Tara Couture is a homestead farmer, mother, writer and nose-to-tail home butcher and chef (among many other things). She crafts her life with her husband and family on their Slow Down Farmstead. As a steward of the land, she is deeply integrated with the inalienable truths taught by nature (which we are a part of).

Tara helps her family to thrive through an ancestral diet, almost entirely provided by the animals they raise on their land through regenerative agriculture.

This episode is valuable to you if any of these apply...you're:

1. wanting to improve their health through diet
2. navigating grief or loss
3. needing inspiration from someone who has walked the path to food, lifestyle and land sovereignty
4. thinking of becoming a farmer or a new farmer wanting a hot tip from a pro
5. needing support in remembering that freedom is something no one can take away from you

Topics Covered & Links:

pls note that links may be affiliate links (no extra cost to you, just helps me fund the podcast)

• The Slow Down Farmstead website
• Slow Down Farmstead's Instagram
• The importance of Tara's creativity, plus her creative practice
• The ethics of getting raw milk and how to go about it
• What’s a way to bring change in dietary awareness to my family and the people I love?
• Dealing with the isolation and loneliness after going through transformation
• How Tara manages her tech time, Instagram, Social media, etc…
• Management of EMF’s
• Deep Work - Book By Cal Newport
• Tara uses a Bullet Journal
• Why it's important to build relationships around food.
• The inspiration for the name 'Slow Down Farmstead'
• Why it's important to build pleasure into your days
• And, honestly, SO MUCH MORE...

Thank you for joining us for this very first episode of the We Are Already Free podcast, this is amazing!

NB: Next step is to help more people around the world get access to this resource by subscribing to the podcast where you listen and then going to https://nathan.africa/podcast and leaving a review wherever you can!

What a blessing to share this with you, see you in the next one.

With love, your host

Nathan Maingard

PS: leave a review to help the podcast be seen and heard by many more people so that more and more remember that We Are Already Free!

Welcome to we are already free.

This is a podcast I have dreamed

into being to support you who are on this path of self discovery,

this path of sovereignty, of remembering that you are already

free in a society that has bred us to believe that we are anything

but powerful, that we are anything.

Its sovereign this podcast is your invitation and your reminder to

return to that simple truth that we are already free.

Join inspiring down to Earth guests as they share their

vulnerable stories, favorite strategies, and authentic

experiences on how they live lives of beauty, joy, connection and

meaning with the people they love.

I'm your host, breathwork

facilitator, empowering wordsmith, and intuitive guide Nathan Mangod

it's an honor to be here with you today.

Our very first guest embodies her sovereignty beautifully.

Terror of slow down farmstead shares the most wonderful,

inspiring and uplifting stories of her life, living on her farm with

her husband and their family on their farm, slow down farmstead.

I've been following her for some time on Instagram and the way she

writes the story she shares the depth of authenticity she brings

to the life that she is here to live.

Is beautiful and it is inspiring, and to me it is an example of what

one can achieve when one is aligned with that truth that we

are already free.

When we choose to do not just what

is easy, but what is right, we cover some pretty broad topics.

There is laughter.

There are tears.

We go from the heights to the depths and back again.

So please take some deep breaths as you prepare yourself for this

journey. We cover things like carnivorous

butterflies. We cover the passing of her

beautiful daughter. We cover some of the aspects of

the practical aspects around how to get good.

Quality food in your areas or what she recommends.

We talk about freedom and liberty and what does it mean to be free

to have parts of us that no one else gets to control.

We have a Q and A towards the end where some of the audience has

asked some beautiful questions around emfs and tech time and

dietary awareness and how to navigate transformation as one is

waking up. How do we navigate that with our

family and our friends as we are changing?

We cover this in so much more.

There is such a depth and breadth

to Terra's knowledge, her heart, her emotions.

So thank you so much to this beautiful human for coming on

today and I hope that you enjoy this very first episode.

And I couldn't think of a more appropriate person to have on than

terror of slow down farmstead.

As this is a brand new podcast,

I'm going to ask that once you have listened to this that you

please take one action which is to go to.

Itunes to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and if you

can, please leave a review as a new podcast.

This gives an opportunity for other people to easily decide if

they want to listen or not.

It also has the chance of getting

it in front of a lot more people.

If enough people leave a review

early on, we could get into the new and noteworthy section.

And more than anything, now more than ever, I think this kind of

information, the remembrance that we are already free, is so

important. In the world to here to people,

for people to have access to can I know there are so many people out

there who think they are alone, who are overwhelmed and confused

and know that they want to change.

They know that they want to

connect with a different way of being and they just don't have

access to it.

So please take that action.

Once you have listened to this episode and you've connected with

it, take that action.

Leave a review.

It's a massive deal.

It will make a huge difference and

we can really get the word out about this.

I've also.

At least several episodes at once.

So when you're listening to this, even if it's the very first

episode that's just come out, there will be at least another two

episodes out.

Along with this, I have amazing

guests like Emily, soldier of the Free Birth society.

I also have chef Pete Evans, who has been through some horrific

experiences in his country of Australia just for speaking his

truth, just for trying to help people to be healthy, holistically

healthy. These people have been courageous

leaders within their communities.

They have stayed aligned with

these universal truths of holistic health, of connection, of good

food, of good birth, of what it means to be a free, liberated

human. So make sure to check those out as

well. And make sure that you certainly

subscribe to this podcast if you enjoy what you hear and you want

to hear more.

I have so many good guests coming,

it's going to be amazing.

But for now, please enjoy an

uninterrupted episode with the Wonderful terror of slow down

farmstead and thank you for being here.

We are already free.

The thing I wanted to start the

conversation with this carnivorous butterflies.

Because I it's just one of the images that so stands out for me

with you. And I'd just love to hear that

experience for you and what that means, what that brings to mind

when I say carnivorous butterflies.

That should be the name of the song or something.

Yeah, pretty.

Yeah, so you're talking about it.

An image that I shared, it was a video and it was on a harvest day

for us, so we were harvesting beef steer.

So that's always a really somber day for us.

It's like a very.

Intimate day we are always

everything gets shut off except what we're doing.

It's a heavy, heavy day, and then it's also a celebratory day, but

it's probably one of the most well, it is the most intense.

Demanding, emotionally demanding things we do farming because.

Oftentimes these, so these animals are born on our farm and we

harvest them and that's a great responsibility and it's also.

Celebratory and joyous, but that comes after usually for us, you

know, it's in like there's a methodical preparation that goes

into that morning and so it's always very intense.

Things are usually quite quiet around the house.

It's really important for us that.

The animals killed as humanely as

possible and so.

That requires the right mindset

and the right type of movement, and there's a slowness to things

and a calmness, and we want that animal to be as calm and peaceful

as possible. It's why we always have them out

on pastures so they're like.

And I say this a lot, but it you

know, they're hooves are on the same soil they were born on, and

they're under the same sky that they've known all their lives.

And it's just another day for them.

And from a distance we shoot them in the head.

And so it's like absolutely instant.

And then we pray.

Over their body and there's a

very. Profoundly tangible sharing of.

The spirit leaving the body, i often wish that I could gather

people and just have them witness that because it's so profound and

so it it's.

It pulls in all of our senses.

So yes, it's very emotional, spiritual, but if you're just

present, it's almost impossible to ignore that there's something

profound happening around you.

And so that's always the lead up

to it. So that's sort of our state of

mind and where we are at when this is happening.

And on that particular day there was yellow swallowtail butterflies

that were about and.

As we started to after you shoot

the animal, you cut an art, an artery, so that blood, the blood

leaves the body.

It animal is already brain dead by

this time, but so the blood is actually leaving the body and

going into the soil and we just this is often the time when we're

praying, we put our hands on the animal and we just sit in silence

and gratitude as this.

Whatever is happening this chance

mutation this like.

The spirit sort of filling up all

around us. And you can feel like from the

body it's not and it's not like an end of something.

There is a transformation happening and so.

When I say it's like the most profound and intimate, to just be

there and be a part of that and to witness that and to.

it. It's yeah, it's just, it's really big.

It's just big and it's just a beautiful, heartbreaking.

It's everything.

It's everything and it's the it's

that one day specifically the this butterfly came in as the sort of

blood is going back into the soil which I always just find so

profoundly right. You know it's just the rightness

of that for these animals that nourish us that.

You know, there was a time when that animals took blood from her

placenta, was going into the Earth, and now it's like the her

lifeblood is going or his whatever into the back, into the earth, and

this butterfly came.

And landed on this blood.

And at first I just thought it was just landing somewhere, but we

just sat and watched this band by is.

It started to consume the blood.

It was being nourished by this

blood and. I know that a lot of that these

things we have these ideas as you know butterflies almost as

pristine, like vegetarian goes on the flowers and we have these

stories around that sort of thing.

But no, this butterfly stayed

there for 1015 minutes would leave, come back and was just

slurping up his blood and.

It's an image.

It's one of the most.

I get a lot of feedback from that

image because people are just like a butterfly drinks and to me it's

just such a beautiful.

Example of like the intricacy and

the connectedness of nature and the natural world and that if we

let these little stories go, you know these Disney fied versions of

things and just observe and witness.

The beauty of like this life leaving in this pool of blood and

the butterfly coming to be nourished by it.

To me it represents so much of the totality and wholeness that's

there for us to learn from umm.

Yeah, so that's my story about the

butterfly. Well, thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I think I thought of it because

this I was working on a little E.

Book people have been asking me a

lot for my poetry.

I where can I read your poetry?

Where can I, you know, I've got it as spoken word, but I want to go

into these poems.

And so one day I sat down and

started designing a little ebook on Canva.

Like, OK, I'm going to make a little ebook and I found this

image of this butterfly that I put on the yellow background, which I

think you can see, I think on that side.

Yeah, I can see.

And exactly. And so I and that

became the cover of that.

The book.

And then when I was thinking of the podcast, I just thought, what

a beautiful representation of a part of the transformational

process. And I had an insight recently that

our society is in many ways or I, myself included and just a lot of

the kind of spiritually oriented people are obsessed with

enlightenment, which is considered the butterfly, you know, like, Oh

yes, hatch out of your cocoon, transform into who you were always

meant to be.

And I had this realization

recently. Well, you're also meant to be an

egg. And a Caterpillar and a cocoon and

a butterfly who then lays eggs and passes on.

So the stage of the so-called enlightenment is also is no more

or less valuable or valid than each of the other stages of the

metamorphosis. And something about this idea of

also the move from the devourer.

To the life bringer.

So I saw a bunch of caterpillars on a tree recently, and they were

just demolishing that tree, like just tearing it or just eating the

whole thing.

And then I thought, yeah, and then

they'll go into their cocoons and they'll become butterflies and

they will pollinate and they will be growers of new life.

They will be seeders of new life.

And so something about your story

ties into that around butterflies as a representation of

enlightenment, of a certain stage of the journey that we're all on

and that even in that stage of enlightenment.

A lot of people would be like, oh, we're beyond the physical, we all

the things. Butterflies still get eaten by

bigger animals and they drink blood.

And like, I don't know, there's something beautiful, poetic in

that for me.

Love that. I really love that.

And I that that's a much more poetic way of saying like what I'm

always trying to share as well.

And that's in our enlightenment or

in this sort of evolution of trying to grow beyond.

What we started out.

We have to understand that we're

not, you know, you don't dabble in nature, but we are nature work,

we're intricately connected and we don't get to just choose the

Pretty Little parts of things.

I have a real problem with this

idea of like, I mean water, all the, you know, sitting in a

waterfall and is this beautiful and it's all a part of it, but

it's a part of it.

And I'm really wanting to be

humble enough to witness.

The totality of what we are part

of and what we're asked to be.

And in order to do that, i can't

just go with what's comfortable.

I can't just sit around the stuff

that makes me feel good or the beautiful butterfly, you know,

without. Understanding that it was a nubby

Caterpillar that was like destroying another part of life

first or. And so I think, I think that has

to be part of.

Our understanding and our pursuit

too, and in being open to all of it otherwise.

Otherwise, it just feels really superficial to me.

It's just like a glossing of what is actually there and what is

actually there is a whole lot more painful and a whole lot more wild

and dangerous than maybe we're comfortable with.

But isn't that what we're supposed to be doing if we're truly trying

to expand ourselves? Yeah beautifully, said I so

there's something I that I'd like to speak about and I please let me

know if it if it's not something you'd like to talk about but.

And I was, I've been sort of back and forth thing with this because.

Well, I'll just tell a bit of my story and then see where it goes

and whatever unfolds from that, but.

So just over six months ago, my beloved dog Susser ran away and

went missing and never came back.

And for me it was.

The biggest it is the biggest loss that I've consciously experienced

in my life.

I realized afterwards I was like,

she was never more than a few feet away from me for years.

Like she was just there with me.

She was so close to me that often

when we were on walks.

It happened so many times that I

never got used to it.

I'd say to my beloved Kylie,

where's Sassard? She's like, she's right next to

you. And she was so close I couldn't

see her. Like, that's how close she was.

And her going has I cracked open.

So much pain, so much loss that I.

It's like it's brutal and beautiful in ways that I could

never have. Imagined and I was saying to my

mom, expressing I was going to be chatting with you and talking

about the loss that you've been through recently.

You're beautiful daughter.

And I was saying to my mom, it's

like, almost don't want to talk about this because what is my loss

when you've lost a child? How could I even bring this up?

And my mom said.

The thing is, Nathan, that you

lost your mom when you were young.

Because when I was ten years old,

my mum disappeared for nine months.

She left us with our dad and just vanished out of my life.

And I have no memory of that time.

I don't know what that felt like.

I don't know what the thoughts were going through my head.

There was no container for me to be safe enough to go into the

feelings that I had at that time.

And what Sasa did in her leaving

my beautiful friend, my little dog, is that she brought me the

gift of that, knowing that I had not.

Being able to access and so.

I'm just kind of opening the door

and inviting if you wanted to share anything around this journey

of loss as you which you are so poetically and courageously

sharing in your writing.

And so I'm just, yeah, if there's

anything that you would like to share.

Well, I'm sorry about your beloved salsa.

First, I can see how much you loved her.

It's hard and I don't.

I don't think it's fair to compare

levels or depths of pain and diminish your own because it is so

she was your beloved dog.

That's heartbreaking umm.

I think what I'm learning is.

You know anything I used to think

like, and I've written about this, I know, but I used to think that I

had this deal with God and it went a little something like this.

You know, take anything you want, do anything you want.

And I haven't had a smooth ride of things in my life.

It's I've had.

I've had things.

But I always got through and I could always get through it and.

But that was off the table and I think the reason, the idea of

losing one of my children.

I have three beautiful daughters

is. I would never be able to survive

it. And so you might as well just take

me at the same time.

It's just not a possibility.

And, you know, I am.

I would hear other people's

stories or tragedies and think, oh, you know, there, but for the

grace of God go I and thank goodness.

Like, you know, i feel so horrible for those people and could have

such compassion for them, but they obviously are made of something

tougher than I am because that couldn't have happened to me.

This is asinine.

But we do these things.

We do these mental gymnastics to protect ourselves from the idea of

such a.

Impossible tragedy happening to us

umm. But the?

There's so much to say about that, but what i think along with what

we're talking about, the thing that I am so blessed and grateful

is that. My mentor Richard, who is one of

my best friends.

He was a lifelong cattleman.

He was my best friend, like a father figure to me, and he died a

few years ago.

And he's the one who taught me all

about death, and in his death taught me profoundly even more.

And not connected me in a way to all of life and a very what we're

talking about in the totality of life, not just the pieces I was

able to be comfortable with and so now.

I live.

Forever more.

With a broken heart, I will never.

Nothing heals those things.

There's nothing to heal.

I just have to surrender and live

to what comes.

And when.

The pain just like brings me to my knees, I allow that to come.

And I don't distract myself and I don't run away from it and I

don't. I absolutely want to experience

what is supposed to come, because I have great faith that there's.

Wisdom beyond my own.

And that's what I'm always trying

to connect with and tap into and what I found.

Is that the difference in my life? Now is the level of saturation.

You know, both the pain, but also both the beauty.

Because when I can allow all that pain and I can allow beauty, that

just is so magnified over the simplest thing.

You know, I was in the garlic patch the other day and after our

daughter had died.

Last summer.

There was a there's a type of dragonfly here that has five

hearts down. It's the body of its back, five

perfect little hearts.

And there was five people in our

family, and I had never seen it before.

And I am an admirer of dragonflies, but their wings are

literally iridescent gold.

And last summer they were

everywhere, these dragonflies.

And this summer I hadn't seen

them. And I was kind of where's things,

the dragonflies, and I was in the garlic patch and.

My husband started walking up to me and just then this dragonfly

came and landed right in front of me on the exact garlic, one of

these ones with the five hearts.

And I was.

I went right up to it, right like within inches, and it didn't go

anywhere. It was just like, it's beautiful.

Wings were just kind of blowing in the wind and I was.

Talking to this guy and asking him or it or whatever.

This giant fly was about my daughter and I was talking to my

daughter and my husband had come up at that time and he was there

too, and both of our faces were pressed up and that Dragonfly

stayed there for 15 minutes.

It did not go anywhere.

It just stayed there with us and.

It was so.

Profound to just be there in that saturated in that space with

something beyond what we can measure, something beyond what

we're capable of using our senses for, there was something.

Profound happening in that moment.

And I mean, my husband and I both

had tears in our eyes and we just felt this connection with our

daughter. And that's what I mean by like the

beauty and the saturation of just being able to.

Be present to that to surrender.

And if I am always guarding my

heart from the pain, or drinking a glass of wine to numb that

feeling, or, you know, keeping myself busy, then i there's no way

to shut that stuff off and still be able to be so.

Just dripping with love and gratitude, even though you're

carrying that pain at the same time.

There's no boundaries anymore in my life.

There's no.

There's no I'm in pain in this

hurts right now, but when this is done, maybe I'll feel it's all

together. Everything is all together, all

the time. I it's just it's just like this

collage all smushed up together and there's like just fury and

pain and like English and there's like.

Just such a feeling of being connected and joyous at the same

time and I think.

A lot of that also Nathan is

because. I my daughter's not dead.

She's dead.

I know that.

But her spirit? It's not I don't live in.

I love my memories of my daughter.

I love them.

I evoke them all the time.

But that's not where she is right

now. And where she is very real and our

relationship goes on.

And she's teaching me in really

profound ways. Like i can't imagine thinking

she's gone and just having to pull up memories or pictures because

she's evolving in such powerful ways and.

Teaching me these things that I'm just, I'm in awe and.

That is like I have to be here to tap into that.

I have to be here to be with her and.

So that's my.

That's where I am.

Thank you very much for sharing.

Ohhh man.

Yeah, I that what you just said about yeah it's a strange thing.

I think sometimes I get in that where i'm trying to like find

sussa somewhere or find what was and I look at a photo and I'm

like, Nah, she she's not there.

And one of the things that came of

her passing was living this passed away.

And so it's like this mantra for me now of like.

Embodying the love that she gifted me.

Was like it's still alive that experience is now something I can

actually be in.

Like that little piece of me that

was Sasa, that was outside, that came to remind me of something.

Is now in everything.

If I can just remember that and

just be with that and be and as you say, be willing to actually be

in it without shying away from the pain.

Yes, so.

Thank you, tara sure.

Wow, all the way deep.

So I actually.

I would really love to share a song with you that it feels

appropriate in this moment.

It's called music and.

I wanna just to actually honour your daughter and.

The I think the reason it came up now is there are multiple reasons.

One of them.

Is because the song is a reminder

that it's all music that is dance.

We are dancing.

One of the reasons it's called the universe is that it's the one

song, the one story.

And that this resonating frequency

that we are all a part of, we are all a critical part of.

And that the all the changes as when the body goes is the

vibrations shifting into something else, something other, something

mysterious. And when I wrote this song.

The week that I was writing this song.

Just in my everyday life, continuing as usual, someone wrote

to me on Twitter and said I'm a family friend of this family.

Their daughter is named Jess, she's 10 year, 10 years old and

she's had terminal cancer her entire life, basically since she

was three or four and she's now going to be passing.

And would you just do a shout out for her just to like let her know,

you know, we just want to provide her with as many beautiful moments

and experiences and as possible before she goes.

And I said, yeah, of course I'll you know, I'm actually writing a

song right now.

I'll just put it on the video.

I'll mention her in the video and just do that little piece and then

kind of carried on with my life and that weekend I rewrote the

last verse, not actually thinking really about Jess, but I felt the

last verse needed a shift and in hindsight.

I realized.

That diverse was kind of for her.

And I shared it with them.

I put the video up and carried on

and they sent me a message a week or two later.

And this friend said, Jess is so grateful to this song, thank you

so much. And she's asked if you would be OK

if we play it at her funeral and if we could print the last verse

and have it at her funeral.

And it just, it just blew my mind.

It's like the dragonfly landing.

It's like these moments of magic

where the universe just says, like, here's a gift, here's a

gift. And you don't even, I don't even

know. The depths of value.

And so I'd love to offer this song to all of us who are dancing this

song of life.

So yes beautiful.

Can you still hear me? Ok? Is that coming?

Through can, yeah.

Ok. All things resonate from the

really small to extra great, and you are such a melody the heavens.

Clean down just to sing it to me.

It's all new.

you losing.

Feel this all vibrate.

From the roots of a tree to the tip of the tongue of a snake.

Yes, we all create together in love what a song we can make.

It's all new google you community you.

I know your name.

Your notes are all into lazed.

I feel you can't say nothing out of place it's easy.

Wake me you.

Speak rest now, little one.

Already here, there's no more to be done.

In the morning we'll greet the sun and celebrate what a song we have

sung at Soul New.

you. So it is.

Well, that's beautiful, Nathan.

Just beautiful.

Thank you. Ohhhhh so much feeling, so much life.

So sure.

Yeah well.

I think for me.

We are living in this time now of.

At least what I'm witnessing.

I don't think we can go much

further as a society into separation and into illusion and

into the false belief systems like.

I don't think there's too much further that it's possible to go

and. I really honour.

What I see in you and your husband and the way that you share and the

way that you are.

Is that what eyewitness is that

you're honoring? The truth.

And I often wondered, what is the truth like it was?

Truth is subjective and like, yeah, up to a point there is.

There seem to be some foundational rules around it and so.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

What is it to you?

What do you? What comes up for you when you

think of the words? We are already free.

And how does that show up in your life?

Am I? I really like.

I mean, I think I first heard you

use that. Term we are already free.

Was it a couple years ago? maybe.

About a year and a half I think was so.

Yeah, it's been a bit.

But it instantly resonated with me

because it's almost like a recentering.

It's so easy to get caught up with the nonsense of what's going on.

And you know, I think especially right now, there's a lot of like

top down directives and controls and they're coming fast and

furious, and it's really easy to get sucked into that and start

feeling powerless. But it's sort of this idea of just

some sumantra, you know, we are all ready, free, that we don't

need. There are so many truths.

Like you spoke to, and I think we're losing this idea of

subjective truth, maybe subjective feelings or subjective opinions,

but there has to be a grounding in truth.

There has to be a or things will be lost and we can see as this is

dissipating away and we're allowing more for my truths.

We're getting in trouble here, so yeah, idea.

Both that there are for me.

I look to nature where I find our

creator. I say God, whatever anyone says.

Has a grounding in.

Absolute truth.

There are absolute truths.

And I think when we move away and

we have separation with the natural world of which we belong,

it's easy to lose this idea that there are absolute truths and that

we can just have, you know, run amok with opinion and everyone's

version of what should be true based on what they want to be

true. But I am.

You are, as you know, already free.

I am free.

There can always be things done to

me. There can always be restrictions

placed on me.

I live in the society, but there's

things in me that no one gets to touch and no one gets to control,

and those are the most precious things to me.

People can control my logistics and they can control my bank

account and they can control all these other things but.

Those things, if I'm able to delineate between what is mine and

my essential being, is untouchable.

And I have to remind myself, like this last couple years, especially

living in Canada, there's a lot of times where things could feel

overwhelming. And if I lose sight of that, I'm

agreeing to the version of the world that they are saying is

true. But I know it's not true because I

see you.

It's true.

I'm in what's true.

So it all, it all is together in

that way. You can't, you can't fool me

because I know.

Because there's a much bigger and

honest world that I belong to and what you're what they have for

sale. It's not something I'm interested

in, so I'm even if even if they can control those other things.

Those are the very least of who I am.

So yes, it's frustrating and it's, you know, and I get pissed off

like everybody else does, but there's.

But that's not the stuff that keeps me free, that I can get on a

plane and go somewhere when I want to.

I'm still free and I can't go anywhere.

So I think that does not come from them.

That comes from our creator and having an intimate relationship.

there so I actually use that made then often reminding myself it's

OK, it's OK oh, they're doing the, you know, it's OK because I'm here

and I can just be.

I can just sit on the earth and

remind myself of who I am or under a tree and remind myself where I

belong and who I am answering to which is myself.

Yes, I myself, but also something so much.

Bigger than myself and I think having humility as well, for me

that's really big is that i enter into that world with humility and

reverence, and I don't see much humility and reverence in sort of

the construct of what where they're trying to steer this ship.

It's like A different world that I don't think is honest.

And I think the fact that we can enter it, we have to enter into it

with like, our guards up and like.

Soldiers ready to take things on

and we have to, sort of.

You know, create this version of

ourselves that's acceptable in that other world, the whole thing

is like, you know, we're an avatar trying to operate there, and in

that world we're agreeing to the rules of the game but.

That's not required of us.

When things are honest and we're

really in, you know, we get to be authentic.

Everything is authentic and genuine, and that includes.

A lot of painful stuff.

But if it's just all pleasantries,

the chances are you're over.

You're not actually in it, you're

not actually a part of it, because that's not how the real world

works. The real world, the natural world,

whatever you want to call it.

But it's like.

Every everything is free in that world.

Everything participates.

Everything eats and will be eaten.

Everything lives, everything dies, and you're all a part of that.

And that bigness and feeling small within that bigness to me brings

me a great sense of peace.

So a lot of peace in that for me.

Yeah, beautiful. I love the way you've spoken about that this

because in some ways I think the words, the word free has come to

represent without responsibility.

And i it doesn't.

Nothing you've said makes me think of that.

It's really like it's all free.

And the freedom is to live aligned

with the rules of nature, the laws of nature, the foundational way

that it all interacts, that life eats life and begets life.

And that that's the game.

There's no other way.

So the only thing that isn't free is the denial of that.

I love. I love that you brought responsibility into it, because

that's part of it too, is it? That's huge like.

There is nothing.

There's still.

There's rules in nature.

There's rules, you know, and

there's structures and there's truths and.

We it goes back.

I know I I've said this a couple

of times, but just this idea of being able to pluck, you know, the

parts that we like is not is not.

The art is not honest.

It's not honest and for.

You know as an example, so we

years ago when we had our first farm we used to sell grass fed

beef and organic pork and we would bring the animals to the abattoir

and. I just couldn't do it.

That mentor that I alluded to before, Richard, he had always

harvested all of his own animals and he really instilled that in

me. And so we stopped selling me

because in Canada you can't sell it unless you bring it to an

abattoir. So we stopped.

We moved to a different farm, smaller farm, and because it was

just really important to me to be able to do that.

And a huge amount of the feedback I get is how could you do that?

Like, how could you kill an animal who was born that you've had a

relationship for? Often three or four years?

If it's a cow that we're talking about, sometimes even longer.

How can you? How could you possibly do that?

And I get where that comes from because we are so separated from

death or just it's like we're it's hidden from us to make us more

comfortable, just like so much is hidden from us to make us

comfortable. Or it brings up these negative

feelings and we interpret these like hard feelings as bad or wrong

and so we want to move away from them all the time and.

I think that's why we are.

A little infantile as a society

and our understanding of the bigness of the world and I'm.

It can be a bit of a.

I like to be blunt a lot.

And i what I say to people often is, you know what what?

What of it? Yeah, your feelings.

You don't want to do that.

It's hard.

I am not a hard person.

Like, I don't have some skill or

talent that keeps my heart shut down when I'm looking through the

barrel of a gun at an animal.

I don't have that.

Like I talked about earlier, it's a very somber.

Bomber Act for us? For me it feels like I'm hardening

my heart more to load an animal in a trailer, drive it to the

abattoir and give it to the guy and the killing chute.

To do this 1020 thirty, 4050 times a day.

Just, you know, with nothing, with not knowing this animal.

So I'm gonna eat this animal.

It's my responsibility to give it

the best and best and most instant death that I can and to properly

thank this animal as it's leaving.

It's not because I love that job.

We don't like that job at all, but we want to be able to do that, and

that is responsibility like that is taking on that.

Responsibility, because it's what's right.

Not because it's what's easy.

So that's a really.

And that's a there's a lot like that.

And I mean, it's not just in farming, but it's the rightness of

things. I think we need to start paying

more attention to what's right than like our emotions as using

them as guideposts to do things or not do things.

Oh, I could do that or I could never do that.

But what's right? And can we ask ourselves to move

closer into that rightness? And for me, I look at nature for

that, you know, I look at.

I have great faith.

And the truth of what is displayed to us if we're humble enough to

observe it and participate in that.

And so I don't really need to look beyond that.

I don't need to look at our ideas of.

What's humane or logistically correct or anything like that?

I just have to.

Pony up the guts to do things in a

way that I think is right.

Yeah thank you actually, I, as you

said, what's right, not what's easy.

I suddenly was like, oh, I know that.

And I realized, Oh no, I know that from you.

That's one of the mantras I use as someone.

I've spent a lot of my life doing what is easy because of my own

traumas and my own reasons and the stuff I'm working through.

But at the end of the day, it doesn't work.

It's a.

It's a short term solution that

causes more of the problem it's trying to avoid.

Does that make sense, like choosing the easy?

Yeah, I was like, well, that sounded strange coming out.

And so thank you for saying that.

Thank you for bringing that into

the space. I just wanna ask Nanette, I see

she's got loadshedding, which is something we have here in South

Africa. So if you have a question, feel

free to type it in the comments or if you want to come on and ask,

you're welcome. I can, I'll give you should have

permission to let me ask to unmute.

There you go.

Hi, thank you so much guys.

This is really great.

I just want to comment, Tara, your

writing. Is incredible and something that

stands out for me just on the topic of death is how you said.

She's no longer contained and I cannot think of any better way to

put death and from a long journey of fighting death myself.

Not physically really at the moment, but just mentally.

I've really shifted my view of death and my dad also died last

year, June, and it was the first death in our family and I couldn't

believe how well I handled it was just bizarre.

I was kind of the rock when nobody would have expected that anyway.

That's just the one comment on the side of what you do, which I just

admire so much and.

I I've been having this question

and I think Nathan, you and Carly probably would have some feedback

on it too.

I've never been a vegetarian or

vegan. I've always eaten animals and had

dairy in my diet.

To some extent different extents

throughout and, but I'm more and more struggling with.

Ok. So the meat side of it's not so difficult where I am in terms

of sourcing as ethical as possible but.

Is it possible, knowing the dairy industry, how it is?

I know that one if one has a small holding and one is raising a

single cow. I don't know how much a cow can

how much dairy one cow can give, how many families, you know,

surrounding families. And still feed the calf.

So how does that work in terms of what one would?

Say it's possible for a better way forward considering the masses,

how many people there on the planet and stuff.

Is there anyway we can go ahead with that?

Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Thanks, Nanette. Thank you so much.

Nanette, I'm Nathan.

Do you want me to sort of try and

answer the dairy? Thank you for saying that,

Nanette. About that, she's no longer

contained, really. Sometimes I write things and I

even forget writing them because it just comes from this phase.

So I'm so glad that was something you shared back with me and I'm

sorry about your Papa and that you were able to be there with your

family is so.

Yeah, that's profoundly beautiful.

And thank you so much for your kind words.

About dairy, it's interesting you asked me that question because I

was just having this conversation with a friend yesterday.

She was asking me how much milk we get from our cow who we allow the

calf to stay with, and it turned into a bigger conversation around

what is possible commercially.

So I'll just quickly tell you what

I told her.

I guess so.

And I'm just going to talk about an organic sort of medium sized

farm. Often they will.

They don't.

The calf doesn't stay with the

moms. So that right there is something

we need to be better at, something we need to do better.

We are able to allow the calf to stay with the mom, but it means we

lose a lot of milk.

But it's not ours to lose.

Like it's the caps.

And the caps is sharing with us.

And I think that there is such a monumental difference in that

approach. But the question is, will people

pay for that? You know, are people going to do

people value this enough that they're willing to pay for it?

And I think like a lot of things in farming, this comes down to.

The localization again of our food supply, so I'm not sure where

you're at if you have access to like smaller local dairies.

I'm in Cape Town in the southern Deep South, and maybe, Nathan, you

might have some ideas for me because I'm getting ethical meat,

but I'm not.

I don't know any dairies or

cheddar or cheese places or anything like that.

Yeah, I mean from my side, this is something I would like to consider

more of.

We are doing our, I mean we had a

dairy cow on our last farm and we actually sold her to the

neighbour, which was a great idea because she got much, she had a

great life there.

But then it was just one cow and

there's the complexity of that like that didn't feel totally

right, although she did then have a cough which they left with her.

But from now that we've moved to another part of the country, we're

getting milk from a local beautiful free range cattle,

etcetera. But they do separate the babies,

the children aren't, and it's something we're wrestling with

right now. It doesn't feel right, and this

conversation is inspiring me to look further into that and

actually see what else I could find around that.

So I don't know if Tara has anything else around that.

I would just say so where we live in Canada get getting access to

raw milk or any milk outside of the system is highly illegal.

So it takes a lot of work and it's really on the down low and it's a

whole, it's a it's really a mess.

Our system there are sort of

almost levels I think where you can find some dairies will keep

the caves, but they'll put them separately, but they're still at

least getting their mother's milk.

They're getting actually raw milk

most places it's formula which just it's just it's horrible.

And so that you know and then of course a lot of these calves end

up going into the veal industry because there's just a surplus of

calves. So I think that there's sort of a,

what is kind of available here even though it's still illegal, is

a lot more access to raw sheep and goat milk and in those situations

it's a lot less intensive and.

I don't know if you've tried.

Like sheep milk is very mild and quite lovely and sheep and goat

cheese is really good too.

Another thing in the past before

we had a farm and I like our kids were small that we did, is we

actually paid a farmer for a share in a cow.

So we were actually.

Paying for the care of that cow.

And we offered to pay more for the calf to stay with, pay more for

the milk for the calf to stay with the mother.

Understanding that for the farmer that's like, you know, going to

take more than 50 %, let's say of the milk or maybe even depending

on what the growth rate of the calf and where the cow is in her

lactation. So that's a possibility too.

But I think like talking about like the big global system is

hopeless. I really think we need to shrink

into like localization and then finding like, what the farmer,

what would you need for this to be possible?

And maybe there's some other people that feel the way that you

do and you'd all be willing to pay, you know, a little bit more

per liter or something for that cap to stay there as well.

I think that's the way to do things.

I think that's where I answer is because I don't think it's ever

going to come from.

With the big boys are doing.

Thank you so much.

Nanette, thank you for your

question. Someone asked on Instagram, how do

we know one another when I put out a question and.

Well, i don't know.

I think, honestly, I think my mom

might have shared your page with me quite some time ago and.

I think just my enthusiasm.

I was like commenting and

messaging and then you obviously at some point visited my page and

we just felt like an easy Instagram friendship.

I mean, I was this.

The fact that this is the first

ever actual video conversation feels weird to me because you feel

like such a good friend.

It's a strange thing.

It's a strange thing.

Feel the same way.

I don't know.

Beautiful thing.

Something pulled me towards you.

Yeah, it's like so easy.

Yeah i think for me, one of the things that.

I really appreciate that I'm learning at least that I'm feeling

inspired by is how action oriented you and your family are like how

much you're doing with the earth in nature.

Like so for me I grew up in a little village on the coastal

area, barefoot and naked and then I went into the cities.

I went and lived in London and Bristol and you know, various

parts of the UK and I always my songs and my poems have been about

nature and connection being barefoot and in community but I've

never really lived that way.

So now stepping onto this.

And like I'm still on my computer all the time.

I'm still, my business is generally online and I'm serving

people with coaching, which I love.

And I'm also realizing that I feel life is asking more of me than

just to talk and sing about how beautiful it is to be in community

and working with land.

Like it's actually OK.

So when are you gonna work with glad like so witnessing you guys

who to me seem like you've mastered something that is

critical to life.

Actually it's not an optional

thing. For me, so I that's one of the

things I really appreciate about you.

And then it helps me to stay.

Also realizing that my aunt,

there's a beautiful painting by a guy named Mark Hansen where

there's a painter pushing a brush across the sky, like painting

across the sky.

And where his brush has been it's

flowers and community and people and animals and where his brush

hasn't been its nuclear bombs and war and cities and it's that thing

of for me to remember to try balance them that the art is what?

Helps me to imagine and to imagineer a different way of

being. And then the action is how I

embody that. And so thank you for embodying

that. Oh, I love that.

I love the way you just put that too.

I find like, I always have to have something creative, something that

like I'm doing with my hands, something that I'm making or being

a part of.

I mean I i'm not talented at all

like you are with like singing.

And i wish I was a musician.

It's just such a beautiful, evocative way of expressing things

but. That's really important to me too,

is, you know, I work with wool a lot and I do like sort of textile

stuff. And my writing is sort of, you

know, there's this quote like how do I know what I think until I see

what I say? And that really speaks to me, is

that I need to see like i just sort of, you know, before I write,

I light a candle and I always say a prayer and just ask that

whatever. Is support supposed to come or

move through me? Does you know these concepts and

so? I think we need.

I mean, that's the beauty.

That's beauty in life is the

creation that we're here to participate in.

And so, yeah, I'm glad you're out there, Nathan, too.

You know, you said at the beginning that you're that you're

putting such beauty into the world is so needed and just.

I just really appreciate.

You did it.

Thanks, friend.

It's so nice.

I love mutual appreciation.

It's A wonderful feeling.

And you're writing Terra, you're writing is just sublime.

I love the way you put words.

Oh man, it's like, anyway, but so

Suzanne has a question and she's asked in the comment.

She said, I have a question on seafood.

I live in Norway and our food tradition has a lot of fish and

seafood in it.

But apparently this is all toxic

now. Do you have any knowledge on this

terror? Also, I'm such a fan girl of you.

You've taught me so much and put me in a direction of literature

and knowledge that is bringing me back home to myself.

And the world's a huge thank you for everything you do no

beautiful. Thank you. Thank you.

Sorry, I don't know what's happening in Norway.

I think that microplastics issue is probably the whole globe right

now. So there's that issue.

I might be wrong, but I think isn't Norway that has a lot of

farmed fish right now? I'm not sure.

I mean if that's if that's part of the equation.

Farming fish farms are diabolical and I would, I would not eat fish

from a fish farm that I think that's my first we actually

stopped consuming fish from the Pacific, sewing Canada.

Our West Coast is the Pacific and then our East Coast is Atlantic

colder waters. And there's a lot of back and

forth stuff about what's going on in the Pacific after the Japanese

nuclear accident. And a lot of mainstream news will

tell you that it all's good and kosher.

But there's people that are, there's actually organizations

that are monitoring the waters, and they are.

Quite a bit of radioactivity in it, so we seaweeds as well.

And I stopped getting them from the Pacific Coast too, so right

now. We do eat some seafood.

It's always wild and it's always from the Atlantic, but we just

it's a treat for us more than anything.

But so it's not a big part of, I mean we're landlocked where we

are. So if we're having it, we're

bringing it from the maritime provinces, but I understand where

she is. That's probably a lot bigger part

of their culture so I guess those would be the things that I would

be looking for.

Before consuming it.

Yeah, it's a chat.

It's such a challenging one on

that level, like we were talking about, of not getting hooked into

the story of the society as it is, and at the same time, there's

microplastics and there are meltdowns of nuclear plants.

It's like navigating that.

So for me, I think one of the

things I do, the way I think about the way I respond to it is what

can I do and how if I am needing to eat fish or am.

I mean, we live on the ocean, I eat oysters, like we've got a

little tradition. Every full moon we go and gather.

Christmas and that's like I saw you and your oyster post where you

like. Are we gonna get to smoke these or

are we gonna eat these? I love that yeah but So what I do

then is like, OK, what can I breathe?

Fresh air? Can I breathe?

Do good breath work? Can I help my body's

detoxification channels? Can I where I can do that?

And at least that's what helps me.

But it is a chat.

It's a challenge.

It's horrific.

What's what the state of our world currently is in thanks to thanks

to our Society of this disconnection we've been talking

about. So yeah absolutely.

Hey, I totally agree.

I didn't think it's kind of

bananas that we have to go to the extent that we do because I should

be able to just like, you know, go pick something up and have like a

reasonable level that this basket of strawberries is actually just a

basket of strawberries and not grown in, like, human sewage

sludge and coated in glyphosate and like, you know, and grown

under black plastic and full of estrogenic plaque.

But that's what they've done to this thing.

And I that brings me back to the localization and the relationship

around food and being able to look someone in the eye and be like,

what have you done here? What have you grown here?

And, you know, what are your practices?

And to be able to build, not just interrogate someone, but actually

build relationships around food, because that has resonance, too.

You know, when I'm like sitting down to something and I know the

person, I grew it and I know what their land looks like, and I've

had my feet.

I'm not soil.

I know it's not gonna be possible for everything and everyone.

I understand that.

But even just in little bits, even

just in increments, and being able to do that resonance and that

knowledge and that connection, we eat that, too.

We absorb that too.

And I think those things, you

know, if I'm like eating something and I'm like, Oh my God, this is

poison and this is, you know, i've already done it to myself.

I don't even have to put the food in my mouth.

It's all I've already given my body.

The message that, like we're poisoning you right now so.

I agree with you totally.

I think we have to do what we can

do to the extent of our possibilities.

And then we have to also find, you know, bless the food that we're

eating. To have to take that into our body

is such an intimate act.

And I think we owe it to our

bodies to buy, to find the most beautiful, nourishing food we can.

And then a certain point, you have to let some of the, some of that

control go and just bless the food and thank the food for coming in

and nourishing us and connecting US and allowing us to go on and do

the work that we're supposed to do.

Beautifully said. Thank you.

Martine Garrett from Instagram was

saying if Tara could give her new, if she could give her new pharma

self one hot tip.

What would it be so like you if

you were to go back in time and meet yourself, the new farmer you

ohhhhh? Ohhhhh one, one,

Just one. To build pleasure and to every

single day to one of the things that new farmers do is they dive

in and there's so much to learn.

We have a we have a break in our

chain of knowledge and skills and traditions.

You know from the baby boomer industrialization.

And now we have a lot of people trying to get back to that and

it's not normal that we're trying to excavate and learn and build

these skills and.

Figure out the tools and the

practices without having any mentorship around us.

You know, maybe YouTube videos.

That's not normal and it takes a

lot. And there's this like when you

finally get to this piece of land that you've been wanting for so

long, it's really, there's so much to do that it's just, I think,

normal that people just pour everything they have and just go

guns ablazing and we definitely.

Said that there was a, I still

remember butchering a cow when there was sleet, it was minus 16

degrees outside and we were on top of a hill with the tractor on with

the tires aimed at us.

Because it was eleven thirty at

night and we were out there till three in the morning and our

fingers were numb.

And because we just literally

mourning until, you know, we go into eat and then go back out.

And it was just like, Bang Bang, Bang Bang, bang.

And we just wore ourselves down to little nubs and it affected our

relationship. My husband and I, you know, I

didn't like how I was always so torn to be doing all these tasks

and my kids were like you know, we involved them and things, but what

was just theirs outside of the farm became less and less because

we would involved in what we were doing.

But there's think life outside of a farm and so we actually.

Got quite low and exhausted and our finances were just bleeding

and. You know, there was just a literal

breaking point where we were like this can't go on in this way.

And so you know when we.

Before we actually move to the

farm we're living on now, which is slowed down farmstead.

We had made that conscious decision to start building

pleasure and pace into our days, and we accomplished a lot.

We work hard and but there is a slowness.

There's no it's not frenetic.

When I do chores, I stopped to

look at the cobweb, you know, with the sun glinting down on the

cobweb, and I'll just stop tomorrow.

Got it.

And we do, you know, it's plus 34

here and we do cold plunges and we go sit in the screen and porch and

we read and we talk and we have.

So we build pleasure very

consciously build pleasure into our days.

And that's what I would say I would because you're in it for the

long haul.

You're not in it to prove anything

to anybody.

You're not in it to like be a

hero. You just, I mean, you want to be a

part of the bigger picture and if you're so pushing yourself.

You can be in the most beautiful, perfect place on Earth and not

even notice it, and not even really be observing and learning

what you're supposed to be doing.

So that would be my hot thank you

and thank you for that question.

And so I see my message.

You wanna come on and ask a question?

Let me, you can unmute yourself now.

Can you hear me? Yeah nice.

I mean, I don't know if it's a question or it's, but this is

really amazing to be surrounded or to be at least listening to what

I'm listening. It's not something you hear in a

conversation something. But yeah i grew up in, I grew up

in Cameroon, which is like in West Africa and then I came here to the

US and in college and there's just so much change in.

It's not like the nutrition back in Cameron was at the top but.

When I came here, it was easy to see how things were not working,

in terms of nourishment and even as a college student on campus.

You know it didn't work well.

So instead making those changes

and, like, listening and reading, it became interesting how much

more there was to just, you know, going down the road to buy beef or

something like that.

Was so much different, but.

The question which I want to ask is like how?

Like, what's the way to bring that transformation into my family and

so my brothers and sisters because.

As much as I would speak and share that information, sometimes it

feels like I'm just, you know, banging myself on the wall and

going back again and doing the same thing.

And, you know, because it's like, this is really beautiful in the

sense that, oh wow, this.

There's a lot we can gain from

this. But it's like.

I don't know, like, what's a way to bring it more nicely to them,

to, like, share these truths with them.

It's because at some point it feels like.

I'm lonely because, you know, it's all on me and it's me who is only

feeling this effect of, oh wow, I feel different.

I feel way different from who I was or whatever.

But then it feels lonely when you go amongst them and it's like.

Ok, this is a very different environment.

Like it feels like a new environment that I have to

maneuver myself within so.

It's interesting that so I'm just,

I'm just trying to ask for any idea of what you think about that,

terry, you, i mean, I i'm sure we both have things to say about

that, but like, I'll just quickly and then let Tara take this one,

but I'm for myself what I'm hearing.

Is a journey of transformation and I realize that what happens at

what I see in life and because I'm also coaching people, I see how.

That life comes to have an expectation, not life, but the

relationship dynamics. And so when an individual like

yourself is actually going through a process of transformation and of

actually empowerment, of finding out, wow, I can actually live a

different way. That those old relationship

dynamics often want things to stay the same because change is scary

in certain contexts for certain people.

So I don't.

I think Tara might have some more

insights for you here, but for myself, just to acknowledge, first

of all, that transformation can be one of the defining features of

transformation often is a feeling of isolation, of being alone and

so then taking that and noticing that and finding ways to resource

yourself. With those who are your tribe, not

just your family and blood, etc, which is important, but finding

other relationships that can also feed that part of you so that you

can have the resilience you need to live your truth.

Through whatever you need to go through with your family and

whoever's gonna judge you or not when, whatever the story is.

But just really to focus on what do you need to feel supported and

held and where can you find that and focusing your energy on that

as a way to support you as you navigate these changing

relationships. So that's a thought that I have

and I'm sure Terra has more there.

That's excellent. That's so true

and i think you stated that question just where you're at.

So well, that's I and I.

It resonates with me and I'm sure

it resonates with everyone that's sort of gone through this

absolutely like. And I would say like, I so I used

to be a nutritionist and I actually could not convince anyone

of what they should eat, even though they were paying me and

sitting across from me, if they did not want to do what I was

offering, it wasn't going to happen.

And so, and I've learned over the years, decades now that family can

be the most stubborn of all people I have.

People that are strangers that ask me questions and they're like, how

do I do this? What do I eat?

And my own family is like, Tara, you know, like they.

So I think unfortunately, you can never convince anyone of anything.

All we can do is live our truth and lead by example.

You know, you are like, you're expressing this transformation

that you're going through and you feel good and when you're going

back around. These keep your family and your

friends and they're not sort of in that space.

It feels like almost a friction because you're evolving beyond who

you were and they're still relating to you as who you were,

not what they're saying in front of them.

And that's probably resistance because they're not in that place

yet to be able to do that for themselves.

And so there's we kind of have to just wish them the best and

continue on with where we're at.

And you know, it will probably be

in time. You know, a lot of people have to

get really low before they're willing to make a change and

things and you're there and you've like planted seeds, whether you've

said something or not, just by being and being well and feeling

vibrant and vital and you know, leaving them with that.

And maybe there will come a time in their lives where they suddenly

want to hear what you have to say and they come to you, but they

have to want.

That things can be frustrating, I

know, but they have to.

And so I don't even say anything

to people anymore unless they ask me specifically.

But on the other hand to what you said about feeling lonely, that

also pushed me and maybe for you to find my tribe of people that

could relate to me and I do have those things in common.

I think that's really important too.

Like, are you still in the US right now?

Yeah, i am seeing the US.

I just graduated.

But then i will still be staying on campus and since I got like a

remote job, I am, yeah, I am seen the US and The thing is doing.

The thing is with the loneliness is more of like if I'm with my

family, it, it's not as the same, you know, as that enjoyment that

he used to be.

It's more of like, OK, you know,

it's not more.

I don't know, I'm looking for a

way to explain it, but yeah.

But yeah that's what it feels

like. But yeah I'm seeing the US I'm

still in the US yeah because there are like groups I don't know if

that's something that you're motivated to try or whatever but

the like around you know different.

I found like for where we are because we're sort of isolated and

I have farmer friends and but I have like this bigger group of

people that some of them I met through food like through the

Weston a price foundation and so and then I went to meet ups there

and. I don't know.

It's nice to have that ease and alignment with people that you

know, yes, you always want to be challenged and stuff, but also

just to have like your people like just to have that easiness and

stuff and have, you know, a potluck maybe or something that

you can go to.

I think that's important too.

Whether that's, but i understand what you're saying about and I

don't know unless Nathan can like get us both out of that because

I'm in that situation still.

Like, yeah.

No, I mean, I really thank you.

How do you say your name, Massa?

Might yeah, correct myself OK, cool, cool yeah we'll just thank

you so much.

I really reflect what Terra's been

saying, that I think you have vocalized and expressed something

that anyone who goes through this kind of a journey will really

resonate with. Like that feeling of changing.

And now how do I relate to my family, to the ones I who know me

the best but actually don't know me anymore?

And I don't know them in some ways, and I want to bring them

this exciting stuff, and I don't.

It's it is a hard journey.

And for me the.

I'm fortunate in terms of my

family, although there are somewhere we don't align.

And I realize like one of the things that helped me and it's a

little thing, but it's to realize that my love for them is my love

for them. And then that's the foundational

piece and that any way that I'm choosing to be, it's a planet of

choice. I don't get to choose for anyone

else. And so the practice for me is can

I accept things as they are completely 100 % without

compromising my needs and my truth?

So that might look like.

Making sure that I have the food

available that I need to eat or that I want to eat or just making

those extra steps.

But then when someone's eating

some food that just says, like, wow, you look really unhealthy and

that doesn't look good for you, it's like, i love them within that

state that they're in, and we just honor the journey where they are.

And that is a practice.

I I'm not saying that, oh,

suddenly it's like, oh, I get it, and it's all going to be easy, but

to practice this acceptance of the things that I actually can't

change. So it's that beautiful.

Like the wisdom to know the difference between the things that

I can actually change and the things that I can't and focusing

on what I can change.

So I hope that helps, Brother.

It's a journey.

Yeah, I appreciate you, guys.

I appreciate.

It and thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

I think, well, there's actually one more question here and then

we'll close up for the day.

And this is from our beloved

Kylie. And it's a question I would also

like to just know.

And on a very technological level

is how do you manage tech like because Instagram, you share a lot

on Instagram and it's amazing.

And you do so much in your life,

like how do you bring those two things together in a way that's

balanced? Do you think I should a lot on

Instagram? Well, I mean your story, and maybe

the stories I si stories seem like so much effort to me that I would

like, easier, though maybe that's it.

Yeah i don't umm yeah I'm i have.

I'm very careful with that and I

think there's a few things that by how we live also limits my ability

to get on a screen.

So we were setting this up and we

were talking about doing a live.

So where I live I get one bar of

service on my cell phone, one bar.

So if I want to upload video, I'm,

it's, I'm actually, if there's ever video, someone knows I've

been to town to do it and we don't use wifi I'm very.

Our house, I'm very conscientious about EMF's in the house.

So we are whole house is mediated for EMF, so there's no wifi.

So I'm tethered right now to a wall, so the only time I can get

on a screen is to be tethered to a wall.

So even when i write with pen and paper and then I put it onto my

computer after I could bring it over there, I guess.

But anyway, so that those are actually physical limitations to

how much tech I can get and.

You know, I have to come upstairs

and to this little corner where I am in order to get on a computer

during the day.

If it's a warm day, there's zero

service on my cell phone, so we use a landline.

And my phone is always on airplane.

No one phones me on my cell phone because I'm not answering.

If you want to phone me, it's on my landline.

So all those things keep a distance between me and the tech.

But as far as the other stuff, so Instagram is the only social media

I've ever been on.

And for me, just.

You know, putting my phone on airplane in my back pocket and

going about chores or doing something and all this is cuter.

Oh, I should say something about that.

I just take pictures and then I bulk put them up.

When I have service, I'll bulk put them up and then my phones off

again. And same thing like if I'm going

to put a post up and write something, I'm not writing it on

my phone, I'm thinking about it out away from my phone.

And then I put everything up and I just put it up at once and then

I'll go and check comments maybe later on in the day or something.

And then as far as like I don't, I don't know that I would call the

sub stack part.

Tech is more the writing part, but

it does involve like uploading pictures or audio and stuff like

that. And I try to do that as part of,

like, my writing block for the day.

So I'll give you a hot tip.

There's this book called like.

Deep work.

Have you heard of it?

I have heard of it.

I haven't read it though.

You should read it.

So we I use a bullet journal keeps

me organized.

I have to have it or I just I need

to see things on paper and then this deep work is just there.

It provides this framework and structure of how to take chunks

out of your day and like organize things so you know from 11 till

one is writing and so regardless of what I get done in that time

period like around the farm I could.

Done all day doing tasks and still feel like a failure at the end of

the day because there's still a million more to do.

But when I have written things down like that in an agenda and

have things structured my I was supposed to spend 2 hours on this

one task chopping wood, right? And even though there's like a

million logs left to do, I have now succeeded.

And I feel good about it because I said I was going to do this and

I've done this and it's a promise kept to myself.

And that's like also very much a confidence and trust.

Building thing in myself.

Like when I say I'm gonna do this

thing, I do this thing.

So that's just the way my mind

works. I have the things on paper and I

get that structure.

Thank you yeah that I love what

you're saying it really.

I'm so glad that we asked that

question because that's actually a beautiful insight into structuring

and I love that difference in perspective.

Instead of I have to finish this wood pile, it's like, no, I

chopped wood for two hours.

That was the task I did the, task,

i love that.

I think that really shifts.

Around time blocking cause I often think like I need to finish a song

in two hours.

It's like no you need to write a

song for two hours or an hour and then that's it.

Wherever you get to you did the thing.

I think from that that's a given me a shift in perspective so thank

you for that.

Me too really appreciate yeah

lovely. Ok well that is the end of our

time today and I just I mean you know you know I know the vibe.

It's amazing.

I just deeply appreciate this time

together. It has been.

Yeah, like meeting an old friend again and.

Yeah I don't know how my it's I'm such i would so much and yet in

moments like this I don't have enough that can really express to

just say thank you.

Thank you for your time thank you

for your life.

Thank you for the offering of your

life and the offering of the way you live it and the offering to

share it which adds a whole bunch of extra effort into your world

and it has brought me so much value and I see it bringing so

many people so much value and.

Thank you for the blessing of you.

Basically, I really appreciate you.

Well, thank you, Nathan.

I really appreciate you.

And i love that I can have such love for you.

And I've never physically met you, but i do.

I have such love for you.