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Transcript

Jennifer with Coffee-Episode 22-Author & Gardener Kelsey Crane with Climate Fiction · Jennifer with Coffee

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Jennifer with Coffee, a mindset podcast for people who are looking for real change.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jennifer Lauer, writer, yogi, and fitness fanatic.
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  SPEAKER_00: Lately, I've been having lots of coffee meetups, long,
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  SPEAKER_00: honest conversations that delve into mindset,
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  SPEAKER_00: identity, choices, and habits that shape our lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: I kept thinking how I wanted to share these conversations.
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  SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
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  SPEAKER_00: Each episode moves in three beats.
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  SPEAKER_00: An inspirational story,
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  SPEAKER_00: an interview with thinkers,
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  SPEAKER_00: builders, athletes, and artists, people who want to share their own transformations.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we'll end with a brief meditation to practice calming the nervous system.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you've been connecting with the stories and conversations here,
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  SPEAKER_00: I've also written some fiction that explore emotional spaces.
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  SPEAKER_00: One is an AI dystopia and the others are part of a paranormal mystery series.
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  SPEAKER_00: So if you're ever curious, you can find them on my website,
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  SPEAKER_01: jenniferlauer.com.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's inspo is about themes.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is a little bit of a theme in a lot of my work and it leads back to when I was
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  SPEAKER_00: a child and I saw the movie The Wizard of Oz.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's always a theme of coming home in my stories.
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  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I was thinking about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: I just wrote a poem, Wizard of Oz Coded.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I was thinking about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting how we are so...
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  SPEAKER_00: The
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  SPEAKER_00: idea of home and coming home to oneself is definitely a theme in all of my books, really.
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  SPEAKER_00: They all have their own way of coming home.
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  SPEAKER_00: You kind of go out on this life adventure,
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  SPEAKER_00: meet different people with different ideas and fears and experience,
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  SPEAKER_00: go into the forest and the flying monkeys,
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  SPEAKER_00: the tin man, and the trees with the apples.
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  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I loved that part.
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  SPEAKER_00: The trees throwing apples at them was peak Wizard of Oz.
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  SPEAKER_00: We have all of these experiences.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the end,
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  SPEAKER_00: all of those things Experiences and people were there
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  SPEAKER_00: to help you find your own way home.
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  SPEAKER_00: The thing you were seeking was there all along.
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  SPEAKER_00: I just love stories that have that theme.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's just done so well.
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  SPEAKER_00: When I was younger, I think I was just like, oh, I'm so glad Dorothy made her way home.
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  SPEAKER_00: I was worried or sad for her, even though she had these adventures in Oz.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now as an adult, I see it's inside of you already.
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  SPEAKER_00: When we can get quiet, I hope that we can remember whatever we desire.
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  SPEAKER_00: When we're out in the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: when we're trying to make a career or a family,
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  SPEAKER_00: friendships, the thing that we're after is a feeling.
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  SPEAKER_00: That feeling is available to us.
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  SPEAKER_00: If you are looking to feel loved or brave, smart, those feelings are already available to you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're after, you already have it.
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  SPEAKER_00: May your journey bring you a clearer picture of that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Good luck on your trip down the yellow brick road.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now for our interview.
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  SPEAKER_00: Kelsey Crane is a storyteller, gardener, and apprentice of regenerative living.
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  SPEAKER_00: A certified permaculturist and ambassador for the Rodale Institute.
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  SPEAKER_00: She learns from the teachers,
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  SPEAKER_00: growers,
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  SPEAKER_00: and indigenous leaders quietly building the future and brings what she gathers to
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  SPEAKER_00: the page with care and curiosity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Her fiction explores the collision of ecological collapse
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  SPEAKER_00: and radical transformation,
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  SPEAKER_00: always with unshakable optimism,
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  SPEAKER_00: a hope she holds as a mother for every child inheriting this world.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Kelsey.
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  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Jennifer.
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  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for having me.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad to have you here.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we just jump in and have you tell us a little bit about yourself
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  SPEAKER_00: and what brought you to the work you do now?
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, I am 43 years old,
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  SPEAKER_01: so shout out to all the ladies and gents out there that are finding themselves
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  SPEAKER_01: in their kind of second blossom of life.
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  SPEAKER_01: This came to me,
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  SPEAKER_01: writing came to me Actually,
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  SPEAKER_01: out of kind of a dark period of my life,
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  SPEAKER_01: I was diagnosed with infertility when trying to get pregnant with my son,
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  SPEAKER_01: my second born.
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  SPEAKER_01: It was COVID, top of 2020, and I was not feeling healthy.
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  SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of things going wrong,
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  SPEAKER_01: and I became really fascinated with the fertility process.
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  SPEAKER_01: In my body and the fertility outside my body, soil.
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  SPEAKER_01: I watched the Kiss the Ground documentary.
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  SPEAKER_01: I had that experience,
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  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if this has ever happened to you,
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  SPEAKER_01: where I felt like I was struck by lightning,
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  SPEAKER_01: where I felt like I was having that awakening moment watching that documentary
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  SPEAKER_01: when they explained that everything going on in our bellies is the same
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  SPEAKER_01: as what's going on in the ground, that our microbiomes are mirrored.
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  SPEAKER_01: I...
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  SPEAKER_01: Really felt that I had been disconnected from nature, even my own nature for so long.
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  SPEAKER_01: I started my fertility journey to get pregnant with my son and I was talking
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  SPEAKER_01: to doctors about, well, what should I eat?
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  SPEAKER_01: Or like,
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  SPEAKER_01: how should I,
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  SPEAKER_01: what should I do to kind of calm my mind and align my mind, body and spirit?
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  SPEAKER_01: And they didn't want to talk about any of that.
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  SPEAKER_01: They wanted to talk about my ovaries and that was super important as well.
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  SPEAKER_01: But I wanted to talk about my mindset and my health overall, like a functional unit.
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  SPEAKER_01: And so I started getting my food from farmers markets and I started meeting farmers
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  SPEAKER_01: and I picked up a shovel and I started to plant and get my hands dirty.
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  SPEAKER_01: And it was, again,
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  SPEAKER_01: like the kind of awakening moment continued every time I journeyed further into
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  SPEAKER_01: that place where it was such a creative process to plant and to garden.
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  SPEAKER_01: So meditative and yet so active.
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  SPEAKER_01: I'm someone that like watches a movie and is also beading jewelry or like,
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  SPEAKER_01: you know, doodling on the side.
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  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm a busy in the garden.
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  SPEAKER_01: My hands were busy and my mind was clear.
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  SPEAKER_01: I got really lucky and I ended up having my son.
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  SPEAKER_01: It was our second IUI that took with a 7% chance of working.
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  SPEAKER_01: We used fertility drugs to help that happen.
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  SPEAKER_01: But I also was manifesting every day.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was healthy.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was putting clean food in my body.
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  SPEAKER_01: I made this promise in my manifestation that if I got pregnant,
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  SPEAKER_01: that I would spend my life helping the earth do her thing.
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  SPEAKER_01: That I was going to tread softly.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna try to help things grow.
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  SPEAKER_01: And when I got my son, my Leo, who's now four and a half, I took that oath seriously.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I became really fascinated about how we talk to our children about this world
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  SPEAKER_01: that we're I started working in my daughter's school garden and talking to children
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  SPEAKER_01: about gardening and the earth and how they feel about it.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was so inspired by them.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I also watched it around in fifth grade.
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  SPEAKER_01: There's this kind of button that switches off in them.
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  SPEAKER_01: Like all of a sudden they don't want to be dirty.
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  SPEAKER_01: They have this disconnect, the same disconnect I grew up with that happens.
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  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought, well, how can we make this entertaining for kids?
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  SPEAKER_01: How can we,
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  SPEAKER_01: if you're not sitting down to watch a soil documentary or,
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  SPEAKER_01: you know,
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  SPEAKER_01: read a book on gardening,
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  SPEAKER_01: how can I kind of teach this in a way that isn't teaching,
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  SPEAKER_01: in a way that's, you know, through entertainment?
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  SPEAKER_01: I started thinking a lot about environmentalism and entertainment.
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  SPEAKER_01: Entertainment being kind of this Trojan horse thing.
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  SPEAKER_01: That unlocks all of these wonderful things.
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  SPEAKER_01: Eventually, I went to permaculture school and took as many gardening classes as I could.
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  SPEAKER_01: How can I distill that to especially our teenagers who I feel are the closest
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  SPEAKER_01: of getting a I thought, let me tell a story.
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  SPEAKER_01: And one day in my garden with trowel and hands in the dirt,
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  SPEAKER_01: I thought of the idea of a group of kids that doesn't want to play our game anymore
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  SPEAKER_01: and goes into the wilderness to remember something we've all forgotten.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that's where the exiles came from.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's a really compelling reason to write a book.
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean, entertainment as a vehicle to change the world is like probably
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  SPEAKER_00: the most idealistic way to go.
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  SPEAKER_00: You are finding this place in young people and also beautiful story about having your son and...
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  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious for people listening who have something that they are trying
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  SPEAKER_00: to discover in their own lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: What did that look like for you?
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  SPEAKER_00: What is manifesting every day?
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  SPEAKER_00: What did that look like?
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  SPEAKER_01: Such a good question.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's so many different things.
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  SPEAKER_01: We can put it in the show notes.
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  SPEAKER_01: She was really powerful and she ended up,
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  SPEAKER_01: I listened to a 30 minute daily class and I paid for one class and I listened to
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  SPEAKER_01: the same one every day,
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  SPEAKER_01: which for me was really nice because it became like this mantra,
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  SPEAKER_01: this song that I kind of knew the words to so I could go in and out.
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  SPEAKER_01: And essentially in this particular class,
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  SPEAKER_01: I would lay down on the bed and I would close my eyes
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  SPEAKER_01: and I imagined I already had what I wanted.
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  SPEAKER_01: Not just in my imagination.
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  SPEAKER_01: In her leading, I imagined like I...
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  SPEAKER_01: Felt, and I was trying to get pregnant.
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  SPEAKER_01: I really wanted a baby.
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  SPEAKER_01: And so I imagined already having the baby inside me.
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  SPEAKER_01: It was really open-ended.
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  SPEAKER_01: So she would allow for all this time and space.
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  SPEAKER_01: And it was a lot of breath work.
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  SPEAKER_01: So she would lead you in and then she would let you be for like 15 minutes
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  SPEAKER_01: while you're doing the breath with little reminders.
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  SPEAKER_01: It would allow for this time for my imagination to really travel
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  SPEAKER_01: about what it would feel like in my body to already have what I wanted.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I would see roots growing down my legs and up my arms.
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  SPEAKER_01: Really synced with the work that I was doing outside.
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  SPEAKER_01: I would carry that feeling into the garden, that feeling of I already have it.
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  SPEAKER_01: One of the big things that I do now, I try to replace fear with gratitude.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was where I first learned that.
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  SPEAKER_01: What if I stopped being scared of never having a second child?
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  SPEAKER_01: What if I just was so grateful for the child I have?
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  SPEAKER_01: And how much love I have to give another child.
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  SPEAKER_01: And if I had to adopt or have a surrogate or get a donor egg,
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  SPEAKER_01: all the different ways that I could honor being a mother and kind of opening my mind
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  SPEAKER_01: in a way that was really grateful and open to possibility.
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  SPEAKER_01: It made my fear feel really small.
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  SPEAKER_01: I just tried to stay in such gratitude and openness.
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  SPEAKER_01: The only way I wouldn't be a mother again is if I decided to call it,
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  SPEAKER_01: if it became too much for me,
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  SPEAKER_01: because there were so many different ways I could accomplish that.
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  SPEAKER_01: And in the garden, I felt like I already was that.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was the mother to all these little plants.
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  SPEAKER_01: I cared so much about them growing.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was nurturing them.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was practicing so tangibly what I wanted.
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  SPEAKER_01: There were times where the fear got really, really loud.
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  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a perfect system.
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  SPEAKER_01: It was definitely, it was a battle.
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  SPEAKER_01: I think we forget to talk about the battle sometimes in manifesting
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  SPEAKER_01: that we think manifesting or meditation is like,
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  SPEAKER_01: You've reached this Zen state and your mind is blank and you're floating
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  SPEAKER_01: on your cloud.
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  SPEAKER_01: I think it's like repeated choices.
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  SPEAKER_01: I'm choosing gratitude.
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  SPEAKER_01: Thank you to my fear for showing up.
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  SPEAKER_01: And the big thing is also you can't push your fear away.
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  SPEAKER_01: You have to make it your friend.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's such a powerful practice turning the fear into gratitude.
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  SPEAKER_01: Every time I do that, it reminds me like exactly what you were saying.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's not easy.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's not an easy thing when you feel doubt.
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  SPEAKER_00: To then go to gratitude, but it's kind of like a path.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the more you travel that path,
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  SPEAKER_00: the more that pops up in my head,
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  SPEAKER_00: like when I'm feeling those doubtful feelings, like, oh, right, gratitude.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then you're just like,
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  SPEAKER_00: oh, God, that's the last thing I want to do right now is count my blessings.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it works.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every time it works.
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the thing at that practice.
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  SPEAKER_00: The hard part is the whole thing.
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  SPEAKER_00: If there was no resistance in life, think about a plant, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: It needs that resistance to grow.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like when a grape grows,
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  SPEAKER_00: the berry is sweeter,
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  SPEAKER_00: the hotter the sun, the harder it has to find a way out of the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's the truth for us as well.
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  SPEAKER_01: A hundred percent.
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  SPEAKER_01: A seed like literally needs to be roughed up,
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  SPEAKER_01: you know, before something breaks and then it becomes open.
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  SPEAKER_01: So there's always a breakdown before an opening.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I think it was the breath work specifically that helps you
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  SPEAKER_01: at least create pockets of space where you can identify, I am not my thoughts.
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  SPEAKER_01: I am the thinker of my thoughts.
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  SPEAKER_01: Then when fear comes up, you're like, she's here.
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  SPEAKER_01: This is like this dark cloud that Manifesting.
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  SPEAKER_01: This is absolutely a real thing and it can look different and it's this traveling thing.
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  SPEAKER_01: The things we say to ourself are really important.
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  SPEAKER_01: So as a thinker,
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  SPEAKER_01: you can catch a thought and you can say,
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  SPEAKER_01: okay, you're here and now I'm going to put this out here.
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  SPEAKER_01: This is what I want and I'm going to say it over and over again like
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  SPEAKER_01: a little song I play for myself.
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're manifesting anyway,
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  SPEAKER_00: either way,
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  SPEAKER_00: if we're doing it with purpose or not,
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  SPEAKER_00: with a little bit of purpose, maybe we're directing the ship in a clearer way.
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  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, no matter if you're in charge of the ship or not, you're manifesting.
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  SPEAKER_00: Let's get to this beautiful piece of art that you made, your book, The Exiles.
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  SPEAKER_00: What was your first step when you realized,
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  SPEAKER_00: okay, this is something that I'm going through Personally and physically.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's all my world right now.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I have this great idea of how to share this with the youth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: Of the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: I know.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that's.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
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  SPEAKER_00: But by the way.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is.
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  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sharing with the youth of the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
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  SPEAKER_01: Because my book is about six multicultural POVs from all over the world.
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  SPEAKER_01: Our world is getting so big, but it's getting so small and interconnected.
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  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to tell a worldly story because I think our teens have a worldly experience.
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  SPEAKER_01: They can connect and talk to one another.
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  SPEAKER_01: I spent the first,
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  SPEAKER_01: certainly six months,
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  SPEAKER_01: if not a year, convincing myself I was doing the thing I was doing.
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  SPEAKER_01: Like, I pitched the idea to a friend of mine.
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  SPEAKER_01: His name is David Ortiz, and he is a wonderful, wonderful person and friend.
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  SPEAKER_01: And thank God said to me as I was telling him about this idea that wouldn't shake me loose.
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  SPEAKER_01: You know, I couldn't, I couldn't, it was dreaming it.
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  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I couldn't help but write down thoughts about it in my journal.
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  SPEAKER_01: It just kept coming.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I told him the idea and he said, you need to write a book.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I said, oh, okay.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
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  SPEAKER_01: I'll just write a book.
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  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
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  SPEAKER_01: And he said, no, really do this.
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  SPEAKER_01: And so I sat in front of a blank page and was like,
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  SPEAKER_01: really did not know where I was going with it other than I felt this inner voice say
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  SPEAKER_01: to trust and to lean in.
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  SPEAKER_01: And so it just started to flow.
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  SPEAKER_01: I've been writing a long time, but there was something about this one.
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  SPEAKER_01: I'm an actor, I'm a writer, and then I'm a gardener.
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  SPEAKER_01: And they always felt like very separate worlds.
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  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden there was this collision point where it was like my passions were together.
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  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, my big passion, my most creative project of all is being a mother.
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  SPEAKER_01: When I felt like I was speaking to children,
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  SPEAKER_01: it was just like all of the The first thing I did was I wrote a 40 page outline
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  SPEAKER_01: and I started to think about my characters and I knew I wanted them to be from all
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  SPEAKER_01: over the world.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I started following teenagers on Instagram that were activists.
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  SPEAKER_01: Those were my first characters, bits of them.
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  SPEAKER_01: And it was actually my therapist.
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  SPEAKER_01: I was telling her that I felt like these six characters,
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  SPEAKER_01: while they're wildly different than myself in so many ways,
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  SPEAKER_01: they felt like little bits of myself.
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  SPEAKER_01: And she said, well,
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  SPEAKER_01: you know,
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  SPEAKER_01: there's We have our core personality,
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  SPEAKER_01: our self with a capital S.
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  SPEAKER_01: And then inside, we have all of these exiled parts of ourselves.
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  SPEAKER_01: And the second she said that to me,
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: I said, six years of therapy into this week, it just all paid for itself.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's the name.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's the link for me.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we live in a time where everything feels so separate.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Really, we're so similar.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Even if we grew up on the other side of the globe, there's still the same hopes and dreams.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so wonderful to imagine being a teenager again,
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: when everything feels so possible, when you have this spirit of invincibility.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew the story had to be about teenagers because only teenagers...
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Would believe so full-heartedly that they have the power to change the world.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: We do too,
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: but we have so many data points and so many things that have happened to us
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: that kind of gives us pause where teenagers are just go,
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: just pedal to the metal, go.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Look at all these wonderful young people doing all of these beautiful things.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew where the story was going to be all the way through and
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: then it was chapter by chapter.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to reflect back to you that you are channeling your own inner teenager
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: because you are changing the world with your book.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we feel that when we're younger,
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: but you're doing exactly the thing that you're appreciating in your characters.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saying that.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: That makes me really emotional.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saying that.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: This book they want to classify as dystopian or sci-fi, but it's neither.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is a climate fiction book.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's a new genre.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not the first.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many wonderful writers that are doing this.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's just around the river bend from dystopia.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: What I'm writing about is what's happening now.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's not really that far into the future, which is why I never give a time on the book.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: I want them to have the truth, you know?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: But once we get through that, there's so much possibility.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many earth workers and farmers and regenerative agricultural leaders
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: and permaculturists, and they've never stopped the indigenous people of the world.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: They know about all the hope that is possible.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: The goal was to gather the teacher.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: I am surely a student and not the teacher.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to gather what I've learned kind of with care to the page.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: That teenage spirit of hope, that's a real thing.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: So talking about all of these things that are inspiring you,
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: the activism, I noticed that in science and young people,
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just wondering,
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: is there something that you're particularly excited about that you learned
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: in your studies and your research for the book that excites you about the future
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: for our planet?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: What is something that the listeners might not know about that is happening
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: that gets you excited?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that is such a good question.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Human beings have been in this time of industrial,
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: building and building as much as we can, you know, capitalism.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: And there's something about this ancient remembering.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: The technology
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: that makes me most excited is this 300 million year old technology that's right
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: underneath our feet.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Bill Gates wants to know how to take We can build machines.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: We feel like we're really smart and there's so much beautiful human innovation happening, but
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: There is so much technology going on underneath our feet.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: In one teaspoon of soil are more organisms than there are people on the planet.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: That is some powerful technology.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: They think fungus was the first thing on the planet
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: and underneath our ground is this whole network of fungus that talks to one another
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: so that trees can communicate differently.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Trees can share,
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: they can create immunity from disease by sharing it to other trees
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: through this great network under the ground.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: There is,
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: and ancient people,
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: and again,
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: definitely indigenous people, ancient and modern people, Know about this technology.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: We just haven't spent time.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: We're so focused on building that we're not looking at what we already have in play.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: When I was watching Kiss the Ground,
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: what made me so excited, we have this massive carbon traffic jam in our skies.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the way we get it out is through photosynthesis.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: When we see bare ground and it's degraded, that's broken ground.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you take a plant,
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: a plant through photosynthesis,
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: their leaves are like solar panels and it takes the energy,
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: it takes carbon and it converts it into sugars,
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: into carbohydrates and it grows and it takes it,
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: the sugars and it puts it in the ground and it feeds the microorganisms in the soil.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the more microorganisms there are in the soil,
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: the healthier the ground is,
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: which means when rain falls,
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: it can retain water and it can save it for drought versus when it rain falls
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: and it sits on degraded land, it rolls off and it takes all the topsoil with it.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: So much of our future is invested in this ancient technology
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: that really doesn't need anything from us except for our nurturing and our support.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: She's got it made.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: We just have to plug in to what we've got.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love that you're teaching us all of these things about nature and gardening.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: You actually have a book about this that could help people.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you tell us a little bit about that because it could be very helpful.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote a little rebel gardener manifesto.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: The whole goal is like, everyone always tells me, oh, I have a black thumb.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like I can never, I can't, I kill everything.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I spent a lot of years doing that as well.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a you thing.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: You haven't created a relationship with a plant yet because once you create
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: that relationship and you're invested in that plant,
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can't help but walk by and be like, oh my gosh, like the leaves are yellow.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, something's wrong.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then this is where technology is a great thing.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Google it.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's a plant app that I love called Plant Gem.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you take a picture of your plant and it gives you all
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: of these wonderful solutions to what's going on.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: How do we create a relationship with the garden?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: I have faith that once you do that, you're in.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's called How to Get Your Hands Dirty and Save the World.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: I I wanted to make it short and sweet and easy to digest and fun to read.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: But I wanted to also explain why certain things matter, you know, why the soil is important.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Basically what we were just talking about, why planting plants are important.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then simple, affordable ways to do that.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Whether all you have is a balcony or a windowsill,
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: there are things that you can be doing to be not only saving money,
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: But to be creating these relationships that are really good for the spirit and soul,
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: do your little share to be a human being on this planet Earth.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it was really cool to make this book.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: I worked with a wonderful graphic designer named Normandy Stanley.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Blew it out of the water because I wanted the book to look old and like you found it
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: in your grandmother's potting shed.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: You're dusting it off and you're finding this forgotten knowledge.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: And keep in mind,
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: not too long ago,
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: we were planting victory gardens and really doing it so we can grow our own food.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: This book was actually inspired by, I don't know if you've read this book.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Have you read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I have.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh!
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: That was another like lightning bolt in my,
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: what struck me so much about this book is once we decided to put food behind lock
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: and key, everything in our, we invented money, everything in our world changed.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: It used to be that we were living and you wanted to go have an apple.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: You could only eat in season and our days were spent gathering and hunting food.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we had this relationship with nature because our survival depended on it.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: The second someone said,
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: I want to eat apples all year round and I don't want to have to go into the forest.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'll plant them right here, right next to my house.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll live here now.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: We won't live out in the forest.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: We'll live right here.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: And actually...
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to pick the apples.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'll own the apples.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: You'll pick the apples.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'll pay you for them.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we stopped.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Our whole world's changed.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now we work, right?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of live.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: That messaging is really what How to Get Your Hands Dirty is about.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I included in the book five generations of my family's artwork in the book,
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: which was something really special.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: I also wanted to ask you about, like, in a more practical sense, Yeah.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like it's coming from somewhere else almost.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: But what did that look like practically?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have a writing practice every day?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Did you kind of write when the muse struck and then take a break,
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: have a certain word count deadlines?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know what that looked like for you.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: And such a good question because not to over romanticize the channel, like,
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: let me tell you, I,
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: this was very Sisyphelian,
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: you know, like I was like, my shoulder hurts from pushing that boulder up the mound.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: We went up and it came down and then, you know, it was not easy.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: There was a lot of Cranking the wheel as well.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: When the muse comes, that's a gift, you know, and you feel it, right?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know you know that.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, oh, oh, this is going to be a good day.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: She's here, you know?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: She's not always there.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: And yet I think there's,
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: and the great writers say this,
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: who I was certainly like studying their practices,
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: like Octavia Butler and Like, you write, I know, she's, I know, she's the best.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: You write anyway.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean it has to be good.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: I am a mom of two.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: That meant, and,
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: you know, my son,
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: when I started writing this,
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: was still really little and was in school only three days a week for a couple hours,
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: so...
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: I would wake up early and get in as much as I could in the morning.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: For me, mornings were really potent.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it was painful in many moments to balance my life.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think I did a great, great job of it.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: My biggest goal with my next book is to create a Routine and balance and to train
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: the muscle, the writer muscle, be more, be healthier.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was a little captive by this book and I want to create more balance that is
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: to be seen if I can, if I can do that.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: But do you, does this, do you relate to this?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of have whatever wonky way the first one comes out.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: You figure it out and it's going to be a little bit of a mess.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be a little messy, right?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because you've never done it before.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: The one you finish, at least.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I had many false starts, so I will say.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I think what ended up happening for me is rather
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: than becoming some really good routine in my life,
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of just adapted to what's normal for me.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: I basically just came to terms.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like by my third book,
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: I had this certain way that it would happen where when I was motivated
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: that I could write,
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: if I had the time, if all of those things came to When I came together, I went hard.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: When I just felt crappy or stuck,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: I have little tips that would help me get out of a stuck mode,
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: but I gave myself grace.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: One of the main things when I get stuck is usually that's like a bore.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to write the exciting scene.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes within that scene, I'll figure out a transition or I won't.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll just be in that next scene.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because even though we know things, the lessons, we're still learning always, you know?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know the other thing,
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: and this is for female writers,
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: cycle, planning your cycle to your creativity.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: I would really, like, during that time, I...
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Knew that my muse would likely be there.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And even telling myself and keeping track of my cycle, I'd get excited for it.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I would plan to give myself more flexibility with my schedule during those times.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I am someone who sleeps with a notepad by my bed because I wake up all the time
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: with ideas and then I can't go back to sleep.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: And if you write them down, if anyone else has this problem...
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Just write it down and then let your mind relax.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes I have to have my notepad because I talk into my phone
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: and my husband is like, hi, I'm here.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm glad you're having the download,
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: but now I'm awake for the download as well, you know?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Writing down your ideas and giving yourself rest when you need rest.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hopeful in my next schedule with the next book that I can create pockets
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: where I have the freedom to surrender to the muse when she shows herself, you know?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a great tip about your cycle.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: The site where everything lives is theexileseries.com.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: On social media, I am art for art's sake.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: I am on TikTok as the wild writer.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: I also have handles as the exile series for both.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: And my books are on Amazon.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now they're in everywhere books are sold.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Barnes and Noble and Google Books and all the bookstores.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I've also started a Shopify.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we end each episode with this very important question.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Kelsey, how do you take your coffee?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God, my favorite question.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a flat white with almond milk and a little dash of cinnamon on top.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love that you're a cinnamon girl.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: So am I.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, we're both cinnamon girls.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: I put cinnamon on everything.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's so good for you.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's good for you.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember when my son was in kindergarten,
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: they had this project and one of the things they were doing the senses
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: and it was like, what does your house smell like?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, cinnamon.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it made me feel so happy.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I've done it.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some kids were like pickles and whatever.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, oh, I'm so glad he said cinnamon.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: So glad.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: This has been so fun and a real honor.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: I You ask beautiful questions and I'm so happy to be here.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Kelsey.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Today's breaths are going to be nature breaths.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you are able to be outside when you do these breaths, that would be great.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: But if not, if you're near a window...
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or even if you can picture a tree in your mind, that would be helpful.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I find that there is a certain kind of calm that you get only when you are outside in nature.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: With these breaths, try and focus on the senses and what the senses feel when they're outside.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: The sun on your skin, the sound of birdsong or crickets.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: The feel of the wind, the smell of the lilac.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can taste the freshness of the outdoor air.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take an inhale.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking of all the senses.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Looking at a tree branch moving in the wind.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: And exhale.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take another breath in.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Filling the body with all of those beautiful natural senses.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And exhale.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Slowly pushing all of the breath out.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take a third and final breath in.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Feel the sun, see the green, and breathe out.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: May you take the peaceful feeling you have now into the rest of your day.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Be well.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Jennifer with Coffee.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Follow us on Instagram at jenniferwithcoffee and on Substack.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a Kings of Content production.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Music by Oreo CC.