Speaker 1: Welcome to Destiny.
Speaker 2: Now, here's your host, Cliff Dunning.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're getting down to it here on Destiny Slash
Speaker 1: Earth Ancients. And what that means is that we're going
Speaker 1: to be heading to Egypt in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: I leave on the twenty fourth. I'm going to go
Speaker 1: for a couple of days ahead of the crew, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to explore this new billion dollar museum. It's
Speaker 1: so big, five hundred thousand square feet that's five football fields.
Speaker 1: It's huge. And they're saying now that there's no way
Speaker 1: for you to see in one day, and I can
Speaker 1: imagine why it's just too big. And the new suggestions
Speaker 1: and this is going to grow as more people experience
Speaker 1: this museum. You choose two to three sections. Now, I
Speaker 1: have not seen a program guide yet, and I'm kind
Speaker 1: of surprised by this because typically that's a real great
Speaker 1: marketing tool. In the past have purchased the museum catalog,
Speaker 1: which is filled with photographs, or the official guide or
Speaker 1: the book or whatever that has unique artifacts. I'd eat
Speaker 1: that thing up in a second if I had one.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna have to kind of go on my
Speaker 1: own and see what they have on the website. I
Speaker 1: definitely will stay in the lobby a good two hours.
Speaker 1: The lobby has a progression of exquisite statuary, and this
Speaker 1: is a big thing of mine. If you've been listening,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I was a sculptor, and I was
Speaker 1: a I actually got a degree in illustration, but I
Speaker 1: you know, you have to take the different arts as
Speaker 1: a student, and I enjoyed sculpture, and so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: really spend a lot of time looking at these sculptures
Speaker 1: up close and personal and my whole thing. And I'm
Speaker 1: finding this out more and more. The earlier you go,
Speaker 1: which would be Old Kingdom and pre Dynastic period and
Speaker 1: you follow it through to the New Kingdom or the
Speaker 1: Last Pharaoh Pharonic period. The earlier you go, for some reason,
Speaker 1: the carving style and the significance of the features is
Speaker 1: more defined. And the only way I can explain this
Speaker 1: is that the earlier periods have much more training, or
Speaker 1: they were much more selective in the artists who actually
Speaker 1: reproduced pharaohs or people as sculptures in some cases. And
Speaker 1: I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. I used
Speaker 1: AI on the Ramsey's Too sculpture at Memphis, and it's
Speaker 1: partially broken. I mean the right leg is broken just
Speaker 1: below the knee. It's missing part of an arm. The
Speaker 1: headdress has been damaged. The back, although you don't see it,
Speaker 1: it was laying in water, and so the back. You
Speaker 1: wrote it fairly significantly, and I ran it through a
Speaker 1: program on AI where I pieced together I actually laid
Speaker 1: out the actual pieces that were missing or broken, and
Speaker 1: I reconstructed it. It came out beautiful. But what I
Speaker 1: discovered is that my guess was that it had been
Speaker 1: reproduced with machines. They had been cut with machines. AI
Speaker 1: corrected that for me, but did point out that whoever
Speaker 1: carved it was a very very unique artistic person persona,
Speaker 1: And I'm beginning to think that there may have been
Speaker 1: machinery that was so sophisticated that perhaps they could reproduce
Speaker 1: human like cuts carved carved carving and facial features that
Speaker 1: maybe duplicated the human ability to carve stone. Now it
Speaker 1: does contradict that and say that the eyes are not
Speaker 1: quite the same, the nose, the nostrils are not quite
Speaker 1: the same. And one of the big tests that Chris
Speaker 1: Dunn developed is that you use a mirror effect. You
Speaker 1: put a mirror up down the middle of the nose
Speaker 1: and you take a photograph of the left side. You
Speaker 1: take a photograph of the mirror and the mirror image,
Speaker 1: and then you place it side by side, and if
Speaker 1: it looks the same, then it's likely to have been
Speaker 1: carved by a machine. Now I have not gotten into
Speaker 1: the Ramsey two sculptures that are at Karnak and done
Speaker 1: that test with with AI to see if that is possible.
Speaker 1: But I have a feeling that AI is going to
Speaker 1: give me a hard time unless I write a prompt
Speaker 1: that says consider human elements in the carving as well
Speaker 1: as mechanical you know. And the big thing is that
Speaker 1: we can only judge technology by our own standards. And
Speaker 1: what that means is we don't have what We don't
Speaker 1: have the technology that they had back then. How do
Speaker 1: they power if they did have tools, how did they
Speaker 1: power them? If they had chisels, how did they power them?
Speaker 1: If they had sanders? What was the technique? What was that?
Speaker 1: So all the because we can't stretch like that, AI
Speaker 1: is only going to be able to take the available data.
Speaker 1: So what you have to do is you have to
Speaker 1: create prompt which are very sophisticated questions that say, if
Speaker 1: there were machines and they had this type of cutting ability,
Speaker 1: would they be able to re So you had to
Speaker 1: get into almost fabricating prompts these questions and kind of
Speaker 1: theorizing how this tool would cut or sand or polish.
Speaker 1: And this is what I fell into with Ramsey's too.
Speaker 1: This beautiful sculptures at Memphis, that's very elegant, and it
Speaker 1: was so well done that I immediately went, well, this
Speaker 1: is a machine cut, which I kind of want. The child,
Speaker 1: I mean wants it, but it's we had to get
Speaker 1: real and say, no, it wasn't cut. It was cut
Speaker 1: by humans, but their techniques were off the scales, and
Speaker 1: I had to figure out how we identify that, how
Speaker 1: we it's not aliens, But it's a different mindset because
Speaker 1: what the AI did pick up was a technique that
Speaker 1: extracted the luminosity of the stone. And what that means
Speaker 1: is when the light hits that Ramsey two sculpture, it is,
Speaker 1: it is on display, It's self reflective. It's just the
Speaker 1: work of genius, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna see a lot of this in upcoming
Speaker 1: episodes and also on the Facebook page, and I'm also
Speaker 1: going to put some on the Earth Ancient's website as well.
Speaker 1: So lots to consider, lots to be excited about, and
Speaker 1: I just can't wait. We're coming up to it very
Speaker 1: soon and I'll be continue to announce it as we
Speaker 1: get closer. Now, today's program is on intersecting and being
Speaker 1: in nature, and I was thinking about the upcoming tour.
Speaker 1: And when you're in the desert, it's warm, it's sandy,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of foliage, there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of greenery. But you're also in a different part of
Speaker 1: the world. And so if you quiet yourself and you
Speaker 1: relax and don't get too charged, you can I have
Speaker 1: done this before, you can actually settle into that environment. Uh.
Speaker 1: But my mind is constantly racing because we're we're we're
Speaker 1: going to places that are just amazing. And when you
Speaker 1: see these temples, it just you just stop. And they
Speaker 1: were able to plug in. They could take a temple,
Speaker 1: they plugged into the energy of the area. They built
Speaker 1: these pyramids, they plugged in to the Tulleric energy. Uh.
Speaker 1: And these statues and I'm I really think they're pre
Speaker 1: pre pheronic statues. They're plugged in. They're plugged in too
Speaker 1: to show what they're what stone can do with light,
Speaker 1: which you can do with your mind, and it's amazing. So, uh,
Speaker 1: today this program is on connecting with nature and I've
Speaker 1: spoken about this a lot. It's really critical that we
Speaker 1: get out and we commune and that can be a
Speaker 1: twenty minute walk. You know. It's funny. I was at
Speaker 1: my doctors the other day and he's I changed my doctor.
Speaker 1: This new doctor is a do O doctor of ostio osteopath.
Speaker 1: He's an osteopath and it's more connective tissue and bone
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. And he was reminding me and
Speaker 1: he had a post d on his wall thirty minutes
Speaker 1: a day to stay well walking, resistance training, but mostly walking.
Speaker 1: And that's what we were talking about in our interview
Speaker 1: today is getting out for a short walk thirty minutes minimum,
Speaker 1: longer if you can do it, and shutting down the
Speaker 1: monkey brain and releasing to nature. And that's really critical.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I'll do it once or fice
Speaker 1: a week, but it's it's really important to do it
Speaker 1: at least once a day. And I'm like, okay, and
Speaker 1: the older you get the more you feel it. When
Speaker 1: you're younger, everything's firing, all your pistons are firing, and
Speaker 1: you're like, I don't need to do anything. I was
Speaker 1: gonna sit and watch TV. But no. When you get older,
Speaker 1: your body's like reminding you get yourself up and do
Speaker 1: something for thirty minutes so that we you know, cleanse
Speaker 1: the blood, cleanse the liver, processed stuff, and if you
Speaker 1: have anxiety, depression, have emotional challenges, it really opens the
Speaker 1: brain and allows you to settle in a little bit.
Speaker 1: So today's program is Wisdom from the Woods and my
Speaker 1: guest is psychologist Mark Lengenfeld. It's coming to us from Minnesota.
Speaker 1: So I hope you enjoy the program, as you guys
Speaker 1: know if you listen to Destiny each week. I am
Speaker 1: a big advocate of being in nature and we don't
Speaker 1: commune enough. And I'm here in northern California and I
Speaker 1: have access to some of the most beautiful places in
Speaker 1: the world, but I don't get out enough, and I
Speaker 1: think it's important to do that. My guest today is
Speaker 1: Mark Langenfeld, and he has written a book called Wisdom
Speaker 1: from the Woods. A Year of gentle Guidance from Mother nature,
Speaker 1: And this is a great opportunity not only to connect
Speaker 1: with somebody who's very thoughtful about nature, but he has
Speaker 1: fifty two different sections of this book, which translates to
Speaker 1: the number of weeks in a year. And so we're
Speaker 1: going to learn all about this. So hey, Mark, welcome
Speaker 1: to Destiny. Great to have you on the program.
Speaker 2: Thank you glad to be here.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about this book. I mean I
Speaker 1: had a good chance to get into it a little bit.
Speaker 1: It seems that you're very connected to nature. But why
Speaker 1: a complimentary book towards a year? What was that all about?
Speaker 2: It is intended to be a devotional book so that
Speaker 2: a person can read one chapter per week if they like.
Speaker 2: And because the chapters are not in consecutive order, you
Speaker 2: can jump around. You can pick any chapter you like
Speaker 2: and say, oh, well today I want to read about
Speaker 2: ravens or about wolves, are about trees? You can jump around.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. It's just a weakly devotional okay.
Speaker 1: And as somebody who is very much connected with nature,
Speaker 1: which I believe you are, what does nature have to
Speaker 1: teach us those of us who were locked in our
Speaker 1: chair facing the computer and doing our daily chores. I
Speaker 1: would say obligations are daily obligations. But what does nature
Speaker 1: have to teach us?
Speaker 2: Well, my first thought is everything. However, I'll speak just
Speaker 2: for myself because I don't know what Mother Nature might
Speaker 2: have in store for teaching other people. For me, mother
Speaker 2: Nature teaches me common sense things that are right in
Speaker 2: front of me and right around me in my daily life,
Speaker 2: but I don't recognize them. Is as simple as notice
Speaker 2: how peacefully the clouds are going by. I too should
Speaker 2: let my mind be peaceful. The clouds are not in
Speaker 2: a rush. I look at the trees and I say, Okay,
Speaker 2: they're all separate trees, but on a higher level, their
Speaker 2: branches interconnect. We too are interconnected. There's all these nature
Speaker 2: metaphors that can help us and promote our overall well being.
Speaker 2: So what mother Nature has for me is pointing out simple,
Speaker 2: common sense things that I may not notice because I'm
Speaker 2: so busy in the human life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I should mention to our listeners that you practice
Speaker 1: a blend of Paganism and Buddhism, Buddhist meditation. And I
Speaker 1: am a meditator. If I don't meditate once a day,
Speaker 1: I might I don't function very well. But when you're
Speaker 1: in nature. You call it a gentle guidance is brought forth?
Speaker 1: What is that gentle guidance? Is it just because for me,
Speaker 1: I tend to shift when I'm starting to walk on
Speaker 1: a nature path, and I'm shifting because my mind is
Speaker 1: not occupied by the daily activities anymore. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: shifting towards the energy of nature, if you want to
Speaker 1: call it that. But what what is gentle guidance? I
Speaker 1: like that term.
Speaker 2: It's suggestions. Mother nature doesn't just run you over and
Speaker 2: bark orders. You know. Mother nature is not a dictator.
Speaker 2: And so the gentle guidance is these lessons are here
Speaker 2: if you want to notice them. They can remind you,
Speaker 2: They can teach you things if you're aware. And when
Speaker 2: you talk about going into nature and kind of, you know,
Speaker 2: forgetting about the technical world, I think of it as
Speaker 2: disappearing because when I go into nature, there's nobody else
Speaker 2: around to tell me whom I'm supposed to be, and
Speaker 2: I forget all these labels that society puts on me.
Speaker 2: Society labels me as a man, white, gay, middle age,
Speaker 2: on and on. They label me according to my profession.
Speaker 2: They label me all these things. And when I'm out
Speaker 2: around other people. They see those things and they assess me,
Speaker 2: and I can see people's faces change when I tell them, oh, yes,
Speaker 2: I have a doctorate in clinical psychology, and they kind
Speaker 2: of take a step back, like, oh, have you been
Speaker 2: analyzing me this whole time?
Speaker 1: Exactly?
Speaker 2: It's like, please don't put labels on me. When I
Speaker 2: go out into the woods, all those labels disappear, and
Speaker 2: I feel as though temporarily my identity is disappearing, and
Speaker 2: beneficially I am then one with nature, not separate. I
Speaker 2: am absorbed into nature. All those labels fall away, and
Speaker 2: now I am one with mother Nature, and that's a
Speaker 2: wonderful feeling.
Speaker 1: Tell us about your interactions with nature. For me, it's
Speaker 1: getting back to the roots of who I am in
Speaker 1: a way, because I think we're nature children in a way.
Speaker 1: We're from the earth. Oh yeah, ashes to ashes, dust
Speaker 1: to dust, right, And if we're not communing, if we're
Speaker 1: not connecting, we lose some of our humanity, don't we.
Speaker 2: Oh sure? So image ahead, Excuse me for interrupting. We
Speaker 2: just get this distorted image that somehow humans are separate
Speaker 2: from nature or above nature. And when I was a child,
Speaker 2: I was raised to be Christian and was taught that
Speaker 2: humans were supposed to have headship lordship over nature, that
Speaker 2: somehow we are to rule over nature. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: that's every Christian point of view, but the Christianity that
Speaker 2: I grew up in believed that humans are here to
Speaker 2: dominate and rule over nature. And as I felt my
Speaker 2: calling into Earth's spirituality and paganism, I realize that I'm
Speaker 2: not here to rule. I'm of equal with nature, not
Speaker 2: separate from it. So it can be very I think,
Speaker 2: damaging to a person's emotional wellbeing if they think of
Speaker 2: themselves as somehow detached from nature.
Speaker 1: Can you give us your best explanation for what happens
Speaker 1: when we enter a natural setting and why it's critical
Speaker 1: to reconnect, especially those of us who live in the
Speaker 1: city who don't have access to the nearby forest. Why
Speaker 1: is it important as a human being to connect?
Speaker 2: Because metaphorically it helps us walk with earthly feet, it
Speaker 2: helps us be grounded emotionally, it's good for our mental health.
Speaker 2: I can only speak for myself. It is good for
Speaker 2: my mental health. It's vitally crucial to remember who we
Speaker 2: are and where we came from. We did not just
Speaker 2: drop out of thin air. We came from nature, and
Speaker 2: biologically speaking, touching on a little bit of neural psychology,
Speaker 2: it's the prefrontal cortex behind the forehead here that really
Speaker 2: separates us from other animals. And it's the prefrontal cortex
Speaker 2: that makes us plant for the future, gives us moral reasoning,
Speaker 2: helps us intellectualize, while the downside of all that intellectualizing
Speaker 2: is we kind of forget about our animal instincts. So
Speaker 2: when you talk about entering the woods, even for people
Speaker 2: who live in the city, just going into your yard,
Speaker 2: going into the city park, touching the earth, walking on
Speaker 2: the earth, touching the tree, hearing the birds, all of
Speaker 2: those things reactivate our instincts. And again, if I can
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about psychophysiology, our instincts reside in
Speaker 2: the center of our brain called the amygdala, named after
Speaker 2: the almend because it's almond shaped. The amygdala is our
Speaker 2: primal self. And so when we reactivate our primal self
Speaker 2: in nature, we're remembering and that can go back all
Speaker 2: the way to our cellular memory. Our ancestors passed on
Speaker 2: their knowledge, particular about survival, into our DNA. How do
Speaker 2: I know this because we have instincts One of the
Speaker 2: classes that I teach is intro to psych and we
Speaker 2: have a chapter on neuropsychology. We have a chapter on
Speaker 2: instincts and biology. Well, look up the definition of instincts.
Speaker 2: What does it mean? The literal definition of instinct is
Speaker 2: unlearned behavior. Whoa now hold on? How did we get
Speaker 2: unlearned behavior? Where did that come from? Well, clearly it
Speaker 2: came from our genes. Where did we get our genes from?
Speaker 2: From our ancestors? Our ancestors passed down their knowledge, and
Speaker 2: it's emphasized that most of that instinct deals with survival.
Speaker 2: So the ancestors are passing down their instinctual knowledge about
Speaker 2: survival on a genetic level. When we inherited our genetic
Speaker 2: endullment from our mothers and fathers, we got their genes,
Speaker 2: we got their instincts. And so when you go back
Speaker 2: and to nature, I've experienced it where mother Nature reactivates
Speaker 2: those instincts and then we're reminded of our primal self.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does, and you explained it very well. You
Speaker 1: said something about observing that I would like to emphasize,
Speaker 1: and you actually write about it. We move too fast
Speaker 1: in our daily lives and we're not slowing down to
Speaker 1: observe things as they happen. And I think the point
Speaker 1: you were making is that when we're in nature, we're
Speaker 1: forced to slow down to connect with the natural world.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the importance of
Speaker 1: observing nature and why that is helpful and perhaps healing
Speaker 1: to the body.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is important and healing to observe nature because
Speaker 2: in my experience, and I acknowledge that other people might
Speaker 2: have different experiences, in my experience, nature doesn't shout, she whispers,
Speaker 2: and in order to hear Mother Nature whisper, you need
Speaker 2: to be quiet, and I need to be still. And usually,
Speaker 2: almost always, the metaphors that I receive from the Great
Speaker 2: Earth Mother come in the form of an animal or
Speaker 2: a plant, or a cloud or water or trees acting
Speaker 2: in a certain way. And then they don't say things.
Speaker 2: For example, the owl is watchful, and she doesn't look
Speaker 2: at me and say you too should be watchful. Instead,
Speaker 2: she just demonstrates the behavior. All of these nature metaphors
Speaker 2: are simply ways that Mother Nature is showing demonstrating being
Speaker 2: a role model. And so I see, how huh? The
Speaker 2: owl is watching and observing, and the owl is a
Speaker 2: very good listener, and I think to myself, Okay, I've
Speaker 2: worked as a counselor. What are counselors? They're listeners, And
Speaker 2: so the owl became a metaphor for me for counseling.
Speaker 2: That's why it's good to slow down so that you
Speaker 2: can notice what mother nature is modeling for you. It's
Speaker 2: not going to be a written message on the tree trunk.
Speaker 2: It's going to be do as I do. That's usually
Speaker 2: the message that I get from any of these animals
Speaker 2: and clients and whatnot. Do as I do? Is it
Speaker 2: a time to sit and take care of myself like
Speaker 2: perhaps an animal? Is Is it a time to grow
Speaker 2: and blossom like a flower? Is it a time to
Speaker 2: let my waters be still like the morning lake. They're
Speaker 2: modeling things for us, and we need to be slow
Speaker 2: and still and quiet to receive those messages.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like that explanation. I try to get out
Speaker 1: at least three or four times a week to just
Speaker 1: walk and dump the stresses of the job. And if
Speaker 1: I don't do that, I find that my thoughts are
Speaker 1: backing up and then I'm having more headaches and other
Speaker 1: issues like that. So it's actually critically important to connect
Speaker 1: in some manner. And I like your reference to the
Speaker 1: local parks. If you're in a big city someplace where
Speaker 1: there's a dirt and foliage, that's important, right, It's not
Speaker 1: necessarily I guess you could also walk in a sidewalk
Speaker 1: and pass your neighbors home and things like that that
Speaker 1: have foliage and things like that. But is there a
Speaker 1: great difference between a forest and a neighborhood garden in
Speaker 1: your walk in your I gotta call it a recovery.
Speaker 2: Period, right, Well, yes, there are differences. However, either one
Speaker 2: can be very healing. Certainly, when I go into a forest,
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, I kind of disappear because all my
Speaker 2: labels drop away. I don't necessarily get that during the
Speaker 2: daytime in a city park, but I do when I
Speaker 2: go out from my nightly walks. I particularly like to
Speaker 2: walk in the full moonlight. And of course, depending on
Speaker 2: the crime rate in your neighborhood, you might or might
Speaker 2: not want to walk out at night. But when I
Speaker 2: walk out at night, there's no one else around, and
Speaker 2: I have to acknowledge. It dawned on me as I
Speaker 2: was walking through the woods at night because one of
Speaker 2: the reasons why the cover of this book is Blue
Speaker 2: is because I mentioned to Llewellyn the publishers, I go
Speaker 2: into the woods a lot in the moonlight. Now here's
Speaker 2: something that dawned on me. I wouldn't feel safe doing
Speaker 2: that if I were a woman, So in a way
Speaker 2: I had to acknowledge, at least to myself, this is
Speaker 2: an example of male privilege. I can go into the
Speaker 2: woods at night and not need to worry about being assaulted.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't do that if I were a woman, especially
Speaker 2: if I were going into the woods alone. So I
Speaker 2: mentioned at the very first couple of pages of my
Speaker 2: book a little disclaimer, Please be safe when you go
Speaker 2: into the woods, because I don't want people to get hurt,
Speaker 2: you know, trying to connect with mother nature. But to
Speaker 2: your question, yes, there is a difference between just being
Speaker 2: in the city park and being deep in the woods.
Speaker 2: And the difference is the level of distractions. When I'm
Speaker 2: in a city park, I hear the airplanes overhead, the
Speaker 2: traffic going by, the buses, people, perhaps you know, children
Speaker 2: at play making noise. When I'm in the woods, I
Speaker 2: hear the water running from the creek or the lake,
Speaker 2: the waves, the birds, and so I'm more absorbed by
Speaker 2: nature when I'm in the woods.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so the healing isn't as profound, I think,
Speaker 1: is what you're suggesting. If it's a city walk over
Speaker 1: a forest walk. We're gonna take a short commercial break
Speaker 1: to allow our sponsors to identify themselves, and we will
Speaker 1: return shortly with my guest today, Mark Langenfeld, discussing his
Speaker 1: new release Wisdom from the Woods, will be right back
Speaker 1: with you. My guess today is Mark Langenfeld. He is
Speaker 1: a pagan and also studies Buddhist meditation, and he's written
Speaker 1: a new book called Wisdom from the Woods. This is
Speaker 1: a look at how to interact with Mother Nature. It's
Speaker 1: not really easy to define, but can you I think
Speaker 1: you give us a part of a scenario of healing.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a forest close by and you're
Speaker 1: close to open fields, is that a good substitute.
Speaker 2: It Candy, Yes, I've mentioned this. I think I even
Speaker 2: mentioned it in my book that even if you are
Speaker 2: home bound, let's say you have some physical restrictions that
Speaker 2: limit your mobility, you can still stand in front of
Speaker 2: the window and let grandfather's son shine on you. Or
Speaker 2: if it's nighttime, you can stand in front of the
Speaker 2: window on a clear night and let Grandmother Moon shine
Speaker 2: on you. Personally, I have done that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I live in a neighborhood where there's nobody directly in
Speaker 2: my backyard. There's no houses that can see me. I
Speaker 2: have stood skyclad in front of the moonlight in my
Speaker 2: house and let the moonbeams wash over me and spiritually
Speaker 2: bathe me. And you talk about healing. I didn't need
Speaker 2: to leave the house. I didn't need to go outside.
Speaker 2: I didn't need to venture deep into the woods. I
Speaker 2: was in my house and allowing Grandmother Moon to cleanse
Speaker 2: me spiritually speaking. And yeah, you can have a real
Speaker 2: healing experience that way, even if you're homebound.
Speaker 1: I love that example. I think you were saying that
Speaker 1: you were you were nude bathing. Is that what you're referring.
Speaker 2: To ki clad?
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the nude, Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, you have to
Speaker 1: shift your mind a little bit when you're doing that.
Speaker 1: You know you're receiving the energies. And so maybe you're
Speaker 1: doing a little ceremony. Can you talk briefly about performing
Speaker 1: ceremonies as a form of a worship of nature and
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be And I think you can
Speaker 1: address this. It doesn't have to be some drawn out
Speaker 1: candle lights and things like that. But talk about ceremony
Speaker 1: and nature.
Speaker 2: It is what you are calling and what nature is
Speaker 2: calling you to do. So it's very spontaneous, yes, inspired
Speaker 2: by nature. For example, this, Oh, this is a funny story.
Speaker 2: I'll try to make it short. Sometimes at night I
Speaker 2: will go through graveyards and it's not because it's a graveyard.
Speaker 2: It's because I'm away from traffic, I'm away from city lights.
Speaker 2: And by the way, if you ever want to enjoy
Speaker 2: the northern lights, go to a graveyard because the city
Speaker 2: lights are not there. You don't get that light pollution.
Speaker 2: So I was in this graveyard and enjoying the northern
Speaker 2: lights and the darkness, and I saw somebody else in
Speaker 2: the graveyard holding up his hands like this, and it
Speaker 2: was a large man, and I thought, okay, I'm not
Speaker 2: the only pagan in the wood. Someone else is doing
Speaker 2: a ritual. And I walked up to him and then
Speaker 2: I laughed at myself. It was a statue of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Oh, part of a gravesite.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was one of the stone statues of Jesus
Speaker 2: in the graveyard. And I was like, and I thought
Speaker 2: it was a pagan. But to your point, the ritual
Speaker 2: or the ceremony that you perform in the woods is
Speaker 2: up to you, and I let nature influence me. If
Speaker 2: I decide to draw a sacred circle around me, I
Speaker 2: look around, Oh, that stick will do, and then I
Speaker 2: draw a circle around me. If there is no stick,
Speaker 2: I can just use my fingers representing an anthem, and
Speaker 2: I can in my mind imagine a circle being drawn
Speaker 2: around me, creating sacred place space, and I can call
Speaker 2: upon whatever deity is, including ancestors that I want to,
Speaker 2: and they can respond. I've sat in circle in the
Speaker 2: woods on a moss covered rock in the middle of
Speaker 2: the day when normally daytime creatures are out, and suddenly
Speaker 2: a great horned owl comes and lands on a branch
Speaker 2: no more than maybe three four yards away, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: you're not supposed to be out during the day, what's
Speaker 2: going on? So I sang to her the goddess chant,
Speaker 2: and she tilted her head and she rolled her head
Speaker 2: around and she listened to me. And when the song
Speaker 2: was done, that was my offering to her. Then she
Speaker 2: flew off, and I was like, well, bless it be,
Speaker 2: so I can one of the quick thing that I
Speaker 2: do when I'm in the woods, whenever I see a
Speaker 2: hole in a tree, I will pick up a leaf
Speaker 2: or a blossom or whatever, a twig, and I will
Speaker 2: put it in the hole as an offering to the
Speaker 2: woodland spirits. And you don't have to Well, you could
Speaker 2: bring something if you wanted to, but you don't have
Speaker 2: to bring something. You know, some people might want to
Speaker 2: bring a little offering. Organic offering might be nice, an
Speaker 2: apple or something like that. But even if you don't
Speaker 2: have anything with you, as soon as you see that
Speaker 2: hole in the tree, just reach down and pick up
Speaker 2: a leaf or a little stone and tuck it in
Speaker 2: there as an offering to the fairy spirits. Those are
Speaker 2: the type of spontaneous rituals that can take place without
Speaker 2: you writing a script and planning it weeks ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. Let's talk about the seasons because
Speaker 1: we're have just started into spring and that's the time
Speaker 1: of renewal. How do we acknowledge spring when we're doing
Speaker 1: our walk? Can you give us some examples of like transforming?
Speaker 1: It's a renewal period, so I'd like to show nature
Speaker 1: that I am I'm changing with it. What would we
Speaker 1: do to kind of coalesce in that manner.
Speaker 2: What I personally do is I will have a goal,
Speaker 2: like a New Year's resolution, and I will go into
Speaker 2: the woods and I will sit down and write out
Speaker 2: what my goals are. And then I say to myself, Okay,
Speaker 2: as the trees have lost their leaves, so too am
Speaker 2: I losing these old bad habits, these dysfunctional behaviors and
Speaker 2: possibly dysfunctional thoughts that I no longer want. And now
Speaker 2: look at the buds are starting to grow, the buds
Speaker 2: are starting to open up. I too want new behaviors,
Speaker 2: which ones. Okay, well, I got to write that down.
Speaker 2: So then I have pen and paper with me. I
Speaker 2: write down what new behaviors, What new thoughts do I
Speaker 2: want to write down? And expanding on the thoughts, you
Speaker 2: could even add attitude, because if you think about your
Speaker 2: habitual thoughts, that's pretty much your attitude. And yeah, I
Speaker 2: write down how do I want to change those? What
Speaker 2: adjustments do I want to make? And then also sense things.
Speaker 2: You can smell the moist soil because the frost is
Speaker 2: leaving the ground. You can smell the new leaves coming out.
Speaker 2: You can sense things, the warm sunshine, all of the
Speaker 2: things around you, hearing the songbirds. Oh, yesterday I heard
Speaker 2: a robin first time this year twenty twenty six. That
Speaker 2: activated my senses. So your senses come alive when you're
Speaker 2: in nature. And then you can use that metaphorically, tap
Speaker 2: into it so that you can say, hmm, I have
Speaker 2: goals that are coming forth, that are budding and that
Speaker 2: are starting to open up an unfurl and so then
Speaker 2: you become mindful of those. And then what I do
Speaker 2: is when I go home, I take that list that
Speaker 2: I wrote out and I tape it to the mirror
Speaker 2: in my bathroom because I'm going to see him every day,
Speaker 2: and I remind myself, Oh, that's right. I want to
Speaker 2: be more optimistic. I want to be more compassionate. Oh
Speaker 2: that's right. Compassion is not just a thought, it's an action.
Speaker 2: I can't just think about being compassionate. I gotta do
Speaker 2: something kind. Yeah, those little daily reminders help.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like that idea of having a list of
Speaker 1: things I'd like to accomplish during the renewal. I'm letting
Speaker 1: go of certain things, bad habits, bad behavior, I eat
Speaker 1: too much chald good or sugar or whatever. It could
Speaker 1: be anything. Yeah, cock if you can a little bit
Speaker 1: about the use of intention and how that can set
Speaker 1: the tone for our walk in nature. And if you
Speaker 1: want what how we we would use that to welcome
Speaker 1: in spring?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, the intention would influence a person's focus.
Speaker 1: M hm.
Speaker 2: So if I'm going into the woods at night, I'm
Speaker 2: going to have the intention of connecting with the moon goddess,
Speaker 2: and so I'm going to focus on that and the
Speaker 2: things associated with the moon goddess, the owls, the stars,
Speaker 2: even if it's it's a cloudy night, just the breeze
Speaker 2: blowing by a shooting star something that catches my attention.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to be focused on that, and that's
Speaker 2: going to be my intention. If I'm out during the
Speaker 2: day and let's say I think to myself, you know what,
Speaker 2: I need to pull things in because things have been
Speaker 2: so wild and out of control, all these things pulling
Speaker 2: me in all directions. Huh, Where do I want to
Speaker 2: go to feel pulled in? Oh? I know, there's a
Speaker 2: gorge about twenty miles away. It's kind of a small
Speaker 2: canyon if you will. It's not really a canyon, but
Speaker 2: it's a small gorge. And when I walk down in
Speaker 2: the bottom of that gorge. I feel those walls on
Speaker 2: both sides of me, and that makes me feel like
Speaker 2: I'm pulling things in. It makes me feel safer. So
Speaker 2: that's my intention, had that intention before I went there.
Speaker 2: I purposely drove to that state park because they have
Speaker 2: this deep river gorge and when I walk along the
Speaker 2: river bank it's rather shallow. Just the feeling of those
Speaker 2: cliffs on both sides of me helps me feel like
Speaker 2: I'm more pulled in. So my intention was actually before
Speaker 2: I left the house and then I go to that area.
Speaker 2: That will help me focus on that intention.
Speaker 1: Can you for those of who are listening who don't
Speaker 1: use intention or haven't had any experience with it, can
Speaker 1: you give us a short example of an intention that
Speaker 1: you might use before entering the nature location, the forest,
Speaker 1: the fields, whatever, that allows them to open and receive
Speaker 1: without being intentional thinking about it. In other words, sitting
Speaker 1: this stage for an activation.
Speaker 2: Well, if I'm going to have a clear intention, let's
Speaker 2: call it a prayer offering. I planned that ahead of time,
Speaker 2: and by the way, just two three weeks ago, I
Speaker 2: did a presentation in the Twin Cities at a conference
Speaker 2: about how to make prayer bundles. And that's what I
Speaker 2: would do. And a prayer bundle can be whatever you
Speaker 2: want it to be. What I'd like to do is
Speaker 2: collect some polished stones that have been in the waves
Speaker 2: of Lake Superior near my home, and then I can
Speaker 2: collect those and then I put them into perhaps something
Speaker 2: bio degradable, like cheesecloth or some form of packaging, maybe
Speaker 2: just plain uncolored paper, and I fold it together. I
Speaker 2: might put in a feather and all of those different things.
Speaker 2: And then sometimes I'll just write on a pitch a
Speaker 2: small piece of birch bark, or possibly a small piece
Speaker 2: of driftwood no larger than four inches. I'll just write
Speaker 2: my intention or maybe a prairie quest for a person
Speaker 2: that needs healing. I'll put all of that in the bundle,
Speaker 2: and then i'll fold it together. And then i'll take hemp,
Speaker 2: string or anything that's earth friendly, and I'll tie it
Speaker 2: all together in that bundle, and then I'll take it
Speaker 2: with me to the woods, and then i'll lay that
Speaker 2: at the base of a tree or something of that nature.
Speaker 2: I know other Pagans who prefer to put that into
Speaker 2: the stream and it floats for a while and you
Speaker 2: can watch it go downstream. We all have our own style. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but that's one way of making your intentions manifest and
Speaker 2: then you know as things happen in your life that
Speaker 2: it's developing that the spirits are honoring your request because
Speaker 2: you can feel it in your spirit that they have
Speaker 2: accepted your offering, your prayer bundle, and things are in
Speaker 2: the works.
Speaker 1: I love that idea of a you call it a
Speaker 1: prayer bundle, I think as an intention bundle that over
Speaker 1: a period of time is in the way you've described it,
Speaker 1: it's going to disintegrate into the soil or the atmosphere
Speaker 1: or in the nature, and then it's activated in some capacity.
Speaker 2: And I'd like to share one other technique which works
Speaker 2: real well for anxiety. And again I'm only going to
Speaker 2: say that it works for me. I don't want people
Speaker 2: to think that this is the cure for an anxiety disorder,
Speaker 2: because it's not. So I just want to say this
Speaker 2: only works for me. If I'm having some anxiety about something,
Speaker 2: I'll pick up a leaf off the ground, usually it's
Speaker 2: a dry leaf, and I'll hold it between my hands
Speaker 2: and I'll put emotionally and spiritually, I'll put all my
Speaker 2: anxiety into that leaf and I'll hold it and I'll
Speaker 2: charge it with energy through my body heat. And then
Speaker 2: once I placed all of my anxiety metaphorically into that leaf,
Speaker 2: I then, with my bare hands just dig a little
Speaker 2: hole in the ground, just pull away some of the grass,
Speaker 2: and then I'll take the leaf and I'll tuck it
Speaker 2: into that shallow little hole, or if you will, call
Speaker 2: it a grave, and then I'll cover it up with
Speaker 2: the grass that I just peeled off, and then press
Speaker 2: it down and I walk away. And as I walk away,
Speaker 2: I say to myself, as this leaf rots, so too
Speaker 2: does my anxiety. And then I remember, this is not spontaneous.
Speaker 2: It's going to take several days, maybe even a week,
Speaker 2: for the soil to break down this leaf. It's not
Speaker 2: going to take very long. I'm a gardener and I
Speaker 2: use leaves as composts, and I know that it doesn't
Speaker 2: take more than a few days for the ground to
Speaker 2: really eat up those leaves. So then in the next
Speaker 2: passing day or two, I think to myself, Okay, that
Speaker 2: was about two days ago that I buried that leaf.
Speaker 2: I bet it's pretty much dissolved by now, so too
Speaker 2: is my anxiety and worries. And I can keep that mindful.
Speaker 2: It's not just one instant cure. As the days go by,
Speaker 2: I remind myself, yes, that leaf is probably completely decomposed
Speaker 2: by now, and you know what, so is my anxiety.
Speaker 2: I'm feeling better. It's a little reminder in the back
Speaker 2: of your head. And it's a wonderful ritual to do
Speaker 2: for me. It really is anxiety.
Speaker 1: I love that idea. I hadn't even thought about creating
Speaker 1: bundles and storing your fatigue, your anxiety, your depression, and
Speaker 1: placing it somewhere or actually partially burying it. It's a
Speaker 1: wonderful idea. Why is it important to be quiet in nature?
Speaker 1: And how does communing with nature kind of develop this
Speaker 1: importance of silence and quiet and interesting I'm going to
Speaker 1: use the word introspection.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that introspection kind of answers that question, because
Speaker 2: when a person is quiet, then it reduces the distractions.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it completely the distractions. Even though I've
Speaker 2: been meditating for several years, I've never gotten to the
Speaker 2: point where I have a blank mind and don't have
Speaker 2: any thoughts at all. So being still and quiet in
Speaker 2: nature slows down some of my racing thoughts, some of
Speaker 2: my inner dialogue what technically they call meta cognition. Excuse me,
Speaker 2: I'm in this room and the lights go off if
Speaker 2: I don't move.
Speaker 1: So Okay, there you go.
Speaker 2: It's sinning up. Okay, there we go. Sorry about that interruption.
Speaker 2: The lights are on a timer in this room, so
Speaker 2: it's important to be still and be quiet because that way,
Speaker 2: even though it doesn't completely take away distractions, it greatly
Speaker 2: reduces distractions. And I want to remind you of what
Speaker 2: I said earlier. Mother nature whispers. She doesn't scream a
Speaker 2: message in your ear. She doesn't take out a billboard
Speaker 2: with flashing lights. She whispers, and you need to be
Speaker 2: quiet and still to hear her and to see the
Speaker 2: subtleties that you otherwise wouldn't notice.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a short commercial break to allow
Speaker 1: our sponsors to identify themselves, and will return shortly with
Speaker 1: my guest today, Mark Legenfeld, discussing his new book Wisdom
Speaker 1: from the Woods, will be right back. My guess today
Speaker 1: is Mark Legerfield. He has written a new book called
Speaker 1: Wisdom from the Woods. This is a look at how
Speaker 1: to interact with nature, and it's done over fifty two weeks,
Speaker 1: so it's a solid year of interacting on a fairly
Speaker 1: regular basis, relaxing the mind, body and the spirit and
Speaker 1: connecting so that you're relieved of the strains and stresses
Speaker 1: and the fatigue of everyday lifestyle. I'm just I need
Speaker 1: to get out and go for a hike today after
Speaker 1: talking with you, because I haven't been hiking, and I'm
Speaker 1: thinking when I go, I go to this area that's
Speaker 1: they saved part of a forest, a small forest, but
Speaker 1: it's not redwood trees as oak trees. And one of
Speaker 1: the things that I appreciate is observing as I'm walking.
Speaker 1: And I'd like you to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the importance of observing in silence but taking in nature
Speaker 1: and why. And I keep using the term healing because
Speaker 1: for me, I feel like I'm getting blessed by nature,
Speaker 1: a subtle blessing, but an important one because it's taking
Speaker 1: away the stress I'm being relieved in somehow. And some
Speaker 1: people define these nature walks, and you have an an
Speaker 1: to a degree in this book that you've written, But
Speaker 1: I'm curious to know how we should be the observer
Speaker 1: of nature and what that is doing for us as
Speaker 1: we observe.
Speaker 2: Well one of the best things about observing nature is
Speaker 2: that it is always going to be slightly different. Nothing
Speaker 2: stays exactly the same. We don't say the same either.
Speaker 2: So when you go out in nature, something's going to
Speaker 2: be different than it was yesterday. The plants might grow
Speaker 2: a little bit more, a different squirrel or bird might
Speaker 2: be here or there, a cloud might be different in
Speaker 2: the sky. It's never going to be the exact same thing.
Speaker 2: And the only way to really notice that is to
Speaker 2: slow down and be observant. It takes that observance to
Speaker 2: become aware. But that flower has bloomed. Yesterday it was
Speaker 2: just a bud or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: That branch broke in that windstorm we had last night.
Speaker 2: You have to be observant in order to notice these things,
Speaker 2: and then when you're still, you can notice the metaphor that, okay,
Speaker 2: here's a metaphor about things breaking. I went past in
Speaker 2: the wintertime an area that was marshy, and there was
Speaker 2: a lot of dried cattails. The ice was covering the roots,
Speaker 2: and many of the cat tails that were dry broke
Speaker 2: many of them, and I thought to myself, because they
Speaker 2: lost their flexibility. So the subtle message was if I
Speaker 2: am brittle and inflexible, I'm going to break. That's what
Speaker 2: happens in the spring when we have the reads and
Speaker 2: the cattails that are green and lush, they're flexible. And
Speaker 2: when the wind blows, I see those reads, I see
Speaker 2: the cattails swaying back and forth. They don't break because
Speaker 2: they're flexible. That's a metaphor that I took into my
Speaker 2: own life. I'd better be flexible, because if I'm going
Speaker 2: to be rigid and stubborn and unyielding emotionally, if not spiritually,
Speaker 2: I'm going to break.
Speaker 1: I love that. Why fifty two weeks? Why did you
Speaker 1: design the book? Did you have that intention mark to
Speaker 1: do that? To go each week? This is what I feel.
Speaker 1: Did it come out of just obviously it came out
Speaker 1: of your nature and your nature connections. But was there
Speaker 1: something that inspired you to create the book in that manner?
Speaker 2: No? Not, in that manner. I wrote down metaphors. And
Speaker 2: each time I wrote a metaphor, it was roughly about
Speaker 2: a thousand words, comes to about three pages for each chapter.
Speaker 2: And after about ten years of collecting metaphors, and then
Speaker 2: it took me about two years to actually write them all.
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, Okay, this is about this feels
Speaker 2: about right. And when I went into Llewellyn's website, they
Speaker 2: said our average book is about fifty thousand words, and
Speaker 2: so I looked on my laptop word processor and thought, oh,
Speaker 2: look at that. My book is about fifty thousand words.
Speaker 2: That's just right. I wasn't even aware that there were
Speaker 2: fifty two chapters. I was aware that there were fifty
Speaker 2: thousand words to meet the criteria of the publisher. It
Speaker 2: was the publisher, it was Llewelen that said, say, why
Speaker 2: don't we make this a devotional because there's fifty two chapters.
Speaker 2: That's one chapter for each week of the year. And
Speaker 2: I was like, why didn't I see that that was
Speaker 2: their idea.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's funny because Llewellyn puts out a lot of
Speaker 1: sacred cards, and your book could have easily transformed into
Speaker 1: a deck. I totally see that you may have had
Speaker 1: a certain with your perception of nature. You could probably
Speaker 1: have an animal, fifty two animals that represent that week
Speaker 1: or that period.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, if you flip through the page, you notice that
Speaker 2: every single chapter, without exception, has a little artwork. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you can see it on the screen. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but they all have. Every single chapter has a little
Speaker 2: bit of artwork that also came from the graphics department
Speaker 2: at Llewellyn. I did not make those drawings or sketches.
Speaker 1: That's nice.
Speaker 2: I'm a very visual thinker. I haven't mentioned this yet,
Speaker 2: but I was born with a learning disability, dyslexia, and
Speaker 2: so my way of compensating for that is I imagine
Speaker 2: the things that I'm talking about, or that I'm hearing about,
Speaker 2: or that I'm reading about. I picture them in my head.
Speaker 2: So even if I'm listening to somebody speaking in my head,
Speaker 2: I'm picturing what they're saying. Very visual thinker, so I'm
Speaker 2: pleased that Llewellyn puts so many sketches and drawings into
Speaker 2: the book.
Speaker 1: As a side note, I have some dyslexia myself. I'm
Speaker 1: finding that AI is a really huge tool. Have you
Speaker 1: found that as well or are you resistant to that?
Speaker 2: I'm pretty resistant to it. I will use spell Checker,
Speaker 2: and I will use AI tools that check for grammar errors.
Speaker 2: But that's where I limit myself because I want to
Speaker 2: continually challenge my own mind to do my own work
Speaker 2: and do my own creative thinking and forming the sentences.
Speaker 2: If AI catches some spelling errors in grammatical errors, great,
Speaker 2: I love that. But I haven't really utilized AI, nor
Speaker 2: am I really interested in tapping into all of.
Speaker 1: The machine learn right? Yeah? Interesting.
Speaker 2: I do want to mention one thing though. On my computer,
Speaker 2: I have the ability to hit the speak button, which
Speaker 2: will allow me to speak my words and then it'll
Speaker 2: type it out. And it also allows me to go
Speaker 2: over what I just wrote and it'll speak it to me.
Speaker 2: And that has been a real good writing tool for
Speaker 2: me because in my head when I'm writing it, I
Speaker 2: know what I want to say, but then when the
Speaker 2: computer reads it back to me, I'm like, oh, when
Speaker 2: I hear it in my ear, it sounds a little vague.
Speaker 2: I better clarify that sentence.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: Well that's a useful tool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very cool. The books call Wisdom from the Woods.
Speaker 1: My guest today has been Mark langenfriled. What's the one
Speaker 1: of the big mistakes people make when they're trying to
Speaker 1: connect with nature, especially somebody who may be out of touch.
Speaker 1: They've been sitting and watching TV too much and they
Speaker 1: are trying for a bird of nature connection.
Speaker 2: I think the word trying brings with it a whole
Speaker 2: lot of expectations, and that can be problematic. It's my
Speaker 2: opinion that people are automatically connected with Mother Nature. Mother
Speaker 2: Nature is life energy. We all have life energy within us.
Speaker 2: If we didn't, we'd be dead. So it's my opinion
Speaker 2: that we are already connected with Mother Nature. Everyone, and
Speaker 2: so it's a matter of recognizing, acknowledging, perhaps even deepening
Speaker 2: the connection. It's really about mindfulness, And when it comes
Speaker 2: to mindfulness, it's more of letting go of trying that
Speaker 2: helps me acknowledge my connection with nature. If I try to,
Speaker 2: like if I make it my goal, I'm going to
Speaker 2: go out today in nature and I'm going to really
Speaker 2: connect no matter what. I don't care how long it takes,
Speaker 2: I'm going to connect. Well, that's like trying real hard
Speaker 2: to meditate. The harder you try, the less you know
Speaker 2: clear minded, the less relaxed, the less deepened the spirituality
Speaker 2: you develop. So I would recommend to people that they
Speaker 2: just acknowledge that they're already connected to nature, and they
Speaker 2: can find that by the way, even in their dreams.
Speaker 2: I've had nature metaphors come to me in my dreams.
Speaker 2: Sometimes if i'm having a hard time sleeping, I'll remember
Speaker 2: Grandmother Moon is watching over me and protecting me as
Speaker 2: I sleep, and that thought of having a guardian will
Speaker 2: help me fall asleep. So it's a mindfulness. Being mindful
Speaker 2: that you're already connected to Mother Nature and then perhaps
Speaker 2: wanting to deepen that connection is where people might pursue
Speaker 2: going into the woods.
Speaker 1: I like that. That's excellent. As we conclude, you mentioned
Speaker 1: in this pressure release that you've designed the book so
Speaker 1: that you don't necessarily have to read it from cover
Speaker 1: to cover. You can just grab it and open to
Speaker 1: a section and that's for you. And in some ways,
Speaker 1: it's almost like it would be great if you could
Speaker 1: ask an intention. I intend for this to be the
Speaker 1: right message for me today. You don't have to, but
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking, because we were talking about intention, can
Speaker 1: you give us a sense of why you designed the
Speaker 1: book like that or perhaps it just came together in
Speaker 1: that manner.
Speaker 2: Well, it did just come together in that manner. I
Speaker 2: wrote down the metaphors as Mother Nature revealed them to
Speaker 2: me and as I was receptive to them, and I
Speaker 2: couldn't help but wonder how many metaphors did I miss
Speaker 2: before I became mindful of all of this. So in
Speaker 2: the back of the book they have what is called
Speaker 2: a subject chapter index, and it's the last oh three
Speaker 2: or four pages. And what's nice is a person can
Speaker 2: look up by topic what they want to read about,
Speaker 2: and I'll just mention a few of these real briefly, emotions, anger, anxiety, depression, behaviors,
Speaker 2: bad habits, breathing, self nurturing. You can look up certain animals, dogs,
Speaker 2: large birds, elements, plants, if you're into water and nature
Speaker 2: and rivers, streams. If you're concerned about relationships, you can say, okay,
Speaker 2: well look at this. There's a whole list here of
Speaker 2: chapters that deal with family chapter thirteen, twenty thirty six,
Speaker 2: forty six fifty two. If you're concerned about romantic relationships,
Speaker 2: look it up in the subject chapter index. Oh, here
Speaker 2: we go. Romantic relationships talked about in chapter fifteen sixteen, seventeen,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, twenty thirty two. All of these indexes
Speaker 2: can help you jump ahead to a subject that is
Speaker 2: concerning you, whether it's an animal or an emotion or
Speaker 2: what have you.
Speaker 1: Now that's interesting. Did you design the book like that
Speaker 1: or did you just write the book and then at
Speaker 1: the end you're like, wait a minute, I can categorize.
Speaker 2: These No, that was Llewellyn's idea. Oh, I wrote the manuscript.
Speaker 2: I submitted it to them, and it was toward the
Speaker 2: end of the editing process that they said, please write
Speaker 2: a subject index area where people can look things up
Speaker 2: based on their interests. If they're interested in trees, or
Speaker 2: if they're interested in lakes, or if they're interested in
Speaker 2: anxiety or what have you, they can just go to
Speaker 2: that and they can say, oh, here's one that talks
Speaker 2: about dogs, and look at there's like three or four
Speaker 2: chapters that talk about dogs. Good, I'll go to those first.
Speaker 2: It was llewlyns idea.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. I love the book. It's very porrible. You can
Speaker 1: put it pretty much anything. You can almost fit it
Speaker 1: in a big jacket pocket.
Speaker 2: That was also Llewellyn's idea. When it came out, they said,
Speaker 2: we made it intentionally small so that it can fit
Speaker 2: inside a jacket pocket, so you can take it with
Speaker 2: you in the world. Was as a field guide, and
Speaker 2: I was like wow. And here I was thinking it
Speaker 2: was going to be a full sized book and you're
Speaker 2: going to have to leave it at home.
Speaker 1: Amazing wisdom from the Woods. I want to mention that
Speaker 1: Mark reminded me one hundred percent of the royalties are
Speaker 1: donated to the Student's Nutritional Alliance program through the north
Speaker 1: Woods Technical College Foundation. And I Mark brought this up
Speaker 1: before we started, and I said, well, what's that all about?
Speaker 1: He says, students are literally starving. That these port students.
Speaker 1: Give us a sense of what that's all about, would you?
Speaker 1: Because I haven't been in college in many years, but
Speaker 1: things are tough, I.
Speaker 2: Guess well, I think there might be a basic understanding
Speaker 2: in the public that students really aren't rich, that students
Speaker 2: are often struggling. And at the Tech College, where I
Speaker 2: teach psychology and sociology, I see my students struggling, and
Speaker 2: some of them have families of their own, they have kids,
Speaker 2: and they're trying to find food for themselves and their families.
Speaker 2: And so at the college we have the Student Nutrition
Speaker 2: Assistance Program where we hand out food vouchers to students
Speaker 2: who are hungry. And for years I've been contributing to
Speaker 2: that financially. And then when I got the book, I
Speaker 2: thought to myself, Okay, well, you know what. As I'm
Speaker 2: submitting this manuscript to Llewellyn. I think I'm just going
Speaker 2: to donate all of the royalties to the Student Nutrition
Speaker 2: Assistance Program. Why not, I'm already donating money to them
Speaker 2: every year anyway.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And there's also a personal emotion involved because I was
Speaker 2: a student and I know what it's like to be hungry,
Speaker 2: and it really touches on some deep feelings when I
Speaker 2: remember those days where I would come home and all
Speaker 2: I had to eat was a Bullis cereal for supper. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and many of us students were in the same category,
Speaker 2: and I remember thinking, we need to compare notes, and
Speaker 2: so some of us students, particularly I remember in graduate school,
Speaker 2: we would share notes. Hey, you know that bar down
Speaker 2: the street they have at happy hour they have freeer diures.
Speaker 2: And that other place, that nightclub they'll have like shrimp
Speaker 2: cocktails for free, or they'll have like whatever free or
Speaker 2: DERs set out for their customers, and all you have
Speaker 2: to do is buy a soda pop and then you
Speaker 2: can gorge yourself. You know, we give each other these
Speaker 2: little helpful hints. Do you know where you can get
Speaker 2: free food? So that's something I lived with, I experienced it,
Speaker 2: So I want to pass that on to my students
Speaker 2: who are hungry. I empathize with them. I've been there
Speaker 2: and I know. So I want people to know that
Speaker 2: the book is really kind of a fundraiser in a way.
Speaker 1: It's totally a fundraiser, my friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In fact, I was just going to say, I typically
Speaker 1: suggest that people go to Amazon, because it is available
Speaker 1: on Amazon, but if you have another place you have
Speaker 1: rather have people go to, let us know now so
Speaker 1: they can purchase the book and maybe you get a
Speaker 1: little more money out of it. Because of course Amazon's it.
Speaker 2: Is available on Llewellyn dot com. Oh, and also Walmart
Speaker 2: dot com is carrying it. Walmart, Yeah, Walmart dot com
Speaker 2: is carrying it. I checked it out myself. And also
Speaker 2: Barnesananoble dot com is carrying it. And so there's a
Speaker 2: whole slew of bookstores that are online, I think thrifty
Speaker 2: Books dot com and things like that. So there's a
Speaker 2: whole list of online bookstores where you could get it.
Speaker 2: And of course you can always pick it up at
Speaker 2: your local family ocult bookstore. Okay, you can pick it
Speaker 2: up at any local new age bookstore because most of
Speaker 2: them are in connection with Llewellen and even if they
Speaker 2: don't physically have it, they can certainly order it for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 2: You can support local bookstores exactly.
Speaker 1: Wisdom from the Woods. Mark much success on this book.
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure speaking with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you to be on your show.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I definitely think that you will have some new
Speaker 1: books coming out in the near future, kind of a
Speaker 1: follow up.
Speaker 2: We're already working on them.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, good yeah, yeah, uh yeah. How to how
Speaker 1: to connect with nature and meditate? Love to hear some
Speaker 1: meditative practices would be kind of cool as well.
Speaker 2: So well, I'm playing around with the title. The title
Speaker 2: that I'm thinking about from my next book is Manifesting
Speaker 2: Nature's Kindness, and then the subtitle is fifty two weeks
Speaker 2: to Deepen your Self nurturing for yourself and others. So
Speaker 2: it's still a title in the works, but it's about
Speaker 2: nurturing yourself and others.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Hey, well, hopefully we'll have you back on.
Speaker 2: Thank you. All right, have a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that Mark has a website soon. He does not,
Speaker 1: and you can find more information by going to Llewellyn
Speaker 1: dot com. That's L. L. E W. E. L. L
Speaker 1: y N dot com and there's a page for Mark
Speaker 1: and his last name is l A n g E
Speaker 1: n f E l D and he is in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: So it's a fun book. I really like it. It's
Speaker 1: well written, it's quick, it's a quick read, and it's
Speaker 1: almost like you could you could do it for daily
Speaker 1: inner connection, higher wisdom, where you pull a chapter and
Speaker 1: just read it and kind of follow along. The most
Speaker 1: important aspect is getting out in nature. We both agreed
Speaker 1: that they walking, communing, relieving yourself over your daily strain,
Speaker 1: and walking among natural elements is really critical to wellness.
Speaker 1: Also to note, this interview will be on the Earth Ancients.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. Destiny has its own YouTube channel, so just
Speaker 1: go to the Destiny podcast on YouTube. You'll see the interview.
Speaker 1: He has some illustrations from the book. So that's the
Speaker 1: way to to join in. Hey, if you're enjoying Earth
Speaker 1: Ancient's Destiny or the Earth Ancient Special Edition, please consider
Speaker 1: becoming a subscriber for as little as five dollars a month,
Speaker 1: you can support the work that we do here on
Speaker 1: these podcasts. We have a wonderful series of gifts for you.
Speaker 1: We have over fifty digital books from many of our
Speaker 1: well known authors and other individuals who are contributing, and
Speaker 1: it's a wonderful thank you for becoming a subscriber. To
Speaker 1: become a subscriber, go to Patreon dot com, forward slash
Speaker 1: Earth Ancients and just check it and they will take
Speaker 1: care of everything. Oh you u is an ATM or
Speaker 1: a credit card They dedocted each month. You don't even
Speaker 1: have to think about it. And it's a great way
Speaker 1: to help us out with our commitments. So to become
Speaker 1: a subscriber to Earth Ancients Earth Ancients, go to Earth
Speaker 1: Ancients dot com, Forward slash tours. All right, that's it
Speaker 1: for this program. I want to think my guest today,
Speaker 1: Mark Langenfeld, coming to us from Minnesota as always a
Speaker 1: team of Gil Tour, Mark Foster and fay A Pavar.
Speaker 1: You guys rock all right, take care of you well
Speaker 1: and we will talk to you next time. The the.
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