Transcript
Speaker: You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Vellante, editor and producer, Peter Bauer. This is Ken Vellante with Something Rather Than Nothing podcast, and I am so pleased to have Nancy Haus of Loom, who is an author, a speech language practitioner, a thinker,
Speaker: a blogger and explorer. So she seemed to have the best attributes to come on to the podcast. Nancy, welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm very excited to be here. Yeah, it's great to have you as a guest. I wanted to ask you right off the bat, you have different talents, you've done different things. But the first question is, were you an artist? Were you a creator when you were born?
Speaker: You know, I think my knee -jerk reaction when I thought that might be a question was probably no. But, because I don't, it took me a long time to consider myself creative. But I was always a writer, always a journaler, always writing some little thing, loved words, and I surrounded myself with people.
Speaker: you know, that were very creative from the traditional point of view, good artists, you know, that type of thing. And so I was always measuring with that bar, but because I was always writing and drawing a little bit, I was thinking about that. I was really good at drawing trees, which seems, you know, when that came into my head today, as I was thinking about that, I thought, that's coincidental. I mean, lots of people draw trees well, but I felt like,
Speaker: That was my one little gift. You know, we had to draw something spontaneously. So I think I always liked to create creativity, but writing was the way I found my voice because I didn't necessarily grow up feeling like I just, you know, communicated my ideas well to people. And it was through writing that I did that. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, no, I appreciate you saying that. And of course, as we get into it, um, there are, you know, uh,
Speaker: what I would say, wonderful and deep components connected to trees and to nature that come about in your book that we'll discuss.
Speaker: And hearing you mention that you would be drawn to drawing trees when you were younger, really kind of got that question when you discover it's like, I did draw 200 sketches of that tree and maybe there was something beyond drawing me to it. So I mentioned the book and I think it's fine. I'm a book junkie.
Speaker: I recently moved and moved all my books. One of the things I said to somebody who was by me, I said, hey, look, as you get older, your obsessions, including books, can keep compiling and they can keep activating.
Speaker: the amount of books I had was a testament to, uh, to obsession. So bottom line, bottom line, I, I enjoy books and you've written a whispers for Tara and, um, and, and put out, uh, that book. And you said you you've journaled, but let's, let's, let's talk about a book. Let's talk about the book. Um, you know, you, you set that out as a,
Speaker: You set that out and said, hey, I'm going to write this book. What was going on? Why did you feel the need to do that? And what was that process like moving from journaling or shorter writing to a more extensive book project?
Speaker: Yeah, it was fairly daunting for me because I had never really entertained the idea of writing a book. I just always told myself I couldn't do that. I didn't have a story and I never thought I could write dialogue. And I took a online writing class during one of my spring breaks and
Speaker: several different speakers you know an hour long a day and throughout that process I realized I was like maybe I do have a story in me because I was able to jot down enough ideas and then one of those speakers serendipitously
Speaker: Sage Adderley came through with an email and said, hey, I'm offering this idea outline course that's free. And then I'm offering my book in 90, where you write your first draft in 90 days. And I was like, you know, why not? Let's give this a shot. So I was
Speaker: I was pretty amazed actually with things that flowed onto the paper and it was really sitting down and doing that outline, um, to start with, even though it wasn't very well defined, you know, but it, I had enough ideas and there was a Neil Guyman book, um, Gaiman, I'm not sure how we say his name, the name pronounced both ways. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: He, in the intro to American Gods, he made a statement that he had all these little snippets of ideas from some from dreams, some from just ideas. And he was like, how do I put these all into one book? And they just magically did. And that was kind of the way mine got started.
Speaker: was I wanted something to do with nature and earth. And I wanted a speech pathologist in there because we often are misunderstood in what we do in our careers. And so I just knew I had these things I wanted to bring in, so. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's great to hear about how you were able to pull it in that way. One of the...
Speaker: pieces of the show that has come up that I'm deeply interested in personally, but also, you know, what it does for anybody who encounters it is just the general idea of healing or connection to nature. You know, during the course of the pandemic, what's happened for me is I walk a lot more, a lot more, and I go into the woods more or more deliberately as I can.
Speaker: Can you talk about that? I've had a guest or two talk about forest bathing, immersion within the forest, cleansing in a spiritual and emotional way. Can you get into those pieces for you personally and within the story of what's going on, what's going on by going into the woods for you, for the character, for
Speaker: for you? You know, I, um, I grew up loving, um, nature. My dad and I would take a lot of walks and we lived pretty rarely. I always, um, saw creatures, little creatures in our garden and imagined, you know, that the things were alive that were in there. Um, so I just always enjoyed being out in nature, a lot of camping in my life and
Speaker: I feel a peacefulness that, you know, and a clarity when I'm out in the woods. And, you know, for my character, Mary, it's where she finds respite from, you know, just a hectic, somewhat life that she feels dismay over. And so for me, the woods just always bring
Speaker: a sense of calm. And I have to really I recently did a forest bathing experience. And I was talking with some people about how amazing that was, because especially I don't know if it's everywhere, but definitely out here in Colorado, you know, we're always hiking to get to you know, we do 14 years and we do power sort of
Speaker: hikes and that type of thing. It's never stopping to look around. And in the forest bathing experience, if we walked a half mile in two hours, I'd be shocked. I think it was more like a quarter mile. And we sat by the river for a long time and we listened and used all the five senses. And I really have made a point of trying to build more of that into my life after doing that, because it's
Speaker: You know, I've always seen faces and that sort of thing and trees. I've always noticed things. But I feel like recently things I see more life, you know, I drive by trees and I feel like, wow, they're glowing more than they used to. So I feel like I'm waking up to nature after writing my book, you know, because some of it was fantasy. Well, a lot of it was like the talking part. But well, and I think with the
Speaker: You know, I think within that, you know, which is which I think that's part of the magic or the mystery. I've had guests on talking about that experience and, you know, and what what is actually in there and how you as as a person are experiencing right with greater realization. Right. I know I had an interview with Zoe Presley who does tours and integrates psychology and such into the
Speaker: the forest bathing experience. And for listeners, forest bathing experience in general is the idea of physically going into the forest or connecting with nature, even a small component of nature. And as Nancy had said, using your senses for a more immersive contact with the world, I guess, is the general summary. So thank you for your thoughts on that, Nancy.
Speaker: There's another component that I wanted to get in towards the beginning and chatting with you is your professional work.
Speaker: As we had a brief discussion, I work with different type of workers in the work that I do professionally. I was wondering if you could give listeners a little bit of a sense to something they might not come in contact with as much as the practice of a speech and language practitioner. Just some of that work that you've done, because I know when I mentioned that to folks outside of, say, maybe the
Speaker: Education or k -12 system. It's not quite clear some of the thing. It's not a job That's that well known so I was wondering if you can make a few comments on that component of what you do Yeah, just stop me when I go on to mom You know speech pathology I don't it's been a Wonderful field for me, you know, I did I've done it for 40 years and I've never been bored with it and I worked in health care for 20 years and
Speaker: And then when, and I worked in clinics, I worked with all age groups, but 10 years I specialized in the skilled nursing facilities. And, you know, which really did draw a lot of the stories from just, you know, bulk of experiences 10 years in that, you know, that I inserted, you know, into the book, but it's really about communication and
Speaker: you know, it morphs into other things, but they all really relate back to communication, whether it's working with patients with dementia or with neurological diseases or helping people with their voice quality, you know, the gender of voices.
Speaker: helping people be the best communicators that they can within whatever limits they have, whatever resources they have. There's augmentative communication where people use devices to communicate. And then you get into the school age population. And notoriously, we're known for working on S &R sounds. And it's so much broader than that. And it's working as much
Speaker: with executive functioning skills as well. All those things that go into the way we think, the critical thinking skills in order to be able to convey deeper, more expansive sort of thoughts and social communication. There's so many, you know, many speech pathologists have written lists and lists and lists and they do wordles about all the things that we work on. But it really boils back down to the
Speaker: power of communication and helping give that the best that people can do, give them that ability. Yeah. And thank you for that work. I've become more attuned personally, at least in creating within a podcast, primarily audio.
Speaker: And thinking about that, thinking about the sound of the voice as opposed to, you know, my deep love and fascination is, you know, movies or games integration of video and sound. But I found with the podcast, I've been able to
Speaker: think more about just the sound of the human voice. And so I'm deeply curious and it was very helpful to hear your description and getting into that of how fundamental that is and to help people along to be able to say and communicate and express. It's kind of, I don't know, sometimes it feels like that's kind of like the main thing we're always trying to do, right?
Speaker: Well, I think it is. It is a gift, and it's interesting for me now to be thinking about how so much of nature communicates with one another and the similarities in the underground network of mycelium and that sort of thing and how it parallels to our own brain interfacing and the internet and all of those that it's
Speaker: In some ways, we're just an extension of the communication network of what there is already existing in nature. We learned it much later than nature did.
Speaker: I don't know exactly what the answers are, but I might share a belief that I think they're going to be found in the woods. I don't know what they are as we ask these big questions, but I think the location of where we may encounter them would be the woods. Okay. We're speaking with Nancy Houser Bloom. She's done a book, a very good book.
Speaker: uh a very unique book um uh whispers for terra and um one of the things uh nancy as you know we're gonna kind of delve into a couple bigger um conceptual questions and and talk about art i'm in the show i'm always interested in creation how things are created you know why they created what they're supposed to do for us humans but um i wanted to ask you the the big question um
Speaker: in creation or creating things is about art. I want to ask you what is art? You know, for me, I think it is the inner expression, the inner feelings of what people have that they need to
Speaker: express outwardly is what I believe art is. I think that something that needs to be shared, people feel compelled to share it in some form and it's a reflection of our own self and our beliefs. And I think it's part of the reason that artists can feel so vulnerable when they put it out there because it's really
Speaker: I find a reflection of something that they care deeply about, feel deeply. And so it is, there's so many different ways that it can be manifested, demonstrated, but it's always something from inside the artist that they want to express. So communicate. Yeah, communicate, communicate.
Speaker: Yeah, such a thank you. Thank you for that. And and I think it anticipates and I never want to answer the question for you, but I ask, you know, an attendant question to what is art is about. What is its role? What does it do? What is it? What does it do for us? You mentioned communication, but what's what's art supposed to do for us as humans? Why do we need it around us?
Speaker: Well, I think it shows us, it can amaze us. I think it gives us a level of amazement of our world. It helps us consider things that we might not be considering. I think it can be a common ground for many people. When you're standing and looking at a van Gogh or something,
Speaker: And there's somebody next to you you don't know. You don't know their beliefs. You don't know their politics. You don't know anything, but it's common ground. At that moment in time, you have a commonality. And I think art can really bring people together and provide insights that people haven't thought about. Look at things in a different perspective, a different angle than what they had before.
Speaker: Yeah, I appreciate that, too. I was talking recently about components of gaming, the art that goes into video games, the immersive experience, and how you can have... I'm not trying to build it up to something that it's not, but just the idea as people interact or players interact, there is some cross -cultural
Speaker: You know contact and communication of the thing that you're doing sports. Sometimes people say sports do that You're playing the same sport together. You don't know the language or like you said when you're if you're in a front of a van go and your draw your jaws drop like a quarter and the person next to you their jaws drop like a quarter like you're like
Speaker: Oh, my God. Yeah. It's like you're trying to explain it, but like that person's like in a very similar space than I am right now. Right. What the hell like am I looking at? How does that make sense? Well, how does this exist? You know, right. Yeah. So it can definitely shift our thinking about people. It can shift our thinking about, you know, anything going on in the world. You know, it
Speaker: I think art is very important and, you know, I think it's sad anytime you think about that it's not that sometimes due to budgets, it could get removed, you know, from the schools, any of the arts, the music, any of that, you know, because I think it gives an avenue to people.
Speaker: to express things that maybe they're not expressing in a traditional manner. Yeah, I think sometimes when I see an integrated idea of like within teaching or education where art is integrated and what it does for the brain, I was having a conversation with
Speaker: an artist and talking about bringing art or like the idea of bringing art into organizing or labor organizing for him such a weird idea because he's like it's the constituent property like art is the constituent property of how we educate of how we organize of creating things to pull people together and
Speaker: there's something where we've got kind of lost or there's not enough art that we're trying to like impose it from the outside and be like where's the art in here where he sort of is more foundational um of an art art artful way of looking at teaching um or or education and you know as a professional educator um you know and in in in
Speaker: in with the speech and language, the creativity in the art that goes into that. We start to think a little bit more expansively. Nancy, I want to jump back again here back to sometimes it's viewed a little bit more of another origin question, but there's a personal aspect in your blogging and what you create and what you talk about. What I wanted to ask you is,
Speaker: who or what made you who you are? I think I would have to start with my family, my family life growing up. We had just kind of a typical middle -class family, but it was a, we had lots of good rituals and routines and we weren't like a leave it to Beaver family or anything like that, but it was a pretty,
Speaker: easygoing family. And we had family drama, but we were all pretty close and had relatives and other close friends. So I think it gave me a space to explore and think about things where people that are not as lucky and they have more, they live in, you know,
Speaker: Poverty or they live in, you know wondering where their next meal is coming from or they have trauma in their life You know, they are they're in survival mode and I think I was able to Grow up looking around, you know, I didn't was not a big dreamer I didn't have that sort of life, but I did feel like it afforded me the opportunity to look around and explore kind of be in my head, you know a good amount of time and
Speaker: And then I dedicated my book to all those people who say those incidental things to you along the way that just give you that glimmer of hope so when things are not good you can repeat that. I remember when that teacher said this to me or
Speaker: something like that. There's so many instances of those that we hold on to through those difficult times. I think that definitely helped shape me. And then to set me on the path for communication, it was communication 101, you know, in college. I had a teacher named Dave Fredericks and
Speaker: he really challenged us about I grew up in this gidget mindset of communication you know where there was always something not said if you just asked the question you could have found out what that person was thinking but it was kind of the mind reading mode
Speaker: that if they care about you, if they know you, they're going to know what you're thinking or feeling. And so I had this incident where the teacher had, another teacher had given us such a hard test that everybody either got a D or failed it. And we were all, you know, like ruffled and he wanted us to fail and he didn't, you know, but
Speaker: This teacher was telling us, you don't know what that guy is thinking until you go and ask him. And he challenged another classmate and I to go talk to the teacher. And he was a wonderful man. We knew that, but we thought he really wanted us to fail. And he was so devastated by our coming to him and saying that, because he said, I teach because I love it. I want to teach geography to people. I want them to learn.
Speaker: I was, I was astounded because I was like, I was so sure that I knew what he was thinking. And I didn't. And that just blew my communication style out of the water, I think. And so that was probably one of the most instrumental that set me on the path of, and it took years, really, to keep developing that skill and to get past my gidget mindset. But I feel like I know now that if
Speaker: If I really want to know what somebody's thinking, I have to ask them. And that was really an instrumental point in my life. Yeah. Gosh, I love that. I love that story. I do. Yeah. And I think
Speaker: He mentioned just kind of some of those incidents or something that seems somebody said in passing that kind of never went away. I think sometimes within education, I always loved that statement.
Speaker: They've seen it here or there. And it's a picture of a kid. And it said, my teacher said I was smart, so I was. Like words and communication, how when somebody says, hey, this is what I see. And they might not even be thinking that much of it. It's just a reality for them. And you hear it. And you're like, I didn't know I was that until that person said that.
Speaker: I didn't know that I stuck out in that way or anything, you know, it's really special, right? Yes, definitely. I think it's a critical, it's one of the, I don't know, the best things, you know, that teachers do is give belief, you know, in oneself to to their students. And so it's very instrumental when
Speaker: you know, what teachers, teachers words, you know, teach words matter, you know, that teachers words really matter to their kids. So yeah, yeah, yeah, I got a I got a different question, Nancy, that it's been knocking around in my brain a little bit. I didn't tell you what it was. But I think you'll have a quick. I hope you have a quick answer. But like I said, I anytime I books are around, I can
Speaker: as a book junkie, I can jump into things. But I was wondering, as a creator, you're starting to write, you're running into some trouble here or there, you're like, how the heck do I write? Did you, in your mind, think of a writer or a technique or go back to some
Speaker: If you got stuck to say, you know, think of other writers, because writers are always thinking of other writers. Did you ever, how did you get, if you got stuck or got caught somewhere, did you, did you rely on something in your head to kind of pull you back? You know, probably not so much in my head, but one of the things that was brought up in the writers group I was in was not to be a lone wolf. And I was someone that, um,
Speaker: I'm someone that I feel like if I was a good writer, I should be able to just write it all by myself. I don't have to consult. I knew I had to research, but I should just know what to do. And some of the best things were conversations with some friends and with my husband. And I was saying, I don't know how to make this tree alive. And we would just have a glass of wine, and we'd discuss it, and we'd brainstorm.
Speaker: you know, his whole family is really super creative. And I have friends that would say, I think you need something whimsical in there. And, you know, so for me with the writing, and then when I'd get stuck, I would go out for a bike ride or walk my dog and I would just get in, you know, ask kind of ask myself that question, you know, how, what, what should Mary do next to the, how should she respond to that? And, um,
Speaker: And then I would come up with an answer. So some of it was a little serendipitous, but some of it was really reaching out and being open to feedback from other people and other people's ideas. It was kind of a, um, that was a real learning thing for me to be able to reach out and say, Hey, I'm stuck here. What, what do you think? And sometimes I'd use the ideas and sometimes they just spurred another great idea. So, well, it's a great, it's a great step. And I know, I know how,
Speaker: I think it would feel comes leave to most anybody, you know, making that step and being like, Hey, what does this look like? Or, or reaching out and I can say for myself personally that, that that's a big step. And I think a lot of folks who create when, when they've done that, I know when I've been around an environment, um, in, in, in getting that energy or feedback or.
Speaker: being in the environment where you're like, this would work, or this wouldn't work. There's this, you know, verve to it that can help you pull you through. So. Right. Thank you. Thank you for that. So again, we're talking about Nancy Houser Bloom.
Speaker: writer works speech and language communication communication overall trying to communicate Nancy as you know on this question there's some some big questions in the biggest the biggest one which I have to ask is can you tell me why there's something rather than nothing I
Speaker: Um, you know, I, when it's in my book, I feel like the book is something rather than nothing because it does bring up, raise up some real issues about our earth. But I believe like in life in general is something rather than nothing, but I have a personal belief in, um,
Speaker: an afterlife that we probably don't we don't know what it's going to look like but I kind of believe in reincarnation and I believe what we do in this life the things we say that brings we we don't know what things are important and so we may as well treat life like most things are important and that in some way what we do will come will be used later on and that
Speaker: We will benefit from just being good people in the world and being so I think being Good is something rather than nothing. Yeah Thank you so much. Thank you so from so much for that answer. I wanted to ask you um, I feel like sometimes when i've i've had guests on there's there's always a lot more we can go You know
Speaker: into the deeper ecological environmental concerns of the age that we live in. And one of the things that I found, and I just wanted some comments from you, is that I feel, and a lot of folks that I'm around feel, that on an environment in general, we're screwed, number one,
Speaker: We can unscrew ourselves, maybe, but looking around other people, people then hang their head again and being like, well, you know, like, you know, like the what we do at this moment.
Speaker: you know, since, you know, the woods and the environment, you know, in, in your writing, you're for yourself is, is, is so, you know, deeply important and vital. And I share that as well. Well, I mean, what do you, what do you, what are your thoughts on what we're trying to protect on, you know, the, the ability to go into the woods and for them to be, you know, the woods for us and for us to care for them and protect them. Well,
Speaker: I feel like everybody, if you pick one thing, there are, and I bring this up in the book and I got it from other research I had done that there's so many things out there that need to be done. So many tasks we could take in trying to improve our world, our climate change. And if everybody latched on and really took on a charge with some aspect of it, we'd be moving things forward.
Speaker: you know, whether it's, it's the soil or whether it is the water or the plastics or whatever, you know, the multitude of things that there are and it can feel overwhelming and defeating because it's like, you know, that game where you bop something on the head and it goes down, you know, and it pops up somewhere else. Yes, yes, it's like that. It feels like it's, you know, insurmountable, but if everybody really
Speaker: stayed moving forward with whatever aspect of the earth they take on. I think things would, because there's so much life we don't know about in the ocean. And then there's the atmosphere and the woods for me and for many people provide so much, they give as much as we get, we get so much from them, but they give us so much more emotionally, health -wise, everything.
Speaker: So I would love more people to take the importance of that on. And I think it's happening to some degree. I just love when I hear about New York City having gardens on rooftops and that type of thing, because I feel like all of those things can come together to make a
Speaker: bigger difference, but it sounds insurmountable. And we have maybe gone too far, you know, to ever be able to go back to square one, but, you know, with things, but I think with awareness and the more books that and more information that's out there that raises awareness every, we might do what art does and impact and shift some thinking. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. And I appreciate that. I appreciate your comments. And I know it's a, it's a monster of, of, of, of an issue, but, um, I do appreciate your thoughts on it because like I said, the premise, I think of, of our conversation was how important that can be to psychology of humans or a connection or a certain harmony.
Speaker: Um, you know that we're able to get from that. And, uh, you know, maybe that space can help, you know, protect it too by going into that space and clearing our head. Um, all right. So, so Nancy, um, in finishing up here, what I wanted to ask you is, um, you got the book out.
Speaker: Um, you, you do, uh, you do other projects and journal stuff. So how, how can folks find, you know, what you're doing, find the book, uh, learn about, you know, maybe they learned a little bit about, uh, speech and language or in communication. Where do folks go to find you? Um, I have a website, nancyhauserbloom .com.
Speaker: And, um, the blog is called minderings. I love blended words. Minderings is a place for the wandering of your mind. Um, so that's the blog and the website. And my email is
Speaker: and dot Houser bloom at gmail .com. So any of those, the books on Amazon, it's in bookstores, any, I really want to put a shout out to, um, cause I live early, so I do a lot of online ordering, but you know, indie bookstores, um, are such a delight and any bookstore can order the book. So, and I guess I should say, cause a lot of people confuse Tara with like T A R a like from, you know,
Speaker: Gone with the Wind and Terra is T -E -R -R -A. So. It's for Terra. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. Thank you for that. And I'm glad folks will be able to to find your wonderful book and that that is generally available. And of course, however, you know, choose to purchase it. But this is an indie podcast and I have spent a decent percentage of my life in indie bookstores and indie comic bookstores. So there is that
Speaker: the best place probably. Nancy, I wanted to thank you so much for coming on to this show. As you could hear in the questions I asked, there are different components of what you do and what you think about that helped me and I think it helped listeners kind of
Speaker: think about the issues that we talk about. But thank you for creating and thank you for taking the risks that you have. It's clear, any artist takes risks, but I know you've had to take some to put this out there. And thank you for taking those, because that gets us to this conversation and kind of like looking at things more deeply. So I wanted to thank you deeply for coming out to the podcast.
Speaker: And I want to thank you for having me and, you know, taking a chance because I am new to this, you know, arena. But and I also really appreciate the work you do on a day to day basis, you know, with helping people in the schools and that sort of thing, because, you know, we need we need friends, we need supporters and and people that, you know, really try to raise up the importance of what people in the school systems do. So we appreciate your work, too.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you. I know there's, you know, there's, there's, there's, you can, you can always put more into, you always put more effort. I mean, working people, no matter what you do, working people, it wasn't easy before the pandemic. It isn't easier during the pandemic.
Speaker: So I'll keep plugging away and you do likewise. Nancy Houser Bloom in their book, Whispers for Terra, which you can find and or order online or get through your local bookstore. Thanks again, Nancy, for coming on and certainly hope to look and see more art from you coming soon. OK, all right. Thank you very much. Take care. OK, bye.
Speaker: This is something rather than nothing.
