Welcome to Insider's Guide to the Other Side, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, y'all, I'm Julie.
Hi there, I'm Brenda. Welcome to Insider's Guide to the Other Side.
Now, y'all need to know that we are obsessed with everything on the other side.
Yes, we are, because once you learn to navigate the energetic, or to some the invisible world, life is going to be more fun and much more serene.
Uh heck, yes it can, because let's be honest, for in Earth school is hard.
In fact, you taught me that let's crush Earth School together.
Well, hello, my witchy, oh pooh, my hair looks like shit. How about you.
Nice? This is why we don't do audio or video. This is right, so we don't have to worry about it.
It's not It is the worst ever.
It's just blending into your background, that's all.
I don't know what. No, it doesn't we're to god, No, wait, we're I literally look like the greasert that stands in front of the liquor store. And I don't know how it happened, but it did, and only Brenda can enjoy it today. Okay, so now we can get on with our show.
Yeah, here's so funny. Excellent, excellent. Okay, so today we're talking about nature. One of the biggest forces, one of the biggest spirit we have on the planet, right, is this incredible force of nature. So I'm so excited you brought up this, uh, you know, idea to share because you recently had a very powerful experience with nature.
Right, I totally did. And you know what. I what was so I think moving about it for me and for Suzanne was sometimes we forget and stop to stop and smell the roses. Right. We've all heard that at age, which is stop and smell the roses. And it's not all stopping by your house and sniff and you because I know you're rose, but it's in general that to
do that. And so we had this incredible experience that just wanted to share it with everyone because we hope Brendan and I hope that this is something you know that we have these episodes sometimes that are more reminders of about being here, being a spirit in a human body, and this is one of them. So we went to Los crusis our new backyard, meaning New Mexico, one of the most unpopulated states by the way, it's amazing. If
you don't like humans, move here. Uh, And we went down to Los Crusis too, is a Pecan festival, because like, couldn't we couldn't be any more boring than that. But on the way home home, we stopped at White Sands National Park. And if anybody is unfamiliar, White Sands is in an area called the Permian Basin. You've probably maybe heard of the Permian Basin because that's where a lot of oil is being drilled right now, we don't have
to celebrate it. It's just a fact and it'll eventually run out, so no generational never even mention it again. And a part of this that the Permian Basin was once a shallow sea, and so White Sands National Park is the bottom of that shallow sea that is covered in white gypsum sand. And it feels different than if you go to a regular beach, like if you go beach of California, Mexico, Florida, wherever, it doesn't feel this way. It's and gypsum is actually you know, in the kind
of in the crystal Kingdom. When that's probably why I liked it so much, right yeah, right, of course, right is crystal so there we go. So it was interesting because it takes up I think about two hundred and twenty five square miles of this kind of desolate area which is in New Mexico. It's huge. It is just a bit south of Alamagordo. There's a naval base there. Just f y eyed everybody. And you start driving in
and you see these like dunes. Actually, as you're driving toward it, you see, because there's a bit of wind, you see this like kind of white cloud that's around it. And Suzanne said, it's windy, there's white sands right there, because there's this like cloud of sand, this kind of misty cloud of sand over it. So it was really like, oh, that's exciting. Like I'm already excited. We're not even there, right. So so you start driving in and the first thing
I do is ask Suzanne. I'm like, give me some history. Like I get all excited and it's like I need to know everything about this place. So drive and you see all these sand dunes, but they have they have vegetation that's growing on them, and how you get that's the beginning of it. And then as you get drive in, I'm not joking you, it is all white, and it looks like you're in a snowstorm, like there is there's no vegetation. It is all white, and it is like
you're on another planet. And so naturally Suki comes into play because she's with me all the time. And so we find this area in ps There is a leash law there, or a leash recommendation. I'm not sure how lawful it is. We did not follow it. So we found this place where there were not other humans, and right Rote and like Rebel, who is white, practically got lost in it. We kept saying, where's Rebel, where's Rebel? She was like a ghost in the white sands of
it all. And and Souki black on white. She is off leash. And if anybody checks out my instagram, you'll see photos of her from this, from this magical moment, and she is running up and down these.
She she looks like she's laughing the entire time, and she was.
It was in like her joy brought me joy, that brought Suzanne joy, and I have a feeling Rebel was on the joy kind of staircase as well. And it was just that moment and when we're in there, in this other world, we're like, man, the earth is incredible, like wild incredible. And then and then there's always in
and then and then what happened was really interesting. It's kind of funny how we got there is we had to go to Albuquerque, so we had to take a different way home, and the reason why we had to pick up our Costco cards just FYI just add a little color to the whole story. So what happened is that we had to take this other highway to go back to the to the Interstate twenty five. And on this way, I see these signs called a Valley of the Fires, and I'm like, what the hell is Valley
of the Fires. Had no clue, So we're keep driving and Susanne's like, look at all it's kind of dark, like maybe it's a place there's been a forest fire. And I'm like, why would they have a sign? Like, So we go through this whole debate of like of ignorance. It's like the circle of stupidity happening. And so we get to it and we're like, oh my god, this is a lava field. There's this lava field out in
the middle of nowhere called the Valley of Fire. And of course, like once we had internet because it was the SOS zone because there was literally the middle of nowhere. And so when Suzanne looks it up because of course I'm driving, so it's illegal to do that. That law followed, just on the leash law, and so we are so we are. So Suzanne's reading all this to me, and she goes, this is insane. It's considered like one of
the youngest lava flows in the United States. And I don't know if they wrote that before after Mount Saint Helens. And I also don't know if there was lava through Mount Saint Helens when that went in. Was it late eighties, But there's all this beautiful lava flow, Like if you go to Hawaii and you see the dark lava that's the young lava. And you see like little faded brown that's the old lava. This was black lava rock. And I'm like, where did it come from? There's no mountains here.
And then she answered, there was this small mound that blew like a volcano, like a mound, not a mountain, a mound because there were no like in the in the area there. It's in a valley. There was no place because the first time it must be a fisher. Anyway, I'm getting off crack a lot because it was so exciting and fascinating, interesting, and we got confused, but it was we were in a whole nother world and we
forgot like all the day to day problems. We stopped and smelled the roses and and completely and utter enjoyed every single moment of what would normally be like a rotten drive home.
You know, I love that you kind of you had the water right with the shallow lake their sea bed right, and you had the fire from the lava.
You we discoverment, we.
Have the elements, right. It's just so interesting. Yeah, And to be, first of all, to be fascinated by your own backyard, relatively speaking, is such a wonderful experience. To reconnect with the magic that's always available, right, just the fact that we're on this amazing planet and we can find things and discover things and just celebrate them like we may not all experience them. To the ecstasy that Sookie had.
I think it was the greatest ever life, right, I know, right.
It's so so happy, so happy, but just realizing the magic and and taking a moment to take it in and be present with it is like it resets our nervous system, it inspires us. It's it's truly. I think what the word all was, you know, is the perfect use for like.
It was invented that that was invented for that day.
Yeah, it was.
So let's take a quick break because we're going to keep talking about the forces of nature and we'll be right back. Okay, y'all, we're back. And since I took up the entire first section, I'm just talking about my bliss on the planet that I'm going to hand it over to my WICHI boo poo.
No, thank you, thank you. Well, I just I mean, I get excited about this when I think about, like, as I said, the planet, there's so many inspiring places and experiences to have that we get to travel to and explore. And also when we think about our you know, personal experiences like when we were growing up, we had trees that we climbed. We had lilac bushes that you know,
I personally had a relationship with in peeny bushes. You know, this one was this and you know, like across the backyard, like you have personal relationships with for instance, one of my I like, you know, I have in my work. I sometimes have to do openers or icebreakers or things like that, and I like asking people tell me about your personal relationship or what's your favorite tree or what how did you have a personal experience of a tree?
And oftentimes people will talk about climbing trees right, or how trees right, like oh, I used to hide here, or you know the way that the trunk split. I could sit in there and read, or you know, like they would have personal experiences. And even when we talked about, you know, discussing this topic, I had to run and get my picture of my tree.
Right story, she actually got a photograph of her tree.
It's framed until it's on my desk.
You know, did you did you climb that tree or just sit underneath it? No?
I never climbed this tree because it's so tall and it's so magnificent. But we would would, you know, go way out in the past the cornfields into the woods and beyond and then that that's where that tree was. And so when we were far away from home, we would we would go into that tree and my brother and I would do this, and so it's just this magical tree. We could lean up again sort of stare up at and it was this giant, giant maple tree that was amazing.
It's it's me if I've ever craw climbed a.
Tree, I'm sure you climb to tree.
Not a single one, and I'll tell you exactly why.
Wow.
Oh, I was that kid with short legs. I could never like get yeah, shorty legs, long trunk, and so never climb them. But still had fate. Well, our trees at home when I grew up, where willow were weeping willows. But the tree that is in my heart and my soul is that I know. I've talked about the olive tree that we had in Sherman Oaks that during the one of the mini droughts that we had when we lived there, I would go capture gray water from the shower so you know, to heat up the water instead
of going down the drain. I captured one of those big five gallon buckets. And my goal was to keep olliver alive during the droughts. And the droughts were years long. It wasn't like a week, they were years.
Yeah really yeah, But.
It's it's a comment to keep things alive. And so when I went back to La I don't know a month ago, whenever it was, I had so many people I wanted to see, but I made a trip out there because I wanted to go see all over and he's thriving and he looks amazing and it just brought me joy. Right, that's.
Yeah, it's it's actually amazing. And again to have these like one of my favorite trees climb was on my grandparents' property, right, so that was when my father. That was a maple tree too, but it had a it it just had a different configuration where the trunk split lower so my brother could boost me up and then I could climb.
Would boost yes with him.
Well, I would also say that getting down was a little dicey, but I took my chances. Yeah, it was fun. And so like just to have these experience and people have their experiences like oh there was a tree once and or there was a tree where I saw faces or you know, trees would talk to me and you know people, you know, in even professional settings, people will tell these stories. Or I would sleep under this tree or you know, or I would play music under this tree.
Like people have these different stories, which is kind of fun to listen to. And no one asks them about it, you know, and that's crazy.
It's like it's it's everybody can participate. And the other one is like bodies of water or streams or lakes or things, especially as from the middle of the country we didn't have oceans, and but but they all like I have stories about those too. We used to catch tadpoles and lot them, like you know, it's it's the it's nature, right, and like as a kid, you have that wonder right, it's like, oh my god, look at
that magnificry. Oh my god, look at that that you know, that mountain or that or that streams, like that's awesome.
And people they will also take that personal experience of you know, whether it's a flower or an animal as species. Like also you know, in that nature realm, whether like I would run into turtles even though we weren't we didn't live near water. Actually yeah, like I would run into turtles. So it's like one of my early totems.
You know, if we were out walking when it was dark and I'd be, oh my god, don't step on the turtle, and they're like, what are you talking about, And of course we had flashlights because it was dark dark, like we didn't we didn't have we didn't have street lights, right, you know, we we were not in the city at all. And they're like, how did you see that. I'm like, I don't know, you know, but I didn't say be as it told me. Don't step on me, girl.
What hair?
Don't step on me? You know. So you know, so people will have their their little signatures. Oh that's my or it's you know, or it's a deer, or it's something like you talked about. Suzanne has hummingbirds.
Oh my god. She sees every hummingbird in like a mile radius. It's the craziest thing. Even funny thing is when we were leaving White Sands, of course I had to stop at the gift shop and buy some cop and buy some mugs. And when we pulled up, she goes, oh, look at that hummingbird. I go, what? And it was on like a branch and it had the same colors of the branch. I go, it's trying to disguise itself. How the hell did you see that? I'm like, it's her thing. She loves it.
Yeah, yeah, And they're so tiny when they're still, they're so tiny.
I don't know how she did it, but like it's her thing, you know, an that's a funny thing that's happening. And I think it's a little bit about like this kind of for us. I think we're going through a phase.
If you guys hear that it's sicky scratching just FYI she itchy today that that at our new house, we're going to have a go and I and Susanna and I both talk about when we're growing up in the gardens that we had that we ate from, Like my mom had a garden next to the side of the house and she grew tomatoes and cantalopes and whatever the hell else and it cucumbers. Of course, lots of jokes in my house because we're completely inappropriate, and it's true. Is this true? It's just true. I can't lie.
It's true.
And so we are talking about how we want to bring that back into our life and how we want actually grow some of our own food. I want to grow ginger root and turmeric so I can juice it and you know, pull stuff off of a you know, of a or dig it up or pull it off of a plant and go in and eat it, you know, make it.
I would I also say, you know sometimes like in our we grew a lot of vegetables as well, and you know, out in the country, and the one thing we could do was plant strawberries because my mom's like, no, I had to pick strawberries when I was a kid. I've never never having strawberries.
We had strawberries. My mother loved it. We've only had plant of what my mom liked because it was we had BlackBerry bushes where I had like cuts and I probably still have scars on my hands from that stuff. But yeah, it is. It's like it's those things you remember and those are not one of them are a bad memory.
Yeah, well the strawberries were.
Your Yeah, we would.
We would tease her about it, right, So it was it was a playful joking, but we didn't trust trust me. We did not have strawberries. But yeah, larious again. So we just invite you to think about, like, what are your nature anchors guides? How do you interact in and you know, receive messages or blessings or guidance like, hey, I'm on the right path here, whatever it is you're thinking about, whatever it is you're contemplating, how do you get these messages from the greater spirit of our planet.
So and how our animals respond because we had coreel on. She talked about doing floral blends to help animals be more comfortable and to be more like connected to themselves because they're so connected to the earth.
Exactly. Yes, yes, yes, yes, she works with the word's remedies, soat she does. All right, So we're gonna be right back. We're gonna take a quick break, yes, right time, and welcome back. So thank you.
I haven't done that in a while.
Thank you, thank you for thanking me. So in this last section, I want to talk about, you know, how we can engage, right, how do we initiate, how do we engage, how do we approach these nature spirits? How can be respectful? How can we leverage their magic, their gifts idents? And just take a look at that, because that's something that's our world's moves so fast, there's so much on our plate every day. Sometimes this is not something that we slow down enough to do. So that's what I want to talk.
So I have a confession. So can I just start with my confession and my big lesson? And I think it will help kind of like really put a cherry on top of this conversation. And it's weird because I normally don't have shame about things, but I actually do about this story because it's so not who I am today and I don't even recognize who that was. And you were there, and you were there, because it really isn't.
But I'm going to say it because I think it's important for people, especially parents, because I think in some ways I was a child when I did this, but even though I was forty three. So, Brenda, do you remember when you were in You and I were on the Universal Studio a lot and we were meeting your friend Kate Flannery there and there was a tree that we walked by and somebody had carved like initials or carved something on that and I reached down to go
grab like a rock to go carve something. You said, don't you dare you grab my hand? Not do that? And you said, no, we don't do that. We do not treat or trees. They feel that we don't do that. And I will tell you as shameful as I am in that moment, because I am so a completely different person than I was then, that absolutely that moment changed how I looked at the world of nature, how looked at our world, and how I behave in that world now than I did then. And I'm grateful for the
lesson because it completely changed me. So thank you and shame on me.
And do you know that I would I didn't mean that in any sort of shaming way.
Oh, no, it was me. It wasn't you with me. It's like we're breaking up. No, it's not you with me. It's not you with me. I swear to God, it's me has only thing. You absolutely did the right thing. And and also in a lot of cases I have to learn that way, and I also understand that. But but but the point is is that how we interact right is so crucial. How we how we can honor. And I wasn't honoring and I'm telling you, And it
was after that, honestly. It was after that is when a big drought and that's when I started, uh taking care of Oliver.
M oh. I love that.
Yeah, I love that.
Well. I mean literally, you're you're tattooing the tree, right, so you're cutting into their skin, I know, right, and it's there their barrier and it can induce disease and damage them and you know, not granted they have big, big spirits and and but you know, you just want to be really I wanted to be I always want to be respectful, which is.
Why I wanted to start this conversation. This part of it like this is like, Okay, here's what not to do that I did. So let's go on to you know, the positive side of of of how we can be respectful.
So you know, just the smallest ray system. My teachers in this area have been Siana and Jahanarah, who are my Santa's my yoga teacher. Johannarah is my Sufi teacher, and they studied together. Sianna was Johannah's uh student and
studying herbs and so they're herbalists. So how they watching them move through the world of how they you know, well, will like pick an herb and smell it and crush it in their hands and rub it over their bodies and think the planet and think the plant and you know, think like all the elements coming together to create this. Like they moved through the world with such intention in
this domain, it's it's extraordinary. And so you know, talking to plants, talking to animals, talking to animal spirits, like we have a family in the backyard of three deer that I literally lily isn't here today, So I just did it the back door while I was on a call and just waved to them.
You know, that's amazing.
And the thing is like one was looking at me and I started waving and just did blasting them with my heart, and the other two turned and looked even though I'm behind glass, like I'm behind a glass door, and so it was just interesting because I was just blasting them and you know, being entertained by their presence and you know, just anyhow so but they engage with you, just like when you you pass your hand over like a bunch of dill, like something that's very delicate, like you, oh,
bless you, and I can smell you, and that brings so many good memories to me. And like you are exchanging energy with this plant and and just like you are, I am with the deer in the backyard. So you know, there's just small and big ways that are honoring them and uplifting your heart. And it's a lovely way to move and dance in the world.
It is, as you would say, it's enchanting. You love to use the word chanting. It's one of my favorite words because of you. I use it all the time in my head. Either couldn't you be more enchanting who I'm looking at? Oh my god? Or this is enchanting? And you know I one of the things that I struggled with was because I'm so sensitive, is when there were dead wild animals or any animal inside of a road, right like every state has to deal with that, and
I would be just mortified and all of that. And so you taught me to give them a blessing and thank them for being here. And so I walk around the planet these days thanking a lot of things for being here. Like we're having an early spring in New Mech and Santa Fe. We normally, you know, everybody, everybody but Tahoe had a very mild winter, and we already have blooms coming, like we already can see them. And I'll walk by them and I'll like kind of tuch
like gently be like, thank you, you're amazing. You tell me that spring is here, you know, and you're going to be gorgeous. And it's like, and if anybody's watching me, anybody, what was a weirdo doing? Or they'd be like, oh yeah, I do that too, but it's just the it's just the like I'm glad that it's all here, even the stuff that scares me, like snakes, I avoid them, but you know what, glad you're here, you know, And I just think that it is it is grounding, and it
makes me a better human. It makes me empathetic, It makes me very like in weird ways and how to say this right, so you'll correct me, but kind of put me in my place a bit, you know.
Well, I think, yeah, they give us perspective, like we are so into instant gratification and so not patient, barely present in so much of our engagement. And the thing is when you see a you know, a bud and you're saying, I can't wait to check on you again in a couple of weeks, right, or a month or whatever it is, depending on what the plant is, Like,
you know, thanks so much for coming. You're giving me hope, and like I can feel the earth warming and it's you know, I'm looking forward to this and you can't rush it, right, It's maybe it's so well, it's that perspective. There's there's a there's a there's an intelligence. There's a natural order, there's a natural rhythm, and we get so far away from it in all of our tech and all of our rushing and you know, electricity and things like that mask the natural rhythm.
It's so funny. I was, of course, this synchronicity had to happen. I was actually on a phone call a work hall right before this, talking to this lovely young woman who's so like brilliant, like her brain is magnificent. And I said to her, I go, you know, just so you know, human nature actually doesn't change because of technology. I said, We're still there, the patterns are still there. We've always had distractions. We've always had we have been
forced to remember in modern society things. So isn't that funny had that conversation about electronics and tech and all in social and all those things that are distractions. Like I choose taking my dog for a walk. That's my distraction, and it's even not even a distraction, it's a connection. Yeah, and yes, go ahead, Yeah, sorry.
I was just And it is interesting because I think when we engage in nature, it brings us back to our own nature, right, whether you're tending to a garden or to an animal or to a child like. It brings us back to our own nature, and that's why it feels so good. It's it is grounding, its recentering, and yeah, it brings us back to our heart.
Which is where we need to go because there's hard as shit, because it is, I mean it is. And I think that's why this was like this is a little bit of an ASMR I think episode for us.
It's like, it's all kind of chill out. Let's go back to where we came from and those you know have try as you can't have more of those moments, you know, talk to people about your favorite tree and ask them what theirs is, you know, instead of what you're face, you know, and again not no judgment here, but instead of asking what's your favorite social media you know, which mine is none. But it's a different conversation you could have, you know, yeah.
Yeah, and you know, bring bring yourself back to you know, what you enjoyed as a child like and see if you can how you can re engage at that level as an adult. That can be a fun way and a worthy exploration. As you know, the earth in North America, the earth is coming back alive, right with all these buds and all the greenery. It's it's you know, right in front of you. And how will you claim your own renewal by their inspiration.
And be inspired? And it is a gift every day to be on this planet, even though some days it doesn't feel like it exactly.
So that's when we wanted to share with you today. We hope it was helpful. It was fun for.
Us to totally I know.
Thanks thanks for listening everybody, and remember our school.
Is hard without a four of nature that the Other Side brought us exactly. Thanks y'all, Thanks.
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