MEND Season 3 - Episode 57

Finding your WHY with Amy Day

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Thank you for your forbearance during this last, little unscheduled absence. As you’ll hear inside the episode, I’ve been needing some time to rest. To renew. To step away and remember the bigger picture behind all this busy-ness of Life. The WHY of this project and of all I’ve chosen to step into.

So, now. Back. Behind the mic and the laptop.

Ready to step into the next iteration of this project and to share with you…

*some of the talk I gave awhile back ago at the local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship - on TRUST. On trusting the role you have to play in the larger web of this Life. No matter how small. On honoring and steadfastly weaving the unique thread that you carry. On stepping in - All In - armed with intention, skill & vision - to the work, projects, relationships & even play - to which you are called. And Why it matters.

Just me - talking briefly about the work of engaged spirituality. And the reminder that we never truly know at the outset what the end result of our actions will be. The seeds we plant may be humble. Simply providing a lush path for others to step onto. Some of them may bloom in a mighty and prolific way. But we need to keep planting. Keep tilling. Keep scattering seeds. And it is not to us to determine how they will grow.

And if you find yourself in a quagmire, as I was not too long ago - lacking energy, lacking momentum, vision, JOY. Come back to your own great WHY. The vision that fuels all the tiny what’s and how’s and when’s inside your everyday. How do they line up? And are the actions of your daily life - really & truly - feeding into the bigger picture you seek?

……….

To find out more about the things/links/communities/resources mentioned on today’s show, visit:

• TheWorkofTheseHands.com - for coaching, yoga, and a little virtual hug from yours’ truly.

• HUUF - the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, where I gave the talk and where the work of Engaged Spirituality really shows up.

MEND Season 3 - Episode 56

Any One of Us with Caterina Kein & Vanessa Vrtiak

Awhile back ago, you may remember, I got to speak to my good friend - poet & mother - Therese Fitzmaurice - who is one half of the spoken word collective “A Reason to Listen”, a grass-roots, Humboldt grown poetry collective.  

This month, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with the other half of this force for good in the Universe - ms. Vanessa Vrtiak.  Vanessa is a poet, social worker, and activist. She has self published 5 books of poetry, and is co-founder of A Reason to Listen. She has a MA in Public Sociology, and her thesis is titled: Reintegration in a Rural Community: Strengths, Barriers, and Recommendations for Reentry in Humboldt County.

In the weeks to come, Vanessa will be directing a play here locally on the North Coast.  Her 6th one in total, penned by the prodigious Eve Ensler - this one entitled - Any One Of Us - Words from Women in Prison.  

This play is a a collection of stories from formerly and currently incarcerated women from across the nation whose aim is toward healing, understanding, and change with the goal of using their writing and voices to impact policy, laws and treatment of incarcerated women. Together these writings reveal the deep connection between women in prison and the violence that often brings them there.

I sat down to speak with both Vanessa - and the lovely and articulate Caterina Kein - who has a background in criminal justice and works as part of the philanthropy program at St. Joseph’s hospital in Eureka, CA - and is also one of the actors for this production.  

Together, we spent about an hour talking about the sytemic issues women face both in and outside the system.  The culturall biases and hurdles they face when they go to re-enter society.

And - perhaps - most importantly - what we can do - inside our small, daily actions - to shine a light - and shift the landscape inside this portion of the world.  

We talked about the bridge between Art & Action.

And overcoming & dismantling the narratives we’ve inherited & creating new ones not only for ourselves - but for those who have been caught inside, penalized and degraded by a system - whose aim on paper is said to be that of Rehabilitation.  

But in actuality, can often be anything but.

I urge you to sit with these wise women.

To take a moment to invite their stories to land isnide your heart.

I invite you to carve out an evening to go see this play and to sit inside the brave space that they’ve created for us all to collectively share for the night.

It is inside these spaces we glimpse what is possible.

It is inside these moments, we catch a spark of what can be.  

We open ourselves to new possibilities.

We allow ourselves to be broken open so that something new can be born.

I want to thank these two powerful women for sitting and talking with me for an hour - and for the wonderful work they are doing in our local world.

May these words inspire and hearten you.  

May they do what Art does best - namely - create a catalyst for change first inside your own heart - that fans from there - out into the waking world.  

MEND Season 3 - Episode 52

Seeding the Light to Come with adrienne maree brown

If you’ve listened long enough, you’ve heard this show go through various incarnations and iterations.

Moving into some interesting rabbit trails and seeking to find it’s footing in the larger world.

And as this new year begins - and I anchor more deeply into what I want my own work and legacy and path and service to be and become - I get a clearer sense of what this tiny platform is and can be.

A tiny light.

A way to cast hope, clarity, direction, inspiration, information & guidance into an often dark & deeply distracted age.

A way to call us back to ourselves - as wise, compassionate and brilliant beings.

Resilient and connected beyond measure.

THIS is the gift of this work and this platform and the conversations herein.

So, it is with this heart in mind - that I am beyond pleased to bring you the first conversation of 2019  - an interview with adrienne maree brown.

adrienne is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is a writer, social justice facilitator, pleasure activist, healer and doula living in Detroit.

She also, along with her sister Autumn Brown, creates a podcast of her own, How to Survive the End of the World - which I highly reccomend.

At the end of last year, adrienne and i sat down to talk about her work inside Emergent Strategy - and dipped a bit into the work ofher upcoming book - Pleasure Activism.

We discussed the many roles and duties she carries out in service of this larger work and the non-linear way her career and callings have iterated over the years to bring to where she is today.

We dropped into conversation about mushrooms and birch trees - and gaining insight & direction from the natural world - on things like reclaiming our earthworm nature, our fungal nature & underground nature, as well.

We talked about call-out culture and whether or not it’s really getting us to where we ultimately want to be.

A bit about what it means to be a WOE - in adrienne’s vernacular - and the mechanics of real, transformative relationship in real tim

We talked about  what it actually takes to create long-term, systematic change - just a hint -  it’s not what you think.

A spiritual practice to engage on - of all places - social media.

And lastly, this white woman got schooled on the sacred being-ness of Beyonce.  

As with all things she does, this conversation with adrienne was deep, wide-ranging, hugely pleasurable and insightful on a grand scale.

To find out more about adrienne and her work, please make sure to check the show notes.

To connect with me - your host - Amy Day - a bit more - ask questions, spark up a conversation, and let me know how this lands in your world - feel free to drop me a line - either via a review in itunes, or over at mendpodcast@gmail.com

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for doing your own great work in this world, holding fast your own great THREAD.

We need you so.

MEND Season 3 - Episode 47

Taking Poetic Action with Leslie Castellano

“Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. ”

― William S. Burroughs

When it comes to leading lives of passion & creativity, we tend to believe in a set binary.

There are those of us - so we say - that are meant to write, paint, dance, create - make the world a bit more vivid and beautiful by our voice, our touch, our presence.

It is the work to which we are called to in this life.

Then, the same story goes - there are those who are meant to engage in matters of policy.  Civic discourse and dialogue. Who can best affect change at the structural, boardroom, nuts-and-bolts, dare I say, utterly artless side of cultural exchange.  

There are the artists.  

And then there are the policy makers.  

And ne’er shall the two entwine.  

They are made for such entirely different things in this life.
My guest today is someone who tosses this limited theory out on it’s head.

Leslie Castellano is a local performance artist, teacher, dancer & businesswoman - who also happens to be running for City Council - Ward 1, in Eureka, to be precise - this year.  

In this talk, we discuss her decision to venture out of her long-tenure as contributing artist to her local community to a person who is striving to affect policy, as well.

We talk about the intersection of Art & Politics.  

About shifting out of our individual and collective comfort zones to lobby on behalf of the type of world we want to live in - which sometimes means canvassing, making phone calls, and going door-to-door, rather than simply writing a song or creating a dance piece.  

At the heart of each of these impulses, Leslie states,  is a driving desire to care for people and build community.

Through her efforts as an activist, artist & community organizer, she longs to build a society where all people are valued.

We talk about where this impulse has taken her thus far and the places she’s venturing into just now.

I hope you’ll be inspired, as I am, by the work and presence of this wonderful woman.

She’s a reminder to me that even though we all have our designated comfort zones - we can step out of them.  

We can take on new roles, new languages & new possibilities to begin to mend the culture where we live.  

There is a place for ART.  For beauty & symbolism & delight.

And there is a place for re-writing laws and by-laws.  For upending the current structure and mapping out an entirely different system than the one we’ve known.

And there is a way to synthesize the two - so that together they - we - all of us - can THRIVE.

MEND Season 3 - Episode 46

Re-Making the Culture with Kelly Diels

Several years ago, you may have heard me mention here or there - I made the decision to step more fully into the online space.  

I came to the realization that if I was going to eke out a living for myself as an herbalist & yoga teacher, I was going to have to connect with a larger community than the one I had access to inside my small, college town.

So I started the work of learning the basics of online presence.  Marketing.  Messaging. 

Learning how to build an audience and a following so that you have some folks to share your work and services with.  

 But I ran into some issues.  

From what I could see - and still see by and large - is there’s a working model out there.  

For yogis, in particular, this model appears to be - thin, able-bodied, white-presenting, cis-gendered folks, scantily-clad in gorgeous sunlit studios, or dreamy Costa Rican beaches - doing super-duper advanced bendy things, tossing a few hashtag-blessed, hashtag-YogaEveryDamnDay type things into the mix - and then making mention of their upcoming workshop or teacher training.  

 The message embedded into the medium was - and continues to be…

“Don’t you wanna be like me?…  I’m perpetually smiling and conventionally beautiful and I live a life of opulence and ease…. Oh yeah - and I’m deeply spiritual too - you can tell this by the amazing arm-balances I do and the sanskrit terms I use.  

Sign up for my thing and find out how you can be glowy and enlightened too!!!  

Link in bio.  “

I tried to emulate this approach a for awhile.  

Take some well--constructed photographs of me in a handstand.  Me doing something nifty and bendy 

Me looking happy and smiley while hoisting my leg up past my shoulders.  

This is how you share your yoga stuff right?

But the trouble was - this stuff is just So Not Me.  

I’m not thin.  

I can’t do a vast array of incredible acrobatics with my body.

Furthermore, my own experience of yoga and long-term practice has taught me - that the true work of transformation - be it personal or collective - looks very different than a simple outward pose.  

 I wanted to tlak about the work of healing that I had experienced and that I wanted others to experience as well.

I wanted to engage a conversastion about spirituality and practice that has absolutely nothing to do with shiny, happy, people on Central American beaches.  

I wanted to extend the invitation of this practice I so loved out beyond the confines of the rich & white & bendy. 

I wanted to find a way to make the messaging about Spirituality as a way to more deeply engage with the world and it’s problems and it’s inhabitants. 

Not simply retreat from it. 

 But where was there a model I could follow there?

 Enter Kelly Diels.

Kelly is a writer & feminist marketing consultant.

Over the course of a years-long, in-depth analysis of what she saw happening in social media, she came to coin the term “Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand” & it was through this work that I first came across her.

Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand.

Sounds like a good thing right?

Turns out, as Kelly puts it, it is rather... ,

“An archetype women must comply with and embody in order to be deserving of rights and resources

AND

A marketing strategy that leverages social status and white privilege to create authority over other women.”

In other words, the current model operating out there - not just in the yoga and wellness game - but across multiple levels of entrepreneurship - is a predatory model.  That replicates and sustains the very systems and practices that we as healers, creatives and feminists - want to take down. 

 So what’s the solution?

 Over the last year, I’ve had the great privilege of learning from Kelly and some of the other wonderful people who are a part of her community and work.  

We sat down to talk about what it looks like to move into and inhabit the online space with the same integrity and grit we bring to other areas or our work and life.  

On taking the long view - and on the power of being a continual Disruptor - saying and doing the uncomfortable things - even when it feels like you aren’t getting anywhere.  

We talked about money and vulnerability and how we create access to our work - that of healing and culture-making and transformation - to those who need it most - while still staying solvent and buoyant ourselves.

 Through my own tutelage with Kelly, I have learned that there is indeed something very wrong with the existing model.  I now have language around how to unpack it.  And furthermore - my own vision and language of a better way forward. 

It’s possible to do good, healing, transformative work in the world.

It’s possible to make a living too - and avoid the gross, predatory marketing models that we’ve absorbed.  

 The culture may be deeply broken - but we can continue to step in - and in so doing, gradually create a counter-culture of our own.  

Together  - as Ms. Diels tells us – we can thrive. 

A note: At the end of our conversation, Kelly mentions some upcoming offerings she has lined up - one of them being her fabulous “Little Birds & Layer Cakes” social media workshop.  I want to make mention that the date listed here inside the podcast is wrong. 

The new, revised date for this workshop will be this upcoming Saturday, October 20th.  And a little shout-out I’ve taken this workshop myself and it’s grand.  HIghly recomend.  

Take a peek at the show notes to find out more about Kelly and the work that she does and where you can find her and her culture-making work and words.  

As always, if you’ve enjoyed this talk, please take hte time to leave a review or rating in iTunes so that others can find us, as well.  

I hope you enjoy this talk.  

May it uplift and fortify you in the ways you are striving to heal and mend the world around you, too.

MEND Season 2 - Episode 34

Community Currency with Fhyre Phoenix

If you've been following the progression of this season, you know that we've been following up these longer interviews with shorter, bite-size "Thread" episodes, where we sit down and unpack some resources on how all of us can take action in these areas - both within our individual lives, and in the communities of which we play a part. 

We’re doing things a little differently with this "micro"-episode.

Well.  First off.  

It’s not micro.  Not mini. Not even a little bit.  

For this episode we chose to dip back into our local community to seek advice and  counsel from a man who has made working with Capital - both paper money - but also social, experiential, cultural currency, as well - his Main Focus for most of his LIFE.  

Fhyre Phoenix is the creator of the Community Currency project.

If you don’t know that is - don’t worry.

Stick around and we’ll let him eloquently explain it for you.

When you have an expert living down the street from you, you don’t dilly-dally in your own small pool - you go the Fountaiin.  The Wellspring itself.

So, although this episode is full-length, we know the time will be well worth your while & you’ll get a lot out of this talk.  

We sure did.

We could say more - About how inspiring this conversation was.

About the wisdom that this man and valuable community member has un-earthed in simply re-arranging his own relationship to livelihood and money.

Or about the surprising connection to Passion, Poetry, & even Plumbing that runs through this work.

But we’ll let you find all that out for yourself.

Believe me - if you truly desire to begin to un-hook from a life that feels less-than, a job you hate, and begin to arrange your world in such a way that you feel empowered, excited, and deeply connected to your fellow man… this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Enjoy.

MEND Season 2 - Episode 30

“Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea

Welcome back to another micro-episode with Anne & Amy. 

Here, we sit down to talk about the ideas, possibilities & avenues for Thought & Action that got sparked inside our last conversation with Guisepi Spadafora, of the lovely Free Tea Bus.  

Ways to take things from the realm of Inspiration and move it into Perspiration.  Actualized.  Embodied.  LIVED.

So we sat - Anne & I - at our respective homes, with our respective cups of tea - and shared tools, ideas & resources on how We - She.  I.  You.  US. - can do the work of creating a wealth of Social Capital inside our world.  

Or rather, how we can create containers for non-monetary exchange wherein everyone involved leaves feeling nourished, tended & cared for.  We've got some ideas of our own (a very finite list, at best).  But we'd love to hear from you!!!  Take a minute to drop us a line @ mendpodcast@gmail.com and share your own ideas and thoughts!!!  

And make sure to check out the short list of resources and links in the show notes below.  

Cheers.

MEND Season 2 - Episode 29

A Simple cup of Tea with Guisepi Spadafora

"...There is no problem on Earth that can't be ameliorated by a hot bath and a cup of tea.” 
― Jasper Fforde

Imagine walking down a crowded busy street, your eyes buried in your cell phone and the unsettling news of the day.  Scrolling through FB posts, belaboring one obstinate opinion over another.

Your thoughts percolating with lists of To-Dos.

People pass you, bumping shoulders without making eye contact.

When you hear the whistle of a tea kettle…

You look up to see the warm wooden interior of a white mini-bus and a sign that reads, FREE TEA

Inside is the thing you most need right now, something you haven’t had all day, or maybe even all week:  

Genuine human interaction, absent of monetary incentives.

A place to sit with others you’ve never met and make connections you never considered.  A man named Guisepi pouring tea for whomever enters, a man who knows RELATIONSHIPS to be of the highest value and speaks on the importance and necessity of a relationship-based economy.  Your feet, moved by a desire so innate you can’t name it, carry you to the threshold.

You enter.

Welcome to Edna Lu and the Free Tea Party.

MEND Season 2 - Episode 27

A Field of Possibility...

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there."  ~Rumi

Hello again.

As you probably know, you are cozied up to the land of the storytellers.

We feel very comfortable here.

Here we can spin a tale, conjure up a poem at a moment’s notice, or weave together some divergent strands of thought in order to craft a slightly different lens through which to view.

BUT.

We cannot - on our own at least - do justice to the larger framework of this season’s theme.

As you know, we’ve borrowed from the world of permaculture this season, in order to frame up the stories and conversations we’ll be having in the coming weeks and months.

So, we wanted to pay homage - and gather up some resources - and set the larger stage -for what’s to come.

Toward that end, we sat down with two different members of the local ecological and permaculture tribes.  We had the great pleasure of sitting with Boyd Smith, who is the man behind EcoGardening. a company, practice, and philosophy of that  Considers the relationships of each organism in our ecology in relation to development, agriculture, products, programs, and society.

Boyd sat down with us to talk about his vision for long-term sustainability, education & coming into right relationship with the natural world.

The second part of this episode is devoted to our time with Levon Durr, who is part of the local Humboldt Permaculture Guild and is also the owner of Fungaia Farms. We talked about what it looks like for communities in transition to begin to implement some of these principles into the fabric of the everyday.

In a word, we asked these two well-read ecologists, steeped in the language and learning of earth sciences - to break it down for us.  The lay-folk. Those of us who may never pick up a heavy ecological tome or enroll inside a 9-month course to explore these concepts. But who want to get a feel for them.  And more - to see how these ideas can live their way into the way we think, interact, and move about this world.

For more info on either Boyd, Levon or the Humboldt Permaculture Guild - make sure to check the show notes for full links to each.

For now - we hope you enjoy.  

MEND Season 2 (Episode #26)

What is it Worth...   Re-Claiming & Affirming our Value in a Dollars-driven World.

Welcome back to season 2 of MEND.

As you can see, we're shifting things around here a bit.  

Moving from the local landscape of a dwindling & tumultuous underground industry into the bright light of the larger world around us.  

At a certain point, this local cannabis industry shifted it's values to re-align with those of the dominant culture.  Rather than the former objective of utilizing the money gained from cannabis to bring other forms of value into the world - things like schools, art, music, community outreach and such.... Eventually, we settled into the good ole, black-and-white, cut-and-dry margins of the almighty profit margins.  

At some point we seem to have forgotten that this was just ONE way to bring value to the world. That money was but one way to move our ideas, values & dreams out into this Life.

And so that is where our sights are headed next.

We are thrilled to explore this topic of the different ways we can and do create wealth and value in our lives and our communities.

To start this season, we sat down with each other to dig deeper into the 8 Forms of Capital as we are coming to understand them, offering a general overview for each so that we have a shared starting point of how our guests are working and creating wealth in these realms.  

This is going to be an inspiring, (hopefully) perspective-shifting season.  We’re going beyond the stories to the “practice” and application of these ideas, this wisdom, and the many ways in which we can all bring something to the table.     

In many ways, perhaps the current cannabis industry has failed to live up to the initial values it was instigated on.  But we want to acknowledge that we can do better.

We can shift the conversation.

We can tip the scales.

And here are some stories, diatribes & ideas on where to start.

Enjoy! 

......

Big Thanks to Ethan Roland and the visionary team of Appleseed Permaculture who first put words to this framework, and mapped out these ideas for us all to drop into and explore.

And an equally open-hearted shout-out to Sam Sycamore of the Good Life Revival Podcast - who first hipped us to these ideas - and shared them in a way both eloquent but inspiring us to ACT.  Deep bows.

Episode 25

Questions, Answers & Leaning Into What's to Come...

In this micro-episode, we take a minute to respond to a particularly well-penned email from a listener.  We do our best to address some of the concerns he brought to our door, and to articulate some of our own.  

We hope our discourse sheds some light on the subject.

We also wanted to check in with you - our beloved listenership - to let you know we're still in here with ya! And to dip briefly into some of the themes, ideas & stories we're looking to un-earth in Season 2.  What we're turning toward & what we're moving away from... (hint: there's bound to be a little less weed chat in the months to come - for better or worse. ) 

Stick around till the end where Anne shares her wondrous original work, Covfefe.  This is seriously one not to be missed.

And, as always, we welcome your stories, insights, questions & diatribes.  

You can join the conversation over in our private FB group .

Or, for an interim dose of poetry & some nonsequitir musings about Life...

check us out at our other posts:

AnneFricke.com or BackPocketJuju.com

Cheers. Until the next time.  

MEND Season 1 - Episode 20

Pass It Along...

We were excited, this week, to speak with Siobhan, a 2nd generation cannabis farmer and one half of the YouTube duo The Grow Sisters.  She and her husband own Blessed Coast Farms, Humboldt’s first permitted cannabis farm, where she is proud to plant into the native soil along the Van Duzen River.

Legalization ended her days dodging helicopters on a dirt bike, and brought her a sense of liberation.  Now she can be honest about who she is, what she does.  She recognizes that being such a public advocate for her farm and cannabis cultivation may place her head on the chopping block, but the work needs to be done and she recognizes her well-placed position as an advocate. 

This is farming; practices and techniques are not secret, nor should they be.  Siobhan stresses the importance of sharing this knowledge, exclaiming, “This is how we survive!”  The coveting of farming knowledge is a black market thought and now we must grow into this new realm of legalization and transparency together.

Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties have been growing cannabis for decades, Siobhan describes it as generations.  No county is, perhaps, as known for its quality of cannabis as is Humboldt.  This is our strength and Siobhan urges us to get involved, step in and represent ourselves; suggesting, I believe, that as we move forward into compliance and legalization, our future lies in our history.  

To find out more about the resources we discuss, check out:::

Blessed Coast Farms

California Growers Association

Info on the Mendocino Appellation Project

MEND Season 1 - Episode 11

Outlaw Farming - A New Twist on Things

This past week we had the great pleasure of sitting down with Carl Stanley.

Carl is the former pastor of a cannabis-friendly All Faith church in Eureka, CA, an educator in sustainability and self-sufficiency, founder of Manabu Farms, and an advocate for “outlaw farming”, which is perhaps not what you may think it is.

We spoke with him via phone from Flint, Michigan where he resides in an effort to help the local community with the water crisis before heading back to his beloved Humboldt County.

He speaks about the many services the church provided for the community here, the why’s and how’s of becoming Producers rather than Consumers, outlaw farming, his work in Flint, and offers his thoughts on how cannabis can help Humboldt County become a self-sustaining community.

Some of what we loved about speaking with Carl was his passion for the work that he does, but also what his origin story of Humboldt implies.  He came here as a ‘traveler’, what many might describe in not too polite terms as a transient.  The stereotype of the Humboldt transient juxtaposed with the amazing work that Carl has done here in this community and elsewhere is an interesting and important part of this story; and one could argue yet another stitch to further mend the way we relate to ourselves and to each other.

To find out more about Carl, or the work that he does, or how you can become more energy-independent and reduce your monthly bills, check out his work on Facebook.  

Become a part of the Bill Free Group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/155362171643501/

Or find out more about the work and mission of Manabu Farms @ https://www.facebook.com/manabufarms2/

There’s also a website with links to his 300+ instructional YouTube videos on living the Outlaw Farmer lifestyle @ http://manabufarms.blogspot.com/

So much inspiration and food for thought here.  

We hope you enjoy.