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Community Cultivators: Boldly Sowing the Future of Sustainability · The Bold Lounge

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: My name is Leigh Burgess and I will be your host.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Every week, we'll hear from someone who has taken a leap or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Whether they face challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be freed.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge Today.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I have three incredible guests who are going to talk to us today about regenerative communities and where we can start.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: As we're working towards that, whether it's creating a beautiful space or a garden in our home or thinking about maybe buying a plot of land.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I've talked to a lot of people recently that are like I want to farm it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: A lot of people have been talking about that to me, kind of what that would look like and how do they start, and sending some of their raised beds and things like that.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited to get into what bold means.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I'm particularly interested in how it creates community.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: When we're thinking about these types of places and spaces that we can build for our families and for the people we love and for our friends, that then becomes something even larger.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It's that ripple effect of effort and taking the first steps which many people listening know sometimes being bold.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It's just begin, begin.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: You have to start and take the step.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So first I'm going to let them introduce themselves and we're going to start with Elisa.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Hi, good morning.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me on.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: My name is Elisa Allen Arias and I'm the farm manager of Baja Sage Farm in El Pesquerero, Baja California, Sur Mexico.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Baja Sage Farm is part of a regenerative community, or what's sometimes called an agri-hood, and we use regenerative growing practices with a focus on soil health.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: We produce fruit, vegetables, herbs, flowers, eggs, and I also act as a farmer collaborator within our state, collaborating with two different nonprofits One is focused on food security and it's called the Alianza para la Seguridad Alimentaria, and also the International Community Foundation, and these are all part of a collective effort to just improve our regional food system.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I have a background in teaching biology, agriculture, and I've lived in Baha'u'llah for seven years.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Excellent, thank you.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Nice to meet you, kate, hi.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I'm Kate.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I met Jeff and Elisa through their work with the Modern Elder Academy.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I was lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving last year studying regeneration with Jeff and Paul Hawken, who has been a lifelong hero of mine.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Jeff, elisa and I stayed connected because we had each done our own truly humbling work to apply regeneration to real life projects, and for me that's gardens.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Regenerative farming makes a ton of sense, but I don't have a farm.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: I do have a garden and I wanted to know what it would look like if we took the best climate and soil science and the best research on what makes a good long life and applied that science and research close to home, like literally at home.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Could it be beautiful?
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Would it make a difference?
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: How hard could it be?
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: My husband and I fully renovated three homes inside and out, total reinvention of the gardens in Seattle's central district, including the Dearborn Loft House and the Dearborn Cottage.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: I've done regenerative landscape design for the Seattle Transplant House, matt's Place Foundation in Spokane and for a number of other mission-driven organizations.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: I can't get enough of it.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: I am also an executive consultant and a serial entrepreneur.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: I love to build good ideas into businesses and to bring them to as many people as possible.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: I am so happy to be here today.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much and Jeff, return guest to the Bold Lab.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we've met before, lee, so we can keep this casual.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: I'm Jeff.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: I'm one of the founding partners at MEA, which is the world's first midlife wisdom school, based down here in Baja California and also up now opening up in Santa Fe, new Mexico, which is very exciting where people come to reframe the concept of aging, rethink both what they think about aging and how they might age and go into the second part of their lives more thrivently.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: Is that a?
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: word.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I like it.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I think it is now.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I work with Elisa at the Baha Sage project as well, where we're building a regenerative community.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: So yeah, that's.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: I think lifelong passion for sustainability, regeneration and so on and so forth brings me to the table.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, excited for the discussion.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Excellent, all right.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Well, we're going to put Elisa and Kate up to the test for their definition of bold, and we know Jeff's from his previous podcast.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: So, elisa, we'll start with you From the perspective of what does bold mean to you?
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And then, based on your definition, when's the first time you remember being bold?
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, sure, I kind of love this question.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: To me, being bold is really risk-taking.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: You have to be courageous.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: If you're being bold, you know and that can be very individual I think you're going against the status quo in some regards.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: And then I think, to take it further, from the lens of a woman in particular, being bold is often challenging the patriarchy taking up space in rooms and in industries that are usually male dominated.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: So I think that would be that's my definition.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Okay, I think the first example of me being bold was when I quit college.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I went to university for three years at a fancy, expensive private university in San Diego, where I originally had a two-year academic scholarship.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: But once the scholarship ran out, I was limping along financially, trying to make it work, and I had to just stop, which was very alarming to everyone I knew.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: But it all worked out.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I ended up, you know, working for a few years, saving money, went back to school and got two degrees after that.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: So yeah.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: So you kind of went against the convention of what was expected of you, right, people expected you to keep going and go into debt and you're like you know, timeout like this isn't working, so a bold move there.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And then you're actually a woman in farming, which I would assume that most farmers are not women.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Is that a good assumption, or is that accurate, saying that you're probably a minority within the farming community?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, for sure, and you know I started in the life sciences, which is very largely male dominated as well, so I feel like I've been in male dominated industries for a long time.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you've been living your bold life for a while, okay, so excited to jump into that.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: All right, kate, what is your definition of bold and when's the first time you remember being bold, based on your definition?
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: A lot of similarities with Elisa.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: When I hear the word bold in the context of a life, it means two things to me.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: The first part is that the action or the intention is sovereign.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: It is high fidelity to what is true for me.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: And the second is absolutely what Elisa said this presence of public risk, that taking this action is a visible departure from what seems normal or secure.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Whatever the heck that means.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, really, yeah, I experienced something as bold when it requires moving towards something that I care about, in the face of the possibility that it might not work, that I might lose belonging or money, or I'm actively diving into arenas where I am going to be challenged and may come through it needing to change what have been important, closely held beliefs for me.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it might not work right.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: There's a high probability of failure.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Usually when we're being bold.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I think there's a myth that people think that it's just like being careless and jumping and not looking before you leave.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: It's very, very thoughtful and pragmatic.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: It's the opposite of that, honestly, you know.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So usually we're very thoughtful about making our bold moves and we potentially could have been thinking and planning it for a bit, or we just decide this is it.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I know this is the right time.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I'm taking that, that chance, when?
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: When's the first time you remember, based on your definition, living that bold life?
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: The very first time is a long time ago.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: I have always struggled with the question of like what are you going to be when you grow up?
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: When I was little, I took that very literally.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: I used to respond Frank Lloyd Wright or a farmer, or both Frank Lloyd, farmer.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: We were like you can't be Frank Lloyd Wright.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: But I didn't really have a concept of it then I was like, no, that's what I'm going to do.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: I told my nanny she could drive the tractor on the farm.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I think that's probably the earliest.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: And then, a more recent one is I left my corporate life of nine and a half years building companies within another company, of all the sort of trappings of what a good immigrant daughter would go and do and started my own businesses, which I had been doing in small steps along the way.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: But that was about just a little over a year ago and that was terrifying.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, definitely a bold move.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: For sure I can relate to that.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I quit my job without having a job in 2020, in the middle of the beginning of the pandemic.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, some bold moves being made among this group today.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: So, when you think about your roles now and what you're doing in your world, kind of talk to me a little bit about the first steps that it takes.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: So, like I think you know, jeff, you and I talked about regenerative communities and that's kind of the big picture.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: That's the end goal right, in a way of like bringing together the resources, the homes, the land, the things that come from the land, how we take care of it and again, I'm the novice in this group of that, but that's kind of the goal, which takes multiple steps before you get there.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: And some people might be thinking that sounds great, but that sounds really big.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: And so we have an expert in the farming area, the agri-hood.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I love that and thinking about kind of what we could do in the sense of what's our role in our communities now, the steps we can take, even before we're part of we're all already are part of something bigger than us.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: It's called the world.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: For anyone that doesn't know that, listening, you're already part of something bigger and you have a role to like take good care of it.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: And so, if we're thinking about our first steps, I love to kind of hear from each one of you we can start with with you, elisa of like what's the first step someone can do when they're thinking about what is farming or gardening or the larger concept of regenerative communities and, jeff, maybe when we get to, you can actually define what that is for everyone, just in case they need a reminder of that but what's the first step someone can take when they're thinking about what their bigger role in the world is when it comes to taking care of it and also taking care of their family and the people kind of in their ripple?
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: One of the reasons that we do the regenerative farm and a regenerative community is reminding people that we are nature, that we aren't in fact separate from nature, but we are a part of it, we're connected to it and often in modern society we sever ourselves from it or society severs ourselves from it.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: And this was kind of a conscious taking back the connection you know as ours, and so it really doesn't take living in a regenerative community or having a farm or farmette which I love that term now but just reconnecting with nature.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: So I would say you know what are the pockets of nature around you?
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Is it the tree outside your kitchen window?
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Is it the park on the corner?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Is it the median?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: You know where there's some wildflowers blooming.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: It really doesn't have to be big and it doesn't need acreage to be.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: You know a special place for you to reconnect with the earth.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And I really think that's ultimately the first step is reconnecting with nature, noticing seasonal change, noticing migratory birds, noticing what you're.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: You know you're growing, your neighbors growing in your yard very simple, easy steps.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Is growing in your yard?
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Very simple, easy steps.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: If you just turn on your senses and start to notice, you know, become a better noticer, being present, which I think people struggle with these days.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: So like having, whether it's our cell phones or TVs or laptops or whatever it may be and I'm one of them, you know, I'm not naming names or blaming anybody, but I'm part of it as like being present and sometimes for me, my example and I share this with my community a lot, my dogs help me be present that when we're going on a walk and, like you know, maple, who is an English cream retriever, will stop and just start smelling the air or she'll hear the birds and she'll just like be really paying attention to them and I'll be like in a rush, but she'll just like be really paying attention to them, and I'll be like in a rush but she'll make me stop and I'm like okay, let's feel the wind.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: So just those micro moments of presence, like you said, the medium, like I don't know if anyone's driving, you know, or listening to this podcast, but like where do you see the nature around you now and connect with it in the way that feels good and like normal and okay for you?
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: You know, from that perspective, and I think just just begin to notice it's kind of sounds like that's the key when it comes to what you're thinking, elisa.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I love that you brought up your dog, because you know that's another species.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: And when I think about you know my day-to-day life as a farmer.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: I'm interacting with so many other species all the time.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: But as humans in, you know, our modern world, we're so often just interacting with other humans, you know so is it the orchid that you can put on your desk or is it your pet?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: You know it's like how can we reconnect with the other species that we're actually really connected and often dependent on?
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how about you, kate?
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Where do you think it all begins from the perspective of, you know, creating a beautiful garden or connecting with nature in the way that you do through your developments and the places that you help create?
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: For me, the first place is more of an emotional state of like, what is it that I really want?
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: What do I want to be moving towards?
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: And there's a darker part of that too, like what do I really not want to happen?
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: And my daughter is a major, major focus for me with this, or kind of some ignition for me.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: She's five now and when she was born, I got very clear on a couple of things.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: One was that I needed now to be really proud of my work, and that was a feeling that I wanted, and it wasn't.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: Oh, you have to do this first and then this as much as okay.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: This is a desire.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: I want to feel really proud of this.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: I started thinking about climate change a little bit differently at that point, saying, oh my God, this is going to be the fight of our lifetime, because I love her and I want what every parent or every caregiver, anybody who loves anything that's young wants.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: I want for her to have opportunity and to be healthy and to have the ability to thrive.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: And you know, from a science perspective, it's like, wow, if we don't do something about this, that's not going to be possible.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: So I have, you know, a couple of years till she asks me wait, you knew about this, Would you do?
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: And I want to.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: I want to love my damn answer to that.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: So I got really clear this was like five years ago, I had no idea what I was going to be doing about that, but the feeling of I really want that, I want to love that answer, I want to feel proud of it and I want to.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: I want this crazy thing which is I want a healthy world that she can thrive in.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: And the third thing was that there's so much pleasure as well.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: That is totally relevant.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: So, like connecting to how I want to feel in a really intimate way, and I again, I'm gonna I'm gonna bring my daughter into this.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: I wanted for her to feel safe, I wanted to feel connected, I wanted to have enjoyment that didn't require, you know, getting in a car and going somewhere, and so for me, we kind of stumbled into this.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: I was working on major real estate projects at the time in a corporate setting.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I had been in New York for many years doing commercial real estate, and then I came back to Seattle and was doing residential real estate and we were renovating thousands of homes a year, but I didn't love any of them and I wanted to love the spaces that I was working on, and so for me, it was very kind of abstract around taking.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: I want to feel really good and I want this for myself right now, for my daughter and for me, and and so the very first thing that I did was I tore up my front yard.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: I didn't want my husband mowing the lawn all the time, because it was annoying and took time, and I wanted something beautiful.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: I wanted the neighbors to know us, I wanted the neighbors to know our daughter and I wanted something gorgeous to look at, and so that's kind of what started it for me.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: And then we started saying, okay, how would we do this If we wanted to say let's take climate change.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: This is science.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: This is a solvable thing.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: How do we take this and do something at the level of our house?
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: And so we started renovating this 97-year-old home that we live in and made every decision based on climate change and on the science of longevity because I'm a humongous nerd and then basically took those as frameworks to say how do we make each of those decisions as we went and it was not that scientific at the beginning, and then we had the opportunity to do it a couple more times and it's become a really amazing source of joy to kind of distill all that science down into some really specific things that are really beautiful in the garden, in the home.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: So it literally started in your front yard and I think that's one thing like.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: So we've heard of presence and noticing, and then clarity is what I get out of what you just talked about is you got really, really clear on what you want to be able to share with your daughter, of how you've been working to solve some of these challenges, and so when she gets to that age, she says you knew about this, what have you been doing?
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: And you can say here, let me show you, and actually you've been part of it, what a great story to be able to tell.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: So like presence and clarity.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: And what would you say is next, jeff, for getting going?
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: When you just want to start thinking about your role in your front or backyard, how do you get it started?
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: You know, I'd really love what both Elisa and Kate said.
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: There's not much left to say in terms of of, you know, connecting to nature, connecting to, to sort of these sparks of light, the things that drive you, I think.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: I think for me, one of the surprising things is the word regenerate itself.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: So the word regenerate is is really about how do we bring something back.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Right and fundamentally it's, it's's about how do we bring something back, and I think that starts with you.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: What is it in yourself that you want to bring back?
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: What is it in your life or in the world that you want to bring back?
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: You know, elisa talked about these sort of deep natural connections.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Kate talked about sort of future responsibilities to her children and her family.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: Legacy talked about sort of future responsibilities to her children and her family Legacy, and for me it's always been.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: I have just a fundamental belief that the thing that is that makes my life good, the thing that I personally thrive on and that I now have found out that human beings thrive on, is community, being in community.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: There's a loneliness epidemic that's spread through the United States and then on into the world.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: People are very, very much alone.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: Our wealth, the things that we strive for, isolate us and take us away from other humans, other animals, as Elisa said, you know, other plants.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: We're disconnected and increasingly disconnected, and so for me, the first simple step in regeneration is kind of the regeneration of yourself.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: What are the things that you long for, whether it's for your family or whatever?
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: For me it was to be in community.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: For me, the seed that made all of this worth doing was to be around other humans, for my kids to be around other humans, to be sort of in a natural environment eating well.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: So there was this sort of hierarchy of needs, but at the bottom, at the base, for me the kind of the key ingredient that was going to make it better was being in community and not having to do all of this on my own, so that was kind of the first step for me.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: And you know, gosh, you can develop a community we're building homes and a farm and all the things or you could just buy a bigger dining table and invite people around.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean it's like.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: How big is your table might be the first question, and one of the things I love about this work is that it doesn't.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: I love what Elisa said as well.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: It doesn't have to be big.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: It can literally be changing the size of your dining room table.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: It can literally be changing the composition of your personal garden, like you did, and just learning about that.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of people trying to create community and it's something that actually got asked of me this week and I want to say like a membership or those types of things.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: That's when I say community right now, which I think is also a way to kind of kickstart relationships or get down to like taking off some of the things that can be, whether they're titles or names or things that define us, which really don't define us right, like you know, our education or where we worked for a hundred years or how long we've been doing something.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a challenge for people to even introduce themselves without stating where they work and their title, which I think is a challenge.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: That's a problem, you know.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: So someone asked me like how do you create community?
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And they asked me that question and I had to pause for a moment because to me sometimes I don't know and this might sound silly and you tell me back if you feel this way too, but it's more natural than you think you actually don't create a connection between someone.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: You don't actually create how someone gets along with someone.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: I don't have that power.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: What I can do is create in something you all have said in some form, or fashion the space for that connection to happen.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: And I think the space can be your table, the space can be your community center, the ballpark, the, you know, the church, like it'd be wherever that space is.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: And I think sometimes people think, oh gosh, you know the church, like it'd be wherever that space is.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: And I think sometimes people think, oh gosh, you know that's just too big.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And I and I love that.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: We're talking about creating the spaces.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: So what do you think are some of the ingredients to creating the space where people can come together and create that magic that is community.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: That actually is the people.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: It's not me, I'm just creating.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: That's why I say the space for it to happen in a way that hope, feels good, feels natural, feels special, honestly, in some form or fashion.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: So curious on, anyone can jump in here, like you know how.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: What are the ingredients to creating the space?
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: There's a wonderful quote.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: This idea of love and connection wants to happen, so all you have to do is remove the things that get in the way, to take away the blocks in a way.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: And some of that really speaking very practically at our house is we spend time outside in the yard, we say hello to people, which I'm in.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: I'm in Seattle and Seattle's notorious for this thing called the Seattle freeze, because people don't.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: They come here and people are nice but they're not really open and welcoming, and so my husband and I just said, okay, we don't want our house to be like that.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: We want our house to be a really warm place where people just come and go all the time and it's, and it's great, um, and when I go out on the street now I get hollered at by all kinds of people driving, by friends.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: You know other other folks that we've done work with our neighbors.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: All know us because we know them, Because happiness, happiness likes company.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you attract it right.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: So you, by saying hello and at first I'm sure you started saying it, which I've been there like hi, how are you?
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: And then no one answers and you're like, okay, I'm going to keep going.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, catching on, I'm a huge introvert, and so I'm a noisy, introvert, but I'm an introvert and so I use beauty to do that for me.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Like I planted all these beautiful bulbs, which are really easy, stick them in the ground in the fall, and then you just wait, and in the spring they're coming up and they're beautiful.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: And when we did this, people changed their walking routes.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: So they were walking in front of our house to see what was going on and we met all these different neighbors because they noticed that different things were coming up and they would stop and they would ask I've had people come up and knock on the door to say what is this flower?
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: It is so beautiful and so that kind of a thing.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: I had one neighbor that was alone.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: She was living alone during the pandemic and she would write these little notes to me and like draw little pictures of the flowers that she liked and leave them taped to the stairs by our door, and then I would leave her a little note because she was up so early.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: We didn't actually see each other a lot of the time.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: So just things like that of saying, okay, make something that is a little bit more than you have to do, and people feel that as an invitation.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: So a front yard is really important for that.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: I think it can be a very strong signal.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Beauty is safety, beauty is an invitation and we also put we also put chairs in the front yards of all of our homes and it is a totally different vibe that people see that there's a chair there, they see that you're going to be out there and it creates an openness when they do come by.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you've been to New England, right?
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: So I know you've been to Boston and the gardens that they have down in Fenway, in the back bay, so you actually have to apply for the garden plot, which is very, very small.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: But then it is just incredible.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And when you said the chairs, it reminded me of those spots that you know they have like 30 square feet or 40.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I'm really bad at measurement, so I'm just like it's really small people that's what I'm saying and people decorate it and they plant and they put their chairs right down in the middle and then it becomes a social spot in the summer because people start.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: It's almost like you're, you know, like on a walking dinner party.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: You know how you go, place to place to place.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: It's like a walking garden party.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: People are walking through and talking to the people what are you growing and what do you do?
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: And there's some people buy two or three and they combine them and it's like a backyard.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: It's just an incredible like.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: When you were talking about that, I was visualizing that in Boston and it becomes a social space, right, a place for conversation and interaction and questioning and getting to know, like, what's that about?
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: The other thing you said is like planting bulbs is pretty simple, as long as you plant them the right direction.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: One year I planted all my bulbs the wrong direction.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: It was mortified and my grandma was like, how does someone do that?
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Uh, well, I did, but anyway.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: So plant them in the right direction so they grow up and they don't not come up.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Um, but what's interesting is, you did do something like.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: You planted them, you had the intention of what they would be.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: They did that kind of magic of the growing, but you watered them.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: You planted them far enough apart where they could grow.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: There's thought that goes into it.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: So I think there's.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: When I'm thinking about what we're talking about.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Creating this space is like there is thought and then there's nurturing.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: That happens, but then the magic really becomes the space itself.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Um, and that you create it and sometimes you don't know what it's going to look like.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I know when someone that we plant some of those, I was like I don't know which ones are going to come up, which ones won't.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Is it going to look good?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: That how I put them together and somehow flowers just make it all beautiful, regardless of what we do.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: And so I think, think you know, just watching also with this anticipation of like, what's it going to be?
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: And that's kind of fun too, as a creator of that space, whether it's a physical space or a virtual space, like a community or the in-person events that you know someone may do.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: Maybe one other thing is that concept of abundance, of having a little bit extra.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: We have often left out buckets in the front with I'm pruning something and I have too many of these.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: You know apple blossoms and they're stunning, they're so beautiful.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: They only last for a couple of days but people will come and take them and then we'll meet people months later who said oh, I brought, I got some of your apple blossoms right, took a couple of bunches of sage or thyme and it was so nice.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: yeah you're the house I'd go to is like how do you have any extra basil, because I don't have that for my recipe you want to be that house and then you do it and then somebody else does it, and then it's magic, like what you said.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, how about you, elisa?
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: What do you think is the when you're thinking about the farming space?
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Because think about the thought that goes into that, right, and creating the space.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: You know whether you're tilling and planting the actual seed or whether you're going in and harvesting like so much thought to that and planning and really it can get highly technical, fast, I'm assuming, and so I've listed how to you know, like a tomato plant and the corn, and you know some of the basics.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: You know squash, that kind of stuff, which is still great and I'm not I'm not demeaning that, but I mean you're talking about kind of the larger scale when you're creating the spaces.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: How do you create the space?
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: What are some of the ingredients to your world when it comes to the farm?
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Well, in regenerative farming, inherently you're managing a very complex system.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: It's not a monoculture-based system, which is when you would see rows of just one thing growing per se, but in that regard it mimics nature and it's a more approachable system in terms of welcoming people and making them feel at home and that they can enter the space.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: I find, and in terms of fostering community and creating space for connection, it's really beautiful how the farm always sparks some sort of common ground.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: So everyone eats food and everyone has positive memory associated with nature in their lifespan, always.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: And so what's really cool is, you know, I usually don't have to really do a lot People will come onto the farm and the conversation just starts to flow very naturally.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: They see a plant from their childhood in India or they say, hey, I actually don't know why, you know, we don't need roosters.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Or you know, it's like it's very natural for people to start talking and cuing into somatic experience in their body and memories they've had, and I love that the farm is a common ground for that type of connection and it carries into other aspects of my life.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: You know, I've gotten a pedicure and talked to the woman in depth about her grandmother growing in Guerrero, mexico, and the seed she grew, and I've talked to my Uber driver about, you know, dry land farming in Sonora and it's.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter who it is or where I am farming food nature.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: They are our common ground and so it's.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: It's a it's a really easy way I find to to connect with people and create a vessel for connection find to to connect with people and create a vessel for connection.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: yeah, I love this algorithm we just kind of created like being present and noticing, having clarity, thinking about our abundance and how we share it with others, and then really intentionally, that creates the commonalities that we all have together as humans and the species that we share the planet with, which equals the regenerative community.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Right, and we all have a role in different ways to do that.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: But I think for me that was just kind of interesting how that all kind of played together, because it really is the base of the foundation for what you build and it could be something that's small and air quotes here but just a small garden in the front yard has tremendous impact and connection and social space.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Your farm that you have, elisa, brings together people and all of a sudden, where we, I think in our world today, often look at, what's different about us versus what's the same, it takes that down a notch.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Versus what's the same it takes that down a notch.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Is there anything you would add, jeff, when you're?
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: thinking about creating the spaces that evoke and connect and help people kind of drop their guard.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: You know it's so lovely.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: I'm actually just taking notes.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: It's a good space for me to reflect and think about these things.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a good point too, like just being able to think, because I think in our world how fast it goes and how fast things come at us, your front garden, your farm, your backyard, your front yard, like your community center, the place where people come together, is a place to have a little space, literally to think as well, and, uh, that that's needed, I think, these days I wrote down, lee, just as as everyone else was talking, that you bring your, you bring the planet back by bringing yourself back.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: Really, love that, that sort of idea and you know, in terms of you bring yourself back by paying attention to where you are and what you're eating and being in community, and so it's.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: And I think we started the call with Elisa saying you know, what are you paying attention to, what are you noticing?
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: One of the things about this whole regenerative field and one of the things that's really interesting is it's not just the planet that's hurting, right, it's not just climate change, it's us too.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: We talked about loneliness, we talked, but in so many ways, what we're eating, our bodies are the whole thing.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: And I love the farm as a metaphor.
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: Um, one of the things elisa doesn't sort of talk a lot about is that she teaches hundreds of people both, you know, tourists coming through, but also local farmers, about this idea.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: And the farm is a metaphor for me is a regenerative farm uses no fertilizers, no pesticides, no herbicides.
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: It uses other plants to kind of create both the nutrition and the protection for a garden to grow in the way it was always naturally intended to.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: And as a human being, as someone living in a community.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: That's kind of what I'm interested in.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: What are the natural ingredients, what are the natural things that we've always surrounded ourselves with as human beings, that feed us, that sustain us?
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: And a farm is not only a metaphor.
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: It's the stuff we eat, right, it's the things that come out of our soil, it's the things that we put into our bodies, and so it's both a metaphor that teaches, but also an environment that supports us.
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: And your garden.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: The same right.
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: The things that you're feeding people, whether it's beauty or food.
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: That's where the density of this regeneration comes from.
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: The last thing I want to say is, oftentimes, when I don't know about you, but when we look at this sort of climate change problem and Kate sort of talks about gigatons, even the terminology is impenetrable.
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: What the hell is a gigaton of carbon?
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: And what the hell am I going to hell is a gigaton of carbon right?
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: And what the hell am I going to do about a gigaton of carbon, jeff?
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: You know is really, is driving around less going to make that better, or an electric car, or whatever?
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: And so sometimes I think that overwhelm can lead us to sort of being like okay, I got a million other things to think about my kids, my work, my whatever being like.
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: Okay, I got a million other things to think about my kids, my work, my whatever.
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: And the the simple act of tending your garden and of kind of making that first step I think it's wonderfully empowering or of creating a farm Lisa's farm is not a huge farm, but it's impacted hundreds of people these small, tiny steps that regenerate you, regenerate your place, your location, and then start to kind of echo out into your community.
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: I think we can be beacons.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it can start to really battle against some of the things that I think are strange, whether it's our environment or whether it's loneliness.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I just think about a community garden, whether it's in the city, like Boston, or at a farm, like ULISA, or a front yard, like many of us have.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Those are the places and spaces where we can start combating loneliness and creating connection and helping with people's emotional and mental health, and our own as well.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: So I think, again, it just goes back to we all have a part in it.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: And if you're thinking like I don't know what a gigaton is either, jeff, but but I know I can plant something and I know I can, you know, take care of it and I can say hello.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Those are, you know, for the most part very low cost things.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: So I remember planting our garden with my dad, which is his thing, and he's in his late 70s and this year he did raise beds so it's easier for him to get around, but like that's his happy place, like, and he has his chairs in his garden and and so like it is just this wonderful place and space that it can be.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: So I think you know, just as we end here, I would love just your guidance for anyone who just needs to begin or start, and it's kind of just giving me your one sentence advice you would give to someone of just getting out there and doing it, because I think what we've gotten at is, with just a few things that don't cost anything like being present, getting clear and kind of taking the first step, you can actually make a difference.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: I'll start with you, elisa of taking the first step, you can actually make a difference.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: I'll start with you, elisa.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: I think it could be posed as a question of yourself, and it's just how can I live more in reciprocity with the earth as a way to step away from the extractive way that we often live?
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: How can I approach my lifestyle in a more reciprocal fashion?
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: More alignment in a way.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, how about you?
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: Kate, I like the question theme what brings you pleasure?
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: How good can you let it get?
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: For me that's like oh my goodness, I feel so wealthy because I bought 10 peony roots on sale and I planted them all.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: I'm going to have 10 peony plants, oh my God, for somebody else that might be something really different.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I love that.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: And, jeff, what would your question be?
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: Who else is interested would be my question.
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: I live in a desert in the middle of nowhere in Mexico and I wanted to learn about regenerative farming.
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: I wanted to learn about regenerative communities, and one of my colleagues' sisters turns out to be a world-class expert in regenerative farming.
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's just by just putting it out there and saying who else is interested, it not only enriched my community, but it taught me a million things.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: That's how we all met.
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, putting yourself out there too, like you're just being inquisitive and curious.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: You know it's like are you curious?
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: I guess that's how I would end it with.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: My question is like and what are you curious about?
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: You don't have to go it alone and let's just start having that conversation.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the Bulldog.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: This has been such a fun conversation.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the bold lounges.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: It's been such a fun conversation.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: I hope our paths continue to cross.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: All the information about kate, elisa and jeff is down in the episode notes.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the bold lounge thank you so much thank you for listening to the bold lounge podcast.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Through the continuum of bold stories vulnerability to taking a leap you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.