Ep.132 How Grass Teaches Us to Bend, Not Break

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Hello, hello, hello, everyone.

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Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect With Plant Wisdom.

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It’s me, Tigrilla Gardenia.

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am so excited to be here today.

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I woke up super early.

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It’s, um, it’s actually a Tuesday morning I’m recording this and my Monday just flew by ’cause it was filled with all kinds of stuff.

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And on Sunday, I went hiking to a new area.

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I have a- my good friend, the woods guide, that I often tell you about, um, eh, just discovered this new area and so a new valley called the Valle Malonne- Valmalone.

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We would call it Malone, but it’s called Malonne.

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And we went high into the mountains there and it was just such a delightful full day hike and then had lunch at this, um

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Another man who lives in the area who often takes people around and to give them the history invited us to lunch.

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We were a big group.

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It’s the kind of thing that really open- happens in Italy where it’s, like, you know, you have this super huge, very traditional spread of polenta and spezzatino and, like, cheeses and bread.

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It- it was, it was fantastic.

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And, um, and so as I was finishing up this hike, I was thinking a lot about, like, my coming week and how I wanted to record this episode for you, and I

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It’s- it’s interesting.

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Okay, so this episode actually began with a conversation in episode 128 with Clara Schroeder, and it continued on in my mind.

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It was pointed out to me by my editor that she was like, “Oh, I’d really love to hear more about this,” and I was like, “Oh, yeah.

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I- it’s been a while since I’ve done an episode that’s kind of in this vein.”

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And so, you know, the plant that I wanna talk to you about today is a plant that, you know, you’ve walked over 1,000 times, probably even just 1,000 times this week.

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Sometimes barefoot, sometimes in a hurry, sometimes not noticing at all, and still Ki noticed you, and that’s grass.

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Look, grass doesn’t ask for attention.

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Ki just keeps growing between paving stones and playgrounds and sidewalk crocs and crocs?

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Not crocs.

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I hope there’s no grass growing in your crocs.

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Um, but why are you wearing crocs to begin with?

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But that’s another story.

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No, I was gonna say cracks, and ki is really everywhere.

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Undefinable because, really, how do you define grass?

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Uh, unkillable, familiar to the point of invisibility unless you’re actually trying to get rid of the grass.

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Like, I see the people who grass and moss is completely u- invisible until it’s- until ki- kin are growing in places that you really don’t want.

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Then you can’t stop seeing kin.

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And yet, in all of that, grass carries one of the oldest lessons that we have for being human, how to endure without hardening or how to yield without losing yourself, how to give way and still be whole.

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When pressure comes, whether we’re talking about, in the case of grass, like, a hoof landing or a fire passing or, I don’t know, when the mower comes and cuts across, grass doesn’t resist.

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K- ki bends, ki listens, ki roots deeper into the ground, and then somehow, ki just comes back, steady and alive and unchanged to the core.

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So, grass has always been one of my favorite companions since I started working with plants.

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I mean, especially outdoors.

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I know most people would say, “Oh, the beautiful tree.”

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I have to admit, like, I love trees, um, as I’m looking at Gary the silver fir right outside.

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I love trees, but trees are not my go-to when I need help.

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When I need help, I love to lie down.

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Even yesterday, we were- like, uh, Sunday, excuse me, we were going on this long hike and at some point, we reached this p- piece that had a beautiful open meadow and everybody was looking at these houses that were constructed and abandoned.

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There’s lots of what are called baidas out here and they’re just sitting there abandoned.

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And I instead quickly took the opportunity to lie down in the grass under the sun.

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That has always been my way of connection.

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I have so many pictures of me lying on some grass somewhere.

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And normally when I go hiking by myself, it’s a very slow thing because I tend to sit down and kind of commune with the grass.

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Grass is really my greatest outdoor teacher.

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Grass reminds me that belonging doesn’t always have to look dramatic.

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Sometimes it’s just saying soft in a world that keeps stepping on you and finding ways to keep growing anyway.

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So, in episode 132, we’re going to explore the- this wisdom together in how grass teaches us to bend, not to break.

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So, if this sounds like the conversation you’ve been wanting to have, stick around.

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Welcome to Reconnect With Plant Wisdom.

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I’m your host, Tigrilla Gardenia, nature-inspired mentor, certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious Community.

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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.

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In this podcast, I delve into ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality about the wondrous ways of plants.

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Together, we’ll explore how ecosystem thinking helps you overcome limiting beliefs, understand the true nature of relationships, and live an authentic, impactful life.

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So there’s a few key points I wanna touch on in this episode.

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I wanna touch on grass as a universal companion because really, come on, let’s be honest, folks.

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Grass is everywhere.

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Grass is your friend.

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Grass is one of the most accessible plant teachers you could ever have, present in cities, countrysides, and nearly every environment.

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So, it’s wonderful.

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Ki is wonderful for place-based connection.

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The second thing I wanna talk about is resilience through being stepped on.

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Now-We all define being stepped on in different ways, but I think there are always moments where we feel like we’re being stepped on, whether it’s being, uh, stepped over for promotion, whether it’s being stepped on because somebody actively suppresses you, whether it’s being stepped on in the sense that, you know, your voice is not being heard.

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And grass is probably one of the wisest guide because, uh, well, they’ve been stepped on, trampled, and well, they’ve had to learn and thrive from this.

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Not only that, grass has really uses that being stepped on as a way to grow.

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It’s, it’s becomes, Key becomes a metaphor for enduring pressure and change and human impact even.

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And here’s where we’re gonna start to see where is it that that kind of trampling can be good for you and it can help you grow and be more diverse, and where instead that kind of stepping on you is actually hurtful and you need to make changes.

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I also wanna talk about grass as a symbol of coexistence and adaptability.

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I mean, g- grass grows everywhere with humans, without humans, with animals, and have been everything and across the entire planet, and has had also very different social connotations for us as humans.

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And therefore, there’s a lot for us to learn about how it is that we see grass and how that reflects back on how we see each other.

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And the last thing I wanna talk about is about how community and diversity.

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Really, grass lives in community.

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No matter where you look, it’s very rare to see one species.

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When you see one species, something is wrong.

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This is a, a, a being that loves to live with all kinds of other beings, whether that be animals of all sorts, insects, birds, um, all kinds of different plants that grow.

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So grass really symbolizes interdependence.

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How am I in- independent as well as dependent on others?

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And this is something super useful for us right now to understand.

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So when you’re trying to understand how to get along best with others, grass can be a wonderful teacher, teaching us how collaboration is really woven into socie- into, um, success of all sorts.

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So by the end of this episode, I want you to go outside and spend some time with grass, not because Key is pretty or simply for the grounding, although, you know, those are really great too.

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But because grass is the perfect teacher for this moment in human evolution.

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Grass knows how to thrive under pressure.

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Key doesn’t fight the footsteps.

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Key bends, Key roots, uh, Key grows back stronger.

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Key knows how to live in community to share soil and sunlight without needing to dominate, and Key does all this quietly right under our feet.

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So when you sit with grass and you touch Key and take a nice deep breath and really listen with your whole body, grass begins to teach you how to recover from what’s flattened you and how to adapt without losing yourself, how to find resilience through connection instead of isolation, which seriously, come on, right now, we, we all need a lot of that.

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So by the end of this episode, I really want you to understand why grass is the most accessible mentor in learning

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I mean, well, I’m probably the most accessible mentor.

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You can come find me anytime, but grass is probably the most accessible plant mentor for learning adaptability and self-healing.

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And I’ll just give you some simple tools to begin that conversation for yourself.

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So ready?

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Let’s get to know grass.

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Oh wait, wait.

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Wait.

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first, I wanna invite you to connect with one of my eco-conscious business partners, because when you support them, you support the germination of more intentional businesses all over the world.

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For over a decade, I’ve had the profound joy of working with the Music of the Plants, a musical instrument made just for plants.

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This very music is what sparked my own plant reawakening, guiding me to reconnect with nature in an entirely new way.

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Imagine listening to the harmonious melodies of your plant companions and feeling their wisdom and presence through the language of music.

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It’s an experience that has transformed my life and the lives of so many other people.

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If you’re curious about the hidden songs of plants and wanna connect to your plant friends in a completely new way, I invite you to discover more at tigria.degenia.com/musicoftheplants.

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It’s in the show notes.

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Plant music is great for healing, sharing, and personal connection.

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Let’s continue our journey of personal evolution and plant consciousness together with the songs of plants.

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Okay, let’s get into grass as your, I don’t know, universal companion.

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That’s kind of how I think of grass.

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I think of grass in that way because no matter where I am, if I am stressed out, doesn’t matter if I’m in a foreign city, if I’m at somebody’s house or whatever, I can most likely find grass somewhere within a 5minute walking distance, you know, growing up through the, you know, through the sidewalk crack or something like that.

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Grass is everywhere, under our feet, in our cities, edging sidewalks, softening playgrounds, uh, reclaiming cracks in the pavement.

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Key grows quietly along the riverbanks and railway lines, like, in abandoned lots, in manicured lawn.

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Look, grass is the background of our lives, the green, um, hum we really forget to hear.

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And even in Antarctica, I discovered in doing research for this.

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On that finger of land that stretches towards South America, a few species of grass cling to the edges of the ice there.

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I’m even convinced that there is grass below the ice in the other areas and eventually when the whole planet shifts again and Antarctica melts in some ways, I’m not talking about global warming, I’m talking about natural progression of movement of the planet, I think there’s gonna be grass that springs up there relatively quickly, but only time will tell if I am correct.

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The planet simply doesn’t know how to exist without grass.

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Grass is so ordinary, we just stopped seeing key, but grass has never stopped seeing us.

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Trust me on this one.

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This is where the story of reconnection really begins.

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Not in a forest or a sacred mountain.

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You don’t have to go far away to connect with nature and to feel your own nature.

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Right here, what is already underfoot will take you home.

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And grass reminds us that access to the living world is not a privilege.

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It’s a constant invitation.

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Wherever you are, you can connect with kin.

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You don’t need a perfect wild space.

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You don’t need a retreat or a ritual.

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Okay, retreats and rituals are cool also, kind of like, you know, me as a mentor, retreats and rituals, good things.

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But my point is that you just really need to notice.

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Grass says start here, start close.

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You’re already home.

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Every patch along a city curb or a neglected corner of a park or even, you know, that potted ornamental that, uh, grasses that are growing on balconies or some grass that is growing

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Like, I have cacti behind my monitor, which is right in front of me.

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I have cacti growing, and every once in a while, grass shows up in there.

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Where the heck the grass comes from?

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Mind you, I’m on the second floor.

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Like, where does the grass really come from?

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But if you’ve ever felt disconnected from nature, start with the nearest blade of grass and no doubt, there’s someone somewhere growing nearby.

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Our bodies already understand this connection long before we try to name it, and science actually shows this too.

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A study in Philadelphia looked at what happens when neglected trash strewn lots were simply cleaned, leveled, and planted with grass and cared for.

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Nothing elaborate, just grass, a few trees, and a low wooden fence.

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In some cases, the lots were just cleaned but nothing was planted and grass, you know, and mosses just naturally started to take over.

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Across 110 neighborhoods, they found something extraordinary.

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Depression among nearby residents dropped by 41%.

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The feelings of worthy- worthlessness, like the idea that I am not worthy fell by half, and in neighborhoods under the most stress, those high poverty areas, those food deserts, those areas that feel like all it is, is concrete city, just being able to have lots that had some grasses in them and pretty much nothing more than that, self-reported depression fell by nearly

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69%.

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When grass isn’t just present but actually cared for, key becomes a healer.

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Key’s presence is a statement.

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This place, this soil, this life matters.

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It changes how we carry ourselves, how we feel about where we live, how we inhabit our space.

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And this isn’t just a Philadelphia story.

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It’s not just the United States.

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Across the ocean in Sweden, researchers also followed thousands of people and found that those living closest to green spaces, especially within, like, 50 meters of the home redeemed far fewer antidepressant prescriptions.

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So their levels of d- self-reported depression-

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dropped.

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It wasn’t about income or education or even neighborhood safety, all of those were accounted for, it was about the proximity to the green.

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This is why green cities are so important and why cities like Vienna, for example, have these models that you want to be able to turn 360 degrees in a s- wherever you are in the city and always see at least some kind of patch of grass.

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Just seeing grass outside a window or between buildings shifted mental health outcomes across entire communities and researchers call it residential green space.

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Personally, I call it kinship.

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It’s just a remember, a remembrance, remembrance.

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It’s really remembering that you are nature because the body knows when life is near, and even if you never step barefoot onto the soil, which I do recommend that you do, and your nervous system actually responds to that green.

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Your breath slows.

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Your heartbeat steadies.

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Grass doesn’t have to be touched to do Ki’s work.

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Ki just needs to be seen, just stopping and recognizing that the grass is there, acknowledged, allowed to photosynthesize in your shared air, that’s the quiet medicine of grass, a presence that’s so humble that Ki heals without ever asking to be noticed.

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And there’s science for all of this.

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Research shows that looking at scenes rich in green wavelengths increases heart rate variability, an indicator that the parasympathetic nervous system, that part of us that says, “You’re safe,” has switched on.

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So just seeing green, just seeing green, and that could be a poster by the way.

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There are studies that show that just looking at, if you can’t get outside

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This is why when you go to the dentist, have you ever noticed that, like, they have up on the ceiling beautiful, like, landscape with green in it?

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This is the reason why.

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Your blood pressure lowers.

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Your cortisol drops.

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The body moves from fight or flight to rest and digest.

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And it’s no accident that has- hospitals plant lawns.

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Grass helps us breathe differently.

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Ki signals that we’re safe and life sustaining environment, like, “That is where I am, where recovery is actually possible.”

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But at some point, you have to move from seeing grass to touching grass.

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There is a difference between admiring from a distance and allowing your skin to remember what earth feels like.

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I’m super excited because the next episode, we’re gonna be talking deeper about this, about what it means to kiss the ground and to earth in, and this is where science and spirit meet.

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Modern researchers call it grounding or earthing, the placing of your bare feet or any kind of bare skin directly on soil or grass, allowing this, um, exchange of electrons between your body and the planet, which, you know, we’re all one.

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We’re all one.

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These electrons, they help neutralize free radicals.

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So on a physiological level, they stop them from damaging cells and breaking the chain of reaction of oxidation, oxidative stress, and there’s like all of these different elements that protects the body’s DNA and cell membranes and other components from harm.

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But though it’s really also important for us to think about, I guess it’s really not a but, it’s more of an and, it also balances the nervous system and it reduces inflammation, something I am currently testing myself.

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And the data shows that lower cortisol, better sleep, and even pain relief all can come from touching grass.

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And our ancestors didn’t really need all this data.

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I mean, I’m giving you this data because there are still those people that say, “Well, is it really worth it?”

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Yeah, yeah, it’s worth it.

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It’s worth it.

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But our ancestors just called this living, right?

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Our ancestors were always out experiencing the land, sitting on the land, touching the land, and having that relationship.

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And maybe that’s the invitation that grass keeps offering us.

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Every time you walk barefoot across a patch of green, you’re not performing some wellness ritual.

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You’re coming home.

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You’re reentering the field of life that holds you.

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it charges you, and it reminds you that you belong.

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That’s really the medicine.

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Y- you don’t need all this proof.

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I’m giving it to you because I feel like it’s fascinating and interesting, but the quiet relief that really comes into your body when you finally stop insulating yourself from the world is all of these different experiences, because it is the world that made you.

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So I wanna go deeper, deeper into also what it means to be stepped on, but I just want you to remember that first and foremost, you belong.

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You are whole.

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You are part of a connection, and one of the ways to experience this, one of the fastest and easiest ways to experience this, is by touching the ground and being with the grass.

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And that being said, we can go farther into this to understand how grass can teach us how things like being stepped on can be a good thing when in the right context, because look, grass knows that story better than anyone.

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And before we close, I, I wanna keep reminding myself that I wanna share some tools for you to start conversing with grass yourself.

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These are super simple practices and open the dialogue that you, y- y- you won’t even imagine how powerful it can be.

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let’s get into the second point, which is resilience through being stepped on, okay?

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I wanna talk about what I t- mean

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Hold on.

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I’m gonna grab some water.

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Give me one sec.

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I don’t know if I would have ever made it as a radio host.

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I mean, maybe I would have because I love the music and, and, you know, I love telling stories.

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But like getting into the stories by yourself takes a little

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Like if I didn’t have notes, I don’t think I would ever make it through a full episode.

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I would just ramble on, and I’m not sure if that’s really what you wanna hear.

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Well, maybe.

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If you, if you made it through the earlier episodes of this podcast, the- then maybe you do like it when I ramble.

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Okay, sorry.

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I’m gonna go back to what it means to be stepped on and why grass might be really one of the wisest guides you’ll ever meet for that lesson.

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If you’ve ever walked across a lawn after rain, you’ve seen it, right?

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You have blades of grass pressed flat under your shoe, and then an hour later, they’re lifting themselves back up, and they’re this beautiful shade of green.

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Grass doesn’t really make any kinda speeches about injustice of being stepped on.

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w- grass doesn’t hold up a sign themselves that says, “Please don’t step on me.”

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That’s a human thing, and we’re gonna talk about why.

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Key, really bends, listens, redistributes water, and then returns back to normal.

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Not exactly the same as before, never really the same, but still unmistakably grass.

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This is grass’s behavior, and that’s the heart of this teaching.

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Resilience without hardening.

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Grass integrates disturbance into growth.

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Key doesn’t spend energy pretending the hoof never landed or that I’m never gonna be stepped on.

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Key responds, and that response becomes structure, deeper roots, new kind of tillers, a wider mat of life that’s harder to rip out next time so that you can’t just pull up a section as you walk through it.

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And on short grass prairies, so going to some of the science, there’s like this super cool ancient dance.

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This is one of my favorite.

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I think I’ve read this study probably about 20 times because it’s still amazing to me.

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There’s this fantastic dance that happens on prairies.

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I love prairies, by the way.

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Prairies, meadows, probably why I love grass so much as a teacher because I have this inherent love for meadows and prairies.

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And there’s this like ancient dance between grass and bison.

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You know bison, right?

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Like huge animals, right?

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For 4,000 years, these 2 species have grown up together, each shaping each other.

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So picture this like 2,000 pound grazer that’s like moving through, um, that’s moving through wind and summer heat, munching on the grass, then rolling their body in the dust to make these little bowls in the earth.

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And, it cracks me up because I live in front of cows all the time.

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They’re not here right now, which is quite lovely because the bells drive me crazy must drive them crazy.

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You know, I say this all the time.

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But anyways, I do like admire

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The grass before me is this beautiful like prairie land, this m- big meadow in front of me is gorgeous with cows that trample all over it all the time.

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But anyways, what I was saying is that in the, this, uh, study, they were following how these beautiful bison make, uh, these little bowls of water that, that basically when they, when they scratch themselves, they, they fall onto the ground and they rustle around.

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If you’re watching the video, you see me moving.

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If you’re not, it, it’s kinda funny.

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And they create this, and in these bowls of which fill with water, um, with the, um, with the rain, they fills with insects and birds and small mammals drink.

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I mean, there’s this entire world.

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The bison move on and the grasses then respond to everything that’s just been created.

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So as the tops of the grasses are being grazed, the roots are pushing deeper, and so when they’re disturbed, this actually signals to like create a stronger matting and then new shoots start to spread sideways.

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So the more that the grass is disturbed with these bison that passes through, the more the grass is able to go farther across, stitching out soil together in order to create like a longer, um, reach.And so all of this might, for us, look like damage, but it’s actually regeneration.

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This relationship between mi- bison and grass is actually built on disturbance and then recovery.

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But when the bison were actually taken away because, of course, humans think, “Oh, look.

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We’re damaging the area,” that rhythm was broken.

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Cattle came afterwards and l- with cattle there’s a different pattern.

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Cattle, cattle, not like here, which is the reason

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And, and I see this probably because I see this firsthand.

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When cattle are brought to these types of prairie lands, they’re left for a long period of time in one place and cows tend to linger near the shade and the water source that they’re being driven.

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So they trample the same ground over and over again until those banks completely collapse.

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The plants that hold them just die back there so this creates an entire collapse of the ecosystem.

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Streams start to shrink.

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There’s lots of non-native grasses or other kinds of beings that move in.

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I don’t say this to blame anything, but it’s really about balance and understanding.

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For example, the area that I live in front of which is a, a meadow/prairie area and there’s lots of cows that come through, but they’re, um, cows that are pasturing through.

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So they come in, they’re here for a few days, and then they go away because they’re moving from one side of the mountains to the other based on the time of year.

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So it is the similar to the experience that happens with the bison where the cows are moving through, and they constantly are moving.

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This is a large meadow area, but in the course of maybe a few days or a week that the cows are here, they might be in 3 different areas so the cows are constantly moving so it has that.

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And I go often th- down there ’cause this is right by the river so I can go there for a walk and I see what’s happening.

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I see how this regeneration happens from it.

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When you move the animals, you give the land time to rest.

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You let the water breathe again, the prairie remembers how to do things.

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These meanders wander and, um, widen.

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Sorry, not wander, widen, and life returns in layers.

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Birds and other kinds, grasses of every kind, whether it’s bison or really well-managed cattle like what we have here, the wisdom underneath is the same.

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You can trample on it, but then you need time for rest and recovery.

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Does that sound familiar?

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Does that sound like a familiar lesson that I talk about?

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Disturbance, integration, flourishing.

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That’s what you need.

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Disturbance to get the juices flowing, rest to settle into whatever it is that you create, recovery to learn from that and start anew.

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This is the strategy that’s written into grass’s body.

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Key is learn to thrive in places that are defined by pressure, right?

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Hoof and wind and fire and heat and ice.

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Grass doesn’t bounce back by just kind of snapping upright and pretending nothing happened.

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“Oh, I wasn’t stepped on at all.”

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No.

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Key goes roots deeper into it.

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That’s different.

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Rooting back means sending energy below ground where nobody’s gonna applaud so they’re gonna bank some sugars and branching out the rhizomes and sharing through kin networks and creating all these different networks so the moisture and the minerals move where they’re needed.

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Rooting back means widening the base so that the next step doesn’t flatten you as easily.

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It’s humble work, but it’s also quite brilliant if you think about it.

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It is about taking what’s coming and using it to your advantage.

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Seeing how this works helps us understand how that same logic applies even in cities.

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A blade pushing up through concrete is not a symbol of defiance for the sake of defiance.

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It’s a design.

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Cracks collect dust and that dust becomes little tiny amounts of soil.

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water then slips in, light hits it at just the right angle and boom, a seed takes the hint and the first leaf starts to emerge.

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Not super tall and proud because that attracts way too much attention.

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Cautious, compact, safe and when the time is right, the growth starts to rise.

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And even if a boot comes down because, you know, somebody’s walking down the busy street and they didn’t realize it, the plant tries again from that same node just behind that crushed point.

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Grass keeps choosing life and k- keeps choosing it at scales that humans often overlook.

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Fire is another teacher.

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Many grasses don’t just survive burns but they organize around them.

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Dormant buds below the flame line hold that blueprint for renewal and as ash feeds the soil, the next flush of grass oftentimes is way greener.

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So being consumed and returning is not a failure in that system, it’s the rhythm.

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Disturbance becomes timing and timing becomes strength.

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So what do we do with all this in our human lives?

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first, name the hoof prints without any kind of shame.

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That means where has pressure flattened you?

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Where is there something that’s stepping on you?

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Workload, visibility, caregiving, grief even, the glare of doing things not like anyone else because your mind operates in its own way and so you feel like you’re getting stepped on because people don’t understand.

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Instead of forcing yourself to spring upright, try the grass approach.

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Root back, take what is happening and root that deeper into yourself and find the place of resilience, find what you need to spring back from that.

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You know this is gonna happen.

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In some cases, you can change it, but honestly, there are some things that you can’t.

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Caregiving is a great example of that.

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So therefore, what is it that you need to spring?

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This might mean that you might have a little bit less output for a bit and more resource gathering below the surface.

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You might sleep a little more, you might have to set stronger boundaries/membranes so that not as much is coming in and out.

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You might have to take in more nourishing food or conversations that you’ve avoided.

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It might be quiet and unglamorous type work that moves and widens your base but you’re not quitting.

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You’re banking the sugars, you might say.

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You’re taking what nourishment does come in that moment of being trampled on and you’re pulling it deep into your side and then you widen out.

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Grass rarely responds to stress by growing one main stem.

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I mean, when you step on grass, it just- ki just starts growing sideways, right?

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If there are no- how many of you have, like, I’m sure that you’ve experienced this, right?

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There’s, like, a patch somewhere where people constantly walk over that, so that part of the grass, it’s like a cut through or a shortcut, and so that part of it has grown out but the grass then just moves off to the sides and keeps growing laterally.

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And in human terms, lateral growth can look like adding a second income if you know that there’s gonna be trampling coming through your fri- primary income in a way that, of course, doesn’t exhaust you.

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Or co-facilitating instead of doing things solo so that you widen what your breadth is or distributing the load among trusted kin, right?

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You might have work that as you’re getting trampled on, you’re gonna then farm out or do it laterally.

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Small side shoots add up to a mat that you can then lean on.

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And the other thing is keep moving.

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Bison teach this.

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Staying in one patch until the roots give way creates harms.

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That’s the whole problem with having cattle that sits on the land and why that land underneath then dies.

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But so lingering in one only coping pattern, doomscrolling, perfectionism, overhelping, all of this is not useful to you.

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The bison move, the herd moves.

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Movement doesn’t have to be dramatic.

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It could be as simple as coming out of a different room.

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So if you’re trampled in the room that you’re in, then move to another room or, you know, think about the way that you do your task work.

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If it’s all a bombardment constantly, take a break, go take a walk, take a pause.

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You know, remember that whole rest and recover.

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And the other piece that is extremely important in all this is to hold on to your core identity when you’re adapting.

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You know, you have a core identity and grass has a co-identity and this is one of the places where I really love to go and spend time with grass and communicate with grass, especially if I’m having a problem of trying to understand my core identity in all this.

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So ki might, you know, change the height of a given blade or how deep they root or moving to the side, but in the essence, that is always a blade of grass and this is a crucial distinction.

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Adapting, moving about doesn’t erase yourself.

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It change- you might change shape so you can keep being who you are.

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So it’s important for you to think about where is it in your life that you’re clinging to a form that no longer serves the essence?

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Where am I doing things or being or acting in a way that I’ve always done it because I don’t- I’m fighting back from the trampling when instead, I could be more true to my essence and to who I truly am by changing form and moving in this?

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This just happened to me the other day-

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I was wearing a hat that I haven’t worn in a long time and somebody asked me, like, why was I wearing that hat.

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And I said, “You know, for a long time, I didn’t wear that hat here because I felt like it wasn’t, um, it wasn’t true to what I needed in this place.

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It didn’t fit the way that I was living a life.

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But now that hat feels very much core to who I am.”

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I still was expressing myself, I was just expressing myself in different ways.

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So my core essence was always coming out, but it was coming out in different mechanisms.

362
00:36:43,482 –> 00:36:46,652
That’s a really simple example, I understand.

363
00:36:46,652 –> 00:36:50,232
You have to kind of know me to know that it’s probably not as simple as you might think.

364
00:36:50,232 –> 00:37:08,792
But the point being is, it’s important to see where it is that you could change the actual shape that comes out in order to better adapt to the trampling that’s happening without losing the core essence, or better said, as a better expression of your c- essence.

365
00:37:08,792 –> 00:37:18,288
So I wanna honor that as a human, obviously, as I’m talking about, like, being trampled on, look, being stepped on hurts.

366
00:37:18,852 –> 00:37:23,732
There is grief in a flattening process and grass doesn’t bypass that.

367
00:37:23,732 –> 00:37:27,421
Key might lay down literally.

368
00:37:27,421 –> 00:37:32,491
There are moments of stillness when the blade isn’t performing resilience yet, right?

369
00:37:32,491 –> 00:37:39,216
The, the, the blade is just, like, trying to regroup after being stepped on and even some blades die.

370
00:37:39,792 –> 00:37:52,272
But then water moves and sugar redirects and signals travel and because the system is really practicing this, there is a choreography that is ready when needed, and that’s another lesson.

371
00:37:53,192 –> 00:37:57,072
You have to rehearse your recovery if you know this is a pattern.

372
00:37:57,072 –> 00:38:05,214
So you have to, just the same as you rehearse being ready for being trampled on, you rehearse also the recovery of it.

373
00:38:05,832 –> 00:38:24,496
Because small regular practices that remind your body how to come back from situations, um, prolonged rest or checking in with yourself or making modifications, all this makes it easier to respond the next time the weight arrives, the next time you’re stepped on.

374
00:38:25,171 –> 00:38:34,352
So a last, last piece from the whole perspective of, you know, this trampled on piece is, community is not optional, just so you know.

375
00:38:35,011 –> 00:38:43,824
Where native grasses thrive with grazers, with big animals that, that trample on them, who diversity tends to bloom.

376
00:38:44,452 –> 00:38:46,096
Species hold each other up.

377
00:38:46,632 –> 00:38:57,488
So the translation for us stubborn humans that think that we can go it alone, because you know, we often think that, find the rhythm and the companions that let you keep moving.

378
00:38:58,031 –> 00:39:03,812
If you’re stuck in one place because it’s comfortable, ask for help to relocate.

379
00:39:03,812 –> 00:39:05,592
Find your shade.

380
00:39:05,592 –> 00:39:16,240
Find the others that are going to be able to have a diversity that means that where you’re affected in one thing, they might not be affected and vice versa.

381
00:39:16,706 –> 00:39:21,932
‘Cause if you’re alone on a dry patch, it can be difficult.

382
00:39:21,932 –> 00:39:29,031
And if you’re, find yourself alone right now and you don’t know how to do that, call in kin, call in your plant partners.

383
00:39:29,031 –> 00:39:32,652
You know, ask your plant partners to help you through this.

384
00:39:32,652 –> 00:39:35,372
You know, we’re not meant to do this alone.

385
00:39:35,372 –> 00:39:37,168
We’re always meant to be in community.

386
00:39:38,626 –> 00:39:43,038
Okay, that was, whew, a lot of stuff.

387
00:39:44,511.99999999953434 –> 00:39:47,632
So, ooh, gosh.

388
00:39:47,632 –> 00:40:17,648
As I’m talking, as I’m talking, I’m, besides the fact of constantly staring out the window, um, I, and, and looking at the grasses that are in front of me, I, I always have this memory of, I was doing a biomimicry workshop in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States and we had this exercise called an eyesides, which I love to do, and we went out and we were supposed to kind of just sit with some being of nature

389
00:40:18,432 –> 00:40:20,440
and, you know, draw and capture it.

390
00:40:20,440 –> 00:40:35,060
ended up sitting down on the grass, ’cause that’s what I do, and I found this tiny pa- when I say tiny patch, I’m talking about a patch that’s, like, not even a foot by a foot, you know, 10 centimeters by 10 little block, and I was just staring at that.

391
00:40:35,060 –> 00:40:50,380
And in that block, I saw so many, ’cause I saw multiple types of grasses and 2 or 3 different kinds of, like, small flowering plants, and there was a spider that was walking through, and then there was some ants.

392
00:40:50,380 –> 00:41:20,760
And there was, like, the, the wind was blowing lightly and there was all these different species, and I remember being so impacted by that relationship, tho- those relationships that were playing out right before me and how much we take those for granted, and we don’t think about that coexistence and, and about how grass, of all beings, might be one of the most honest mirrors to help us really see what’s going on,

393
00:41:20,760 –> 00:41:23,160
and that’s what I wanna kinda get into now.

394
00:41:23,160 –> 00:41:27,856
You know, grass has lived alongside us for as long as we’ve been walking upright.

395
00:41:28,400 –> 00:41:35,380
You know, we, with the oldest known grass fossils dating from around 113 to 100 million years ago.

396
00:41:35,380 –> 00:41:39,740
That’s a lot older than we as humans, just so you know, as, as homo sapiens.

397
00:41:39,740 –> 00:41:45,820
Quille learned to grow with humans, without humans, under hooves, under highways, under city streets.

398
00:41:45,820 –> 00:41:46,880
Like, all over the things.

399
00:41:46,880 –> 00:41:54,460
You’ll find quille thriving in every possible condition, like deserts and wetlands and rice fields and city cracks.

400
00:41:54,460 –> 00:41:55,740
Like, all kinds of

401
00:41:55,740 –> 00:41:57,648
Even the battlefield, you know?

402
00:41:58,330 –> 00:41:59,940
Grass doesn’t discriminate.

403
00:41:59,940 –> 00:42:05,540
Quille doesn’t say, “The soil is too polluted for me,” or, “This neighborhood isn’t my vibe.”

404
00:42:05,540 –> 00:42:09,800
Quille arrives, adapts, and participates, and that’s not passivity.

405
00:42:09,800 –> 00:42:11,640
It’s actually mastery.

406
00:42:11,640 –> 00:42:17,020
Like, it’s being able to master any area that you’re in.

407
00:42:17,020 –> 00:42:28,580
Can you imagine if no matter what environment you went into, regardless of whether you wanted to stay there or not, you’re always welcome to leave, you could actually feel comfortable and master that environment?

408
00:42:28,580 –> 00:42:31,180
Like, wouldn’t that be amazing?

409
00:42:31,180 –> 00:42:37,500
And yet what’s fascinating to me is how humans have used grass as a canvas for their own self-image.

410
00:42:37,500 –> 00:42:46,320
You know, grass over the years has absorbed our projection of class and of order and of belonging and of beauty and even of morality.

411
00:42:46,320 –> 00:42:51,680
Back in the 17th century in England, grass lawns became a symbol of wealth.

412
00:42:51,680 –> 00:43:04,080
What we think of today as the modern lawn, the one that technically is like a monoculture, which sucks, but that’s another story, imagine vast estates with, like, rolling green carpets.

413
00:43:04,080 –> 00:43:09,968
No crops, no grazing animals on them, just carefully trimmed grass stretching over the horizon.

414
00:43:10,500 –> 00:43:15,888
To maintain that kind of space required labor and water and land that didn’t have to feed anyone.

415
00:43:16,500 –> 00:43:25,758
Lawns basically became a symbol of, “I have so much I can afford to let this land do nothing and look nice.”

416
00:43:26,780 –> 00:43:44,816
It was performance of control na- Nature manicured into this obedience to, like, show what humans thought would be their symbology, a green theater of dominance and stability, and the message was clear.

417
00:43:45,960 –> 00:43:49,540
Wildness is beneath us, and you know how I feel about that.

418
00:43:49,540 –> 00:43:57,340
If you’ve heard any of my episodes, it’s you know how I feel about this idea that wildness is beneath us.

419
00:43:57,340 –> 00:44:03,120
Like, European settlers even carried the image of wealth, of that, into the Americas.

420
00:44:03,120 –> 00:44:09,740
The idea of the perfect lawn became something new, a suburban ideal, which is where we struggle with today.

421
00:44:09,740 –> 00:44:16,019
Can you imagine a symbol of being a good citizen, of safety, of normalcy?

422
00:44:16,019 –> 00:44:17,519
Who the hell wants to be normal?

423
00:44:17,519 –> 00:44:22,720.0000000004657
Like, I don’t know, but, uh, basically a trimmed lawn said, “I belong.

424
00:44:22,720.0000000004657 –> 00:44:23,940
I’m responsible.

425
00:44:23,940 –> 00:44:36,450
I’m respectable,” and to this day, homeowners associations will fine you if your grass dares to be too alive, too wild, but it just cracks me up.

426
00:44:36,450 –> 00:44:44,320
And the irony is that the further we forced grass into these monocultures, the more work it took to keep quille alive.

427
00:44:44,320 –> 00:44:51,460
Basically, Quille said, “If you’re going to try to dominate me, I’m gonna make it as fucking hard as possible.

428
00:44:51,460 –> 00:44:53,779.9999999995343
I’m gonna make it as hard as possible.

429
00:44:53,779.9999999995343 –> 00:44:56,279.99999999953434
You are going to have to take such care of me.

430
00:44:56,279.99999999953434 –> 00:45:02,700
You’re gonna have to feed me and fertilize me and trim me and water me at all the right types of ways.

431
00:45:02,700 –> 00:45:06,940
Unless you let my friends be with me, I’m gonna make your life hard.”

432
00:45:06,940 –> 00:45:10,680
Lawns are exhausting to maintain.

433
00:45:10,680 –> 00:45:20,340
The more we pull quille out of relationship, we remove clover and dandelions and insects, the more fragile and needy the entire system belongs.

434
00:45:20,340 –> 00:45:23,760
Do you see the point I am trying to make?

435
00:45:24,460 –> 00:45:30,800
It is a full-time job, full-time job to maintain an illusion of perfection.

436
00:45:32,260 –> 00:45:33,279.99999999953434
Sound familiar?

437
00:45:33,279.99999999953434 –> 00:45:33,936
Sound familiar?

438
00:45:34,540 –> 00:45:40,680
This is a lesson for all of us who’ve tried to maintain our own manicured versions of life.

439
00:45:40,680 –> 00:45:54,992
The more we stray from who we are and try to conform to what looks stable, acceptable, and safe from an outdoor- outside perspective, the more effort it takes just to keep the edges trimmed.

440
00:45:55,779.9999999995343 –> 00:45:58,940
We call it discipline, which you know how I feel, again, about that.

441
00:45:58,940 –> 00:46:12,496
Professionalism, being put together, but underneath really it’s just endless maintenance.It’s about fertilizing the facade, and that’s what happens when wild intelligence gets replaced with performance.

442
00:46:13,200 –> 00:46:23,500
Grass, however, has never forgotten who key is, because grass might allow key self to be maintained in that way.

443
00:46:23,500 –> 00:46:29,776
But you give grass an inch, and they’re going to invite dandelion and clover in for a party.

444
00:46:30,520 –> 00:46:35,700
So even under the tyranny of the mower, grass keeps networking underground.

445
00:46:35,700 –> 00:46:42,380
Root to root, rhizome to rhizome, key shares all their waters and sugars and microbes and information.

446
00:46:42,380 –> 00:46:47,170
Even in a monoculture, grass secretly restores diversity.

447
00:46:47,170 –> 00:46:51,040
They’ll welcome mosses and weeds and fungi.

448
00:46:51,040 –> 00:46:54,360
Whomever is going to show up to the party, they’re gonna be like, “Come on in.

449
00:46:54,360 –> 00:46:55,600
Grab a beer.

450
00:46:55,600 –> 00:46:58,500
I’ve got some, like, sugary stuff for you.

451
00:46:58,500 –> 00:47:03,900
Come on in, and if the humans try to, like, take you out, don’t worry.

452
00:47:03,900 –> 00:47:07,952
I’ll just hide you in my roots, and when they’re not looking, I’m gonna bring you back up.”

453
00:47:08,880 –> 00:47:13,320
Grass is community minded, kind of like us, right?

454
00:47:13,320 –> 00:47:21,860
Key thrives in plurality, so that’s the quiet rebellion of grass, and what you can learn by spending some time lying in the grass.

455
00:47:21,860 –> 00:47:30,100
No matter how many times we might try to make kin conform, key keeps reaching sideways and inviting others in.

456
00:47:30,100 –> 00:47:34,540
And that’s what I find so beautiful about the current no-lawn movement.

457
00:47:34,540 –> 00:47:46,992
Across cities and suburbs, people are pulling up the sod and planting pollinator gardens, native grasses and wildflowers, because that aesthetic of control is, like

458
00:47:48,020 –> 00:47:57,808
It’s exhausting and useless and not nourishing for anybody involved, so it’s giving way to the new aesthetic of coexistence.

459
00:47:58,390 –> 00:48:14,032
The human desire for beauty isn’t disappearing, it’s maturing back to the idea that wildness is beautiful, that diversity is beautiful, that the commingling and the strength that comes from that commingling.

460
00:48:14,619 –> 00:48:16,620
Beauty is not weakness.

461
00:48:16,620 –> 00:48:17,980
Beauty is strength.

462
00:48:17,980 –> 00:48:23,760
It’s remembering that beauty can be functional, relational, alive even.

463
00:48:23,760 –> 00:48:42,494
We’re finally catching up to what grass has known all along, that you can be soft, ’cause I mean, everybody loves a nice grass when you wanna lie down or when you wanna play outside, but also strong and composed and untamed, ordered and alive all at once.

464
00:48:43,580 –> 00:48:55,279.99999999953434
And so that’s why this whole kind of episode comes from that conversation in episode 126 where I talked about rewilding as core intelligence, about how wildness isn’t chaos.

465
00:48:55,279.99999999953434 –> 00:48:59,340
It’s adaptability rooted in your essence.

466
00:48:59,340 –> 00:49:01,480
Plants don’t try to be free.

467
00:49:01,480 –> 00:49:05,860
Kin are free because they know who they are.

468
00:49:05,860 –> 00:49:08,080
Rewilding isn’t a rebellion.

469
00:49:08,080 –> 00:49:11,520
It’s a memory, and grass has always embodied that.

470
00:49:11,520 –> 00:49:18,960
Key flows between systems, humans and non-human, order and wildness, without ever loving- losing the essence.

471
00:49:18,960 –> 00:49:22,895.9999999995343
Key knows, “Give me a chance, and I’m gonna call in all my friends.”

472
00:49:23,400 –> 00:49:27,960
That’s why I’m saying that even in a monoculture, grass keep dreaming of diversity.

473
00:49:27,960 –> 00:49:32,624
Even under control, key whispers, “Don’t be fooled.

474
00:49:33,122 –> 00:49:34,511.99999999953434
This isn’t my true form.

475
00:49:35,440 –> 00:49:38,096
Just give me a little space, and I’ll show you what I got.”

476
00:49:39,200 –> 00:49:50,256
And now as we rewild our landscapes, we’re being asked to rewild our own inner lives in the same way, to move from performance to participation, to release all those obsessions.

477
00:49:50,820 –> 00:49:53,520
Without looking stable

478
00:49:54,779.9999999995343 –> 00:49:56,000
Well, actually, hold on.

479
00:49:56,000 –> 00:49:56,848
Let me say that again.

480
00:49:57,680 –> 00:50:01,104
To release the obsession with looking stable.

481
00:50:01,620 –> 00:50:03,279.99999999953434
I almost said that wrong.

482
00:50:03,279.99999999953434 –> 00:50:06,319.99999999953434
And to start building systems that actually sustain life.

483
00:50:07,960 –> 00:50:18,020
Ugh, I get really worked up about this, because as a person who grew up with very, very little lawn and never parents that ever tried to, like, control the lawn.

484
00:50:18,020 –> 00:50:22,840
We mowed the lawn, but nobody ever went there and was like, “Oh, no, we gotta put some kinda fertilizer down,” or whatever.

485
00:50:22,840 –> 00:50:26,880
Us, really, we have a kinda grass that was, like, itchy, and there was lots of fire ants.

486
00:50:26,880 –> 00:50:30,360
You knew that if you rolled around in the grass too much, you were gonna get fire ants all over you.

487
00:50:30,360 –> 00:50:32,208
And fire ants are not pleasure.

488
00:50:32,700 –> 00:50:43,320
But there was this desire still and that’s what grass models so perfectly, coexistence without compromise, adaptability without erasure.

489
00:50:43,320 –> 00:50:49,600
How can I adapt to my situation without erasing my clo- c- uh, la- core essence?

490
00:50:49,600 –> 00:50:57,616
So here’s what I wanted to leave you with, where from, from this section is where in your life have you created a lawn where what you needed was really a meadow?

491
00:50:58,380 –> 00:51:01,060
You know, how a meadow would feel.

492
00:51:01,060 –> 00:51:12,620
I remember I, my first home, the first home I ever bought back when I was living in Seattle had this gorgeous meadow in front of it, and it was just this long piece of lawn to a certain extent.

493
00:51:12,620 –> 00:51:13,280
I was young.

494
00:51:13,280 –> 00:51:14,220
I didn’t know what I was doing.

495
00:51:14,220 –> 00:51:26,020
But I remember sitting at a fair, like one of those home festivals, fairs, whatever they’re called, and, or expo, and I was listening to somebody talk about the creation of meadows.

496
00:51:26,020 –> 00:51:30,180
And oh my goodness, I loved it so much, so much.

497
00:51:30,180 –> 00:51:39,408
I had these dreams of li- these tall grasses and short grasses and like little wild flowers and a tiny little table that I could sit outside and drink tea.

498
00:51:40,400 –> 00:51:48,528
Why would you ever exhaust yourself maintaining appearances or maintaining a lawn that were never really meant to sustain you and that couldn’t sustain you?

499
00:51:49,120 –> 00:52:00,048
And what would happen if you just stopped mowing, if you let diversity return, let the dandelions and the clover of your own nature show up again, metaphorically speaking?

500
00:52:01,100 –> 00:52:03,980
Because maybe that’s the quiet wisdom of plants, like

501
00:52:03,980 –> 00:52:06,380
and the quiet wisdom specifically of grass.

502
00:52:06,380 –> 00:52:24,109
No matter how much we trim, confine, or try to control, the moment you stop forcing that shape, he remembers and he grows again, everywhere, with humans, without humans, with animals, under asphalt, through, through cracks, reaching for the light.

503
00:52:24,109 –> 00:52:25,780
That’s not the resistance.

504
00:52:25,780 –> 00:52:27,269
That’s remembrance.

505
00:52:27,269 –> 00:52:30,000
And that all exists inside of you.

506
00:52:31,400 –> 00:52:37,600
The last piece I wanna very quickly touch on is, like this point of community and diversity.

507
00:52:37,600 –> 00:52:45,808
If you go outside and kneel down, I mean, really, just kneel close to the ground and look at any patch of grass, you’ll notice something.

508
00:52:46,690 –> 00:52:49,264
It’s never just grass.

509
00:52:49,900 –> 00:52:57,712
Even the most uniform-looking field, when you part the grades, the, those, the blades in it, you reveals a quiet little orchestra.

510
00:52:58,220 –> 00:53:06,160
Clover sneaks in, and moss is really low, and there’s like sedges and plantain and dandelion and chickweed and all there.

511
00:53:06,660 –> 00:53:08,624
Hence, you know why I love spirit wild plants.

512
00:53:09,160 –> 00:53:11,980
They’re all there weaving themselves between the grass strands.

513
00:53:11,980 –> 00:53:15,360
The grass is just sitting there going, “Yeah, buddy.

514
00:53:15,360 –> 00:53:16,580
I love it here.

515
00:53:16,580 –> 00:53:17,920
I love it here.”

516
00:53:17,920 –> 00:53:19,940
Fungi laced through the soil.

517
00:53:19,940 –> 00:53:22,220
Microbes are all around unseen.

518
00:53:22,220 –> 00:53:28,120
It’s like this massive conversation, this party happening right be- no, right beneath your knees.

519
00:53:28,120 –> 00:53:30,340
So you can just sit there and be with that.

520
00:53:30,340 –> 00:53:38,100
I’m telling you, if you lie in the grass for a little while, even if you’re just facing up, that joy, that party environment is gonna come to you.

521
00:53:38,100 –> 00:53:42,992
The truth of grass is that in the wild, he never does solo.

522
00:53:44,020 –> 00:53:47,400
He only lives in community and that’s not by accident.

523
00:53:47,400 –> 00:53:50,128
Grass actually evolved because of diversity.

524
00:53:50,680 –> 00:54:02,620
So all of these different pieces, nitron fi- uh, nitrogen fixers and like moisture holders and pollinators, like they’re all important and they create this area.

525
00:54:02,620 –> 00:54:05,220
No single species could ever support that.

526
00:54:05,220 –> 00:54:19,140
So when we contrast that with our human systems, our economies, our education models, our neighborhoods even, where sameness is often equated with safety, we try to make things predictable, efficient, and even standardized.

527
00:54:19,140 –> 00:54:28,624
But these types of monocultures of thought, they, they just lead to burnout, to division, and to depletion.

528
00:54:29,200 –> 00:54:35,140
So really nature continuously tells you variety is resilience.

529
00:54:35,140 –> 00:54:37,680
Like you need that variety.

530
00:54:37,680 –> 00:54:42,060
Grass teaches us that interdependence isn’t weakness, it’s insurance.

531
00:54:42,060 –> 00:54:44,420
That’s where true safety comes from.

532
00:54:44,420 –> 00:54:47,800
It’s strength distributed through connection.

533
00:54:47,800 –> 00:54:51,220.00000000046566
And if you’ve ever seen a prairie fire, you know what I mean.

534
00:54:51,220.00000000046566 –> 00:55:04,000
The flames might be sweeping through, but they never erase everything because some roots sleep through the heat waiting to sprout, others send their shoots that anchor to the soil so they don’t wash away after the first rain.

535
00:55:04,000 –> 00:55:10,640
Some have learned to even create seeds that require fire to open ensuring the next generation.

536
00:55:10,640 –> 00:55:20,860
So after all of that kind of turmoil, you can feel life holding hands below ground and preparing for the next wave of green.

537
00:55:20,860 –> 00:55:23,472
And that’s what resilience does for you.

538
00:55:24,162 –> 00:55:30,200
Having that dis- that diversity around you, that’s how recovery happens.

539
00:55:30,200 –> 00:55:32,400
There’s no one plant hero.

540
00:55:32,400 –> 00:55:33,520
It’s kinship.

541
00:55:33,520 –> 00:55:38,160
And that is the model for you that grass can teach you.

542
00:55:38,740 –> 00:55:57,500
And maybe that’s actually the greatest invitation grass offers us, to stop pretending that thriving is a solo act, to stop managing our grow- our growth like lawns, isolated and competitive and trimmed for approval, and instead to remember the web that we already belong to.

543
00:55:57,500 –> 00:56:03,140
You already know, I talk about it all the time, that the Naturally Conscious community is a community space.

544
00:56:03,140 –> 00:56:08,632
It is a place where we do things together.Do I have a few, like, solo activities?

545
00:56:08,632 –> 00:56:09,632
Absolutely.

546
00:56:09,632 –> 00:56:18,608
Reconnect with the Plant Kingdom is a course that you can do on your own speed, on your own time, in your own way all by yourself, but there’s also a community of people there.

547
00:56:19,452 –> 00:56:34,812
One post and everybody responds, and all of our group calls are meant to stimulate different parts of ourselves, to stimulate the creative side, the analytical side, the information-seeking side, the conversational side, the meditative side.

548
00:56:34,812 –> 00:56:46,272
Each one of our events tailors to different parts of ourselves because, well, we’re all multipotentialites in there, and with multiple passions and multiple ways and neurodivergence, we just need a little bit of everything.

549
00:56:46,272 –> 00:56:47,592
Plus, we get bored.

550
00:56:47,592 –> 00:56:48,652
I get bored easily.

551
00:56:48,652 –> 00:56:49,892
They get bored easily.

552
00:56:49,892 –> 00:56:50,792
It’s wonderful.

553
00:56:50,792 –> 00:56:53,051
You get bored easily, come on in.

554
00:56:53,051 –> 00:56:54,892
Because connection is already there.

555
00:56:54,892 –> 00:57:00,592
It’s braided through the relationships, your collaborations, even your creative blocks.

556
00:57:00,592 –> 00:57:03,792
All you need to do is notice, like you notice the grass.

557
00:57:03,792 –> 00:57:07,152
So when you next walk through a patch of grass, try this.

558
00:57:07,650 –> 00:57:10,864
Pause and notice who else is there.

559
00:57:12,098 –> 00:57:23,440
The tiny flowering weeds, the ant trails, the fungal threads binding the soil to life, and ask yourself, “Who in my own ecosystem am I overlooking?

560
00:57:24,834 –> 00:57:29,776
Who’s been quietly holding the ground while I was reaching for the light?”

561
00:57:30,732 –> 00:57:36,400
Or, “Who was there when I had to root deeper because of a disturbance?”

562
00:57:37,072 –> 00:57:42,704
Because thriving, as grass showed us, is about how well you share the field.

563
00:57:44,332 –> 00:57:48,368
So after all this, what is grass really teaching us?

564
00:57:50,471.99999999953434 –> 00:58:00,304
If there’s one truth that grass keeps whispering every single time I go to meet Ki, it’s this: Connection is never far away.

565
00:58:01,251 –> 00:58:07,952
You don’t have to travel to a sacred forest or climb a mountain to remember your belonging.

566
00:58:08,532 –> 00:58:10,864
All you have to do is look down.

567
00:58:11,732 –> 00:58:24,752
Grass has been with us everywhere, from the edges of the city sidewalks, to the cracks in a parking lot, to the tundra of Antarctica, to the quiet shade of your own backyard.

568
00:58:25,452 –> 00:58:33,808
Ki is always there, holding that thread between human and earth, between the ordinary and the miraculous.

569
00:58:34,371 –> 00:58:40,432
The planet doesn’t know how to exist without grass, and maybe neither do we.

570
00:58:41,152 –> 00:59:04,816
We started with grass as the most familiar stranger, but now, I hope, I hope you see ki as what ki truly is, your oldest ally, the one who stays when you forget how to listen, the one who keeps photosynthesizing through your noise and your distraction, quietly reminding you how life actually works.

571
00:59:05,531 –> 00:59:26,312
Because when you sit with grass, even for a moment, you remember, you breathe, your breath starts to slow to match the rhythm of ki’s exchange, your body starts to root, not metaphorically but electrically, into that field that made you.

572
00:59:26,312 –> 00:59:34,480
When you sit there, you feel it all come about, and you remember that belonging isn’t a feeling you earn.

573
00:59:35,232 –> 00:59:36,528
It’s a biological fact.

574
00:59:37,732 –> 00:59:40,400
Grass doesn’t ask you to be perfect.

575
00:59:41,026 –> 00:59:48,132
Ki doesn’t care if you’ve lost touch with your practice, you know, if your mind’s been busy or if you haven’t stepped outside in days.

576
00:59:48,132 –> 00:59:50,992
Ki just says, “Start here.

577
00:59:51,852 –> 00:59:52,400
Touch me.

578
00:59:53,332 –> 00:59:54,096
Notice me.

579
00:59:54,892 –> 00:59:56,080
Breathe with me.”

580
00:59:56,692 –> 00:59:59,888
Because connection isn’t something you build from scratch.

581
01:00:00,452 –> 01:00:02,480
It’s something you return to.

582
01:00:03,770.9999999995343 –> 01:00:12,496
All the other lessons we’ve explored, resilience, coexistence, adaptability, community, they all live inside this one truth.

583
01:00:13,912.0000000004657 –> 01:00:21,551.9999999995343
You are never disconnected from nature because you are nature.

584
01:00:22,980 –> 01:00:29,840
Even when you feel cut off, you are surrounded by kin who haven’t given up on you.

585
01:00:30,800 –> 01:00:36,304
Grass teaches us that the sacred isn’t somewhere else, it’s underfoot.

586
01:00:37,320 –> 01:00:40,304
It’s on the sides, it’s all around us.

587
01:00:40,960 –> 01:00:46,832
And I think, I think this is the heart of the medicine.

588
01:00:47,460 –> 01:00:50,680
Reconnection is recognition.

589
01:00:50,680 –> 01:01:01,104
It’s about seeing that life’s already around you, and remembering it’s also within you, and that’s what happens when you let grass lead.

590
01:01:01,820 –> 01:01:07,664
You stop trying to return to nature, because you realize that you’ve actually never left.

591
01:01:08,760 –> 01:01:17,232
So the next time you pass a patch of grass by the curb or under a bench, or maybe in one of those neglected lots in the city, just pause.

592
01:01:18,480 –> 01:01:28,920
Not for long, but just enough to notice that shimmer of light on a blade, kind of like if you’re watching the video, the shimmer of light on my face.

593
01:01:28,920 –> 01:01:35,312
The faint hum of, uh, photosynthesis, or, I don’t know, the way the air feels different there.

594
01:01:36,240 –> 01:01:40,300
I don’t know about you, but I see grass is overgrown and I just take a deep breath.

595
01:01:40,300 –> 01:01:48,272
It could be, like, a lot and there could be tires or something else growing there, and I just take a breath, because that’s kinship.

596
01:01:49,410 –> 01:01:51,824
The grass is saying, “You’re home.”

597
01:01:52,780 –> 01:02:00,752
And when you begin to feel that, even in small moments, you start to sense the quiet dialogue always waiting for you.

598
01:02:01,570 –> 01:02:09,100
A conversation that doesn’t need words, simply attention, because connection, like grass, is everywhere.

599
01:02:09,100 –> 01:02:10,672
You just have to let it find you.

600
01:02:15,714 –> 01:02:29,500
Okay, so, so now that we’ve journeyed through all these layers of grass, you know, the, the universal companion, the survivor, the teacher of community, there’s really only one thing left to do: go chat with grass.

601
01:02:29,500 –> 01:02:32,000
Trust me, you can do that anywhere.

602
01:02:32,000 –> 01:02:38,160
You don’t need special plays or permission, just a few minutes, a patch of green, and a willingness to notice.

603
01:02:39,000 –> 01:02:41,920
Find some grass near where you are right now.

604
01:02:41,920 –> 01:02:47,000
It could be, uh, a lawn or a roadside strip, or even just, you know, I don’t know.

605
01:02:47,000 –> 01:02:48,720
There’s always grass somewhere.

606
01:02:48,720 –> 01:02:51,344
Sit or stand with Ki and let your eyes soften.

607
01:02:51,980 –> 01:02:55,632
Let your body start to breathe, and just start by observing.

608
01:02:56,880 –> 01:02:58,700
How is Ki growing here?

609
01:02:58,700 –> 01:03:00,120
Upright or bending?

610
01:03:00,120 –> 01:03:01,232
Dense or sparse?

611
01:03:01,730 –> 01:03:02,940
Who else is in the mix?

612
01:03:02,940 –> 01:03:05,200
Is there clover or dandelion or moss?

613
01:03:05,200 –> 01:03:08,580
Any other kind of tiny flower or any other kind of animal?

614
01:03:08,580 –> 01:03:14,814
Just notice all of these rela- relationships, and when you feel ready, simply say hello.

615
01:03:16,220 –> 01:03:18,000
There are no perfect words.

616
01:03:18,000 –> 01:03:20,820
You can speak them aloud or you can think them quietly.

617
01:03:20,820 –> 01:03:23,600
Maybe it’s just as simple as, “Hi, I see you.”

618
01:03:24,300 –> 01:03:26,864
Or maybe it’s a question: How do you do it?

619
01:03:27,426 –> 01:03:30,352
How do you keep showing up even after being stepped on?

620
01:03:32,160 –> 01:03:37,360
Maybe it’s just a breath that’s shared, your exhale and Ki’s inhale.

621
01:03:38,360 –> 01:03:40,840
The goal isn’t really to hear an answer.

622
01:03:40,840 –> 01:03:50,280
The goal is to remember that you’re in dialogue, to feel the pulse of life inside of your body.

623
01:03:50,280 –> 01:03:54,660
It’s that same current moving through the blade of grass that’s besides you.

624
01:03:54,660 –> 01:03:57,000
That’s what separates you from kin.

625
01:03:57,000 –> 01:04:05,424
It’s really just habit, the habit of noise and of rush and of forgetting that communication is already happening beneath that thought.

626
01:04:06,120 –> 01:04:14,704
So in speaking or in experiencing these words and asking these questions, just allow your body to be the receptor, to be the antenna.

627
01:04:15,520 –> 01:04:23,312
And if you’re feeling nervous or unsure, if that voice in your head says, “I don’t know if I can talk to plants in that way,” that’s okay too.

628
01:04:23,920 –> 01:04:25,220.00000000046566
You don’t have to know.

629
01:04:25,220.00000000046566 –> 01:04:26,064
You just have to start.

630
01:04:27,380 –> 01:04:33,840
If you want support deepening that dialogue, that’s exactly what we explore together inside of Blooming Sprouts.

631
01:04:33,840 –> 01:04:42,128
When you join, you get access to a whole library of live and recorded sessions, including one of my favorite workshops, Enhanced Plant Communication.

632
01:04:42,680 –> 01:04:52,840
That session is a full 3hour immersion in what it really means to converse with the more-than-human world, not as a metaphor, but as lived experience.

633
01:04:52,840 –> 01:05:10,192
We go beyond just the 5 senses and into the body’s natural way of perceiving and responding, and you’ll learn reliable ways to open that channel, to validate what you receive, and to co-create so that you can create a new level of meaning with plants.

634
01:05:10,760 –> 01:05:14,300
We also work through the doubts, the very famous “Am I making it up?”

635
01:05:14,300 –> 01:05:22,800
loop that so many of us get caught up in, because once you understand how communication actually feels in your body, look, you’re gonna just naturally stop questioning it.

636
01:05:22,800 –> 01:05:28,432
It starts building a relationship, and this isn’t another training to pack your brain with lots of new information.

637
01:05:29,020 –> 01:05:49,424
It’s just about remembering, a return to what you already know in your cells, that you are designed to be in conversation with life because you are life, that the air you breathe, the food you eat, the very pulse of your fingertips are part of an ongoing exchange with the living Earth.

638
01:05:50,240 –> 01:06:08,455
And you’ll also find mini voyages with spirit wild plants, those dandelions and chickweeds that we keep talking about, and little tiny short guided journeys that help you meet individual plants in a more, mm, personal sort of way.Most of them have 3 very, very, very simple techniques.

639
01:06:08,455 –> 01:06:21,744
So think of all of this as an invitation to meet new friends, to listen, to learn, to co-create in partnership with kin who have been patiently waiting for you to notice them again.

640
01:06:22,556 –> 01:06:36,848
So whether you start with a patch of grass outside your home or you decide to step into the circle of blooming sprouts inside the Naturally Conscious community, as always, everything is in the description, the invitation is the same, reconnect.

641
01:06:37,955 –> 01:06:39,408
Let life speak

642
01:06:40,895 –> 01:06:52,752
Let grass remind you that you belong to something vast, ancient and deeply intelligent, and that this conversation is yours to continue.

643
01:06:53,796 –> 01:06:56,195
Because connection isn’t rare.

644
01:06:56,195 –> 01:06:59,952
It’s right here under your feet waiting for you to say hello.

645
01:07:03,426 –> 01:07:11,600
As always, I just wanna thank you for sharing this little patch of time with me and with the humble unstoppable wisdom of our grassy kin.

646
01:07:12,616 –> 01:07:15,216
If something is stirring in you today, please pass it along.

647
01:07:15,816 –> 01:07:24,304
Share this episode with a friend who’s been feeling trampled or disconnected or maybe just needs a reminder that belonging can begin right under their feet.

648
01:07:25,356 –> 01:07:29,015
Like it, subscribe, you know, all those types of things.

649
01:07:29,015 –> 01:07:40,784
Leave comments because we really wanna reach more and more people who feel disconnected and who know and who could know that the plants are their way back home.

650
01:07:41,634 –> 01:07:46,316
If you’d like to discuss how I can help you create a life of connection and calm, book a call with me.

651
01:07:46,316 –> 01:07:48,056
The link is always below.

652
01:07:48,056 –> 01:07:55,496
And we can talk about your plant allies, your creative roots, and whether your wild intelligence is trying to grow next out.

653
01:07:55,496 –> 01:07:58,654.9999999995343
I’m so curious, I’m always so curious about those types of things.

654
01:07:58,654.9999999995343 –> 01:07:59,792
I just, I just wanna hear it all.

655
01:08:00,596 –> 01:08:05,096
But until next time, don’t underestimate the quiet power of the ordinary.

656
01:08:05,096 –> 01:08:08,112
It’s really where real conversations begin.

657
01:08:08,676 –> 01:08:15,120
And always, always, always remember to resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance.

658
01:08:15,996 –> 01:08:18,192
I’ll see you among the sprouts in NCC.

659
01:08:19,845.9999999995343 –> 01:08:23,247.99999999953434
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Reconnect With Plant Wisdom.

660
01:08:23,756.0000000004657 –> 01:08:34,127.99999999953434
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.

661
01:08:34,736 –> 01:08:44,144
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.

662
01:08:44,776 –> 01:08:50,036
Connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life.

663
01:08:50,036 –> 01:08:55,156
Intro and outro music by Steve Sciulli and Poinsettia from The Singing Life of Plants.

664
01:08:55,156 –> 01:08:58,756.0000000004657
That’s it for me, Tigrilla Gardenia, and my plant collaborators.

665
01:08:58,756.0000000004657 –> 01:09:03,536
Until next time, remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance.

666
01:09:03,536 –> 01:09:04,236
I’m out.

667
01:09:04,236 –> 01:09:04,830
Bye.