll look down at your own yellow ribbon and feel compelled not to waste one inch of what you hold in your hands, letting this wilderness be a teacher for the ripple effect your life could have.

I look forward to joining you in our digital village for the release of our final film on the 14th of October.