What a year it has been. As I contemplate my year's harvest at the Autumn Equinox, I give thanks for what Alex and I have achieved. For the fact that the weather has mostly been very kind. For the continued health of our bodies and our relationship.

But the thing that strikes me most is how much I have learned about myself. When I look at myself now, I see a woman who is so much more capable and courageous than I ever gave myself credit for.

I am so much stronger. Some of that is muscle that I have grown over a year of working hard. And by that I mean emotional and spiritual muscle as well as arms that hold me onto ladders more securely. But some of it is strength that I always had but never recognised.

Through the year, I have also learned much about what we need to survive the coming storm of our civilisation in crisis. Al lot of what I have done outside Westacre has been achieved with my Warrior's Call family of like-minded souls. The campaign against fracking teaches me constantly that we need to re-discover our human communities.

The monster that is the civilisation we have created has separated us from each other. People have become little cogs in a great machine that is rapidly consuming our planet. Each day, we work hard to earn the money that we need to keep a roof over our heads. When we come home, each to our individual houses, we only have energy left to collapse in front of a screen to be fed the values of the same society that enslaves us.

Generally, we don't have any time left to nurture the connections and the communities that sustain us and deepen our humanity. We weren't made to be alone – or isolated in tiny family units. We were meant to live together in deeply interwoven communities the size of a village. Alone, we feel powerless against the great monster. Together, we know who we truly are: trees in a forest, bees in a hive, individuals in community.

I am harvesting a new human being – new to us who have grown up in this crazy civilisation. I am harvesting a connected, communal being. It's been growing for some time. It is the new me I see working away at a sustainable life and a sustainable future. And it is my vision for all of us.

It'll take some cultivating. It's not what comes naturally to me. I am a bit of an introvert by nature. Stepping out of myself and making connections with neighbours and people I hardly know is not easy.

It's not what comes naturally to many of us in the West. We still, fundamentally, think that we are alone. So many people think that they, as individuals, need to do things to change our world. 'What can I do about it?' is a question I still hear too often.

We don't have to do it alone. We are a community. We stand together against the monster. The monster wishes to keep us small and isolated, but we can't afford to let it any longer. We are together. We are many. We are strong. Our power as individuals comes from the connections that feed us.

It's time for us to learn how to live in community again. It's time to work out how it's done and put our power into practice. It is time to share that vision with the world.

This is my year's harvest. This was my ritual gateway into the dark half of the year. I committed to moving from human isolation (we've had more than enough) to human communality (we have forgotten it so much it barely exists). In my sacred circle, I committed to nurturing every little bit of community that comes my way. Because our lives literally depend on it. Our survival in the next decades depends on it.

I commit to taking the steps that will grow my communities. I commit to making the rituals that will support me in doing so. I commit to sharing this journey with you.