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Ep.134 Imagination Connects What’s Been Divided with Mark Firehammer
50 Plays20 days ago
What if the bridge back to connection isn’t more effort—but imagination itself?
In this week’s episode, I’m joined by Mark Firehammer, creative visionary and founder of the Creative Humanity Alliance. Together we explore how imagination weaves ecosystems back together—between people, ideas, and the more-than-human world.
This isn’t about escaping reality. It’s about remembering that imagination is how life thinks through us. Creativity is the connective tissue of renewal, collaboration, and relationship with all beings.
You’ll discover how to use imagination as a tool for reconnection—within your art, your work, and your ecosystem.
In this episode about Imagination & Connection with Nature, you’ll learn:
🌿 How imagination restores what division has fractured
🌿 The difference between creativity and imagination—and why both matter
🌿 How nature models co-creation without needing permission
🌿 Ways to move from isolated thinking to ecosystem collaboration
✨ Next Step ✨
Bring these insights into LIVED PRACTICE inside the Naturally Conscious Community (NCC). 🌿Let’s turn reflection into integration — and make it real in your ecosystem. JOIN HERE FOR FREE
✨ Resources
🌱 Expanded Show Notes
🌱 Mark Firehammer's Work
🌱 Awaken Dormant Aura Layers with Plant Support Workshop (available inside Blooming Sprouts in NCC) - TRY IT HERE FOR FREE
🌱 Make it REAL in your ecosystem. TRY NCC HERE FOR FREE
👤 Guest Spotlight 👤
Mark Firehammer is the author of The Echo and the Voice, a genre-blending novel and musical journey exploring how culture shapes—and often suppresses—our authentic expression. As a songwriter, storyteller, and wellness innovator, Mark brings a radically refreshing perspective on what it means to live well, create meaningfully, and age without compromise.
He is the creator of Feelness, a body-mind system designed to restore and maintain physical independence without traditional fitness. Mark’s mission is simple and profound: to help people move, live, and express themselves with greater freedom—physically, emotionally, and creatively.
🔗 Connect & Explore More
🌿 Website
🌿 Contact
🌿 Shop Eco-Conscious Partner: The Shift Network
Socials
📸 Instagram
📘 Facebook
💼 LinkedIn
▶️ YouTube
🎵 Credits
Opening + Closing music by @Cyberinga and Poinsettia
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Reconnect with Plant Wisdom' and the Power of Imagination
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tigria Gardenia. Ah, you've probably noticed ah just how divided things feel lately. i don't know about where you are, but definitely I'm feeling I'm i'm lucky I live in community.
00:00:19
Speaker
And we have all these mechanisms, but still, between people between ideas, even between us and the world we depend on, it really just feels like there is so much pressure.
00:00:32
Speaker
But one of the things that I've been exploring, and you know, you've heard me talk about this before, if what if kind of, if you want to think about it, the medicine that we need in order to heal that divide, that division, isn't really trying to get your point across or more effort.
00:00:52
Speaker
But instead, what if, what if, what if, play with me here, it's imagination. Because contrary to what we've been taught, imagination isn't escape.
00:01:04
Speaker
You know, this whole idea that we're just sitting in la-la land, In reality, imagination is how life weaves itself back together. It's the way ah forest grows and, you know, everyone collaborating without needing permission. it is we try different things. We imagine what it could be and we let our imagination root back into the living system.
00:01:30
Speaker
And that is what changes. The more we dream of it, the imagine it, play with it, create in our minds. the more then we can create things in the physical world.
00:01:41
Speaker
And remember that creativity isn't just something we do. It's really how the planet thinks through us, right? We we are creative expressions of things.
Introducing Mark Firehammer and Exploring Creativity's Role in Connection
00:01:50
Speaker
So in today's episode, I'm joined by multi-passionate Mark Firehammer, who's an author, a musician, a creative visionary, and the founder of the Creative Humanity Alliance,
00:02:02
Speaker
who believes that imagination can rebuild our shared humanity. I love this concept so much. Together we explore how creativity becomes connection,
00:02:15
Speaker
how art becomes activism, and how seeing ourselves as part of nature can restore both our relationship and also our resilience. So I want you to just grab yourself a hot beverage if you're living in a place that's cool, or a cool beverage if you're living in a place that's warm.
00:02:33
Speaker
Take a nice breath. you know Give yourself some space. And I want you to really listen for the spaces between art world our words, words,
00:02:44
Speaker
Ever have any of those words that every time you try to say it, you always either say it or spell it wrong? I try to write write the word planet and I always end up in plant. Or i try to write anything that has plat in it and I always end up in plant.
00:02:56
Speaker
And so what I meant to say was I want you to really listen for the space between our words. I feel like this is one of those episodes that you hear and the enthusiasm and the excitement of what Mark is and everything Mark has to offer, but also the fact that you know, no named Rosena over here, if you're watching the video is um also, quote unquote, speaking in key zone way, which is through movement. So this is really an episode where imagination grows wild.
00:03:26
Speaker
So with that, here's my conversation with Mark Firehammer in episode 134. Imagination connects what's been divided. Welcome to Reconnect with Plant Wisdom.
00:03:38
Speaker
I'm your host, Tigria Gardenia, nature-inspired mentor, certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious Community. For over a decade, I've been known as a world ambassador for plant advocacy, working closely with plants to share their practical wisdom to help you consciously embody the elements of life that nourish your evolution.
Personal Insights on Identity, Imagination, and Nature
00:03:57
Speaker
In this podcast, I delve into ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality about the wondrous ways of plants. Together, we'll explore how ecosystem thinking helps you overcome limiting beliefs, understand the true nature of relationships, and live an authentic, impactful life.
00:04:17
Speaker
Hello, Mark. I am, well, as we just said, I'm excited, you're excited, we're excited. i am already like- all of excitement. Exactly. There's all this excitement.
00:04:28
Speaker
i am really actually looking forward to this conversation and getting into everything that you are and do and participate in. So, but before we start, like, can you just share with everybody who is Mark Firehammer?
00:04:43
Speaker
You know, I love that you ask it in that way because I'm going to answer it differently. than almost everyone else I hear. Who I am is the name I was given. I'm a Mark Firehammer.
00:04:55
Speaker
And as we talked pre-show, that name never really fit me. Even as a little kid, I'm like, i don't know, it's a cool name. Everybody comments on it, but I don't really feel like a Firehammer.
00:05:07
Speaker
which is why I chose when I released my novel to be a kindbloom, J.W. Kindbloom. But you can call me Mark Firehammer. Okay. ah But who I am is not at all what I do. i i feel like I'm 63-year-old version of four-year-old me, right? 63-year-old version of four-year-old me. I rejected the notion as a child that you have to grow up.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yep. Grow up, son. You got to grow out of that. Don't be such a baby. Don't you know, that's, that's not practical. So who I am is the guy that as a child said, I love what, who and what I am.
00:05:46
Speaker
i love that I can sit out on a snow mound in, you know, late April, early May as a four-year-old and wait for the tulip to come up through the snow as the first sign and have a conversation with that But that tulip and I never let that go. And that's really who I am.
00:06:07
Speaker
and the way I like to put it is most of the people that I know, they're behind a veil. And that veil was put upon them by culture and civilization because there's so many expectations that are put on us.
00:06:19
Speaker
And I refuse to recognize, even acknowledge that veil.
00:06:25
Speaker
i love that because so I'm somebody also who never really grew up. um I have i get asked even just a few days ago, i was asked by somebody as they were talking to me and I was telling them about my experiences and you know what I've done in the world. And they just looked at me and I get this question all the time after somebody meets me for a little bit. And they're like, I'm sorry, how old are you?
00:06:48
Speaker
yeah And then I tell them and they're like, no, no, that doesn't make sense. Like you're, that's like 10 or 15 years more than they think. And I don't think because, you know at first you're all flattered. You're like, oh, it's because I look great.
00:07:03
Speaker
I mean, besides I do understand. Exactly. I take care of myself. But really it's, it's exactly that piece, that feeling of, I know I'm going to be the, you know, 80 year old dressed in flamboyant clothes with a giant hat that's going down the street, you know, like, you know, as ah as super bold in that aspect. And I find that that part of it is that that is nature's renewal in so many aspects, like so right? That's that part that I feel like that's that part plantness that's like constantly renewing and therefore always has always has a young part somewhere, right? There's always a young shoot somewhere.
00:07:41
Speaker
somewhere that's there, there's always some aspect of yourself that's young, and that it's got there. How do you think that that affects like, for you personally, how do you feel that that's sort of being so in touch with that aspect of yourself that youth inside of you, and that part of you that feels like you know what, it doesn't really matter, i can always do what I need to do and feel that curiosity? How do you think it changes the way that you approach things?
00:08:10
Speaker
Well, yeah you said a very key word for me is the renewal part. Is that when one chooses to look at the world and their place in it and even the universe, if you want to go that far, the the idea of renewal and being connected with it all is that you are in the natural cycle of things.
Embracing Imagination and Transitioning to Original Creativity
00:08:29
Speaker
And you know like I said, when I was a little boy, i always looked forward to that first flower to come up. Like, yeah yeah what is the line? i wrote four lines of poetry when I was seven.
00:08:41
Speaker
And the first line is, they don't ask the snow if it's okay. They don't wait for the sun to say, go play. They just come up red and bold through chilly dirt that still feels cold.
00:08:56
Speaker
Wow, that's seven? Seven? I didn't think I was still eating much mud pies at seven. like I didn't finish that poem until I was 40. Right? 33 years later, I finished the poem because it had a home at that point.
00:09:12
Speaker
So to get to the answer of your question, that is the common thread for me is the renewal, that flower without fail every year. And as early as I can remember, I was there for it.
00:09:25
Speaker
Right. I was there for it. And if I didn't show up, that would have been the first moment when I let go of my own opportunity to maintain my connection, whether I'm conscious of it or not, of that renewal in that cycle.
00:09:41
Speaker
I mean, I count, I'm 63, so I just entered my ninth seven. And so I'm all about the cycles. And if I track back my sevens, I started something new and fresh at the beginning of every seven.
00:09:55
Speaker
So does that kind of answer your question about? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. and And I'm really curious now, as I was thinking about your poem and even the set well the sevens we're going to get into in a minute, because that's a very kind of big aspect. We talked about about about that a lot here in Damanhur. We even have a hall that's dedicated to that kind of, it has um a series of windows. It's called the Hall of Metals in the Temples of Humankind.
00:10:20
Speaker
And um all around the walls have that evolution of humanity, but um the windows, each one of which is stained glass like and you know different elaborate mosaics, glass mosaics, but each one dedicated to those cycles, those cycles of seven. So the first seven years and then the second seven years and then going all the way around.
00:10:43
Speaker
So it's really beautiful. But I'm also curious as to how so young being at such a young age, being able to connect to nature in that intimate way and have that understanding of renewal of the fact of I don't have to ask permission, but instead i grow with that melting snow. So i i am i feel that cold. It's not like I pretend it's not there. i know the cold there, but the cold is also indicating to me as it starts to warm that it's time for me to take that stage for me to step out and to start moving forward.
00:11:20
Speaker
And so that that relationship between bulb and you know and growth cycle, which is probably one of the best continuous, you know, of the annuals, right? Like bulbs, especially are such so rich as, uh, as, as beings that can teach us bulb flowers in this case, because that's such a constant renewal that we see. And it's so extreme to a certain extent. It's like not, you know, it's literally like I'm here hidden from everybody. Nobody even knows I'm here at all. And then I pop up for a period of time.
00:11:56
Speaker
tulips in particular have no other kind of quote unquote, permit me for a second use other than their presence. You don't eat them, you don't smell them like like kin are there just to be seen for that season.
00:12:12
Speaker
And then poof, I'm gone. But yet there's this knowledge. I'm not gone. Exactly. And I'm wondering how that affected you. How do you think that that influenced you, even at the beginning, obviously subconsciously, as you grew up, that that being in touch with that renewal and psy and and cycle so early on?
00:12:35
Speaker
That's a great question. And the only way that I can ever really answer it is to say that I just feel I've been around life more many, many times. I've had many lifetimes and I probably didn't get it right ah bunch of times.
00:12:53
Speaker
Right. And whether you want to believe that as a worldview or not, it satisfies me because it makes sense. Right. Is that I didn't know because I'm special in some this lifetime way other than what I brought with me from before. Right. And that doesn't make me more than or less than anybody else.
00:13:11
Speaker
It just makes me where I am on my soul's journey. Right. And it's funny that when you tell some people that, depending on their worldview, you find you find yourself in conflict with some people because they look at it as a judgment of them. Right. Even though I'm not talking about them, they're like, who do you think you are?
00:13:28
Speaker
right It's like, it always makes me a little sad when I count. I understand that perfectly because I also consider myself a very old soul. I remember I was sitting outside of the Dhammen Hercreya, which is like kind of one of our big areas here. And somebody said,
00:13:43
Speaker
was hanging out with a group of friends and we were talking and somebody came in and gave me a little piece of paper and they were like saying something about how we were like the gang of Dom and her in in a joking way, but also the fact of like a recognition of you are a Polaris soul, like the idea of being a very, very, very old soul.
00:14:00
Speaker
And, and that doesn't mean better. it like you said, it just means I've had all these pieces that I've had to pick up in each life. And that also means I'm probably made, like you said, a heck of a lot of mistakes yeah along the way.
00:14:16
Speaker
And it's funny because just today i was I was explaining to somebody that my own philosophy and my work is evolving to really be the bridge that helps connect your soul's journey to your present incarnation.
00:14:30
Speaker
In other words, to help us really connect in And this is where the plants help me a lot to think about that ecosystem and everything that is within the ecosystem at a physical and subtle level.
00:14:42
Speaker
And how much of that comes from what the soul has put into different aspects of our, of our a subtle body, like saying, Hey, I want you to actually have access to all this.
00:14:53
Speaker
Like, how do I give you access in some ways? And I feel like plants do do this so well because in their, know, renewal of of every cycle, they are constantly like rewriting their genes, reactivating pieces. It's the whole epigenetic model that helps us understand that there's so many aspects of us and we just have to figure out the right combination to turn on for that particular moment that I'm in right now. Right. And And I think that that's where, you know, living many, many lives gives you the opportunity to say, I've screwed up a bunch of
Creative Humanity Alliance: Unity Through Art
00:15:28
Speaker
them. I've turned them off in the wrong ways. And I'm just still learning how to do that.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah. I really enjoy that. How does that affect, I mean, you wrote this book, right? What is The Echo and the Voice. Yeah. And how do you put, like, first of all, tell us the genesis of the book itself, but also how does all this fit into what you write?
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah, you know, my, that's a great question. I really appreciate being asked it um because many people won't read the book because it doesn't fall into the genre that that they typically might gravitate to for other reasons like distraction or entertainment because this is not that kind of book at all.
00:16:12
Speaker
um so I've always thought as an artist that so many young idealist creatives among my world, and I love the young ones especially because I remember being 15, 18, thinking, I'm going to change the world with a song, with a song.
00:16:34
Speaker
I believed it, right? And what I discovered along the way is that I wasn't wrong about imagination being a tool that is capable of changing the world.
00:16:47
Speaker
Because after all, civilization was imagined by human beings. They had to imagine it before they could craft all the systems and structures within it. So what i realized as I got older is that it wasn't about one song.
00:17:01
Speaker
It's about a body of work that never strays from the the message that I've always been about, which is that we're not limited to what culture, family, friends, our educational system, our governments, our neighbors, whatever, tell us to be and expect us to be.
00:17:20
Speaker
there's a there's There are other choices. And one of the points I like to make is there's eight a half billion of us on the planet. And we no longer all have to pull on the same rope in the same direction because the earth is now completely divided up. and But yet the systems that we're still living by try to get us all to pull and say productive, you gotta be a productive member of society.
00:17:47
Speaker
Oh my God. So that is the unifying thread, not only in the book, but in all the music. I've written i've written a hundred songs and released 60 of them. yeah And yes, of course, there's an occasional fun little jaunt into Party Town and the Mind of Mark, right? cause somebody asked for that. So yeah, I could do that.
00:18:06
Speaker
but I could use my craft skills to write something that I'm not all that proud of. But for the most part, the artist in me always stayed on that common thread of how can I contribute to the possibility of the world being better in some way?
00:18:22
Speaker
You touched on something that I really want to get into, if if you'll permit me to follow down this little rabbit hole for a second, which is imagination as a tool.
00:18:33
Speaker
And I'm going ah i'm goingnna preface it by my side of where like I'm coming from, and then I really want to hear where you're coming from. So cool this year for me in particular, so a few years back, um I started working with a plant that, for those of you that are watching, can see in the background. I call no-name dracena.
00:18:50
Speaker
And no name Drusena. Drusena is a plant that I started to work with in one of my spiritual research groups here at Dhammenhur, where I decided i wanted to work on my subtle body of imagination.
00:19:04
Speaker
In other words, my soul kept telling me that there is a lot more to my imagination and I couldn't access it. Hi, Kitty. And, uh, and so, and so, uh, I couldn't, I felt like it, there was so much there. I felt like it was such a part of me. I'm, I don't, I know many people don't believe this, but I don't consider myself, I didn't up until then consider myself an imaginative person.
00:19:32
Speaker
I am a very good. I'm a great derivative person. And I don't take that as an insult. I am somebody who can take, I always used to say that I'm really great at making the dreams of others come true. In other words, I can take, like I'm a great editor, and not a great writer.
00:19:46
Speaker
Like these are all the ways that up until a certain period of my life, I felt very comfortable in. And then I got to the place where I started to shift probably because of age, because of, you know, different shifts in my astrology or different past, you know, phases of life. I started to move more to the creator rather than the person that,
00:20:05
Speaker
you know, ah took somebody else's work and then moved it. Even as a musician, I'm not an original, like I don't compose original music. I can read sheet music and I can do that really well.
00:20:17
Speaker
And I can, whether I'm playing or whether I'm singing, but I'm not necessarily somebody who makes up songs. Never been insulted, never felt like I was less than because of it. It's just what I'm really, really, really great at is taking that idea and making something great out of it.
00:20:32
Speaker
And then I started getting this nagging, this nagging inside of me that said, no, no, no, there's actually more. You're looking at imagination based on these things around you because it's it is, you're a very creative person, you're inside of the creative world, the arts and everything, but that's not the kind of imagination that's yours.
00:20:49
Speaker
But I had no freaking clue what it meant. So I started working with this plant to tap into my aura, into the layers of my aura and find that subtle body of imagination. and to start figuring out what that looked like for me. And it has very much revolutionized my life so much so that this year i consider this to be like most people use the numbers. I use paths on the on the tree of life from Kabbalah because I'm a Kabbalist.
00:21:14
Speaker
I'm on the the path of Zadi this year. the whole transfigured feminine, but imagination is another piece of that. And I was like, so I've been working a lot with imagination this year. That's my premise. So you know where I'm coming from.
00:21:26
Speaker
But I love that you talked and you said imagination as a tool. And I think I'd love to hear what your thoughts on that are, because I feel like some people would hear that sentence and feel that it's contradictory.
00:21:41
Speaker
Right. The idea of of imagination is supposed to be this spontaneous thing, this thing that just you can't control where that is one form of imagination. But I also find that imagination is something you hope. harness and you work with and you learn how to master in different aspects.
00:22:00
Speaker
And I'd love to hear how you work with imagination in that way. And how has, you know, the natural world helped you explore that topic? Right. Oh, this is, ah I'm really glad that you latched onto this because this, you're right.
00:22:13
Speaker
This is super rich. And, and it leans into what I always say is there isn't one answer to anything. In fact, the more you stay open to not being behind the veil.
00:22:26
Speaker
You stay open to the infinite choices beyond what your family and friends and culture and church and education tell you to do right the more The more answers to every question there are.
00:22:36
Speaker
So it comes down to which one do I choose? And the answer to that, I think for everyone should be which one feels the best while simultaneously not harming anyone or anything else.
Art as a Conduit for Human Connection
00:22:49
Speaker
So, To get to the imagination as a tool within that frame is human being, we're species, right? Just like the flowers and the plants that you live with and you grow with and through.
00:23:02
Speaker
Humans are a species and what makes us unique is our brains are such that imagination is a thing that we're all capable of. The question is, how do you want to wield that gift?
00:23:17
Speaker
Because there isn't one way. There's many, many ways, and I've always saw it as a way to change my mind, even if for a moment, so I could think of a different outcome of something that I was trying to create.
00:23:32
Speaker
Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I hadn't thought of it that way. One of the things that I've created, and we'll talk about a little later, and then Creative Humanity Alliance,
00:23:43
Speaker
is a guide a guide for the solo creator to invite them into um an imaginary space long enough to create something that belongs in our collection.
00:23:55
Speaker
Everything in the collection has to do with human connection. o Nothing else is in that library. All it is the library full of creative artifacts that represent human connection in some way, shape, or form.
00:24:09
Speaker
so to i'm So I'm staying with this thread, even though it probably seems I'm getting off on a tangent. No, no, no, no. following you. Imagination as a tool is the tool has three natural laws that I build a framework out of. And I don't call it anything because that's just another thing to get in conflict about.
00:24:25
Speaker
And the first one is all one thing, AOT. And I invite the solo creator. You might be a songwriter, a painter, a sculptor. Just for a moment, I want you to be the artist that is deciding to imagine, whether you believe it or not, that everything is connected. There is no disconnection from anything or anyone.
00:24:48
Speaker
Everything is connected. Now, ask whatever question you were asking in the creation of what you're working on, what's the difference now? How do you perceive that thing you were trying to bring to life through your art?
00:25:02
Speaker
How is it now different that you've just decided to creatively switch your frame and say, it's all one thing, everything is connected. And the answer always comes, there's always an answer.
00:25:14
Speaker
It's different in some way. And that's where the learning is about how and why you would use imagination as a tool. It's just an exercise of what if this were true?
00:25:26
Speaker
What if this were true? And how does it change where I thought I was going or where I want to go with this thing?
00:25:36
Speaker
I, I, I, I get you're touching on so many aspects that I absolutely love because this is, you know, that difficulty that we as humans have of of focusing on like how this doesn't fit.
00:25:51
Speaker
Right. And especially for, you know, my audience, those of you who are listening are most likely multi-passionate people. multi-potentialites, people with lots of thoughts and ideas. And there is still, which frustrates the heck out of me, this thought process that it's disconnected, right? The fact, i was just just talking with somebody over the weekend as we were doing this super long hike here in the mountains, which was beautiful.
00:26:15
Speaker
And we were having a discussion. was telling me how, you know, he spent 10 years in real estate and how he spent another 10 years working, you know, as a Buddhist. And then he now is really into woodworking and he's trying to understand woodworking.
00:26:29
Speaker
And then he also you know manages this other project over here. And then he says to me, he goes, and then of course, crazy me decided to not just learn one new instrument, but two.
00:26:40
Speaker
And he's talking to me like if these things are disparate and he's trying to like find his footing in one of them. And I'm like, you do realize they're all connected.
00:26:52
Speaker
And he looks at me, he's like, what do you mean? I'm like, there's a thread that follows through all of these and each one of them is giving you skills that's helping you with the other. And that if you're like trying to now learn an instrument, it's because those instruments contain the tools that you need, something that you need that's going to help you create better woodworking, which is the area that you feel like you really want to develop yourself in.
00:27:15
Speaker
like like you These aren't separate projects. And and he was just like looking at me. and i just like Just like you said, just imagine for a second if it were true. like Forget it for, you know, why focus on the the separation that just makes you feel bad about yourself, that you're wasting time. You don't know how to emphasize like all of those things disempower you.
00:27:35
Speaker
Right. Ask yourself the question. We're here. We're in this beautiful, natural setting. Look around, like talk about disparate, like every freaking tree, grass, every being that we're seeing around here seems to be doing a million different things at once.
00:27:50
Speaker
And yet look how it all comes together in harmony. So just like you said, what if it were true? What if it's true that all of these things are actually connected? What would that look like then? You know, and what i've what I've experienced as the real benefit of imagination and that kind of question as an exercise of creativity is that it's non-threatening, right? Especially when you're working in a group. If you're trying to put a cohort together, there it's even cross-generational, which is ideal for what I'm trying to do.
00:28:18
Speaker
You get a 20-year-old, 40-year-old, 60-year-old, and an 80-year-old. They all have different experiences and you're herding them into one project. So you can benefit from all those points of view.
00:28:30
Speaker
You then invite them into that space. You don't have to believe this. It's just part of what we're doing in this room right now to get to a shared end result. So it's non-threatening to say just for this next X number of X, this is true.
00:28:45
Speaker
How does it change what we're doing? How's it changed when you look at it? And it's easier in a group because when someone starts to get emotional, you realize they've stepped out of the exercise.
00:28:56
Speaker
there now They're now looking through their own lens again. And it's fun to say, oops, you you left us for a moment. Come on back. you know And just invite them playfully back into, remember, its say everything's connected.
00:29:09
Speaker
right And you don't have to take it with you when you go. You don't have to believe it. But just for now, right now, let's play with this. I love it. Okay, so that's number one. What's number two? What do you mean, number two?
00:29:21
Speaker
Did you say that there was three? yes, yes. Yeah, I'm sorry. Well, I didn't think we were going to go into the other two because they didn't. You don't have to. will mention what they are.
00:29:32
Speaker
Okay. The second one is just a reframing of what I learned long ago. First time I saw it was at the age of 12 in a Wayne Dyer book. And it's the formula that whatever a human being believes,
00:29:46
Speaker
feeds what they think. What you think you will eventually say, right? What you say you will do. Then that the doing is the first time that the belief is manifesting physically in your ah in your life and your world.
00:30:00
Speaker
And the outcome is the result of that. So B, T, S, D equals O. That's the second formula. And what that represents is um movement, right?
00:30:13
Speaker
Movement. Because you can change the belief and the outcome change. You can change the thought, just look at all variables and then go backwards from that. And the whole formula shifts when you play with the variables in that formula.
00:30:28
Speaker
And what I loved about what I learned from Wayne at 12 was, again, he taught me that I don't have to necessarily believe in this. But if I play with it in my mind, the human brain has an interesting thing.
00:30:44
Speaker
imagined experience stores memories exactly the same as real experience. Yes. So by playing with it as an artist, I begin to, without even realizing it, see the effect of that tool in my real life when I'm not an artist.
00:31:04
Speaker
That's number two. The last one is about, it's a growth mechanism. I call it elemental. And it's an acronym. And only two of the letters change, but they're still the same letter.
00:31:16
Speaker
So every little event makes every next time a little fill in the blank. And the event time relationship relative to growth is chaos. You're not in control. You're not making a choice.
00:31:34
Speaker
you're you're you're You're acknowledging the event and you're watching it through time. And you're then saying, what happened? What was the result of that? Was it more, or less, up, down, bright, dark, whatever?
00:31:46
Speaker
So the same acronym, every little effort, I just traded passive for active, right makes every next try the iteration of effort trying again.
00:32:01
Speaker
little more, less, brighter, darker, funner, not funner, right? So again, it's just this thing that you do in your mind that gives you a growth potential in a character, in a storyline, whatever the case may be. I talk about all of this relative to the harmless world of creating things, not getting into the scary world of changing my beliefs or trying to change somebody else's mind about something.
00:32:28
Speaker
I use it as a tool to change what is that third verse going to be? How can I change that third verse to be in alignment with the goal that I decided on when I started writing the song?
00:32:42
Speaker
Powerful. I love the way I see your brain. know
00:32:49
Speaker
It's processing and like, I know I can't hide anything on my face. It's like it's processing in real time and it's really interesting. And and um I'm thinking that, you know, it's when you said the second one, um you you made me think of a quote from Gandhi that I've always loved, which is, um and it's, you know, i try I'll try to quote it as close as possible, but is happiness is when what you think And what you feel and what you say are in heart. No, when you, what you think, what you, what you, what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. And I think that this goes perfectly to that second one, because especially we don't, we don't realize that the disharmony is not whatever it is that we're thinking.
00:33:31
Speaker
It's that oftentimes our actions don't mirror what we truly feel and think. And therefore, when when those things are out of harmony with one another, then that's where the unhappiness comes.
00:33:42
Speaker
So we tend to try to like demonize our thoughts, but it's really not a problem of our thoughts or our feelings or our our, you know, the things that we say. It's the fact that we need to be, all of these need to be in harmony, working with one another in order for them to truly express who we are and what we do.
00:34:00
Speaker
Absolutely. And for me, that's really kind of the core of this whole ecosystem thinking, right? The whole way that I look at the ecosystem. If I'm trying to be with others and trying to get things done with others, and yet I don't want to be there, like it's going to come across, it's going to be a problem.
00:34:18
Speaker
Or if I don't trust the other, or if I don't believe that the other is good enough or whatever it is, any kind of judgment that's coming out, it's going to come out eventually. So you might as well just deal with it. Just deal with it in some way, whether that's dealing with it by by changing myself or dealing with it by another's. And and that that's why that human connection part that you were talking about was so interesting.
00:34:39
Speaker
So you've mentioned it a few times, but I'd love for you to explain a little bit more. What is this creative humanity alliance that you have? Yes. um It's an extension of the 15-year-old me saying, I'm going to change the world with a song.
00:34:55
Speaker
you know Like we've already said, it everything is a thread with me. And came into this life not willing to let go of the original thread. And the Creative Humanity Alliance is my latest effort right toward
00:35:15
Speaker
giving other interested creatives, and a creative many, many things. You can make video games. You can write books. You can paint. Creative is not limited to commercial art, right?
00:35:28
Speaker
To get together, and many of them have been curious because I'm so prolific. How do you do that? You're not 20 anymore. You're in your 60s. How are you so prolific?
00:35:40
Speaker
And they're interested in how I can do that. So the Creative Humanity Alliance was a desire to share the method so that more people could get on board long enough to create another piece for the archive.
00:35:54
Speaker
Right? Because the only way you can make an archive about one thing is for everyone to share an understanding of what that one thing is on some level. Right. Like, you know, there's a lot of levels to connection in humanity.
00:36:07
Speaker
You know, a connection to plants, to animals, to, you know, the cosmos. There's so many, so many levels. So the Creative Humanity Alliance was 63 years of thinking about how do I change the world with a song?
00:36:23
Speaker
And the novel demonstrated
Ecosystems, Love, and Interconnectedness
00:36:27
Speaker
how a character, Jonas Wilder in the novel, can fu fulfill his dream and his goal of somehow contributing to changing the world for the better.
00:36:37
Speaker
And it wasn't a song, but in the book, it's a collection of 10 songs. But the 10 songs are very specific and they're in a very specific order. And when you listen to it in order by Jonas's design,
00:36:53
Speaker
Little things begin to wake up in the perception of the listener's position among all that you can be positioned among, right? You look at your own life.
00:37:05
Speaker
And these songs unlock code that's in the human brain. And it was Jonas's grand experiment in his living outside of society. He was living in a van, not keeping a home, just gave up all the trappings of society.
00:37:23
Speaker
Safety and security wasn't in a job and a building and a car. Safety and security for Jonas was never stopping expressing himself and never stopping being open to what he experiences among and with other human beings change the way he expresses himself.
00:37:46
Speaker
And there's a moment without giving it away in chapter three part three rather, there's 26 chapters. where he realizes he's gotten everything that he needed from the journey on the road, which was a long one.
00:37:59
Speaker
Now it's time to take the he who he is now in close relationship with other human beings to form that alliance. And he and five characterrick four other characters imagine the creative humanity alliance in the final chapter of the book.
00:38:17
Speaker
So the fiction turned into real life in August of this year.
00:38:22
Speaker
Wow, what an, i mean, there's, move okay, hold on, wait, I wanted to figure out which direction I want to take, because I had a question that was going to ask you, but then you actually answered it in in the way that you put it all together.
00:38:35
Speaker
And I guess one one of the things I want to bring into this and and coming back to, if you looked at, you know, these pieces as ecosystem pieces, right? So going back a little bit because I know that you think in ecosystems too, so I'm kind of bringing that and that metaphor narrative back into it.
00:38:52
Speaker
And when I hear this type of story and I think of kind of succession of an ecosystem, right, you have from the early succession all the way through to a mature sort of forest. Let's take a forest because it's the easiest one for us to visualize.
00:39:07
Speaker
And so, of course, the the you know the road is that that middle phase where I go from early succession into kind of middle stabilizing type of ground. And then I get to the place of late succession, which is I take everything that I now created and it's rooted and it's grounded and it's a part of me.
00:39:24
Speaker
And I can just like stabilize all of that and be and enjoy what that is. And of course, there's little transformations that are happening around. How do you see the the idea of like, what is the meta, what is the ecosystem that is being created? What is the ethos of that ecosystem that you feel is most important for readers of the book or, you know, to really walk away with?
00:39:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good question. um it's And my partner Howard talks about this all the time with me. He asked the same question in a lot of different ways.
00:39:59
Speaker
And what he points out is that you're creating an ecosystem that is a growing body of reminders of what it means to be a human being and to not see each other as the labels that our lives put on us, political, education levels, religious, ethnic, geographic, um so many labels. And we look around us and people are not even taking a moment to know this other person. All they see is how their labels don't match their own.
00:40:36
Speaker
And Howard marvels, because he doesn't know how to do it himself, he marvels at that not only do I create that content, I've created the content to help people understand how to create the content.
00:40:50
Speaker
and Because the ecosystem is meant to become bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger through the Alliance until anyone who looks at it can't miss the underlying message, even if it's the first whisper they've ever heard, that nothing matters more than perceiving ourselves as friend, not enemy.
00:41:13
Speaker
to see what we have in common, what makes us beautiful and perfect. And that's compromised when we see each other as something other that is artificial, right? So we're creating an ecosystem where you can't help but notice, right? We have 10 things in the pantry now, we call it the pantry.
00:41:34
Speaker
Imagine those 10 being magnified to a hundred and then a thousand and then 10,000. um We have a big planet. And Google sees the wisdom of what we're doing. They've given us $10,000 a month to spend to get the word out about this.
00:41:51
Speaker
Wow. And that's a big commitment. That's $120,000 a year. That's amazing. Yes. That gives hope to everybody who's listening. Your projects too can be supported.
00:42:02
Speaker
Yes. If you have the determination to really focus your mission and describe it and punch holes in it yourself before anyone else has an opportunity to.
00:42:15
Speaker
And then when it's ready, put it in front of the, you know, where some people perceive Google as an evil, right? there's You can see the light and the dark in anything. In anything, in everything. In everything.
00:42:29
Speaker
So I see the light in Google because they see the light in this project. And so did that answer your question about the yeah importance of the ecosystem? Yeah, it did. And especially because you brought it back to, you know, ah something that i I keep heading, I keep touching on over and over again in every aspect of my own work and the work that I do with my clients, which is really nothing matters more than those relationships.
00:42:54
Speaker
Nothing matters more than relationship. It is relationship in all of its vast definitions, relationship with self, or relationship with divine, relationship with other, relationship with more than human, relationship all around.
00:43:10
Speaker
And it is really the quality of those relationships that determines the quality of your life. Right. Those relationships can have many different, you know, i struggle with the words positive or negative anymore. I think of constructive, destructive, and even that can be useful.
00:43:25
Speaker
Positive, yeah destructive can be really positive if you use it in the right moment. And it's really about that quality of that relationship. And the fact that our, going back to, you know, what you were talking about with um our our cultures and all the labels that we're given, relationships in particular have so many labels attached to them that makes them myopic in nature in some ways. They're very, very, very limited.
00:43:52
Speaker
When we have this expansive way of being, I've realized that over the last years, working closely with the plants, my capacity to have multi-layered relationships my capacity even for lack of a better term to love in a much more expansive way is is something that i never expected to come about from working with plants so closely but has been something as a matter of fact the day that i had the which was again part of a spiritual research group that i was in when we had this moment where we all realized that
00:44:29
Speaker
in our own ways of working with plants so closely when we were doing the kind of ah end of year summary of the research that we had been doing and how it all connected between the different um kind of like spokes of a wheel. We were looking at how all of our individual relations, because each one of us had a relationship for a year with a plant. Mine was with this one over here, no name Dracaena.
00:44:53
Speaker
Talking about imagination, but another person was working with an avocado, another with a ficus, another one was talking with a begonia, like we were having another with a spider plant, we were having these really interesting relations, and we would get together every week, and we would share the research we were doing and how we were carrying it out and everything. And when we come to the two, the sum of it all.
00:45:13
Speaker
It was so corny. I was just sitting there when we realized it because none of us were trying to get there. Like it wasn't a, we're trying to prove this, but we all ended up in like this extremely expansive love, this yeah extremely expansive, um,
00:45:28
Speaker
understanding of the connections that we had and how it profoundly shifted the definition of the word, especially for me, where, you know, you have love of family and I love, you know, work and in English, especially we overuse the word love sometimes. Like I really love that concept. I really love that person and all this.
00:45:49
Speaker
We have a very, um it's it's funny, we use the word a lot, but with very limited definitions of it. It's usually a
Transformative Power of Imagination and Love
00:45:56
Speaker
noun, not verb. A lot of aspects and all these different pieces. Yeah.
00:46:00
Speaker
And there, instead, I reached this like, like love that I still can't put words to because our English language doesn't have it And now when I think of certain people, certain plants, um certain experiences in my life, I get like an overrush of emotion that makes me realize that that is my divine nature to, to a certain extent. And it's this, yeah,
00:46:30
Speaker
It mixes respect. And it doesn't mean I always like everything. Like I don't like every person that I deeply love. But there's like this respect and this reciprocity and this like humanness with otherness. And it's so hard to put into words.
00:46:48
Speaker
And I feel like that also is going back to the whole concept we were talking about, about imagination as a tool. I think that when we allow ourselves to be in that space, the freedom that comes with that space, because it means that all my emotions now are okay.
00:47:04
Speaker
Everything is, you know, I'm i'm allowed to touch it Then i can use imagination to envision it in, in apply it across so many different things.
00:47:17
Speaker
It's almost like I can use that to wash and to guide this flow because now I'm no longer acting out of fear. which is usually what inhibits us and what really blocks our imagination and so many other things. Now I'm operating from an entirely different direction.
00:47:34
Speaker
I don't know if that made any sense. No, it did. I love i love it. For me, you're you're expressing the difference between the overly used American love is a noun. right They're almost always talking about a noun and you're talking about love as a verb in its many, many asks. You can conjugate a verb in a lot of different ways.
00:47:54
Speaker
yeah but I am totally with you on that. Did you ever read the book, Ilandia by Austin Tappan Wright? No, I haven't. You should look it up. If you can find a copy, which it's out of print.
00:48:06
Speaker
If it's a hundred bucks, it's worth every penny. He creates a whole world in his imagination. And he never wanted anyone to read it or never planned to. And his sister found it in the attic after he died. And there was literally tens of thousands of pages.
00:48:25
Speaker
And the book was only about 10% of what he'd written. But in the book, much like the early Latin language or the Romans and the Greeks, love had three different aspects, ania, apia, and alia.
00:48:39
Speaker
So it's much richer understanding of the, you know, brother, sisterly love, passionate love, and then all consuming forward to history, the past, you know, the future, of the past, everything rolled up into one.
00:48:53
Speaker
That is the ultimate love. And that, in my opinion, is kind of what you're talking about. Yeah. And it's such a shame that we've lost that. Yeah. It's not gone.
00:49:04
Speaker
It's not gone. You're absolutely right. And I feel like maybe it's, it's like I said, when when we got there, I was sitting there. I almost didn't want to get there. I didn't want to get there because I didn't want it to think...
00:49:18
Speaker
Because we always say, you know, all you need is love and you the Beatles and you have everybody. Exactly. And everybody's just like, talks about love and like kumbaya and that's the answer to the world and everything. And I was like, it can't be that way. That's just so corny or whatever. The answer is that. Yeah.
00:49:35
Speaker
And like I said, if you look at an ecosystem, is it a battle? To a certain extent, yes, there are battles going on. But even those come from a place of love in that expansive way because it comes from a belief that the overall ecosystem Right. Has these checks and balances and movement and moments of stability and all these different things that are happening.
00:49:59
Speaker
And that is the expression of love is the every single one of those beings being true to self and expressing themselves. And sometimes they they, they you know, crash into one another for a little bit and then they deal with that and then eventually move on.
00:50:14
Speaker
Because they don't permanently stay at war, which is something we unfortunately as humans do. And it's like, and then there's this this ability to just to to live that curiosity.
00:50:25
Speaker
Because when I have, when I'm not living out of fear, I can now live in that curiosity. I can live outside of those boundaries. I can live outside of my need to express only what I think somebody else wants to have.
00:50:42
Speaker
yeah it It changes the narrative. Going back to your first one, right? All one thing, right? Imagine everything connected. i believe that when you are in that place, as corny as it might sound, when you are in that place, it is so much easier to not just imagine that everything is connected.
00:51:01
Speaker
i think that that's the end goal where you end up, which is, oh my God, the realization everything is connected. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The realization that everything is. And the best way to get there for any individual human is to play with it and practice in your mind where it's non-threatening. Right. And get experience with it Because, you know, as they say, experience leads to confidence.
00:51:22
Speaker
Confidence leads to more experience and then finally mastery. And that is the key. If we want to get there, we have to play with it a little bit in non-threatening ways. Yeah, and I love that for you, all of this started with a tiny little tulip.
00:51:36
Speaker
I still love the tulips. I know. You know, you mentioned the bulbs earlier. Can I talk about bulbs? Yeah, please. I didn't know about the bulbs when I was a little kid. All I knew is that if I sat there long enough, my tulips would show up again and again and again and again.
00:51:52
Speaker
I didn't know about the bulb until I got to Florida after 1969. moved when i was seven. And that meant leaving my tulips behind because tulips don't naturally occur in Florida. You buy the bulb and you plant it and you nurture it and you got your tulips.
00:52:10
Speaker
And so but that then it's like, oh, this is a whole other level of awareness of my friend, the bulb. Right? Because I'm looking at the bulb and I'm going, there's a tulip in there.
00:52:21
Speaker
Right? Exactly.
00:52:25
Speaker
And I'm still young enough to not have the scientific understanding of it. And that's fine because I much prefer the non-scientific understanding. I like the wonder of there's a two. I wonder what color it is.
00:52:38
Speaker
Is this going to be a red one? Is this going to be one of those orange ones with the stripes that looks like the sun? What's this one going to be? And I even tried to figure out by looking at the bulbs, could I predict what the next, what this one is?
00:52:52
Speaker
And I never could. Yeah. no But that's that wonder, right? That understanding that there's so much life inside of this thing. And I think it's ah it's a great also understanding there's so much life inside something that looks, <unk>cks to a certain extent, dead, you know, looks dead.
00:53:10
Speaker
like and And how also you know the importance of giving yourself that space and that time for hibernation, especially in the creative world, like you cannot create 24-7, nor should you. You need that time of reflection and all those.
00:53:23
Speaker
There's like so much there immersed inside of that bulb. There's nourishment there. There is taking care of the next generation. There is ah ability to expand and, you know, oh ah all of what may come like anticipation.
00:53:41
Speaker
There's so many emotions inside of a bulb that, you know, you get to enjoy both the the beauty of the expression of that tulip and also what is in that potential, you might say.
00:53:55
Speaker
Yeah. i I love it. i love it. i I never thought of tulips in Florida, though. I have to admit, as a Florida girl, like tulips, no. like that's just Well, you know, as they stay i and I hate to use that phrase today, say, who in the hell are they? yeah yeah um ah You never forget your first love.
00:54:15
Speaker
ah Exactly. Right, because I, you know, tulips were my first love. I never, that's when when I was in Florida. And in fact, in the book, Jonas has a moment in a coffee house in 1969. He's the character in the book.
00:54:29
Speaker
There's a girl on stage, 12, 13 years old, and she's reading Tulips by Sylvia Plath. Do you know the poem? Yes, I It's dark, it's sad. It's dark. Plath. Yeah, but well, she had every reason to be together. Exactly. Yeah.
00:54:44
Speaker
So here ah here I am, Jonas, this is one of the autobiographical moments from the book, is that hes she's reading this poem and I know she's talking about tulips, but I don't understand the sadness. I do not understand at seven what this poem is about because that's not the tulips I know. And for her, it was something else entirely.
00:55:07
Speaker
But that's when I wrote, I misspoke earlier. I wrote those first four lines when I was seven, not when I was four. I loved the tulip at four, stayed with me until seven, and I wrote those four lines. right And that was a big deal for me because that was the first time I realized that there's a difference between every human being's perception of anything, including themselves, and what another person could perceive of you and the thing that you're perceiving.
00:55:33
Speaker
right There's maybe no resemblance at all. And if you compare notes in a thoughtful way, there's learning there. But to go back to the misuse of love, if you throw the word out and everybody makes an assumption what you mean, no one's learned anything about what you think or feel about love.
00:55:53
Speaker
That's why i like just did thought I love that you brought up that we're we're lazily using the root word of humanity's connection to one another you know to get back to the kumbaya moment.
00:56:06
Speaker
Oh, we need to be in love.
00:56:10
Speaker
I'm telling you, I struggled for a while because I just kept, I kept trying to avoid it. We were having that conversation and I was like, no, it can't be. And then I finally had to call it out. I was like, oh my goodness, folks, are you realizing that all of us have just gotten to unconditional love?
00:56:27
Speaker
And everybody was like, oh my goodness, yes. That's what I'm feeling. We had been all trying to put different words into it in different ways. Like somebody through music, mine, this plant doesn't talk to me. I have to dance.
00:56:39
Speaker
So it's about movement. right So for mine, it was movement. For one person, it was music. For another person, it was speaking. For another person, it was care in the forest. For another person, it was art. Each one of us had come at it from different angles. And we were like,
00:56:53
Speaker
were at unconditional love folks. And they were all like, oh my goodness, yes, yes, yes. But what a fun way to get to being at that. It was wonderful. It Right, you could you know you could go through years of talk therapy.
00:57:09
Speaker
Not that there's anything wrong with that. it just doesn't work for me. I'd much rather do what you did. Yeah. Have a relationship with, you know. And that was, I think that is another, was another confirmation for me of this work that I do with plants where every one of us was working very closely with one particular plant person.
00:57:26
Speaker
We had chosen that person, that person had chosen us. We were all approaching it in different ways based on our own experiences and how important it is that, especially when it comes to this topic of love, I learned at least in this, which was,
00:57:41
Speaker
Oh, my God. it it Yeah, sure. OK, I can intellectualize it. But you have to touch other senses. You have to go through other ways to really get into it.
00:57:52
Speaker
Because when you just only approach it, going back to imagination, because our imagination is limited, especially in the world of love, by the words themselves,
00:58:03
Speaker
when you approach it from that intellectual way, you mostly get derivatives, which are not always bad because depending on what you're trying to express, but you get derivatives of the love that we already kind of know, as opposed to approaching this where each one of us was working on different aspects of ourselves with these plant partners, we were able to get to a completely different understanding that was a embodied understanding of love that and that unconditional love.
00:58:33
Speaker
that each one of us had to even express. Like somebody had to listen have us listen to the music another person that they created together. And they were like, this is my expression. and another person wrote a poem. Like almost none of us it could put it into simple words. We had to express it and then you know group it together to find there.
00:58:56
Speaker
So it was
Concluding Reflections and Embracing Creativity
00:58:57
Speaker
it was wonderful. Mark, this has been such a delightful conversation. As we wrap things up, a few, two two kind of last pieces. One, what are, what do you want everybody, and anybody who's listening to this for you, what would be like if you walk away with one thing of everything we said, here's the piece that I really want you to walk away with.
00:59:21
Speaker
Yeah. That we're all capable using our imagination to be a part our
00:59:32
Speaker
a movement to reconnect to each other. We all have that built in already. It's already a skill. You just gotta practice it. It's already an ability, not a skill. It's an ability.
00:59:43
Speaker
yeah Beautiful. Be a part of it. Yay. And set down your screens. Stop being influenced by screens. ah so Except to watch this podcast.
00:59:55
Speaker
Exactly. Just listen to the podcast, then go outside, do something else afterwards. It's totally understandable. i find i find that um I have this really skewed way of looking at things because when people talk about you know like using technology too much, I've been working with technology since 1997. So I've spent a lot of time in technology.
01:00:17
Speaker
But at the same time, I live in community. I spend a frick load of a lot of time with other people. balance Exactly. And that's the part that I think we might be the better key. I sometimes wonder if it's not so much like put down your screen, but more like, how are you? Yeah, where are you connect?
01:00:36
Speaker
Like, where are you connected in other ways as well? you know, are you, do you have connections? Like I went, like I said, on this beautiful hike to the Val Malone on Sunday and it was gorgeous. and You know, I spent, uh, you know what was it from like 9am to pretty much like 2pm with a group of people in nature with moments of silence and moments of talking. And, you know, you have that and we do all these other things that we do as groups and in connection and in community. And I have a lot of community connections online. I'm not just scrolling alone. And so I think going back to what, you know, your creative, ah creative humanity Alliance, it's all about human connection and how it doesn't matter the medium.
01:01:18
Speaker
The question is not, are you scrolling? Are you online or not online? Are you on a technology medium or not? It's, are you making genuine connections? Yeah. Scrolling towards something rather than away from something.
01:01:30
Speaker
Exactly. That's my phrase. I love that. I'm always like, you have to be moving towards something, not running away from it. That's what the clients have taught me. And the second thing is, how do people get in touch with you? Where do they find you?
01:01:42
Speaker
yeah I normally say markfirehammer.com, but in this case and this conversation, the best place to go is creativehumanityalliance.org because you can get to everything from there.
01:01:56
Speaker
Perfect. But the the takeaway that I want people to make is Go there, look at it, not necessarily for your own, yeah, i want to become a maker and I want to contribute to the alliance.
01:02:08
Speaker
Who do i know it is looking for this? Because it's a reorientation of the role of artists away from commercial, you know, make for the market and instead make for humanity.
01:02:21
Speaker
And with commitments from companies like Google, we can put the word out about everything that we create as an alliance at... Their expense, right?
01:02:32
Speaker
And that's what I want people to understand is whoever you know that's frustrated because their paintings, their stories, their books, their art, just there's no opportunity for them.
01:02:45
Speaker
I want them to keep doing what they're doing, but I also want them to join the alliance and let's magnify our abilities by all focusing on one thing for a few minutes of our talented days. You don't have to dedicate your life to it.
01:02:59
Speaker
But if everybody puts it in 10 minutes or an hour or two or whatever, ah we can create something that's already become quite compelling. It's only going to expand from there. So creativehumanityalliance.org.
01:03:13
Speaker
Perfect. I will make sure that I include that into the show notes. I'll also, of course, put a look link to your book because, you know, people need to be able to find that quickly. It's as easy as possible.
01:03:24
Speaker
and And if anybody reads it and doesn't like it, I will buy it back. That's wonderful. Right? Because I like giving away. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. There's no Absolutely guaranteed. No risk. No wait. That's not all.
01:03:39
Speaker
I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Mark. This has been such a delightful conversation. i am, I'm just, I'm thrilled. This is going to be, this is orienting the rest of my day. i already had a good morning. I had a a meeting that went way better than I thought it was going to go.
01:03:55
Speaker
and now this, and I'm like, oh, and the sun just came out after pouring rain and gloom all day yesterday. i'm beautiful. That's it. um I'm happy. i'm go I'm just going to,
01:04:06
Speaker
tip my hat there, I'm like, okay, this is it. This is the best. Well, you're welcome. And thank you for having me and doing the work that you do, Tigrilla. Yeah. Thank you so much. All right.
01:04:18
Speaker
So as you move through the rest of your day, I would love for you to notice where imagination wants to reconnect what's been divided. Inside you, around you, within the ecosystems that you touch.
01:04:30
Speaker
If today's conversation stirred something, a curiosity to listen deeper, to reconnect to parts of yourself, to remember the subtle ways you already belong, you'll love the practical tools to connect to your intuition in my recent workshop, Awaken Dormant Aura Layers with Plant Support, which is a part of the Reconnect with Plant Kin series.
01:04:53
Speaker
In it, we worked directly with plant allies to sense and strengthen the subtle layers and reconnect ah to abilities your soul has mastered. So imagination isn't just a thought, it becomes an embodied practice.
01:05:09
Speaker
You can access the replay of that workshop along with all of the past and future sessions because this is a workshop and a workshop series that I do every month when you join Blooming Sprouts in the naturally conscious community.
01:05:23
Speaker
All the details, as always, are in the description. So come tend the layers of your own energy and let's see what what's ready to bloom, right? And as always, remember to resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance.
01:05:39
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. To continue these conversations, join us in the Naturally Conscious Community, your premier online ecosystem for plant reawakening and accelerated evolution and co-creation with other kin.
01:05:54
Speaker
Here you'll find expansive discussions, interactive courses, live events, and supportive group programs like the Plant Wisdom Book Club and the Sprouts Writing and Creativity Group. Connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life. Intro and outro music by Steve Shuley and Poinsettia from the singing Life of Plants.
01:06:14
Speaker
That's it for me, Tigria Gardenia, and my plant collaborators. Until next time, remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. I'm out. Bye.