my healing journey

wow what a journey it has been so far. my book started pouring through me on May 18 of last year, on the plane ride to Bali. it shot through me like a lightning bolt, and sent me on a path to healing myself, holding space for the healing of others and the world. almost exactly a year later, it is almost complete, and I'm raising funds for the very last leg that will help me bring my work to the world.

to me, this is not a cause, or a nice thing to donate to. it's the story of everything. it's the story of our inherent interconnectedness. the interconnectedness of all life an all things that is the path to healing. it's the healing power of the mother. the unifying power of the sacred feminine. this is our way home.

we've brought the planet to a place where our oceans will be 70% more corrosive in 35 years, and the shells of baby snails and oysters are dissolving because of ocean acidification caused by imbalance in the carbon cycle. as dire and fucked up as ocean acidification, desertification, biodiversity loss, water shortages, nutrition depletion, and climate change are, everything points to a way to heal.

we heal by turning inward and looking below. by understanding and healing the place in our systems that can't be seen with the naked eye. we heal by coming to understand the symbiosis of microscopic life within us, and the threads that hold everything together and in balance.

my purpose and my calling is to tell this story in every way I can, and to call on you to pick it up and carry it forward in whatever way you can, and to call on others to do the same. please join me in telling this story in any and every way you can.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/grounded-healing-our-connection-to-the-soil

30 days of abundance // day 29: the urgent vs. the important

boy, am I in the middle of this one: 

not letting the urgent be the enemy of the truly important.

 

differentiating between the urgent and the important is absolutely critical to living well and being well (google urgent vs. important and you'll find all sorts of resources on the matter). but it's both extremely difficult to do, as well as extremely difficult to stand by.

 

important: climate change.

urgent: your to do list.

I learned while writing my dissertation you can fill your day with "urgent" things, like making money and grocery shopping, and never actually get your big work done. now, clearly making money and feeding oneself are important things to do. but if they do not directly contribute to your big work, your calling, they can be merely means toward survival and getting by.

important: writing your book.

urgent: paying bills.

 

but identifying what's truly important and what's merely urgent is not easy. urgent stuff seems important enough. which is why so few people ever write their novel from start to finish or start their nonprofit. we can fill up our entire lives with the urgent and never actually get to the important.

once you know what your truly important, central work is, keep that front and center, and work on it, every day.

 

that does not mean ignoring the urgent. by all means, make a living and take care of things. but make sure the important stays in the center of the rotation, and doesn't get drowned out by the daily cries for the urgent. 

30 days of abundance // day 27: 3 surprisingly effective ways to cut anxiety

everyone always tells us to breathe. that's a good one, but what about when we're so caught short that we can't actually breathe deeply yet. we're in the shit. stuck, frozen, paralyzed. these are a few somewhat oddball approaches that have worked to actually slice through anxiety in a way that leads me back to breath and movement.

1) laughter. 

 

my best recommendation is to have a stupid video or picture on hand as an emergency panic button. something that will make you laugh out loud no matter what is going on. something about hard laughter is a fail-safe shake-free from spiraling anxiety/panic. it works really, really well.

2) aromatherapy. 

surprisingly effective. I've heard about it, but it's always sounded kinda half-assed in the face of real anxiety. but I discovered there's a lavender mist spray that I get from whole foods that works like a charm. or add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to a glass spray bottle with water.  

3) sage.

 

if my anxiety is linked to someone else's life, using sage and clearing myself of their hooks and ties resets my center. even just the power of calling myself back in and letting go of other people's crap is enough to cut through layers of anxiety.

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a few other tricks include Rescue Remedy (you can also buy it at Whole Foods), a shower, and of course breathing and movement once you can get to that phase. calling a friend can also work. remember that you're not alone, anxiety is normal and strikes all the time. even just having a few go-to tricks up your sleeve can help keep it at bay in the first place.

30 days of abundance // day 26: building a foundation

if you've been following my writing, you've noticed that I took a long hiatus over the holidays. the best way I can explain is that I needed to turn inward for a while. 2014 was one of the most transformative years of my life, and the last month held the deepest internal transformation I've ever experienced. without getting into the details of my personal life, I can only describe it as metamorphosis.

now I'm carefully emerging, new wings slowly unfurling.

 

I have a lot on my plate for 2015, and I'm approaching it all with new eyes. I feel delicate and tender, and I'm taking on the new year with careful baby steps rather than fire blazing. everything's a little wobbly still, but I can feel my internal strength growing and my new ways of approaching things forming.

january is my month of foundation building, and actually I'll spend the entire year building a foundation for the rest of my life.

there will be a depth and perspective to my book that couldn't have existed without everything that transpired in the last few months of 2014. my yoga and craniosacral business is blossoming bit by bit. and stability will be a new priority for me - feathering a nest for my current and future well being. the risks I choose to take will be different - informed by lived experience.

I'm excited and ready, grateful and humbled. a little nervous and unsteady for sure; I'm definitely venturing into territory I've never been to. but I'm buoyed by faith in myself, an incredible family, and rock solid core of friends.

to new beginnings with steadfast allies. happy 2015.

 

 

30 days of abundance // day 25: 3 easy ways to recharge

are you spent? holiday rush. end of the year stress. just writing about healing and recharging makes me feel more whole. these are my three top ways for recharging bit by bit when I'm worn out. they are also tremendous for fighting off colds or nursing your way out if you've gotten knocked down already.

1) put lemon in your water.

lemon water has a number of benefits, not least, making water more yum and interesting so we drink more water in general. I try to get in the habit of just popping one or two slices of lemon into every glass of water I drink, as well as tea. when I use lemon for cooking (great with kale), I plop the already squeezed slices into my water glass. I also like adding cucumbers. 

2) cook with cayenne pepper.

I like spice. I put cayenne in just about everything I cook in the winter. I love it the most on potatoes. it's been used for herbal remedies for ages in Native American, Chinese, and Ayruvedic medicines. it helps reduce pain and even burn calories.

3) sleep.

easier said than done, I know. especially with a high stress job, financial pressure, and/or kids. the benefits of sleep have been documented and written about all over the place. what I know is that sleep is critical for physical and emotional healing, processing, and resistance to getting sick. when times get crazy, I actually make it a point to get more sleep. in a culture crazed with "the cult of busy," you might be equating sleep with laziness. chances are, if you take a look at your life and schedule, there are at least a few things that you are prioritizing over sleep that aren't actually serving you. getting enough sleep actually goes hand in hand with self-value, creating and honoring boundaries, and saying no.

taking care of yourself give you space to heal, regenerate, and get back to a place where you can really thrive by being active.

 

even top athletes in training know that self-care is mission critical for getting stronger. a few of my other favorite recharge ingredients are: fuzzy sweaters, listening to music by myself, candles, kombucha, and journaling.

be well.

30 days of abundance // day 24: rest is part of training

back from virginia. beautifully successful yoga retreat under my belt. time with my mom, which was especially important after the recent loss of my grandmother. heart full after a lovely impromptu birthday celebration. bouyed by incredible friendships with incredible people. I find myself, as I feel most days these days, deeply grateful.

the best way I can describe things is that I'm in a reintegration phase.

 

the last year of travel and movement and immense change have been tremendously growth inspiring, but also frankly exhausting. arriving at the end of this 7-month run, last week I felt the lurch and the comedown and a huge sense of relief in having time to be home rather than on the road. I haven't slept in the same bed for more than a week since may.

at the same time I feel like I'm at the most critical career juncture I've ever faced. I've been working my whole life to be doing what I'm doing right now. 

I'm often reminded at times like these, of a lesson I learned running track in high school and college: rest is part of training.

 

the training actually tears us apart: it's the recovery period of rest where we get stronger. rest is everything. it keeps us from getting injured, it keeps us in balance. 

I found an article on the topic online, which is actually called "overtraining can kill you." it does a great job of explaining the physiological effects of overtraining. if you google "rest is part of training," you'll find lots of articles on the topic. and of course, I believe the lesson applies directly to life and work of all sorts, not just physical training.

rest is not just something we do when we're worn out. and it's far from a sign of weakness. it has nothing to do with failing or being lazy. it's actually critical to success, balance, and wellness over time.

 

most of life is a marathon, not a sprint. sure, we train to be able to fire on all cylinders at critical junctures, but we're not meant to be firing all day every day. in fact, living every day like we've been shot out of a cannon is really really bad for us, and frankly not very smart. because the running pulls us apart, and strength and growth come from healing back together.

30 days of abundance // day 22: why I like to drink beer while doing yoga

I love beer, and I love yoga, and the two together make a sweet sweet symphony. and of course there's something about the irreverence of the whole thing. one of the things that I really love about my practice is that

I'm not a yoga purist.

 

to me, yoga is not about standing on my head. it's not about being pious. and it's definitely not about being superior. if anything, it's about being real. it's about authentically inhabiting my body. it's about having a safe place to return to when the world knocks me on my ass. it's about knowing my value and knowing my truth. 

anyone who has met me knows I'm not really an anything purist. I wasn't an academic purist or a sustainability purist or whateverthehell. you'll also notice that I have a strong affection for swear words. I love to sleep. and I love to party. I love to work hard. I love to try new things and take risks.

and I'm not sorry.

 

some of these things turn some people off, and that's ok. they're not my people. for me, living on my own terms is good for my health. it is, in fact, possible to build a small business and talk about the heart chakra and the importance of not giving a shit all at the same time. thinking differently is how I solve problems. prioritizing differently is how I manage to do all sorts of things that many people don't do. it also means I don't do all sorts of things that many people do. which is neither here nor there, it just happens to be my style. 

my dad once said, "you need to get your priorities straight." I said, "my priorities are straight, they're just different from yours."

 

I'm stoked that I trained with someone who had studied and done all the yoga, and teaches a philosophy of "whatever works." whatever works for you, your body, your life. it's why I teach from a place of figuring out what works for you. and I live from a place of figuring out what works for me.

I say, show up and do your best. fuck expectations.

at the end of the day you have only your own integrity to answer to, and you'll know whether or not you showed up, whatever it looked like to anyone else.

 

30 days of abundance // day 21: my first craniosacral therapy review

the reviews are coming in!

 

this one really moved me, and reminds me why I'm doing what I'm doing (and I like his creative use of capital letters :)

“I had my first Craniosacral treatment with Erin McMorrow recently when I damaged my Sciatica Nerve and was experiencing excruciating pain in my lower back, thigh, calf & heel. Though I sought physical deep tissue work with reputable Healing Practitioners in Los Angeles I also knew that the root cause of this ailment in my body was even deeper in my emotional and psychic bodies. Erin offered her service and out of desperation I accepted. The results were near Miraculous! Truly I fell into a deep slumber on her table in front of a warm fireplace and witnessed my emotional body relax and release itself from some kind of violent past related pain I have carried with me over this lifetime and possibly over lifetimes, if that can be considered a possibility. I don’t know how it all works but I do know that Erin McMorrow came into my life at the perfect time to help heal my Ethereal Bodies and catch them up with the healing of my Physical Body. I will have a few more sessions with Erin to explore the Magic of her treatment and have a better understanding of how our Human Holistic Composition works in relation to Healers coming into our lives to help US move towards Perfect health together. Thank you so much Erin for your Service. I look forward to our next meeting. BlessSingS.”

— Fernando del Sol

30 days of abundance // day 20: the most important thing you can do today

 

be kind to yourself.

 

are you being mean to yourself? stop it. turn that ship around. start a ripple of awesome in the world from your own pool of self-love. you are fucking awesome. own it. rock it. yea.

30 days of abundance // day 19: 5 things to stop doing right now

1) living in crisis mode.

that's right. freak out mode. we all do it. many of us have started to equate it with being a responsible human being (see below). when we operate in fight or flight mode, our bodies remain tense and can't heal. instead we take on emotion and stress that our body tables for later to deal with, and store it in our bodies. breathe. slow down. take walk, even for five minutes. you'll sleep better, deal better, and feel better.

 

2) equating self care with being irresponsible.

or the reverse, equating "real life" with stress. this is a no. this is where boundaries and self-value come in handy. when you value yourself, your time, and your well-being, it's easier to tell the world it can wait a second while you tend to your own garden. it also helps with the side-eye you might get from others who do equate self-care with irresponsibility. remember, their lack of self care is not your problem or responsibility. you do you. being well is a decision we make, not a privilege we have to earn. 

 

3) waiting for permission.

you don't need permission to take care of yourself. in fact, nothing you do is up to anyone else. sometimes taking care of yourself and doing you means doing your work - following your calling. I love this letter, in response to a plea for advice, acceptance, and permission from a young writer...

“But the best possible thing you can do is get your ass down onto the floor. Write so blazingly good that you can’t be framed. Nobody is going to give you permission to write about your vagina, hon. Nobody is going to give you a thing. You have to give it yourself. You have to tell us what you have to say.”

— sugar, the rumpus

this relates to will - the fire in your belly. nobody is going to give you permission. to write your novel, to go traveling, to ask that girl out, to quit your job, to start your business, to become a painter. and it doesn't matter. because, again, what you do is not up to anyone but you.

“How many women wrote beautiful novels and stories and poems and essays and plays and scripts and songs in spite of all the crap they endured. How many of them didn’t collapse in a heap of “I could have been better than this” and instead went right ahead and became better than anyone would have predicted or allowed them to be. The unifying theme is resilience and faith. The unifying theme is being a warrior and a motherfucker. It is not fragility. It’s strength. It’s nerve. And “if your Nerve, deny you –,” as Emily Dickinson wrote, “go above your Nerve.” Writing is hard for every last one of us—straight white men included. Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.”

— sugar, the rumpus

permission to strengthen, permission to soften. to go after it or sit down and take a rest. you have your own go ahead. now do your thing.

 

4) mistaking cynicism for practicality.

bleh. I have a particular level of disdain for this one. I'm all for practicality. I could often use more of it in my life. but to me, cynicism has that pessimistic, if not bitter edge that strikes me as practicality laced with fear. and fear is useful for alerting us - which is good for paying attention. but living in it is not so bueno - and sends us back up to #1 - fight or flight crisis mode. which can be paralyzing for body, spirit, and hope. it also undermines groundedness and self-value. however hippy dippy it sounds, I believe we need idealism, optimism, and hope to be well. we can be both practical and be well at the same time. no need for cynicism.

 

5) ignoring your inner voice.

this is a big one. we've finally reached intuition...the third eye chakra. sounds a little nutty, perhaps, but is actually pretty simple. intuition is real, and it gets stronger the more you listen to it. try running a test for a week, or even a day. trust your intuition in the decisions you make, and consciously watch the outcomes. watch the outcomes for the times you go against your intuition. it's powerful in business, relationships, and life in general. and if you practice with the small decisions, it'll be easier to figure out what your intuition is saying about bigger decisions. this doesn't mean abandon rationality - it just means pay attention. it'll also clue you into your real needs and desires. check in with your inner truth. if you're listening, it's likely #1-4 will get a lot easier.

30 days of abundance // day 17: what happens when you create boundaries and start saying no

 

in families. in work. in relationships.

 

you know when you're dealing with someone who wants some of what you've got. your talent, your time, your energy, your smarts, your help, your generosity, your teamwork, your sexy, your goodness, your sweetness, your awesome.

and most of us want, more than anything, to be liked. no matter how rebellious we are, we desperately want the approval of our families, our friends, peers, and colleagues. and so what most of us do, much of the time, is acquiesce. someone wants something, we try to give it to them.

the extra cleaning up after someone. the work demands that we know are bullshit. the caring more about the other person's well-being than your own. the making excuses for bad behavior. any unpaid professional work guised as "favors." the extra time spent on someone or something when we know we should be tending to ourselves. the way we edit our lives to present to friends and family. any way that we sell ourselves short.

any shifting of behavior or thoughts that deep down in you, you know grows from wanting approval or at least avoiding disapproval.

 

weirdly, the flip side of the coin is competition: instead of acquiescing for approval, we try to win at something for approval. we try to look better at something. we try to build castles of approval to keep ourselves safe.

both steal our energy. in both cases we bleed out something that belongs to us. 

 

I had a beautiful conversation tonight with a business partner/childhood friend, and I was talking about the tear that I've been on for at least a year and a half. and she noted how one of my projects is called grounding arts...and how much of my attention is currently on grounding. she pointed out that often the message we're laying out for others is the message we most need for ourselves. and the reason I'm talking about grounding is that healthy boundaries wrap all the way back around to the root chakra..back to the core of power and identity and being good with oneself.

because when you're really good with yourself, none of that noise can touch you. seriously.

fuck that noise.

 

absurd demands on your time and energy present themselves as such. pointless competition becomes obvious.

this is, of course, not the same as being generous and being there for someone. giving well actually comes from the same place as saying no well. it comes from a place of truly owning your shit. and of owning your value.

it becomes much easier to say no when you know your own value. and it becomes much easier to not give a shit about competition when you don't feel any charge around it, whatever the other person is doing.

 

when you know your value, the concept of insecurity becomes moot. I made it a point the other day to ground in and neutralize. this stuff can all be clear as day, and it still takes practice. we're human, and flawed, and we get wrapped up in the stupidities of life.

one of the most powerful lessons I've learned has been to say no to anything and everything that does not serve me, no matter how badly someone else would like me to do differently.

 

my teacher said, "if you're not in your power, it's a no." and the truth is it might piss some people off. it might disappoint some people. they may pout, stomp their feet, argue, compete, or fall away. all of that is ok. when you stand on your own to feet in your very own power, none of that shit matters.

and when none of that shit matters to you, only magic remains.

 

this is what happens when you create boundaries and start saying no.

30 days of abundance // day 13: work and the unlived life

I am writing a book and building a yoga and craniosacral business. which is kind of insane. either one of those two things are plenty for a person to do. building and launching them at the same time is just plain nuts.

and, of course, almost ironically, I'm having a hard time taking my own advice about living and working. it's hard to keep up with yoga and writing. I'm also trying to get the very basics of my life back in place after being on the road almost all year. 

one of my favorite books of all time is called The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield. this passage always reminds me what I'm about, gets me fired up, and helps me get my shit together to do my work.

 

the unlived life

"most of us have two lives. the life we live and the unlived life within us. between the two stands Resistance.

have you ever brought home a treadmill and let it gather dust in the attic? ever quit a diet, a course of yoga, a meditation practice? have you ever bailed out on a call to embark upon a spiritual practice, dedicate yourself to a humanitarian calling, commit your life to the service of others? have you ever wanted to be a mother, a doctor, an advocate for the weak and helpless; to run for office, crusade for the planet, campaign for world peace, or to preserve the environment? late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? are you a writer who doesn't write, a painter who doesn't paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? then you know what Resistance is.

“One night I was layin’ down,
I heard Papa talkin’ to Mama.
I heard Papa say, to let that boy boogie-woogie.
’Cause it’s in him and it’s got to come out.”

— John Lee Hooker, "Boogie Chillen"

Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction. to yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. it stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be. if you believe in God (and I do) you must declare Resistance evil, for it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius. Genius is a Latin word; the Romans used it to denote a holy spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us, guiding us to our calling.

a writer writes with his genius; an artist paints with hers; everyone who creates operates from this sacramental center. it is our soul's seat, the vessel that holds our being in potential, our star's beacon and Polaris.

every sun casts a shadow, and a genius's shadow is Resistance. as powerful as is our soul's call to realization, so potent are the forces of Resistance arrayed against it. Resistance is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, harder to kick than crack cocaine. we're not alone if we've been mowed down by Resistance; millions of good men and women have bitten the dust before us. and here's the biggest bitch: we don't even know what hit us. I never did. from age twenty-four to thirty-two, Resistance kicked my ass from east coast to west and back again thirteen times and I never knew it existed. I looked everywhere for the enemy and failed to see it right in front of my face.

have you heard this story: woman learns she has cancer, six months to live. within days she quits her job, resumes the dream of writing Tex-Mex songs she gave up to raise a family (or starts studying classical greek, or moves to the inner city and devotes herself to tending babies with  AIDS). woman's friends think she's crazy; she herself has never before been happier. there's  a post-script. woman's cancer goes into remission.

is that what it takes? do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up an confront Resistance? does Resistance have to cripple and disfigure our lives before we wake up to its existence? how many of us have become drunks and drug addicts , developed tumors and neuroses, succumbed to to painkillers, gossip, and compulsive cell-phone use, simply because we don't do that thing our hearts, our inner genius, is calling us to? Resistance defeats us. if tomorrow morning by some stroke of magic every dazed and benighted soul woke up with the power to take the first step toward pursuing his or her dreams, every shrink in the dictionary would be out of business. prisons would stand empty. the alcohol and tobacco industries would collapse along with junk food, cosmetic surgery, and infotainment businesses, not to mention pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and the medical profession from top to bottom. domestic abuse would become extinct. as would addiction, obesity, migraine headaches, road rage, and dandruff.

look in your own heart.

 

unless I'm crazy, right now a still small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times, the calling that is yours and yours alone. you know it. no one has to tell you. and unless I'm crazy, you're no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or will be tomorrow.

you think Resistance isn't real? Resistance will bury you.

you know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. at eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to vienna to live and study. he applied to the academy of fine arts and later to she school of architecture. ever see one of his paintings? neither have I. Resistance beat him. call it an overstatement, but I'll say it anyway: it was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas."

30 days of abundance // day 9: fire in the belly

wow. I just had a moment...scrolling through my content here...and looked at my post from February 22 of this year, right when I launched this site. when I have any inclination to freak out about progress, I take a look at how far I've actually come in nine months. so much has come clear.

and it's apt: today I'm writing about will. 

I've taken a circuitous route through the chakra system, so we're just arriving at the 3rd...Manipura, the solar plexus. the seat of self-identity, self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth. it's a source of personal power, will, and freedom of choice.

it's also linked strongly with digestion, and it has an important quality of intuitive sense - a "gut feeling."

what a perfect day to write about this. on two levels: one, I awoke with a sense of purpose and will today - of reorganizing, making decisions, and taking strong action in my next steps. second, I'm a big fan of gut flora (microbes), and I believe the digestive-emotional-intuitive link is not a conicidence.

if you read up on gut flora a little, you'll find that these microbes have almost everything to do with everything from our nutrient uptake to our moods to our bowel movements. allergies, inflammation, even brain functions. as I've noted before, we actually have 10 times more microbial cells than we have human cells.

so maybe the link between will, personal power, and self-esteem make sense in the physical space of digestion, where many of our most important functions happen.

 

and perhaps the "gut instinct" effect is a reflection of the signals our bodies give us around what we intuit. and when our gut is really against something, perhaps our body actually physically registers important information from our environment.

 

strong gut = strong will. 

something to think about today: take care of your gut. it's important. try probiotics. I love Yakult. it's good for if you need to poo.

avoid pesticides. pesticides kill microbes.

not awesome. only organic foods are legally required to not use pesticides. so buy organic or grow or own, and you'll know that you're not poisoning yourself. and try breathing down into your belly. it's great. today's a good day to start taking care of that gut.

30 days of abundance // day 8: why

the last thing I wrote was about the discomfort of showing the soft underbelly. I am now feeling that discomfort.

I've been bouncing the microbe mindfuck story, title, tagline, off of lots of brilliant, amazing people for several months.

there are pieces that clearly work and pieces that don't work. to me, the story is about soil health and climate change. those are the two topics that got me into it and fired up about it.

but I'm quite weird. pretty nerdy as well. what I've found is that both "soil" and "climate change" as topics, can shut people down. like, glaze over. but yet I keep running around saying that's what my book is about. and that is what it's about.

but it's not the why.*

why the hell am I writing about such a thing. no less, why in the hell would I devote my work to such a thing. why am I sitting outside in the dark writing about writing about it?

I mean, to me...it's really about saving the world. not in a bs kumbaya make myself feel better about myself kind of way. but like actually doing the thing. I've been training for more then 10 years to actually know something about this and how to do the thing.

but how in the world to get people interested in soil. or to believe and understand that something can be done about climate change.

the first answer is microbes.

people actually, kind of weirdly, resonate with microbes. it's a thing that makes sense - it's not as amorphous as soil or climate change. and, well it is very much about microbes.

and pesticides.

the thread that's forming is that people understand that pesticides are poison. nobody really wants to eat them. it's gross, why would we? nobody wants to be sick and fucked up, and nobody really wants the world to die. I mean, that's total shit, who wants that?

the third piece, which is also kind of weird to me still - maybe just surprising, is the carbon cycle.

because we get that there's a big ass problem with carbon and what the hell is going on with it. it's just that it seems very complicated. and it kind of is, but it's also not.

one thing I've found about this story is that it's both very simple and very profound. it's both straightforward and complicated at the same time. but that's what makes a good story, yes?

pesticides are killing the bottom of the food chain and fucking up the carbon cycle.

it's makes sense. poisoning the bottom of the food chain, which is of course the life chain..poisons everything. it fucks up the whole damn thing. of course it does.

I guess the devil in the details is around HOW it does this. and that's the part that I have nailed. sort of - it's still hard to explain all the details....and even so, the ground covered is so vast that I'm still learning about the ins and outs of basic biology and ecology as a neophyte.

but maybe this is where I get stuck...I keep getting back into the details, and I keep veering away from the

why. why. why why why?

we keep fucking up the whole system. I would like us to stop fucking up the whole system. there are ways to unfuck the whole system and I can tell you how. let's unfuck the whole system!

but the only way to do that is to understand how the system is getting fucked in the first place.

and right now we have that story wrong. 

we think it's about fossil fuels. but we are wrong. burning fossil fuels is one small part of a much larger story.

“Whenever I run into a problem I can’t solve, I always make it bigger. I can never solve it by trying to make it smaller, but if I make it big enough I can begin to see the outlines of a solution.”

— – Dwight D. Eisenhower

we're mistaking a part for the whole - we're looking at the wrong metric. the solution is obvious when we back up and look at the whole thing.

and finally, one thing that resonates profoundly with me, that people have a harder time with, is that this is a story of hope. climate change glazes people over because everyone believes it's an intractable problem. as in...there's no viable solution and it's pretty hopeless. 

but there's hope. for real hope.

this is a story about how to reverse climate change by repopulating microbes in the soil. and it's a story about how to reverse major health issues by repopulating microbes in our guts.

it's about healing the carbon cycle by healing the food cycle.

#30daysofabundance

#savethemicrobes

*(hat/tip marcella fredericks)

*an intellectual property note: if you are interested in this story, great!! tell it wide and far!! but please, if you use my words, quote me. if you use my ideas, cite me. if you're not sure, contact me. love.