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In this special Corona Virus episode, Aaron Perry and Artem Nikulkov discuss five keys to staying healthy and resilient during these unprecedented times. Our immune systems stay strongest when our stress levels are low, when we spend time out doors, when we use herbal medicines, when we take hemp aromatherapy baths, when we get our hands in the soil, and when we connect and converse with good friends. As Stephen Hawking put it, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”
Recognizing that “VUCA” aptly describes our global situation (marked by Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity), they discuss how “VUCA PRIME” (Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility) is the key to staying grounded, focused, healthy, and a positive resource for our communities. (This framework was first shared by Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis in Podcast episode #30).
A special invitation to join the Wele Waters monthly giving program for CBD hemp infused aromatherapy soaking salts is also shared – and the first 10 people to join will receive a free tin of the new salve line (yonearth.org/wele-waters). Artem and Aaron also discuss the wisdom of Brigitte Mars (episode #19), who emphasizes Dandelion, Nettles, and Hemp as three potent plants to include in your daily self-care and wellness practices.
“#springisnotcancelled” is the Y on Earth Community’s motto for these challenging times. Let’s get outdoors, prepare our gardens, connect with the living biosphere, listen to the birds, and deepen our gratitude and appreciation for being alive on this beautiful planet! As community leaders, it is imperative that we keep ourselves healthy, strong, and grounded – that we focus on Strength, Stability, and Sensibility in our daily lives.
Aaron and Artem also discuss how the Y on Earth Community and Earth Coast Productions are adjusting and adapting their near-term plans in response to the Corona Virus. This includes the acceleration in developing several “Social Enterprises,” including: Wele Waters, Soil Werks, Earth Water Press, and others in Y on Earth’s incubator ecosystem (See Podcast episode #65 with Eric Lombardi for more on Social Enterprises). Stay tuned. Buy Wele Waters (100% of proceeds support the Y on Earth Community). Become a Y on Earth Ambassador. Read books. Stay grounded and thrive in these unprecedented times!
More information: yonearth.org/wele-waters; earthcoast.com; yonearth.org/sign-up-as-ambassador; yonearth.org/global-map
#springisnotcancelled #soilmeditation #friendship #resilience #communitymobilization #climateaction #soilregeneration
Transcript
(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)
Welcome to the YonEarth Community Podcast. Today I’m here with Artem Nicholkov and we are
coming at you with a special coronavirus episode and you may remember Artem from a previous
podcast episode, in fact episode number 31, where we talked about digital media and communication
technologies enabling our sustainability efforts around the world. So just to remind you, Artem is
one of the global advisory board members of the Y Honors Community and is also the founder and
CEO of Earth Coast Productions which does media and video production work for all kinds of
companies and organizations doing great things in terms of sustainability, social enterprise, etc.
We’ll talk more about that but we’re here out in the woods outside of Boulder and this is the
first the beginning of the first week of voluntary lockdown in the United States because of
coronavirus and we thought we’d share a bunch of things with you in terms of what we’re up to
and how we’re navigating these uncharted waters and so Artem I’m really grateful we could get
together and share this time and hopefully share a few insights with folks. Yeah it’s an honor
to be here and thanks for inviting me back on the podcast and it’s always good to be in front of
of the camera. A lot of times we’re editing the other episodes and kind of behind the camera
on a lot of these things so it’s always good to be in front of the camera and get any chance to
speak and we’re obviously living through uncertain times with this COVID-19, the novel virus, novel
coronavirus and it’s novel in it’s you know chemical makeup and its structure it’s unknown to
the medical community, the biological community and I think it’s interesting that you know novelty
and uncertainty are so close really related but one could be coming from a place of curiosity
and just a place of trying to understand something new and the other more from a place of anxiety
and anxiousness and just like uncertainty and instability and so you kind of have these two
paths that that birds there so I find that interesting to consider and in thinking about that
how we react to it is so important taking the time to take stock in our own being of where we’re
at and what we’re doing how we’re reacting how we’re supporting our friends and family and loved
ones through this time and it’s just so critical to remember that why we’re here and how we’re
connecting with one another even if we are in the time of social distancing and you know videos
specialty live videos certainly a wonderful way to continue our somewhat normal day-to-day operations
so I think for people right now it’s important to just really pause and be grounded and you know
take a breath first and foremost and yeah really feel into your own being
and where you sit where you spend the night the people that you are in direct contact with
if you’re living with someone or if you’re by yourself but just really taking stock of all
of those things knowing that that’s your kind of current bubble and supporting that so that you
can then support others who are outside of that circle at the moment and there are some really
wonderful ways that we can continue to stay engaged and continue to create art and continue to
stay inspired and be inspired and to create from that space all of those perhaps unfinished projects
that we’ve been dreaming into our lives this is a wonderful opportunity to work on that and also
to reach out to people who are also stuck in their own little bubbles somewhere and we have
fortunately the digital means to continue the conversation and to invite others to collaborate
in our work and I just find that so wonderful I know you and I have been meeting as well and
just discussing things that are going on in our personal lives as friends and how powerful that is
and over this next week we might need to do that virtually as well.
Yes yeah yeah brings up so many opportunities I think and I don’t know if the microphones are
picking them up well that we can hear a lot of birds singing around us and one of our
hashtag ideas over the last couple days has been spring is not canceled and truly although our
human systems our economic systems are considerably disrupted at the moment the rest of the
living biosphere on this planet is going through its ordinary seasonal cycles and here in the
northern hemisphere where most of us humans live there is a changing from winter to spring underway
and I think that in all of this is some silver lining to deepen our connection to that
reality of living here on planet earth and we’ve got a lot of fun things to share with you I’m
super excited we actually have Artem mentioned our creativity and generative endeavors we’ve
got a few things in that area to share with you and thought that it might be a nice way to frame
all of this to borrow a concept that we first heard about from Dr. Jandell Allen Davis who
actually was on podcast episode number 30 if you want to check that out and she was talking about
VUCA VUCA and VUCA prime and VUCA is when we’re characterizing situations or systems as being marked
by volatility uncertainty complexity and ambiguity and obviously those conditions those attributes
can cause heightened anxiety certainly trigger fear response mechanisms in our nervous system
and so there’s there’s an antidote there’s there’s a flip side to that coin called VUCA prime
and that stands for vision understanding the sea is I got to look clarity that’s it and agility
and so Dr. Allen Davis has a beautiful discussion about that in podcast episode number 30
and it I think gives us a wonderful relatively simple framework to think about how we’re
cultivating those those latter four vision understanding clarity and agility in a way that
enhances our own individual effectiveness of course our quality of life and also helps us to
become sources of strength stability and sensibility in our communities when we’re going through
these kinds of challenges together absolutely yeah and understanding that we are not trying to
push away or ignore the volatility and the uncertainty and the complexity and the ambiguity of
the situation at hand because everything around COVID-19 and the current economic impacts that
that’s having and the social repercussions that we’re all feeling as part of this that is all
there and so I think that they really do go in hand it’s not you know VUCA or VUCA prime it’s
really both and knowing that the the first VUCA of volatility and uncertainty is really the
outer that we don’t necessarily have control over but the VUCA prime is something that we have
complete inner control over and how do we strengthen our selves mentally and physically and
certainly our immune system at this point to be in the best place to react with clarity to the
ambiguous situation at hand and I’m sure you can speak more on how what at least one of the
ways that people can take care of themselves and by taking care of yourself continuing to take
care of others in that as well yeah absolutely and so we’re going to share a handful of ideas and
recommendations and invitations with you all and in many respects we here over the last few days
have had a handful of strategy meetings and have essentially pivoted in this goes to that agility
point we’ve a pivoted a bit and have reprioritized some of our projects and campaigns because of COVID-19
so one of the things that we’re really emphasizing is the importance of our own self-care in these times
we know that keeping our stress levels low corresponds and correlates to keeping our immune systems
strong and of course being outside is one of the strategies that we have to keep our stress levels
low and we have some others we’ll share one in particular is that with the Waylay Waters CBD
aroma therapy soaking salts basically if you’re at home and going to be at home for several days
what you can do is order some of the Waylay Waters soaking salts and create a home spa experience for
yourself not only do the salts themselves have de-stressing properties of course the CBD
hemp is is an amazing plant medicine for us with phytonutrients that contribute to health
and well-being in a multiple of ways and then the the aroma therapy on top of that the essential
oils that we’ve selected in the five different blends basically further help with antimicrobial
attributes and additional stress relief attributes there’s even a lavender blend for example and
brought the the jars here just so we can show folks and so yeah here’s lavender
here’s aphrodisiac right if you’re home with your honey hey take a bath together
what a great opportunity to deepen into your intimacy together there’s a eucalyptus right kind
of a nice standard standby we know eucalyptus is helpful with lung ailments so if you’re
feeling a little bit of symptomatic stuff going on with your lungs eucalyptus can be helpful
rosemary and pine is my most favorite this one is absolutely brings you into the experience of
forest whether you’re in a big city or out in the remote area this is such an exquisite
piece and we know that rosemary and pine have special healing attributes as well and then there’s
the moontime blend which is the geranium and neroli and it’s especially formulated for women going
through their menstrual cycle but it’s it’s just a wonderful blend that any of us can use at any
time and and has some really nice relaxing and healing attributes there so with wheylay waters we
have a monthly grip giving program and you can make a donation at three levels 33 dollars 88
dollars or 133 dollars to the YonEarth community which is a nonprofit and you’ll receive monthly
shipments of either one three or five of these jars each jar is enough for two baths right so that’s
two six or ten baths per month and those proceeds are helping all of our community mobilization
climate action soil regeneration culture of kindness work and one of the things that we’ve
accelerated is the launch of our CBD hump infused sabs and so we’ve got soothe which is in the
organic coconut oil base we’ve got frost which is a menthol winter green essential oil piece
kind of like a icy hot and then we’ve got sweet heat which is the sensual afridiziac
sav that you can use as a massage oil with your honey and so we’re going to accelerate as a
result of all of this getting these products available within the very near term the next
week or so and for the first ten folks who join our monthly giving program for the soaking salts
we will give you one of these tins for free whichever of the three you want to try out then we’re
happy to get that to you and that is another way to help with our stress relief aches and pains
all that kind of stuff so so that’s one of the ways we’ve pivoted in waylay waters is one of the
social enterprise companies that YonEarth is partnered with and all the proceeds go to supporting
the work of the YonEarth community so we’re really excited about that kind of ecosystem and
we’ll talk a little more about some of the others that are coming down the pipeline as well in our
social enterprise work but yeah that that home wellness and personal care is even more important
in these times right and we have some some wonderful offerings to share with folks yeah in a major
way taking care of one’s body and just feeling present truly present for yourself so you can
be present for others is so vital I know for me taking a really waters bath so is such a truly
retreat at you know at the house it’s something that really is creating this that spy experience and
when you set yourself up for for that you know for me it’s you know getting a book out and candles
and setting up obviously a bath tub full of hot water it’s such a wonderful experience and
being able to ground into that that all of these other realms of human experience are still
available like human experience isn’t canceled and certainly spring isn’t canceled either and so
that that’s something that’s really important right now you know take a bath so do yoga do
arts connect with people that you can collaborate with work on those projects that you haven’t
you know really picked up in a while or that you are working on and are really looking forward to
completing it’s a wonderful time for that and as far as coming back to the hashtag of springs is
not canceled you know planting gardens and planting your own garden and growing your own food
right now is the prime time to be getting the seedlings going and working with biodynamics
and getting some of the prep for the seedlings and placing it in the garden as well
um that’s something that you can do and really lead the way and and show to your neighbors as well
who might be cooped up in their apartments or homes that their life continues spring is not
canceled the birds are chirping and we can be planting your own food especially when you know you
go to the grocery store and there’s not even enough ingredients to put a salad together
bananas are sold out you know all these things are just kind of off the shelves and so
it really causes you to pause and think you know how do we structure more resiliency
into our community into our everyday life and how do we really create that this future of
community where we get to share the abundance that is truly available to us on this planet
and um it’s it’s not a space limitation I mean you can grow a small herb garden and some tomatoes
and peppers on a windowsill in an apartment and I’ve actually recently seen a really cool
video of how someone has created a complete aquaponics system inside of their uh New York
apartment I mean this is in a high-rise building there’s not a patch of soil anywhere and they
just have a full functioning aquaponics system with an herb garden I mean it’s it’s just wonderful
to see and so it really um just goes to show that it’s not a limitation of you know space but it’s
an application of our creativity and um also an application you know of uh the the mother of creation
is necessity um and that other mother of invention rather uh but also follow through in a certain
way like getting those projects really activated is this is the primary time uh to be doing that
and again leading the way in um communicating with your friends and family about how you can do that
and finding the support that you need not the least of which is the line-earth community um there’s
a wonderful network of line-earth ambassadors who would be more than happy to offer suggestions
and uh offer guidance and uh other tips and resources on how to grow your own food and
how to really uh implement these things whether you have a patch of dirt accessible to you in your
condo uh plaques or uh an apartment building or you’re fortunate enough to have a yard
yeah it’s uh there’s there’s so much um that you’re hitting on Artem that I I’m really excited
about and uh feel this uh increasing surge of energy it reminds me of of that transition from winter
to spring and uh you know one of the things that we’re working on um and we’ll have available
pretty soon is a new social enterprise called soil works where we’re putting together a biodynamic
soil amendment wrapped in almost like a bath bomb for your garden or your yard um in a
magnesium sulfate sphere that you can stir into water and it’s this kind of fun fusion way
of approaching biodynamics that gets those uh probiotics into the soil into the landscape
and uh that’s that’s one of the things we’re accelerating now on our timeline in terms of our
2020 action plan and uh you can find the 2020 action plan on the yonors.org website in the community
section uh right toward the top there is the page called action plan and you’ll see a little
mention of soil works and there what we’re doing with soil works is collaborating with a handful of
biodynamic farms situated all around North America and making these very special
organic compost land medicine applications available and you can use these not only in your in your
yards and gardens if you’re so fortunate to have those but also in your potted house plants
inside and I want to be sure to mention that we did a podcast episode with Brigitte Mars the preeminent
herbalist and author on herbal medicine that’s podcast episode number 19 and in there the main
theme and topic of the discussion was herbal medicine for our stress management practices
of course I recall her mentioning the three key herbs for health and well-being are
dandelion nettles and hemp and again back to the way they waters right we got that covered for you
dandelion its springtime dandelion will be popping up here soon and of course the last thing we
want to do is spray those with poison uh we want to leave some of those flowers growing for the bees
it’s some of the earliest uh bee food in the springtime and then we can also uh eat some of those
flowers and leaves and later on roots and incredible immune boosting properties that come from
these dandelions and of course nettles are a very dynamic accumulator uh herbaceous species
that have high levels of iron and all sorts of other vitamins and nutrients that boost fortify
our immune systems so uh definitely check out podcast episode 19 with Brigitte Mars because she
she gives so many wonderful uh pointers and suggestions that we can uh be practicing day in and
and day out and and yeah I just want to really uh sort of double down on this emphasis on the
the soil and the planting and we even brought a little uh bowl of soil here you know when we get
our hands uh directly engaged with the uh living soil we’re interacting with all of the
beneficial microbes that boost our immune system we their science uh now showing the uh
relationship there uh not to mention that interacting with those uh soil uh micro organisms
is also going to boost our serotonin production right it’s also going to help us feel a bit lighter
and and more joyful and less stressed and uh you know we talk about that quite a bit in our
our soil stewardship handbook and several of the podcast episodes where we’re talking with farmers
and gardeners and so on but um this opportunity we have right now with the approaching spring
to to really double and triple down quintuple down on our uh connecting with soil uh it’s actually
going to help boost boost our immune system and help our our day-to-day quality of life
absolutely yeah and being able to grow your own food however um much it’s still augments um
the actual purchases that you have to make at the store um so there that that helps you out
economically that way and also you know the quality of the food is so much better when you grow it
and stay straight from the land um and it also connects you with the soil i mean um you know if
if you don’t have a soil practice in terms of uh touching and grounding soil every day uh gardening
creates that for you it creates that space to have essentially uh soil meditation
uh as part of your life and um it’s something that’s so unique and we all need it we all need it
i mean we all need to walk barefoot on on grass and natural forest floors uh obviously as the
weather warms up that’s going to be a lot easier to do and uh physically touching soil and working
with the earth is something that reminds us of how connected we are to this planet and the things
that truly matter and the things that are um a constant the changing of the seasons you would
know there’s all kinds of things that are shifting um in that as part of um global climate change
we can still rely on the seasons uh being here on the birds showing up in the spring and uh singing
beautiful birdsong there’s a cute guy flying around off camera there yeah um and
you know global markets will rise and they’ll fall and all kinds of changes will happen and um
political figures will be at the seat of power and another day they won’t and um you might
agree with them you might disagree with them um but at the end of the day the things that we can
rely on are the natural processes of this planet of this earth and um the nature that sustains us
the the large question is how do we integrate that into our modern lives um and how do we
really live in both of those worlds how do we uh grow a garden and um grow around food and
take care of really replenishing the soil and enriching the soil not depleting it
meanwhile being a technological heavily technological species and being
able to track you know hashtag spring is not cancelled yeah on our wonderful uh smart devices here
so um it really is a both uh approach and there is a wonderful way that we can scale our collaboration
and the way that we communicate to our friends our family and to people that we have never met
or would have never met without some of these uh digital technologies and platforms that are
available to us um and you know we’ve been in uh we’ve been using social media for a while now
and all of these wonderful tools and i just didn’t invite everyone to in encourage everyone to
uh participate in an encouraging way um and that that’s the other reason to take care of yourself
and have a practice of well-being whether it’s uh you know physical practice or art and poetry
or doing a soak in a bath uh those are all wonderful practices and the part of the reason to do that
is so that you can stay centered uh when people do get into a comment or on online or whatever and
you can be um someone that offers a positive suggestion and offers a way forward of here’s what
we can be doing um and uh an example of that that uh directly relates to you know current
COVID-19 situation i was listening to um a podcast on blocks and they were sharing on
the latest situation in Italy and how the country’s essentially a complete lockdown
and they uh the entire population is not really allowed to leave their homes with the exception of
going to the grocery store or the pharmacy and even then it’s a regulated system so that there
aren’t too many people out on the streets or uh at a grocery store any one time so it’s a very
challenging situation to be uh living in and how there are communities with apartment buildings
for coming together and opening their windows into the courtyard and singing together
yeah really um and it’s an example of how we can really create beautiful inspirational
uh you know encouraging ways for ourselves to keep moving forward um because it doesn’t really
serve anyone to be in free fat mode so being able to be that one person that stands up and
does something different something that uh is grounded and centered is such a powerful catalyst
wherever you are at whichever community you’re a part of uh and how wonderful it is to be
um that person uh or someone that joins a group of people that are already doing wonderful things
yeah uh and participated in that way yeah speaking of that or to my want to be sure to um mention
the ambassador program just in case some of the audience might be interested in learning more about
that or becoming an ambassador um on the uh in the community section of the whyonder.org website
you’ll see a page called uh uh become an ambassador and the uh process to get involved and to engage
and get activated is really straightforward um so want to just give a shout out to our ambassadors
who are located throughout Colorado throughout the United States and even in multiple countries
around the world uh the work that you’re doing through your demonstrations your community gathering
events obviously not this week on the community gathering events but um all of that is the the
cumulative uh efforts and gestures that are helping to transform our culture and uh as you
were talking in hardem about the combination of the communication technology the videos the social
media and the connecting with soil and growing our own food uh it reminded me of this essay called
the meta-industrial village that we spoke about in our podcast i was realizing we recorded that
about a year ago um and and the meta-industrial village is an essay that was written by William
Irwin Thompson when he was at MIT masters choose its institute of technology in the 70s and he was
already anticipating a future that would be marked by very robust global communication technologies
and that that would be complemented by a deliberate returning to sort of localizing
connections with soil uh productions of food so forth and so on that create more resilient and
sustainable uh supply chains and uh systems for our basic needs and so it just reminded me that
that’s a wonderful resource that i would encourage folks to track down um email us through the
website i do have a pdf of the essay i’d be happy to share um and uh it’s meta-industrial village
in a collection of essays called darkness and scattered light by William Irwin Thompson
and you know one of the other real silver linings in this very incredible challenge that we’re
facing is it’s forcing us to slow down a bit and one of the things one of the opportunities we
have when we’re slowing down a bit is to read uh more and i am a huge fan of reading not only
for uh it as a mechanism to learn new knowledge uh and potentially even gain some wisdom but i think
it also does something in our mind and in our nervous system that helps us calm down and relax
of it and i know you uh are holding a book here Artem and i thought you know maybe it’s an
opportunity to share this one with our audience and i can share one that i just started a
week or two ago sure um well this is uh a book that Aaron has turned me on onto uh so thank you
erin for that uh i just started reading it’s called the future of money by Bernard Littier and
it is a really wonderful book on the four converging forces right now in our world and what’s
interesting about reading this book is that um it was written in mid 1990s and uh 2000 was
something that was around the corner and 2020 was something that was in a distant future and
the way that the forces are really compounding between our technology um loss of biodiversity
and climate change um the age wave uh that um he expounds on on the book in the book
and uh these forces really shaping our society in a completely different way and being
aware of uh them in in the way that they are active and being able to shape our future in
relationship with money is such a powerful way to think and to also encourage to create
local currencies um ways of bartering with each other in ways of uh exchanging value that
is outside of um the modern economic system which is very fragile as um this current situation
highlights it yet again so the more that we can be committed to building resiliency in our communities
in um the lives that we lead and the way that we change uh value um the better off we are
and the more sustainable and more resilient of a world we’re building for ourselves and
future generations so it’s um it’s a powerful book and what a wonderful opportunity to
to read such uh tomes and in this time yeah this this book is one of my my favorites it really is
on my short list and uh the future of money um talks about four potential scenarios for the future
a couple of which are really beautiful and a couple of which are really scary and uh Bernard
uh passed a year ago uh and was a friend of mine for many years and we uh several times had uh
dinner and coffee and he always loved chocolate we would sit and have coffee and chocolate
together talking about economics and money and sustainability and uh this book I highly recommend
it and the way he put it together uh is wonderful it has lots of one or two page vignettes and lots of
little sidebar um uh sides that that really help uh with the assimilation of the information that
he’s presenting and he was uh one of the uh economic technocrats who helped create the convergence
mechanism when the various european nations were turning their national currencies into the euro
so he has a very deep technical understanding of money the functions of money and it’s it’s just
of wonderful reads so I do um uh recommend it to folks who are interested in that and as we’re
getting into things like crypto currency over time and how that might relate to sustainability efforts
I think that Bernard probably has uh more wisdom and guidance to share than uh just about anybody
honestly on that topic um and so for any of you who might be interested in things like crypto currency
I would say this is a must read actually um must read and uh so I’m also reading a novel by uh by
Gert one of my absolute favorite authors and thinkers he was has been referred to as the Shakespeare of
Germany and um it’s called elective affinities in uh in english and translation and um he’s
also a poet and a scientist and was engaged in things like herbal medicine and working with
light and sound and frequency if any of you are familiar with the practices in the quadrivium
Gert was way into that kind of stuff uh in addition to writing one of the classics Faust that many of
us uh would be familiar with in the whole Faustian bargain right when we’re playing with technology
and so forth um the the cautionary tone of some of his wisdom is is really uh really imperative I
think in these times as well and I just thought um Artem uh helped help me uh get comfortable with the
idea of maybe reading a poem or two just to share um a little creativity that’s happening here and
so my son hunter um who by the way did an amazing uh video for climate change for his senior
high school class as part of a c-span competition he participated in and we ended up sharing that
through podcast episode number 67 so that’s my boy hunter chestnut parry and uh he and our collaborating
putting together a book that is poetry I’ve written over the last uh 25 plus years with a bunch
of his artwork and um uh I’m super excited about all this coming together we will be sharing it
publicly uh in in the next month or two so keep an eye out and I I just thought I’d share a couple
of the really short pieces as a way to I don’t know share a little poetry I know not everyone loves
poetry but uh this one is half of a high coup and the invitation is to imagine the other half
on your own as you’re connecting with nature and it’s apropower out here in the woods right now
because it goes like this missed droplet dangling from green leaf so I just invite you to
picture that missed droplet dangling from green leaf whatever comes next is up to you
and uh I I wrote that one you can believe it The year my daughter, OSHA, was born 1997.
So that goes back a little ways.
And around that same time I wrote one that’s also quite short,
not as short as a haiku, but it’s called We Soon Recordess.
And this morning I was like, gosh, I better look that word up
and just make sure I know exactly what it means.
And it turns out I remember it meaning sort of becoming alive or active again,
but it also means to break out and is used in the context of viruses sometimes.
So that’s kind of interesting.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean a viral outbreak.
It can have a very positive connotation as well.
And so this one goes We Soon Recordess.
Lone Nouveau Humanity.
Springtime Sproutings from Dark Mustymold.
Burnt all winter by fragility and harsh rains.
Gray Fogs Lift.
Float elsewhere.
Slowly.
As we blink, no squint in rediscovered brilliance.
So that piece again came to me about 20 years ago
and was really feeling the sense that our modern human story
and experience on the planet in our lifetime is really inviting us to create
and to live into something new and something different.
And dare I say something better.
And we have this opportunity together.
And it’s very much that impulse that is behind all the work we’re doing
with the Wieners community and just want to take this opportunity
to further invite each and every one of you to engage even more with what we’re up to.
And if you want, you can find the global map of our ambassadors and projects
and resources were connected to all around the world.
That’s also at Wieners.org.
Under the Resources section, you’ll see a link to Global Map.
You’ll also see the location of most of our podcast guests.
The last couple I need to update, I’ll admit that on camera.
But virtually all of them are there so you can see where people are located,
including, for example, our friend Sophie Coscos and Saudi Arabia.
And so join us in this work and take advantage of the products we have with Walei Waters.
If you go to the Wieners.org website under the Community section,
you’ll see there’s a page for the Walei Waters monthly program.
You can also go to WaleiWaters.com to download your own free soaking ceremony guide
right as you were talking about candles and kind of your setup that made me think of that.
And so what an amazing time, what a tremendously challenging time.
And in all of this, I think there really is a whole lot of silver lining that we can connect with
and that we can perceive with our vision back to the Vuka,
and that we can deliberately cultivate in our day to day.
This coming week in particular is a real opportunity, I think, for all of us.
Yeah, I love that line.
And the poem you just read of, Springtime Sprouting, it’s just such a vivid image of what that really looks like.
And as I visualize what sprouting means, it first starts with deep rootedness.
And so there’s the seed, and then as it really grows out and has those shoots that first go into the ground,
and then there’s a shoot going up that we apply ourselves in that same way.
And what’s truly inspiring to me about going through this time period is that we get to do that with other people.
You know, we might be socially distanced physically, but we can come together virtually.
And we can help each other to grow those roots so that our communal shoot and the sprout that rises up above the ground can be strong and vibrant and produce fruit.
And that fruit really is about a sustainable future.
And it’s about continuing the dialogue, continuing the conversation of how do we continue to build and encourage our cities to have communal gardens.
How do we petition our HOAs to have food and not lawns?
And how do we continue to pass legislation to ban some of the harmful pesticides that are out there in our home department stores
that building supply stores that really have no business in being on the shelves because of how powerful of a poison they are, they really compromise our immune systems among other things, right?
Yeah, and at the end of the day, it’s not just about the birds and the bees, and obviously birds and the bees are so important, but as we consider our own health in this time period,
it is directly about taking care of ourselves by placing some of these limitations on on poisons and encouraging organic and above that biodynamic growth and gardening.
And continuing the conversation with people who might not be aware of the differences or just how impactful some of these different approaches can be.
It’s something that really happens very slowly, and that’s something to really pay attention to, the fact that our situation overall is much more dire on this planet than just the COVID-19 crisis.
And part of the reason that we’re so reactive to it is because it’s so visceral for us, the changes between having three cases and thousands with thousands of deaths is a matter of a few weeks.
We as humans do pretty well with that timeline. We can see the effects of not taking action very directly, and so we can’t help but to take action.
And as we take action in combating COVID-19 and really creating a resilient society out of this and encouraging healthy outcomes from the situation, let’s not forget, let’s really remember that there’s a much larger crisis at hand that plays out a lot slower.
But it’s so much more detrimental to our complete future and survival on this planet as species, and that the urgency is just as real if not more real than the virus itself.
And that’s the climate and ecological crisis, specifically.
Yeah, I’m really, I’m, I’m hopeful, Artem, that so many of us are going to deepen to use your description of the roots, deepen our connection with Earth, with wisdom, with knowledge,
and grow even more robustly together in community to tackle these big challenges that we’re facing.
Yeah, it’s going to take a lot of vision, it’s going to take a lot of agility, it’s going to take a lot of understanding, it’s going to take a lot of clarity,
and may we really do what we can to cultivate that as individuals, as friends of our family and community.
It really is a big and beautiful opportunity for us.
Yeah, it is, and I’m honored to be a part of this network and to the listeners out there who are listening to this podcast,
I encourage you to check out some of the resources that are available as part of the why and earth community, part of the why and earth ambassador network,
and reach out to people directly in this network, and to the people who are directly leading the way in the narrative around all of these issues,
and not only the issues, but the implementation of what we want more in our world, and there’s some really wonderful efforts underway,
so the more that we can be in communication with people in those areas and create our own hubs in our own communities around these things.
This is the time to do that and take the opportunity of a bit of a home retreat, if you will, if that’s what you’re experiencing.
To think about who you would like to reach out, and how would you like to reach out to the people around you, and how do you want to support others,
and how would you like to be supported by these efforts? This is an open conversation, so reach out, you know,
DM, PM, email, text, you know, live stream, live broadcast, hashtag, like, do all the things, and then once you’re kind of good on that digital communication front, dig in and get your hands dirty.
I love it, I mean, yeah, one of the things we’re in the process of implementing is a page on the website that shows all of our individual ambassadors,
and what they’ve accomplished thus far, and the invitation to ambassadors is to create a short video, one to two minute video,
sharing a little about each individual and what they’re up to in terms of projects and so forth.
So if that’s something that speaks to you, that’s just another kind of echo of that invitation to engage in that way as well.
And I’m struck as you’re talking about the opportunity for food gardens in neighborhoods with HOAs and so forth, that one of the things we’ve been working on for a few months now is a handbook, a resource for neighborhoods and HOAs,
specifically around stewardship and sustainability. So excited for that one.
You know, it’s funny because over the last few days, I was just like, I’m going to use a cuss word, oh shit, like this is the worst time to bring something like that out.
And then I was thinking about it, and as we’ve been talking over these last couple days, I’m realizing, wait a minute, this actually could be a very perfect time for something like that to come out because a big part of the threat running through all of that is,
is increased resilience, health and well-being at that scale.
And so it’s like, oh, okay, yeah, this probably will be in some ways and even more timely resource to be sharing with folks.
Absolutely.
Yeah, and resilience and putting food on the table, it goes beyond any kind of political divides or any of those things.
So, you know, it’s taking care of ourselves and living in communities that take care of one another, that communicate with the neighbors that are next door and in the larger community,
making sure that the people are okay around us, that they’re taking care of, and that we have resilient communities that grow food together.
And this is a wonderful time to engage HOAs in some of these other associations in that conversation because it’s very real for folks.
Yeah, really as art of, I’m reminded of, in Slovenia, most of the families in that beautiful little nation have pretty sizable gardens, it’s just part of the culture there.
And it goes back a few hundred years in the history.
And you would call these either really large gardens or really small farms basically.
So, they’ve got an incredible food resilience and sustainability woven into the social fabric and into the physical reality of that way of being.
And there’s still a very much, a very technical, industrial economy, right?
And so, we really can, this is a both-hand in terms of what opportunities lie directly in front of us and what doors are opening up to us as a culture, as a society in the midst of this crisis.
And I wanted to just take a quick opportunity to thank our sponsors in our ecosystem for making all this work possible.
And that includes many individuals and ambassadors who have joined our monthly giving program.
A huge thanks to each of you.
And you can join the monthly giving program on the Donate button at the top of the website, Winorff.org.
At any level, any level helps all of this work that we’re doing.
And I want to also give a special shout out to the LIDGE Family Foundation, Brad and Lindsay have been incredibly supportive of all of this work for several years now, including during the time that the book itself, Y on Earth, was being written and editing and completed for publishing.
And just a reminder that Y on Earth is available as an e-book and as an audiobook.
So that’s another resource you may enjoy checking out. And there’s a chapter called Grow where we talk about growing some of your own food.
We talk about getting some of your food from farmers you know in your region and then getting other food and beverage products from fair trade and certified organic purveyors that are bringing the teas and the coffees and the bananas and the avocados to us from different communities all around the world.
And we’re so excited to be collaborating with the Rodeil Institute and that ecosystem of organizations, Patagonia, Dr. Bronners, Demeter and others who are launching the certified, the regenerative organic certification later this year as a way for all of us to rally around the entire spectrum of social and environmental practices when it comes to our food production, as well as our clothing fiber production.
And so that’s just an exciting thing that’s underway. It’s happening and we get to rally behind that in a big way. And of course, want to give also a shout out to Purium who is providing a whole bunch of organic, phytonutrient based supplements and health and wellness products.
And you can click on the Purium link from the sponsor page or the podcast page on the YonEarth website to get your products and some of the proceeds come back to support the YonEarth community.
And of course, Earth Coast Productions, Artem’s company doing all of this amazing video live streaming technology and media work for a variety of companies and organizations. That’s earthcoast.com.
And then Waylay Waters, as we’ve been mentioning and discussing, please check Waylay Waters out at WaylayWaters.com.
And I think that I want to ask you, Artem, about how is this impacting your business, right? And what are we seeing? Because you do so much work with conferences and events.
And we know in that community that there are some very real impacts that people are already experiencing. And, you know, I’m really interested in not only how those impacts are showing up, but also you’re very with a lot of agility, pivoting and responding and really like interesting creative and strategic ways right now and thought it might be a nice opportunity to ask you about that.
Yeah, thank you. And certainly happy to be working with YonEarth and supporting you and supporting all of the media needs there. And yeah, this time is definitely challenging for everyone who’s in some way an event business or is doing business with event businesses.
And that includes, you know, conferences and musicians and concerts and venues, you know, weddings are having to be put on hold travel plans. Everybody’s very much impacted by all of this.
And tourism globally is definitely taking a hit. And even restaurants, which you don’t typically think of as an event business, but it is an event to go out or being impacted in terms of a drop in reservation.
And all of those things since people are staying at home. And I certainly work with a number of nonprofits and for profit businesses and various industries that had to cancel their events, had to cancel their conferences.
And some of this is very meaningful work, very impactful work. There’s a number of nonprofits whose entire yearly budgets or a very significant majority of their yearly budget is directly dependent on a particular event and a live auction or fundraiser that happens at that event.
And those are having to be put on hold or canceled, which totally impacts the bottom line for that organization nonprofit. And so my biggest message to everyone who is thinking about canceling their event is don’t cancel live stream live broadcast event.
There are ways to structure it. You can do a online live auction. You can hold certainly multi camera live broadcasting conferences, tele summits and teleconferences.
And there are ways to make those experiences completely interactive with quizzes and forms and keep people’s engagement up and even have two way communication with video capabilities for both the presenters and the participants.
And so if you have any questions, definitely reach out. I’m happy to help happy to consult I offer free consultations for folks who are interested in live streaming and live broadcasting.
And there’s an incredible opportunity to augment some of the challenges that are coming about with the coronavirus and all of the cancellations with the online and online experiential interactive way of doing video.
So it’s something that I actually encourage all businesses to be considering moving forward in addition to their in-person portion of the event either way.
And then, you know, unfortunately now the in-person part of the event can’t really happen. And so definitely aware of how much that means to folks who depend on events production and events to happen for people to get together for, you know, wonderful night out with music and dancing, which, you know, it’s certainly not the same dancing in your living room.
But you do get to enjoy the wonderful music of your favorite musicians.
I dance much more freely in the living room. There you go.
Yeah, but the impact obviously are very immediate and are really, really significant in certain sectors of the economy right now.
Yeah, yeah. I’m aware and speaking to a few of my friends who are actually shutting down their businesses and having to let go of employees.
And so we’re certainly just beginning to feel the repercussions of this time period. And so as we’re going through this time together, just be aware of those impacts.
And, you know, reach out on that front as well of, you know, let’s brainstorm together on what’s possible.
You know, none of us really hold the answer, but I think as we come together and kind of openly discuss like here’s what’s happening, here’s the impact and what is possible.
How do we continue to engage? How do we continue to support each other with, you know, donations and other really important work that our business are doing that there’s wonderful ways that it can continue to happen, even if it’s a big pivot from business as usual.
Yep. Yeah, absolutely. It’s requiring adaptation, right? Adaptation. And who was it? Some great thinkers said something like adaptation is the mark of intelligence.
I’ll try to dig that up for the show notes when we publish this. So I’ve seen that one before I’ve heard that statement. It’s to be able to adapt to these environments is how we’ve survived thus far as a species.
We all come up from a line of long line of people who have survived all kinds of cataclysm and disasters and various plagues and this is certainly in that larger scheme of things bump in the road.
Of course, it doesn’t feel that way now. Certainly doesn’t feel that way for me. I’ve had a number of events canceled and just truly trying to help people continue to just stay engaged with their community.
Yeah. Yeah, I think there’s an interesting observation to make, which is simply by virtue of being alive right now as a human being necessarily indicates that we come from people who have survived calamity and catastrophe in the past.
And so, you know, we’ve been through as a species been through a lot of different really challenging times and episodes and have thus far made it through.
And I think hopefully we can draw a little bit of strengths from that knowing and that DNA knowing lives in us and to keep hold that precious each day as we’re going forward right now.
So, I think I have only one other item on my list that I wanted to share, Artem, for this particular episode.
And then I wanted to do just kind of a recap summary for everyone about the various things we hit on.
Sure.
So, I don’t know if is there anything else that you want to mention as well that is maybe on the list here or that we had discussed over the last couple of days.
I think just continuing with creativity, just really the importance of asking yourself what you want to bring in the world and perhaps you already know that and just working on those projects.
And I know you’ve got something cooking that you might want to have.
That’s like a perfect segue to share on. You set that up. I guess you did.
Yeah, so I’m sharing this I think for two reasons, maybe three. One is that it really I think highlights the importance of storytelling in all of the work that we’re doing to help transform and to help heal.
Secondly, I think I want to share this because up till now it’s only been a very small number of friends and family who know about this particular project.
And there’s a certain power in telling more people that this thing is quite substantial at this point and we’ll be sharing shared with the world soon.
And so I’ve been working on a novel and a screenplay for a little while now and by a little while I mean a couple years.
And what I’m holding here is the first section out of three. It’s a three act story, which just about a week ago I completed a full edit run through.
And the other two sections are quite far along. There’s a lot more to do, but this is one of the things that I’ll be working on in the coming weeks hours and hours of work goes into book writing.
It’s it’s remarkable. I’ve managed organizations. I’ve done a lot of different types of work over the years, graduate school, et cetera.
And writing books for me is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever endeavored to accomplish in terms of the discipline that’s required.
Because right, like in business, we respond to all kinds of external stimuli, right?
Customer needs show up, market dynamic shift, whatever it might be.
But when it’s something like writing a book, essentially there is nothing but this internally generated willful desire to move the project forward.
And there are plenty of days, especially when editing something thick like this and it takes hours, where you feel like you’re making no progress at all.
But it’s that stick to itness, that determination, that grit that comes into play in so many different aspects of our lives that is what determines whether you end up with something like a book or not.
And I know a lot of us have ideas for books and some of us write books.
And that takes an extraordinary amount of patience and willfulness. And I guess I share this as a way to encourage you all if you have a poem, if you have a painting, a drawing, if you have some crochet, some sewing, something you want to do, do it, do it.
Just sit down and start to do it. And what will flow from that choice to do it, I think is incredibly magical, incredibly vitalizing.
And often we get surprised in these utterly delightful ways by the mystery of what unfolds when we’re willing to engage with that creativity in that way.
So this is a story called Otto coming soon and stay tuned for that. And yeah, just to recap, health, well-being, take care of yourself, soak, yoga, herbal medicine, check out the podcast with Brigitte Mars, number 19.
Check out the podcast, Artem and I did a year ago, number 31. The podcast with Dr. Gendel Allen Davis, episode 30. Definitely want to mention the podcast with Eric Lombardi, which was episode 65 in which we talk about social enterprise.
These are for-profit businesses that are devoting at least half of their profits to social and environmental non-profit organizations and causes.
And Waylay Waters is an example of that. Soil works, which were in the process of launching is an example of that. And we’ve got a couple others that are in development right now that you’ll be hearing about in the coming months. So stay tuned for that.
And don’t forget, if you want to join the Waylay Waters monthly program through Y on Earth, you can go to yhonourth.org under the community section, scroll to the Waylay page.
And you’ll see that you can sign up at the $33, the $88 or the $133 level, your choice.
And the first 10 folks to do that will get a free tin of the hemp CBD SAV that we’re in the process of launching. So really excited to share that with you all.
And just remember, we’re all in this together. And we have so much to be grateful for, health, well-being, friendship.
And I think, Adam, when we first talked about doing this episode together a few weeks ago, we were thinking a lot about the neuro biochemistry and stress and co-regulation in relationships, especially when we have a professional relationship that is also a friendship, like you and I have.
And I’m inclined to say, hey, let’s do another one of these episodes fairly soon and do a bit more of a dive on that as well, because I think there’s so much in there that we can unpack and share.
And I know you have a lot of insights around that. So I just, you know, I want to articulate that as a gesture into the future and what we’ll be doing in the near term.
That sounds wonderful. Yeah, there’s so many capacities in our lives. And being supported by people in, like, actively cultivating that community is how you make that work.
And I’m glad you hit on a wonderful keyword that I’m tracking right now as well, which is grit. And, like, that’s what it takes through these creative projects to bring them to completion and even to start them.
And one of the key components that are a part of grit are the people that are part of your life as well. And I just encourage everyone to cultivate that.
It’s something that takes work and it’s wonderful, wonderful work. And again, we’re fortunate enough to be living in a time.
And if you have an interest, you just go and meet up.com and you type in what you’re interested in. And then there’s a local group, you know, down the street from you that meets on that topic, you know, every week or once a month or whatever.
And so, you know, for those of us who might be more on the introverted side, there’s ways to engage via live video or perhaps it’s an opportunity to kind of work through that one as well with grit.
But to show up and really engage with the people in our communities, you know, the more that we can be offline and meeting and having conversations in person, the more that we can be supportive of each other as friends, as, you know, business and co workers.
And otherwise, sojourners through life as whatever happens in our world unfolds, including the current situation.
That’s really the way to overcome it and to work on the wonderful creative works of art that keep us moving forward.
So I definitely look forward to more on auto and being able to actually read and learn more about that story. So excited for that.
Yeah, just remember everybody spring is not canceled.
It’s not canceled folks hashtag please use that hashtag.
We’ll plant some tomatoes and peppers and potatoes.
Yeah.
And herbal medicine.
Nettles. Nettles.
Nettles.
So, yeah, take care everybody and look forward to corresponding with you very soon and spring is not canceled.
And thank you for joining us and thank you for engaging and being a part of the YonEarth community.
The YonEarth community stewardship and sustainability podcast series is hosted by Aaron William Perry, offer, thought leader and executive consultant.
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