Joining Together with Community to Grow Food and Share Resources: Shamans Cave

Sandra Ingerman was touched by an article she read about a famine in Sudan. Grandmothers are teaching their children and grandchildren how to find roots and berries in the ground. Men go out and help to gather resources for the community. No one does this for themselves. They share in the community to survive. They are not counting on governments or outsiders to help their cause. They know what they need to survive the famine they are facing.

Join Renee Baribeau and Sandra about the topic of famine and catastrophes in other areas and how people are finding the strength and spirit to find ways to survive the challenges we all face. The challenges we all face are different, but living in a strong and creative community is a key to survival!

#survival #famine #grandmothers #community

Transcript

Sandra Ingerman (00:03):

Hi everyone. I'm Sandra Ingerman and welcome to the Shaman's Cave.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (00:08):

And I'm Renee Baribeau, the practical shaman. Happy to be here with you all today.

Sandra Ingerman (00:15):

Yeah. So I read an article on famine this morning, and I don't want to talk about famine itself. Renee and I talked before the show about the article. I want to talk about what people are doing to help themselves. And so in the article, there's huge famines all over the world. There's more famines than haven't been known in recorded history. We know that there were much deeper famines way back, but we're talking about recorded history. And so in Sudan, I read something that's a real shamanic teaching, and one of the reasons I wrote, walking Through Darkness, the grandmothers are getting together with the mothers and the grandchildren to teach them how to find roots, how to find berries, how to find other things that are edible. And then not only are the elders teaching the young people the roadmap, which is what I keep saying in walking through darkness.

(01:42):

We don't have elders teaching us how to walk through dark times. We're trying to figure out how to do it on our own. But these people have actual elders who know they've been there, they know what to do, and they're teaching their families, and so they're passing down the knowledge. But at the same time, what I read in this article is nobody collects food for just their own family. They collected for the community. So the community is working together to find a way to survive. And in so many places, we're always relying on the government.

(02:32):

FEMA promised insurance for we go back to New Orleans, FEMA's going to come in and help everybody. Nothing came to New Orleans, nothing. All the tragedies, all the hurricanes, all the tornadoes that blew people's houses down. I read articles. People had to come together and help fix each other's houses. The government came on and said, we're here. We're here. We're going to do this for you. Nothing ever happened. So when we talk about the future and where we are, it goes back to the shamanic principle of community and how community comes together to learn how to survive. The earth teaches us how to survive and gives us what we need. And then we share the knowledge and we share the food and the resources.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (03:35):

Think of a story that the woman I do breath work with every week always talks about that in India where there's so little food that if somebody gets a banana and I think it's a Mother Teresa's story, what they do is they break the banana in half and they share it. In America. We get a banana and we're hungry. We eat the whole damn banana. And it's just like we're at a place in our life where we can't afford to be eating that whole banana anymore because there's people who are really going to be needing the other half of that banana. And so the way that I've learned to, and I know this is really crazy, but the way that I've learned to be with this is that I've really become an integral part of my neighborhood community up on the island. And it's expected.

(04:30):

When I went to the ma sushi, they're like, well, where are you going to volunteer now that you're here? Where are you going to volunteer? What are you going to do? And I caught really quickly that you weren't going to be looked down upon so well on this island if you weren't giving back. And so I happened to give back was a little still selfish. I decided to be on the board because at the time I wanted a water share. Two years later, I'm still on the board, and now I'm the president. But it really makes a difference. Last week I needed a neighbor to go and do something. I just called, Hey, what are you doing? Can you go do something? Not only did he go over and show this woman my house, he said, oh, I fixed the lock for you. It was broken. But you could go through life and no one's going to be fixing any locks for you. If you're just out there, what's in it for me?

Sandra Ingerman (05:23):

Right? Yeah. And in a modern day culture, it is part of the culture. What is in it for me? Take care of yourself first. Don't take care of others. It's all about you first. And when I wrote Welcome Home back in 1993, I was really touched by learning about how in urban cities where people didn't have government help and didn't have good jobs and didn't have a real way to pay for food, started doing community gardens on roofs. So everybody in the community was getting food. And that was back in 1993 that started here in America.

(06:24):

And it's sad that we have to do that, but that's where we are right now. And it's really important for us to understand that as we share, we end up getting more support. And it's not about that we have to just think about ourselves, but we have to learn from others. We have to learn from people who have gone before us no matter where you live, either people are starving now, or you have stories about your ancestors and unbelievable starvation. So many of us have what's called Wilson Syndrome and what Wilson Syndrome is. I have Wilson Syndrome. It's where you come from, a family who went through starvation. And so your body learned through history how to slow down its metabolism so you don't need as much food. And it's amazing how many people in this country have it and have no idea. They know that people who have ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, central Europe, Russia, the Ukraine such as myself, all have this. And I do have it. I mean, it's diagnosed. So it's interesting. Our bodies actually are prepared for certain things that happen. But how about on a community level coming together and help each other? Because what's happening is communities are coming together to help each other, but after a disaster, why aren't we doing it before the disasters happen?

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (08:33):

Absolutely.

Sandra Ingerman (08:34):

Like your community, Renee.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (08:36):

Yeah, no, and someone was saying last week is that, oh, they're offering first aid and we should let people know in a newsletter. And I'm thinking like, well, not only should we let 'em know in the newsletter, I think we should incentivize the people in our community who are going to go learn first aid so that if there is a disaster, that we have those resources within our few block ratio. I heard the other day there was a question about karma on the shamans ca wall. And somebody said, oh yeah, I come from the carro tradition of where they have the word aine. And I was thinking, wow, Aine isn't about karma. Aine is about reciprocity. Aine is about today for me, tomorrow for you. Now, the Quechua, they were forced up the side of the hills. And what did they do? And you were talking about this, but they learned to plant potatoes because potatoes could grow on the side of the earth on these steep plateaus.

(09:38):

And in fact, they developed so many different variations of potatoes. I think they have over 300 varieties. And that's from ingenuity. But the irony came in was today from me tomorrow for you today, we're all going to come over and harvest your potatoes, and then tomorrow you're going to all come over and harvest my potatoes. And it's not about karma, I don't believe. They never believed they got tossed out of the garden, so they don't need karma. But this idea that this is how gardening and this is how farming works, and so are you one of those people who said, come over today and help me and I'll owe you one, as opposed to tomorrow I'm coming over to help you harvest your potatoes,

Sandra Ingerman (10:33):

Right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I've had this weird thing of, and I talk about it a lot, as soon as I could read, I read every book on Armageddon that I could get my hands on. And we're talking 5, 6, 17 years old. I have read just about every Armageddon book on the planet that's ever been written. And there's only one that I feel should be burnt. And unfortunately, one of Pulitzer surprise and I burned my book, the reason that I watch read these books is because they go through the tragedy, the end of the world, whether it was a wave coming, whether it was heat, there was all kinds of things. Every book had a different tragedy that ended the world. But every book was about how people came together. And every book was about the innocent at the end, the innocent child steps up and touches an apple tree that was killed through nuclear war and touches the tree, and an apple grows.

(12:07):

So from a very young, very young age, I believed in the magic of what we could do when we come together to help each other. And that was why I read these books, not to read about tragedy. It was about how people survived, how they came together, and how life restarted from a positive place, not from a negative place. And so it's really interesting to think about how much we can actually do together and how much the children coming in right now know the magic, know the magic, and carry the magic if we don't take it away from them. And it is, it's all about communities, however they form, whether it's people walking together to safety or whether it's in your own community at this time, there's a magic in that. And there's a magic in allowing the roles of everybody to come forth of what they're carrying that's going to help everybody.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (13:27):

And I think also this idea that you chose to be here right now at this time, at this place, at this doorway, where all of this other stuff is swirling around. It's not separate. It's not happening over there, and it's not happening over there. Not to say that you have to live in the pain of everything that's going on, but to know that you're part of the solution, that what little part can I make a difference of? Okay, well, I can make sure that our community has the water resources that it's going to need, that we're looking ahead for the next few generations. And I don't know what that looks like for you. This is just the one that I picked because I really believe that water is going to become, or water is becoming the commodity. So when some people, they're like, oh, no one wants to run this and we should sell our water off to this big company that then can use it any way they want, like no. So what is that issue that makes you, we talked in the last show, what makes you say yes? What makes you say no, not enough? Not anymore. I need to know where the community gardens are. I need to get over there and help weed. I need to learn first aid, whatever your yes. Might be way different than my Yes. So I'm a business woman. I like to run things, but what is yours?

Sandra Ingerman (15:02):

I think that's a very profound statement. Very profound. I think I do believe that. I do believe that. That's where we're at. And you just stated it very brilliantly, so thank you.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (15:19):

Every once in a while, I have a good one or two good thoughts out that I had a brain scan recently, Sandra, and it told me what my brain was good for.

Sandra Ingerman (15:30):

What's your brain good for?

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (15:31):

Oh, my brain's really balanced, but what it's really good for is managing a plethora of things. And I said, are you sure? That's just not my, he goes, and if people are performing their job before they even call you, I'm there. Are you sure? That's not my intuition. He goes, no, that's your just, well-defined brain. It's really funny that we think what we are calling intuition and stuff now science is catching up. No, your brain's just wired for that. So these kids who are coming in with these extraordinary brains, I recently was in a journey state, and it was like what I got, the message I got was look at the capacity of our human brain. Look at the capacity. So if you're surrounded in a thought like, oh, I can't be of any use here. Look at, we're going to go into this for the next four years or that for the next, whatever it is. I don't care which side you're on, how can you better adapt your brain to be of more service? And I really think the more we don't like what's going on out there, if we could just get together with the 10 neighbors or the 200 neighbors around us, we're going to get through this.

Sandra Ingerman (16:41):

Right? And the younger generation is already doing it. I'm reading articles about, I was in a commune back in, I did the whole eight ashbury thing, and the communes were crazy. They didn't work back then. And I'm sure the communes that are forming now have their own issues. If you haven't done a lot of work on yourself, ego comes in and trouble happens. But you start to see, we're starting to see this wave happening again. Younger people are getting, we have to come together and start growing food and helping each other out, and they're doing it. They're finding land to move to, and they're being kind to neighbors and neighbors are being kind to them, and they're just growing food and helping to take care of each other.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (17:43):

I think it was about 20 years ago, I drove Robert Thurman from the airport to the LaQuinta Hotel. You were at that conference to the Ions conference, and he said, in the next 50 years, we're going to need, I don't know how many more farmers we were going to need. And so one of the things that I'm most proud about on the island where I live is that we have an organic farming school. We're actually teaching people how to farm, and people are actually staying on the island after they've learned to farm to make farming businesses. And so I really feel like, and not a, that's just not my specialty. I don't do so well. I can grow my strawberries a couple things, but I'm not really not great at farming, but I'll sell your farm food. I'll get it distributed. But that aside, if that's something you love to do, it's such a good way of such contributing to your neighbors,

Sandra Ingerman (18:45):

Right, and getting through the coming times again.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (18:51):

Absolutely.

Sandra Ingerman (18:52):

I think too many people are relying on government to take care of them when we need to be relying on our own communities to support each other.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (19:03):

Exactly.

Sandra Ingerman (19:04):

Yeah.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (19:05):

So I think we've hammered this one into the

Sandra Ingerman (19:09):

Ground.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (19:12):

So I think that,

Sandra Ingerman (19:15):

And we really, really want to ask people to support our work. I keep getting emails from friends and how much the shaman cave means to them, but yet it would be really nice for you to help out, subscribe, let people know about the show, and to comment on YouTube and to help people know about what Renee and I are talking about and if it fits, and if it's something that people like. We're just looking for support too. We're looking for sacred reciprocity. Also, thank you

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (19:59):

For us tomorrow for you.

Sandra Ingerman (20:03):

So we wish you all the best, and we hope that we're sharing tools that are at least getting you to think about what you would like to be doing with your life.

Renee Baribeau The Practical Shaman (20:16):

Thank you.