Full Transcript:

Emily Race  0:12  

Welcome to the Founding Mothers Podcast. I'm your host, Emily Race. On today's episode, we'll be speaking with Lauren Hage (she/her), the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, an educational nonprofit that encourages the study and practice of "Earth Intimacy", "Co-Liberation", "Embodiment", and "Prayerful Action" as key approaches for addressing the social and ecological crises of our times.

Lauren Hage  0:41  

You know, our own work individually, relationally, and collectively around addressing the traumas that we have each experienced, again, personally and collectively, and the somatic healing, really, that is needed to help us be as resourced and resilient as possible.

Emily Race  1:06  

Lauren comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish (Odessa),  Sicilian, and Scottish ancestry. As an educator, consultant, ecological designer, and creative, Lauren is dedicated to supporting people to pursue their passions and shape their actions from a foundation rooted in interrelationship. She is also deeply committed to honoring the cycles of menstruation as a prayer for healing. 

Attention to magic and mystery is at the heart of her praxis. Lauren has been working with youth, teens and adults for 20 years. She holds a degree in Earth Sciences and Geography, with a focus on the human-nature relationship and holds certifications in Ecological Agriculture, Regenerative Design & Nature Awareness, Advanced Permaculture Design, Embodied Social Justice, & Integrated Trauma Therapy. She is also a part of Beyond Boundaries and the Fierce Allies practice community. Her work and play are an expression of her prayer for eco-social co-liberation. 

Welcome Lauren Hage to the Founding Mothers Podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. 

Lauren Hage  2:15  

Thank you for having me. 

Emily Race  2:17  

Lauren is one of the Co-Founders of Weaving Earth. I'd love to just start by hearing from you, Lauren, what is Weaving Earth and and the different components, the people that make that up?

Lauren Hage  2:29  

We like to say Weaving Earth is a social profit. Technically, it's a nonprofit educational organization, but we like to think of ourselves as social profit. We run nature-based education programs for youth, teens and adults at the confluence of social, ecological and personal systems change.

What that looks like is we have various programs and consulting that we do with different organizations on our four curricular pillars, which is Earth Intimacy, Co-Liberation, Embodiment, and Prayerful Action. We weave those four things and the bundle of content that falls underneath each of those pillars together in support of really looking at how do we educate for these times? We ask ourselves that question a lot. And part of what we like about it's a relational question, it's emergent, and it's doing its best to meet the moment that we are in. So that's a little bit about Weaving Earth.

Emily Race  3:50  

One of the reasons why I personally was drawn to Weaving Earth was this idea of rethinking what education needs to be and when you talk about the confluence of ecological, social and personal systems change, could we actually break that down for a minute, so listeners can digest each piece individually? I know they must intersect. But how would you break them down individually?

Lauren Hage  4:17  

Yes, well, I might start with the intersection. So thanks for saying that. There's so many entry points into the work that we do. But where I'm going to start right now is that one of the wounds that we are addressing is separation and at one level that separation of humans from Earth, or humans from being a part of nature, and so we really are looking at how do we remember, truly remember, humans as a part of nature, as a part of the natural system, and as a part of the ecology and as ecological beings. It's one thing to say that and then it's another to actually embody that and have actions align with that embodied sense. So that is really the prayer at the center of what we're up to.

In addition, ecological, we're looking at what are the ways in which we are, obviously, climate change, climate chaos— so many places have been degraded, soil, water forest, all the fires that are happening, there's so much out there that we could speak to in this topic— but we're really looking at how do we, as humans, remember ourselves as beneficial parts of the ecosystem and what do we need to do to help heal the soil, tend to the waters, center water, attend to the forests, in support of fire mitigation, these huge catastrophic fire mitigations, I should say. So, the ecological systems changes, it's both a replacing ourselves back into the ecology, and then what do we do to have the systems model that? And what are the day to day actions that we want to take to support ecological well being?

And then, when it gets to social, it's quite hard to do that without a) working together, and b) also addressing the various systems of dominance that have gotten us into this mess that we're in right now. And so one of them I already spoke to, which is the idea that humans are dominant over the earth, but also, the various systems of dominance and oppression— cis-hetero patriarchy, white supremacy, racialized capitalism, there's so many —that have created systems and structures based on dominance, and what we're looking at in our educational system is how do we critically engage those systems of dominance and then also recollect what we say a deeper human inheritance of belonging, of dignity of respect. And so that piece addresses the social and the personal systems change, and ecological really, because it's also tied.

And then in addition, there's a piece in there around how do we remember to think like ecological beings, act like ecological beings, in our social systems and think like a circle, work together? I mean, so many projects, so many things oftentimes break down at the relational, between human to human relational level, and so what skills, what resourcing would be supportive to support that? And so much of that is then tied to, our own work individually relationally, and collectively around addressing the traumas that we have each experienced again, personally, and collectively, and the somatic healing, really, that is needed to help us be as resourced and resilient as possible.

And so, all of that is in there. And it's a mouthful, really to respond to your question. It's also a big task. We are not here to say that we have all of that figured out or that we are the only people thinking about that, or looking at that. There are many out there and we feel very grateful to be part of such a beautiful network of organizations and individuals and tribal nations who have been speaking to this for time immemorial. But again, our question is how do we educate for these times? And so we're looking at all of that in context of education and what do we really need to be supporting our youth, our teens and our adult community, to relearn, to learn, to remember.

Emily Race  10:08  

There's two things I want to dive deeper into; one is what you just named around this being a really big task. And obviously, it's not one that you all are owning, by any means, but that you're part of that larger collective level. One thing that for those who aren't familiar with Weaving Earth, there seems to be a number of people and organizations that make up your collective. Can you talk a bit about who those folks are individually or organizationally that you all work with?

Lauren Hage  10:42  

Sure, that is also a large question. Where would I start there?

One of the questions that you asked me when we first met is, where did Weaving Earth come from? And it was originally founded by myself and two others, Dave Hage and Will Scott. And we had been working together in various forms of education and mentoring, apprenticing with various people. And there's four people that I really want to speak to right now, in terms of bigger picture vision and imprint.

One of them is Sobonfu Somé, who is now an ancestor who is a dear friend, and, and mentor of mine, personally and of ours, and she was really full blessing for “Yes, you need to do this Weaving Earth.”

And I also want to mention Jeanette Acosta, who is also currently a teacher with us and on the board. She was also one of the people— she's my auntie, she's an indigenous permaculture teacher, is how she likes to describe herself, herbalist, amazing, just amazing person— and she also was a full “yes” for “these questions that you're asking, this work that you're speaking to really needs to come forward in this way.” So she's been there since the beginning.

Our Uncle Paul Rayfield, who is an Odawa elder from the Great Lakes, Michigan region. He also has been a hugely influential mentor in our lives and was there at the beginning and sort of the inception and gave us the courage I would say, to say yes to such a vision.

And Gigi Coyle, I want to mention her as well, who similarly is an elder, a white European descent elder and she also works with us now as an advisor, guide teacher and was extremely supportive in asking us a lot of questions to help us get to how do we have the structure of the organization match meet the prayer at the center.

And there's so many people that are involved in Weaving Earth now. brontë velez, who you may have heard of out there, who also co- founded an organization called Lead to Life. And they're doing amazing work. If you haven't heard about them, check them out. But brontë, dear friend, and co-teacher, alumni and on the board as well.

And gosh, there are so many people I mean Redbird, Solace, Tara, I don't know if I should list everybody Justine, tayla. It's a collection of people looking at similar questions and doing similar work in their lives, or maybe in their organizations, and we've come together to do our thing as Weaving Earth.

Emily Race  14:39  

Oh, my gosh, thank you for naming some of those people and giving some full color to who they may be and what perspective they may be bringing. Obviously, you can't simply name everybody that you have collaborated with or has contributed to this vision. But I think that's so important to acknowledge that this isn't an individual named Lauren who's creating programs and education, but really the effort of a larger collective.

And on that point about where the first vision came from, is there anything that you wanted to share around the origin story and how this came to be that you haven't already touched on?

Lauren Hage  15:20  

Well, one thing I need to do, I'm just now thinking “Oh my gosh, what did I just say?” I forgot somebody very important named Sam, who is key and essential to Weaving Earth and the shape that we're in now. So thank you, Sam.

Yeah, there's so many others. You know who you are. But I hope you feel loved in this moment.

I can say that I first got into the work through the lens of ecological design, soil science. I did my thesis related to renewable energy, and I was asking these big questions. And when I got finished with my thesis, my answer at the end of it was, “It depends on where you are, it's site specific and it can't be one answer.” And I remember at the time feeling like, “Oh, did I just fail my thesis, did I just say nothing?” And then as I sat with it, I'm like, “No, that is exactly, that's just true.” It does depend, and there isn't just one way or one answer, and it is place specific, it is ecologically specific, it is culturally specific.

And even now, when I hear so many people trying to figure out what to do about climate change, especially at the government level, there's still this idea that we need one sweeping— and I think that it's an ecological response. It's many trees make up the forest, and there's mycelium underneath the soil and there's water that's running through and it's all of these things, I'm taking that as a metaphor as well, to speak to, we need many options.

And so I was really ecologically focused and nature based focus and working for a few organizations doing really good work specifically related to that and one of the things that really encouraged us to start Weaving Earth and the way that we're doing things now is the work wasn't so appropriately enough addressing systems of oppression, systems of dominance liberation. And we at Weaving Earth, how we hold it, is that if you're going to connect to land, to water, to Earth, you have to also address the legacy of place, and the history of place, and there is a lot of beauty in the legacy and the history of place and there's also a lot of hard things that have happened through the colonial legacy. And in the name of white supremacy and and in the name of cis-hetero patriarchy, which ties also very directly to human dominance over the earth.

So that's one of the reasons why we ended up starting our own organization, was to really bring those those pieces together in the work that we were doing as best we could and have that lead to Prayerful Action. We've learned a lot along the way of what that actually means and what that actually takes and that then leads also to what I was speaking to before about our fourth pillar being around embodiment and the somatic, personal nervous system work that's needed to really unwind the traumas that we've inherited, and that are happening daily in current time, too, they're not just past, they're current. And so, the hope is that we can minimize the future ones as much as we can.

Emily Race  20:11  

Yeah, I think in the world of environmentalism or climate justice or whatever, I have personally seen how much addressing the layers of oppression in our colonialism history is so missing from the dialogue, or centering indigenous voices, for example, who have been keepers of the earth for so long and have so much wisdom and leadership to be shared. That could be a tangent around how it sounds like relationship building is so integral to what you do, and the relational piece of this of your work is front and center. I'm sure some listeners would be very curious, how do you actually go about building such an integrated function of perspectives?

Lauren Hage  21:30  

Yeah. I mean, I think one of the guiding questions that we asked a lot is around partnership, and what does it really mean to partner? And I think that for a lot of us, that's not something that we're taught in school. And, actually, more what is often modeled is competition. I don't want to get repetitive, but dominance, it's either a power over or power under. And so we're asking questions, along with many other people out there, what is it to really be power with, to acknowledge the power that's in the circle, that's in the room? Have that be transparent; the power differentials, and the power that's there. And then how do we be power with the circle. And what is it to really partner? What is it to really think and act like a circle, or like a spiral, or like an ecosystem.

Part of why we started working with youths, is because we were, we were working with adults, and realizing how much unlearning needed to happen related to that, and also, how much retraining needed to happen related to that, and bringing up all sorts of different pain points for people related to their, you know, educational experience growing up, and I am not, you know, anti the educational system in full, like, I'm not making a blanket statement about that. And there are so many good teachers and educators out there. So I feel with you, and what we're out here doing is really trying to support an education that is, is bringing in those relational pieces in support of like, an identity of relationality, if you will. So that, you know, things aren't seen as siloed, as siloed problems, or as siloed facets of the world, but are really seen as interconnected. So our curriculum is designed, you know, to do that. And we do that, you know, in various ways. But I suppose that's how I would answer your question. 

Emily Race  24:17  

Well, yeah, that was a perfect answer. And also, you know, connecting that dot back to like, the where we first learn what it means to relate to one another, which I for so many people is it was in a school system, and I really resonated with that competition piece like using the grading system and the ways that, you know, we're kind of ranked against one another or separated from one another at such a young age. So I'm personally so grateful that you all are focusing on the youth because they are the leaders of now and the future and to kind of program from the start that that's possible is beautiful. So I'd love to hear more about that in a minute. But first, let's just kind of zoom out and hear a bit about the vision that Weaving Earth has for the world. So, on this note, like imagine that the work that you're doing has, like the fruit has been bearing from the tree and you see that all this work has actually manifested into some some vision into reality, what would that vision look like?

Lauren Hage  25:21  

Well, one answer to that question is that I don't know, I can't actually answer that what it would look like on my own. I think that it ties back to what I was saying before about, it depends, I think that I think that how it looks is placed specific cultural specific, ecologically specific, which is, you know, three ways of saying something similar, but slightly different. You know, we do say, clearly that we envision a world beyond dominance. And that we envision communities that are rooted in justice, in interrelationship and in earth care. And we envision the planet whose ecological and cultural brilliance is preserved for the generations to come. So I'm with those things. And I'm with the journey that it is to get there. And, um, with the, at least the prayer, the hope, the blessing that even moments of that, in current time, are rippeling backwards in time, to allow for that to be more true and rippling forwards in time to allow for that to be more true.

Emily Race  26:45  

It's, it's a beautiful answer. And, and I think the fact that you can't, there isn't one blanket statement, just like with your thesis, is, again, the embodiment of, of what Weaving Earth is basically saying, like there, it's not about dominance, with one perspective, that dominates all, but rather like it sounds like listening to and, and kind of letting different, you know, place-based, culture-based visions come to life and emerge. So that's really beautiful. And I did want to dive in well, before we kind of move towards the end here, a bit on like the differences, if any, that you see between the youth based educational programs and the adult based educational programs and some things that have inspired you from each of those.

Lauren Hage  27:36  

Yeah, I love that. I'll start with the youth. I think that you know, I mean, we work with youth, of many ages. So starting at age five, and all the way up into teens. So you know, depending on how old they are out looks is kind of different. But we do a lot of the learning through embodied play, and through modeling. And so we'll take a topic, like for example, this is the one that's coming to mind. On the place where that we rent to run programs. There's a small creek in the back of the area, and the area around the creek gets quite muddy. And this is the zone where the five, six year olds hang out. And so, you know, they're getting quite muddy during the day, which is very fun, which we encourage. But but also we were getting a lot of rain this year. I live on Southern Pomo territory in northern California. And so that's where these youth programs are currently being held. Our programs are also online and you know, in various places, but our core youth programs are there where our home base is. And anyway, so there's this creek and we got a lot of rain early this year. And the area around the creek was quite muddy, and you know, the little ones with their little legs started sinking. And so we thought, okay, what's needed? Well, we need a bridge. And so the older group helped to build a bridge and the way that the built the bridge was built was like okay, well we need material, where are we going to get that? Well, there's a forest that we have access to and there's a lot of work being done in that forest right now related to forest fires, catastrophic forest fires and and tending of the forest in a healthy way to minimize the impact of fire season. So you know, the learning then is all about that and then all about the harvesting and what is it to actually harvest a tree in a respectful way and see resource as relationship as, as family as kin. And you know, have that harvesting be a part of, of a partnership identity, maybe I'll say, and and then what is it to actually, you know, prep the wood create the bridge and, and then we were working with one of our dear friends Edward Willie, Redbird Willie, who is a local indigenous man who lives right near us, who's also a Pomo. And he was doing rope making with the that older group. And so we created, you know, the handrail for the kids was this homemade rope. And so then the older kids who are you know, in their early teens are coming in to help the little kids with their little their legs, who are sinking in the mud in this project. So, you know, embedded into it is this whole intergenerational experience and, and connection, and, and also action, because it's like, Okay, here's a part of the learning is, here's an emergent problem, if you will, like, and we need to do something about it. So how do what's our process for how do we meet the emergent moment? And how do we do that in the most relational way possible? So that's a story that comes to me as you ask about the youth. I don't even remember what your question was, I hope I even 

Emily Race  31:40  

You are answering it beyond my wildest dreams. I mean, I think you're really painting a picture for listeners in terms of like, what this this education looks like, and and kind of maybe the maybe are, is there an impact you have seen from youth going through that type of program?

Lauren Hage  31:57  

Yeah, I think, well, the impact, you know, varies, of course, and but what we've heard from parents is that they feel that their kids are, are learning social emotional development pieces, and really how to, we do a lot of that, in our programs, like how to actually work together, oh, conflict just arose? How do we meet that and have that not be? You know, our elder who I mentioned earlier, and mentor and dear friend, Gigi Coyle, she calls it bump friendly, but how to be bump friendly, like, oh, a conflict happened or disagreement happened? And is there a way that we can be with that, that doesn't mean we can always be with that sometimes there's too much in the field, and sometimes the power differential is just too real. And it's, you know, it's too much. So we are not under the false idea that, that it's, it always can be worked in this way. But we do, especially with the little ones, when the conflicts are small, try to teach them how to how to meet that in the moment. So we hear that as feedback a lot that, that that's been helpful, and that, you know, the parents, and the families surrounding these youth are learning so much about the local ecosystem. It sounds a lot of times, like all we do is play games. But the games are embedded with all sorts of teachings, like, okay, the group right now is working with inclusion exclusion. So how can we tailor this activity to meet that, you know, both directly but also indirectly and you know, so there's, there's an ecological knowledge that's being built. And then also a social relational knowledge.

Emily Race  33:55  

And then in the group, the age groups just to kind of define it, is it set between a certain age group sounds like there's a teen program, then a youth program, online and in person, so anything else you want to just elaborate on the programs themselves and who they're available to?

Lauren Hage  34:13  

Yeah, there are there are programs for all those ages and and some of them are larger age span, so that the ages are together in a wider span of time. That was a funny way of saying that. But and sometimes they're broken up, like, you know, the five and six is might be together and the teens might be together. So it varies and you can find that out on our website. And then we have we currently have a teen program called queer world making which was developed in partnership with Solace and Angus and you can find out more about them on our website and that has an online component, and an in person component. And then we also did a Youth Radio Show, which you can find on Weaving Earth radio, we called it K web radio, which is on all the podcasts, that was something that emerged out of the pandemic time. And then we also have adult programming. So are, you know, and we do various, various things we do, we have done, our main intensive program has been called the we immersion. And it's a nine month fairly intensive training in our relational education curriculum. And I'm remembering back to one of your questions a few minutes ago, which was how, you know, how does that work in the adult program, and, you know, in the adult program are, we are doing a lot of the same things that I just spoke to in the youth program, and that's pretty intentional. But then we're also debriefing through the lens of, you know, a critical lens of Okay, and how does this relate to the current state of the local ecology, the global ecology, the local social system that we're in right now, the global social system. And so there's, you know, and there's the hope also, that we're, we're training trainers, you know, we're training people who are then going out and doing amazing work in the world, which, you know, is true, that the, the people that have come through the program show up already doing amazing things in the world, and with all sorts of gifts and, you know, contribute to the container in such potent ways, and then go through the program and leave and are doing great work in the world.

Emily Race  36:50  

I mean, I'm, I'm sold, I want to take this program. And on that note, like, do you find, you know, what types of people I guess, are, are attracted to doing that nine month commitment, and you're kind of speaking to a little bit, but just want to elaborate? So if someone's listening, can see themselves or hear themselves in this?

Lauren Hage  37:10  

Yeah, well, one thing to say is in to root ourselves in a moment in time, it's, it's March of 2022. And we actually haven't run the immersion since. Wow, right. It's March since March of 2020. Yeah. That was I wasn't expecting that when I started the sentence. Yeah. So it's been a couple of years, you know, just because we paused that level of programming in person because of the pandemic. And what we've been offering in the meantime, is a couple of online courses and some webinars. But to your question, who, gosh, who is drawn? I think it's a heart calling. I think it's oftentimes educators. I think it's oftentimes people who are, have gone through various levels of schooling and are feeling a little bit like maybe disenchanted or wanting to be reinvented or feeling the weight of the the ecological and social crises of our times and wondering, what do I do and what can I do? And again, you know, we don't have all the answers and, but we attempt to be a container, a community of practice, where we can learn together, make mistakes together, grow together, and do our best to come out a little bit more equipped and informed and resilient.

Emily Race  38:47  

Yeah, and the I'm imagining the community piece in itself can be just so nourishing for folks. And and like, you never know, what can be born from that container in itself. So I know there's like a magical piece of this that you can't really quantify.

Lauren Hage  39:03  

I love that you brought in the magic of the magical piece. I think that's really important. And I actually often do make it a point to speak directly to the magic because I think that, you know, it's important and one of the lines in my bio is that magic and mystery are at the heart of my practice. And I think that it's important to celebrate the magic and one of our values and we have values on our website. One of them is we believe in magic. And there is something extremely nourishing about the community piece and you know, being witnessed and learning to be a witness and learning to feel into the circle of who you know who has the spark right now or is it my turn to speak or? Or is it my turn to listen and to really be in practice of that, rather than the prescription of that, and to celebrate an uplift the many different ways that leadership shows up, I think that so often leadership, you know, there can be a preconceived notion, which has been very what's the word intentionally? Yeah. I was going to say intellectually. And actually, maybe that's true, also, intentionally and into intellectually, you know, prescribed of what leadership looks like. And so, you know, in the community container, it's like, okay, well, what are the various forms of leadership and leadership looks, maybe leadership looks like letting the magic through or tapping into our own creativity in the moment and building relationship to our intuition, and, you know, seeing what comes from there. And, and, and I did not just list all the ways but

Emily Race  41:06  

Yeah. And I mean, the other thing, which I'm now going back in time, a little bit in our conversation, but I really did want to underline and ask you a little bit more around the, the role of prayer in what you're doing, because I think magic prayer, like these are maybe things that we keep intimate to ourselves that we believe in them or practice them. And, and at the same time, like, I want to have more of a conversation about that with you. So the pillar around prayer and just like anything else, you can elaborate on what that actually means? And how you would define that?

Lauren Hage  41:41  

Yeah, thanks for that question. Well, the so the pillar that you're referring to is we call it prayerful action. And why did we put those words together? Why do we call it that?

I think in essence, it's, it's a, it's a prayer in itself, it's a call that our actions can come sourced from a connection to something greater than ourselves. Which one way that we really think about that is our interdependence. And one of the things we say about relational education is that it has to be a nursery for interdependence and differentiation, which is also an ecological principle. So if you think about the forest, again, there's interdependence is one of the key fabrics that make up the forest. And also differentiation is, is as well, you know, there's different plants, animals, beings in the ecosystem that provide different sources of nourishment to each other, different sources of medicine to each other. And I'm saying to each other, so that it doesn't in a way sound like the only sources of nourishment that the forest is providing is like somehow for humans. I think that that is true, of course. And also like it's for each other, so that it's not as human centric, hopefully. But so I think that we call it prayerful action also to get at that. What is it? Questions like What am I meant to do? Where am I to be? You know, which I'm hearing I'm hearing Gigi in my ear with with those questions. And yeah, just feeling Sobonfu, too. Also back to where we started in just the what? What is it that's my calling, and she was so encouraging of, you know, trusting those impulses. And one of the things though, I want to say, too, that, you know, one of the questions that I ask that Weaving Earth a lot is how, how would we know if it's our intuition or our social conditioning? I think that that's really important. Because, you know, in the name of prayer, in the name of intuition, a lot of pretty awful things have happened. And, you know, the colonial legacy, the systems of dominance that we've already been talking about, many, many actions have been made upholding those systems in the name of prayer. So I think that there is something you know, just to be accountable to there. And I feel deeply committed to centering magic and acknowledging that it's real and we share synchronicities stories and those moments of weird in quotes, where it just seemed like, Whoa, that could be something like I was thinking about you, and you just called me or that could be like, you know, I was, you know, that bird just landed right there and looked me in the eye. And I knew right then like, dada dada and whatever it is, you know, we celebrate those moments. And we also do our best to center curiosity as a pathway as a guide, to deepening our relationship to our acknowledgement with the mystery, the magic and the creative life force that is that is flowing

Emily Race  45:49  

I mean, I have chills like as your elab- How do I say this? Elaborating on this, or you're putting words to something that I think so many people have experienced. And I know for myself like it, it's that what comes to mind is actually the contrast of that, where we look to like social media and the internet and like Google, or whatever, for the answers to things rather than just like allowing ourselves to be really more a channel to receive, or like to be on a journey of inquiry in itself that doesn't have the answer right in that moment. So I just love how that you're centering that in the work that you're doing. And with that, as as we wrap up here, I'd love to hear if you have an invitation for or an inquiry for our listeners, as something that they can leave this podcast with today.

Lauren Hage  46:41  

Oh, well, thank you for listening to all of that. I appreciate the questions and the intention, and I hope that something I said, sparked something in you. And gosh, if I was gonna give an invitation. Invitation would be to take a moment to do whatever it is that is resourcing for you. If you know what that is, there's many ways and, and then to go outside, and sit, stand, maybe walk, maybe lie down whatever it is that you want to do or is right for you. But just see if you can find a place outside and just let yourself be enchanted. Be belonged by that patch of grass near you or that bird near you or that tree near you or the flower or the leaf on the ground or the rock that's next to you, whatever it may be. Just let yourself just for just for even a few minutes, let yourself be enchanted by, belonged by. That being that friend. And I offer that with a prayer that we can reclaim our attention, which is so sought after these days. And Adrienne Maree Brown speaks to attention liberation. And we speak a lot to that at Weaving Earth as well, thank you for that framing. And so yes, may you be enchanted by, belonged by and attentive to what is around you.

Emily Race  48:52  

Thank you so much for offering that to anyone listening. And I kind of just want to end it on that. Although I will ask before we do wrap is there any way or what would support look like for you for weaving Earth? How could we support the vision that you're bringing to life?

Lauren Hage  49:14  

Oh, thank you for that question. If you are listening and you feel like you have an answer to that, we'd love to hear it. So getting in touch is welcome. I'll give you my contact in a minute or maybe you're going to do that and supporting our work through collaboration, through collaboration financially as always helpful, through helping spread the word is always helpful. Yeah, we are, we are looking for for a home for our educational content to continue to blossom so you have any ideas about that. But yeah, in general, I and just say if, if you are listening and you have an idea of what could be mutually supportive, we would be happy to hear that. And thank you for getting in touch.

Emily Race  50:13  

And on that note, where can where can people get in touch? Where can people find you? 

Lauren Hage  50:18  

Yes, our website is weavingearth.com. And you can email info@weavingearth.org. And my name again is Lauren Hage. I'm the executive director. So you can you can reach out to me there. And we have an Instagram. It's Weaving underscore Earth. We have a Facebook, we have all that stuff, but we use Instagram more.

Emily Race  50:45  

That's a great place to stay in touch. It sounds like this. 

Lauren Hage  50:47  

Yeah. Yeah. 

Emily Race  50:50  

Well, Lauren, thank you so much for being with us. And for all of the wisdom that you shared, I am personally re energized and inspired and really feeling connected to something bigger than myself just through this conversation. So I hope that others are left with the same or better experience, whatever suits them. So thank you again.

Lauren Hage  51:11  

Thank you so much. It's great to connect with you.

Emily Race  51:16  

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Founding Mothers Podcast. This podcast is produced and hosted by me, Emily Race, and edited by Eric Weisberg. If you want to support the show, please leave us a rating or share this episode with the important people in your life. We'd also love to hear from you if you or someone you know would be a great guest to share about their vision for the world. You can email Emily@founding-mothers.com or visit www.founding-mothers.com/podcast.