Changing Roads Podcast
Changing Roads Podcast unveils the profound essence of travel, exploring not just the destinations, but the personal transformations within. We unravel the various themes, aspects and narratives of travel that define us, shape us, and lead us to the heart of our own stories.
Changing Roads Podcast
Leave the Light On: "Tribe"
When the road ahead twists unexpectedly, where do you find your strength and inspiration? Join my guest Dustin Tidwell and I as we wander through 'Changing Roads,' sharing tales of resilience, the embrace of new experiences, and the crucial role of creativity in facing life's challenges. Our conversation illuminates the personal transformations we've undergone and the communal bonds that have supported us along this journey.
Language and creativity possess a remarkable ability to reshape our reality, a theme we explore with depth and vulnerability. Through anecdotes and insights, we reveal how altering our inner dialogue from "why" to "how" can pivot our journey toward healing and growth.
We discuss how art forms can influence and even predict the path we walk, and how intention is the compass that guides us. The journey of healing and growth is one of constant learning, and with this episode, we invite you to join us in discovering the power of artistic collaboration and the adaptability of life's ever-changing roads. Remember, your journey can be altered by your own hands, and we're here to share the wisdom we've gathered along the way.
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Welcome wanderers, dreamers and fellow seekers of the open road. This is Changing Roads, a sanctuary for explorers of the world and the self. In the tribal circle, each warrior dips their hands in their own unique, chosen colors of pain and spreads it across their face as they prepare for war, A war against darkness, be it with themselves or the suffering world around them. They know they will win these wars because they choose to fight with love and not violence. And after the wars fought on dark and unknown roads, the tribe always finds its way back home because the fire in the teepee always remains lit, a blazing beacon of family friendship be always remains lit, a blazing beacon of family friendship, healing, love and solidarity. When we talk about the journey of the peaceful warrior and their tribe, the concept of changing roads embodies the dynamic nature of life's challenges and opportunities. This notion encompasses both external factors that alter our paths beyond our control and intentional decisions to pursue new directions in the quest for healing. Encompasses both external factors that alter our paths beyond our control and intentional decisions to pursue new directions in the quest for healing. External changes, such as unforeseen circumstances or societal shifts, often demand adaptation and resilience, Just as a painter adjusts their technique. In response to changes on the canvas, the peaceful warrior learns to pivot and adapt to the evolving landscape of their lives. These unexpected twists and turns may initially present obstacles, but they also offer fertile ground for growth and discovery. Moreover, intentional changes in direction play a pivotal role in the journey of healing. This might involve making conscious decisions to break free from old patterns, confront fears or explore uncharted territories of creativity and self-expression. Like choosing a new brush or palette, these intentional shifts open up possibilities for fresh perspectives and transformative experiences. Possibilities for fresh perspectives and transformative experiences.
Speaker 1:Embracing the concept of changing roads requires a mindset of openness and courage. It means being willing to let go of the familiar and step into the unknown, trusting in the journey and the collective wisdom of the tribe. Through each twist and turn, the peaceful warrior and their tribe continue to evolve, drawing strength from the resilience of their shared bonds and the transformative power of fearless creativity. As we wage our internal and external wars on these ever-changing roads, challenges present in black and white and sometimes even gray, but opportunities for deep healing, growth and connection are painted with medicine in every possible color.
Speaker 1:Hi, welcome to Changing Roads. I am your host, Brad, and normally I would be joined here by my co-host, Ranger, but he is taking the night off, taking a nice little break. So this is a very special episode to me, because today I'm here with my tribe, my people and the person that I'm talking to today is my best friend in the entire world and we have spent a long time together trying to bring light in the midst of darkness and our very small mountain town has a tendency to bring broken people here, because there is healing here, there is light here, and for some reason it draws these people in and we have done our best to help them find a place to heal, and especially my guest today, and his name is dusty don't call me dusty, go fuck up.
Speaker 2:I ain't dusty, I know dusty.
Speaker 1:his name is dustin tedwell and we are sitting in a art studio that belongs to him. That is basically a teepee. It has a long story. If Dustin wants to talk about that today, that's on him. But I would like to introduce you to Dustin, and we don't know how this episode is going to go. We're looking each other in the eyes, like we always have, and we're just going to roll with it. So how are you doing, dustin Tidwell? Dustin my brother, my brother man.
Speaker 2:Just don't call me Dusty. I'm doing pretty damn good. I'm surrounded by tribe. It's a damn good day, you know? It's the first day of spring, right about now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was actually yesterday.
Speaker 2:Well, whatever you know, I don't keep track of days or time. I follow the sunset and the sunrise, that's true. Dustin, how did you and I meet? Well, you were sitting on the sidewalk and I walked by and you were sitting with this lovely lady, two lovely ladies, and this one girl says you gotta meet Dustin, come up to his studio. You came up to my studio about an hour later.
Speaker 1:I was already up here and I had just painted that, that stool over there yeah, by the way, this studio is surrounded by beautiful paintings done by dustin, some of them done by our friends and people that needed to come up here and paint and Collaboration. Yeah, collaborate and get their emotions out and or portray them, rather. But yes, everything is painted in here.
Speaker 2:This is a beautiful special place and he's talking about a bench right behind it I was painting this bench that my grandpa sat on for like 40 years as a rodeo announcer, and I was painting on top of the leather a medicine wheel Native American medicine wheel. You walked in, I'd seen you on the street. You came up here, I looked on your forearm and I saw the same medicine wheel and so we bonded my tattoo, yeah, your tattoo, and that's kind of how, how it all started.
Speaker 1:And then we've been through chapters, books, pages and sentences yeah, I think volumes, more so, but dustin's being very light about our meeting. What actually happened was I came in here and I had the medicine wheel and we were standing on a medicine wheel that has been painted on the ground for a long time. And I painted a medicine wheel and Dustin was like well man, here we are. That's amazing. But, dustin, that's how we connected. How did we become best friends? Come on, it's okay to talk about this. It was a fist fight in an alley.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, I mean really, you pissed me off and I'm like get the fuck out of here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was pretty broken that night and I came into town when I met Dustin.
Speaker 2:I had some rules in my place and take your aggression to the alley, Don't bring your shit up here, you know? I mean have a few rules in the place no hard liquor, no fighting. Take your shit to the alley. And you guys weren't in a place where you were taking your shit to the alley and I tried to throw you out and you and I went down to the alley and beat the fuck out of each other for about 15 minutes until the cop showed up and we got out of it.
Speaker 1:We smoked a cigarette together and we were like we're friends, we hugged it out. We hugged it out.
Speaker 2:Warriors should not attack warriors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. That's why this is Tribe. These are warriors that have come here for different reasons and we have found how to connect and heal and, rather than wage war against each other, connect with each other and help each other find healing, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2:We have bonded over art and war.
Speaker 1:That's very true. A lot of people in this town have done that in this studio and Dustin has gracefully allowed them in here Not to teach them, but hand them paint in a paintbrush or a guitar or a guitar or fucking some way to be free anything yep, you know we're we're so captured in this environment of conformity, like here's how you have to be.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we have to rage, sometimes we have to break a trash can, sometimes we have to bust some glass, sometimes we have to punch a bag, sometimes we have to drive fucking fast. Sometimes we got to fish, sometimes we got to meditate, sometimes we smoke a joint and just breathe it in, sometimes watch sunrise. I mean, there's a lot of dynamics to trying to survive this life, especially when you're aggressive because of the nature of being hypervigilant, because we have to protect ourselves, you know, especially trauma it fucking gets at us. And so what I've found in this space is that I've allowed myself, or it has allowed me, to be free. I mean, fuck, I can walk in the door and just grab a bottle of paint and throw it against the wall or at each other or each other.
Speaker 1:It's happened. It happens on a frequent basis the weapon of mass creation yeah, that's for part two we'll talk all about the weapon of mass creation.
Speaker 1:People that are broken seem to wander the world in search of themselves and in search of healing, and a lot of us have gotten to this town through our brokenness. A lot of people that come through the studio are wanderers and people that are looking for themselves. They're trying to find healing, and that doesn't happen when you stand still, when you're that broken can we, uh, change the word broken to healing?
Speaker 2:yes, okay, so there's a lot of people who are healing. I don't believe there's a single broken person out there. I I do know there's a lot of people who are wounded and healing, but I don't feel there's any broken souls. I don't feel there's any lost souls. We're healing, we're trying to fucking live this life of. Wow, all that crap happened to me and you and us, and wow, I mean there, there is not a single sane soul on this planet. After you know the pandemic happened, that it is not like a little fractured, a little like man. I got set out of my norm. So I think, and and not saying that's the only thing that broke people, everyone's wounded, everyone's wounded.
Speaker 1:Not everyone's broken. I like wounded better than broken. When I met Dustin, I was wounded and I found him, and this tribe and being a part of this helped me heal from my wounds and I know that Dustin knows a lot about this. If you don't mind, dustin, I would really like you to. You don't have to go into it a lot, but if you want to briefly tell your story and how you got here, I think it's important to talk about that, so we have some kind of understanding.
Speaker 2:Context.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some kind of context about this, all right.
Speaker 2:So I was born in 1977.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't care when you were born, man, he was born in 2020.
Speaker 2:I was reborn in 2015. So about 2014, I had a really bad ski accident, snowboarding accident, and I was working at a financial planning firm. I was a partner at this place and shit hit the fan. Some really scary tragedies happened and to escape the pain I was in, I went on a mountain drive. I asked my wife to get me the fuck out of Denver and I thought I was dying. I don't know if that was the truth or not. It might have been a figment of my imagination, but I was mentally mentally dying. And she took me down to this little town in the valley and I had these visions of just being out of the reality I was in. We moved here and I found this joint. I don't know how I found it, just came upon and I've been up here for a number of years.
Speaker 2:I knew I could only find solitude in the paint. I couldn't read newspapers, I couldn't listen to the radio, I couldn't go to the coffee shop, I couldn't communicate honestly and the only thing that made me feel safe was throwing paint around and doing the paint. And some shamana talked to me about the colors and the energetics of red, orange, yellow, green, blue. You know the colors, the rainbow, and how they affect our energy. And so I started doing that and I was desperate to not kill myself. Honestly, I was so, so close to just I mean, I got guns. I'm from Wyoming and I was desperate to not kill myself. But anxious to kill myself, yeah, I was looking for the other side. So I plugged up into here and there's probably 2,000 paintings sitting around here right now and I didn't build them to sell them. I built them to, not built them made them.
Speaker 1:Whatever. That's important to point out is that it's an art studio, but these paintings are not for sale. They are a reflection Dustin and his healing and, some of them, other people's healing. These are not for sale.
Speaker 2:But now I don't think I'm through the healing process. I know this thing that's happened to my brain. I mean I flipped over a truck about seven years ago after we got here, and I got three concussions that night and the next day, stumbling around town, I crashed my head into a wall and got a fourth concussion. So in a matter of fucking 48 hours I got four concussions and it definitely shifted my paradigm about how I look at things and how I speak. I mean, you hear me, I sometimes forget words. I mean, man, I'll forget your name sometimes. It's not because I don't love you, it's Brad, by the way, but you know what I mean. I mean you've seen me for enough years.
Speaker 2:But I knew if I kept doing the painting and I use sacred geometry all the time, like that painting over your left shoulder that sacred geometry somehow gets me in the meditative mode. So for a number of years I would show up at the studio and paint sacred geometry over and, over and over, and there was something about that process of getting it out, as opposed to getting it out in a bar, getting it out with a cigarette, getting it out with a joint. I needed something sacred and this is my sanctuary, this is my holy house, and that was kind of what the first five years around here was. It was just trying to heal myself, maybe even selfishly, because I missed so much time with my family, so much time with my grandparents as they were dying. But I was just trying to not die myself and the paint saved my life. It did take me away from them. Maybe it didn't take me away. What do you mean by?
Speaker 2:them, maybe it didn't take me away. What do you mean by them? The people who've passed? Okay, you know, I found such a place of solitude because I didn't realize it. It was PTSD. I didn't know what was going on, but now I know. It's like I had to use art therapy which I didn't even know existed, but now I know. It's like I had to use art therapy which I didn't even know existed, but now I do.
Speaker 2:and ultimately, I want to help people I want people to realize that strumming the guitar, swinging the brush, is more therapeutic than the therapist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you tapped into that method of healing and know that you're about helping people.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you help people to the extent where To the detriment, yeah, to the way that it affects you and you and I have talked about this a lot and one of the really interesting things about well, I would actually say profound things about this studio in Dustin is that Dustin does not go out and look for these travelers and these people that are seeking healing. For some reason, they find Dustin, they find the studio, they are drawn because I think that they, because I keep the light on, because you keep the light on man, that's perfect.
Speaker 2:What else can we do in this fucked up life? Yeah, we got to keep the light on Everyone's hurting and there's no enemies out there. There's no enemies out there, really. I mean white, black, republican democrat. You know, all across the boards, you know we're all in this together.
Speaker 2:We're all in this together and finding enemies is the best way to die? Yeah, man, I mean asking why is the best way to die? Yeah, man, I mean asking why is the best way to die? If you want to die, keep asking why. Why did that happen? Why did that shit go down? Why, why, why, why, why, yourself to death? When I first got up here, there was this taxi cab driver, Steve, who came up here and I had this studio and the one next door and he looked around. He's like why, why, why, why. And I was irritated. I'm like fucker, I don't know why. And he goes no, you're painting. Why it's upside down inside out left to right.
Speaker 1:Literally yeah.
Speaker 2:I was painting. Why? Because it was just total abstract, not figurative abstract, it was total abstract. I just had to express. But I didn't. I didn't know what I was doing, I was just trying to get out of the pain and I didn't know how to get out of the history. And so is why? And he said, son, you're, you're painting, why all over the place? Why don't you change the words? Why don't you change it into how, or when, or healer, or healed, or something along those lines? So I started to paint words and I would just draw a word on the canvas and then I'd paint in between the lines, just to make things a little bit different.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, and it it changed yeah, actually the pivotal moment in my life as well. I was in a place quite a while ago where I couldn't get out of Y and I was looking at all these things that had happened in the past and I was trapped in them. I couldn't stop thinking about them. Same thing. It was why, why, why, why, why. And my ex-wife came up to me one day and she was like why do you keep what?
Speaker 1:And she said why, yeah, yeah, why did you marry? Why, why, why, why, why? And she said you need to tear all these things down, all these things you're trying to write to try and understand your past, and you need to figure out what's next. She was pregnant with my first daughter at the time and as soon as she said that it was a release, I dropped it. At that exact moment and it was a pivot point in my life and I began to look forward instead of backwards.
Speaker 2:I truly feel that. Why is the most dangerous word in the human language? It's historical. I mean, how is looking forward? How are we going to do this? But why is like thinking about the past? The past is done and there's no way we can change that. Why did it happen? Why did he do that? Why is she like that? Why are we going here? It's all historical. You know how, when, where those are not painfully based questions, but why. It's all historical. You know how, when, where those are not painfully based questions, but why. Why is the most? In my opinion, one of the most dangerous words we can put in our dialect, like I am, is some of the most important words you could put into your dialect. Not I was.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was is terrible, unless it's like I was trying to do.
Speaker 2:well, no you're right I was is kind of shitty, but I am. I am that I am. I am like think about some of our friends who beat themselves up. I'm a dumb ass, I'm sick, I'm sad, I am, I am. I am what I am, that I'm sick. But you think about those people who are righteous, who you like. Really see them rising up and they say I'm going to do this, I am doing this, I am healthy, I am free, I am. And those words I am. There's something so powerful. You know, we speak words into reality. I mean, I personally feel that we aren't living a world, we are living our own world. And so when we say I am going to do this, am doing this, I'm powerful, I am surrounded by wonderful people at this moment shit, right now.
Speaker 1:Look at these people around us, yeah you're sitting next to somebody that has previously been on an episode, and on sunday, another person that has previously been on an episode of this podcast will be here. That it's a tribe right. Literally sitting in this room right now. There are people that have been on this podcast that are finding the exact same things that we're talking about right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I used to do this radio show and there's something powerful about the collective.
Speaker 1:I was on it once and it made me fall in love with radio, which probably led me to this podcast you were on it that one morning yeah on the rate on the actual radio that was that was amazing. I got to say something that I needed to say we ever pull up that episode.
Speaker 2:So I learned something though harnessing the power of the collective energy. So I had this dear, dear soul who's half, thankfully, still have, this dear soul in my life, who's been going through a lot of issues with addiction. And so when I got on the radio, I just shouted out I'm like, hey, there's somebody who means a lot to me and I don't know if you're prayer people, I don't know if you're whatever imaginative people, manifestation people, whatever it is. Imagine this for this guy. Yeah, and come with me together, send up a good thought for him.
Speaker 1:And I played some sanctuary music, some tribal music I want to go back to what you said real quick, and it is the I was compared to the I am, and that's what the studio is really about. That creativity allows people to make that switch in their mindset.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, we are not marketing the studio.
Speaker 1:That's my exact point here is that it's not marketed and that you're not out there looking for people. People find this because you leave the light on, and the whole reason you hand people the paintbrush or a guitar or anything creative in here is because you found that yourself.
Speaker 2:Flow is a better addiction than the coke and the alcohol and the pain. I mean, some of us are addicted to pain yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, you're right. Some people are addicted to pain. Drama queens. I mean, why about it? Why is that? Why do you think people are addicted to?
Speaker 2:pain, attention. I think a lot of it is attention, but I'm not a psychologist. A lot of people have never felt bliss, I mean yeah what? What brings you your bliss? And it took me a long time and I damn I'm a long ways away from finding it, that's for sure. But there's days, like today, where it's like man, this has been a blissful day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Some of the most blissful days have been sitting in here in the studio with you. Days have been sitting in here in the studio with you, just you and me, and doing things like painting a medicine wheel on the floor and knowing that we are trying to bring good energy into this world. You know what I mean, and as much as I've cried during those moments, and as much as you have, when we're done with processing those emotions, we come out of it in a way that is positive, is special, and we know that we're sending that good energy into the world. Right, that's bliss. Not our own bliss, not me feeling bliss, not necessarily Dustin feeling bliss.
Speaker 1:Pushing a little forward Because we know that we're giving it to other people or we're we're sending that energy out into the world.
Speaker 2:well, I don't know if I did it for that. I did it, so I didn't fucking do something terrible to myself. I mean, I've never been one of those people who's like I'm gonna take it out on somebody else, but I was in those states where it's like I'm, I'm, I'm wanting to die today and looking for the semi-truck crossing the lane sort of slippery bridge, shit. You know, like world, take me out please. I'm too cowardly to do it myself. For a lot of years I remember when I met james brown, not that not the james, the James Brown Not.
Speaker 2:James Brown. But James Brown around here and I'm like I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know why this is happening to me and I had to come up here every fucking day. I had to come up here and just paint, paint, paint, paint paint for hours. I'm like what am I doing? And he goes you're processing. And that's an important thing. People need to, I feel, learn how to process like truly process the emotions.
Speaker 1:From that. Let me go somewhere else. Let's step out of the studio for a minute, because you found out that this doesn't just happen in the studio. You'll call me and say, Brad, get out of that dive bar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get the fuck out of that dive bar, it's not good for you and you need to get out and you need to go find something that is healthy, like sit by the river. We sit by one of the most beautiful rivers in the United States and you have told me directly you need to go do something healthy and sometimes you listen, sometimes.
Speaker 1:It's hard to get you out, but you've taken that out of this studio as well, which is a very important thing. You've found a way to heal here, even though none of us are healed. 're still in the process, but this studio is not everything no and the fact that we go out into this town in the streets and try and share the message that we've learned up here and when we're done with this town, we go into the world yeah, absolutely talk to me about this man.
Speaker 1:Like you know that, these people are traveling the world looking for healing and we are lucky enough to have found a place where we can all come together and do that.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, this is not my place, I'm just the guy that holds the keys to the door and these paintings were not made by me. And I'm empath. I'm not psychic, but somehow something comes through me Sometimes when I have to disappear into the utmost and just come up here to vibe out. I pick up a paintbrush and four hours later there's a painting in front of me. It's not me, I. I truly feel it's the energy of this neck of the woods, or the person I'm with, or what I call the great spirit, you know, I mean, some people call it god, some people call it jesus muhammad. Whatever I feel, that whatever comes through my hand is sometimes just not. It's not Dustin man.
Speaker 2:Dustin was a nerd. Dustin sucks, he does. You know. He was a nerd back in high school and a wrestler and a fighter, and in college I was just a frat boy and after college I was a businessman. And then, when my head hit the tree on a snowboard ride and car accidents, everything changed and something comes through my broken brain that I hated, man. They all sucked. I couldn't stand to look at them.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you still turn them around backwards so you can't see them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. Yeah, turn them around backwards so you can't see them. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I mean they're painted emotions that come through me, but I don't think they're all just my emotion running through.
Speaker 1:Sometimes my grandpa run through, I don't know, I'm weird you know, even if it's unintentional, every time that I walk into this studio and I see a new painting and I see your emotions on that canvas, it changes my perspective. I'll look at something and I take that with me. At the end of the day, even if it's unintentional for you, it helps me, and that happens with a lot of people that come up here and they see this, they see your paintings.
Speaker 2:Could you imagine being that guy? Though I'm sick of that, I'm not sick of it, it just it it's hard, you take a lot on your shoulders.
Speaker 2:Well, when people say, oh, dustin, you did this. This is amazing, man, I didn't do this and it's. I'm okay with the critique when people say you're not an artist, you're because I'm not dude, I'm a painter. But when people say, oh, your work is shitty, fine, I'm okay with that. But when people say, oh, that touched me, wow, that's profound. Oh, that made me cry, it's not me. It's not me.
Speaker 1:It may be I was about to say do you think that the people that come up here and have their own experience influences what you do creatively?
Speaker 2:Of course. I mean the weird thing that I figured out about writing and poetry and art and music is the prediction of the future. Like you know, this painting over here Did this painting and that person showed up. You know the images of how things. Yeah, right, you can kind of depict and predict your own future by writing it down. It's like whiteboarding, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When you're, you know, in the business world, you do your one month, three months, six months, nine months, whatever goals, also doing it through painting. So setting an intention and seeing it happen, because if you don't set an intention you're just fucking driving blind. But setting that intention and putting it on paper, putting it on ink or putting it into a song, putting it into a guitar, putting it into a podcast, right there we go. It sets intention, it sets the direction. And I'm totally in that hole man. I'm humpty, dumpty right now. I'm still a broken egg. I'm trying to not be, you know, fake it till you make it.
Speaker 2:But I think that if people who are healing do something productive other than looking at the TV and looking at their phone and sketch, etch, write something down, paint something down, dig in the garden, throw some fucking paint around, get some sheep, you know, do something other than the normal worldly shit. I'm a God man, you know.
Speaker 1:You're a God comma man. You're a God man.
Speaker 2:I'm a God man. I'm're a god man. I'm a god man. I'm not a god.
Speaker 2:To clarify a man who believes in a creator, yeah, and I believe that, whatever you call it, built us in perfection and we have our own healing energies inside of us. We we just got to hone those healing energies. And with our tribe, with your tribe, with whoever's tribe, having comrades around, having people around, because the self-made millionaire is a fucking lie. There's no one who's self-made, no one. Anyone who says I did it all on myself, don't trust him. Anyone who calls himself a shaman or a prophet or a healer or a goddess or a god fuck those people. Sorry, but any of y'all who may be calling yourself that, check it, because I'm not an artist.
Speaker 1:I just do art check it, because I'm not an artist, I just do art. That's the buddhist adage when it comes to explaining enlightenment those who know don't know, and those who don't know know you know what the cool thing about getting old is, what the older I get, the less I know oh, I thought it was because you get half off at ihop well, I'm pretty close to getting my senior discount.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what my favorite painting is? Well, one of them in this studio is those eyes that you and I did up there because that brought us together and I sketched with a pencil eyes on this canvas and dustin went over and painted over them and it's it's a connection that we have and things like this bring us together.
Speaker 2:yeah, our art at one point mixed together and that one right behind you that was made by like seven different people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, though the lion the painting that I have hung up in my house that was made by like eight people, which one is during a weekend it's the medicine wheel and like eight people came in here and added their own part to it, their own emotions, their own stories, stories.
Speaker 2:I have no clue. I've done hundreds of medicine wheels.
Speaker 1:I'll send a picture. Like Dustin said, there's 2,000 paintings in here. I'll send you a picture.
Speaker 2:When I get really spiraled, I have to do one of two things paint some sacred geometry or paint a medicine wheel, or bring someone up here that you know needs to release.
Speaker 2:No, no no, no, when I'm off, I can't help somebody release. I have to ground myself again. I can't just bring somebody up here and say like, hey, you need to paint, let me sit back and watch. Here's a space. No, I have to ground myself because I can't fill somebody else's cup if my cup is not full. Well, said so, I have to paint some sacred geometry or medicine wheel.
Speaker 1:I can't just sit back and watch somebody else express yeah I I would like to say that there has been some confusion in this podcast because it's listed in the travel section. But if you listen to the intro of my podcast, this is a sanctuary for explorers of the world and the self, and we can travel throughout the world and be explorers, but what this podcast is really about is the exploration of oneself, and that is this episode, and I think that's very important to say right now.
Speaker 2:Did you know there's no off button on this microphone?
Speaker 1:Yes, I did. There's an off button on my laptop, but you don't have access to it right now I'm done with this episode. Hey, thank you for listening you're done with this episode already. I want to ask you a few questions real quick all right shoot.
Speaker 1:You know what changing roads is about. You were here when it was born. Yeah, our roads are always changing, but we have the power to change our own roads, and that is what is important to me. It is very important to point out that we have the power to change our roads and we don't have to be bound to them. Yeah, you know, dustin, you and I have tried to record this episode a few times.
Speaker 1:Yes third time right. It's such an important episode that it needed to hit, and we've tried it on Zoom. And right now I am sitting right in front of this man and looking him in his On the medicine wheel. On the medicine wheel, yeah, and looking him in his beautiful blue eyes and sharing his energy from a foot and a half away, and that's an important thing, it's like three feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's why this episode didn't work the past few times. It's because we need to be sharing that energy between us and that is where true healing and true friendship and true tribe happens would you agree? Yes, I'm glad you have bad taste and friends I have terrible taste, and friends my wife has bad taste in men for a long time. She likes me sometimes, you better cut that out. I don't know, man, am I leaving it? She'll hate me a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's not a great fan, but she's seen this through the trials. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for tribe. The things that kept me alive throughout the dark days was my tribe, my friends, yep, and god bless the fact that I ended up on the corner of weird and strange straight. Being able to be here and keep the light on the world is so friggin dark at times, but being able to keep the light on and having a safe space for people to just express truly and not be judged like however weird you are, however weird you need to be the world's hard and in many places it's so judged.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want you to know too, before we wrap this up, that, as I've gone through my own journey and my own healing over the years that I've known you, this tribe not just you the tribe that we've built, that is our family now.
Speaker 2:It's not we that built it. No, all of us it built itself.
Speaker 1:It built itself itself and it has influenced me and kept me together and has inspired me in my own healing, my own journey and my own path. Awesome, and that's why this tribe is so important to me, and I know it's why this tribe is so important to others as well it's important yeah and one day you'll meet the rest of the tribe.
Speaker 2:I think I'm the only one who knows all the tribe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have each other's backs, always 100%, and I think we're going to leave it there, man, because you and I have.
Speaker 2:We're not going to leave it here.
Speaker 1:We're going to leave the episode here.
Speaker 2:Are we going to leave it there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not leaving the studio set up in here because it'll get covered in paint.
Speaker 2:It's a dangerous thing to leave your equipment in my studio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you and I, dustin, have touched on a lot of very heavy and very important things in this episode, and I don't think that there's any more that we really need to say. Other than if you bring your shit in my studio and leave it more than 15 minutes, it's likely gonna get painted just saying, half of my clothes have studio paint on them, and I don't even live in the same state at the moment.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been fun b yeah, absolutely, man, and I I really hope that this episode reaches people that need to hear it, and I hope that people have something to take away from this that is valuable, and I love you so much. Man, it is such a pleasure to have had this conversation with you face-to-face and not on Zoom.
Speaker 2:Good luck to editing this, I'm gonna have to edit out all my fucks, all my ums, all the dead space I might leave your fucks.
Speaker 1:All right, I'll take out the uhs and ums, but I might leave the fucks. No fucks given yeah, no fucks to give. I don't believe in censorship, and especially when the fucks come out with true emotion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a powerful word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, go, fuck off dark. We fight against the dark.
Speaker 2:Ah, they've already lost.
Speaker 1:They're just bitching. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, man.
Speaker 2:I have no worry about the darkness. Yeah, I'm not calling upon it, I'm not asking it it to be here, but it better watch out for us. Yeah, peace.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, can I ask you one more question? No, what you already asked a question what is your favorite color of paint? Cobalt blue? Why? Because it's awesome. It's the color of your eyes and the color of my eyes cobalt Metallic.
Speaker 2:Cobalt blue is my favorite.
Speaker 1:I love it. Why? Because it's the perfect color. Why? What does cobalt blue represent to?
Speaker 2:you Well, somewhere between dark and light. It's not gray, you know. On the spectrum of colors, it's pretty much right in the middle, a little higher than the middle.
Speaker 1:I don't know why.
Speaker 2:My Uncle Earl was the guy that was the painter when I was a kid and his color he bought me one time when I was trying to start painting when I was a little kid was cobalt blue and I always loved cobalt blue, love it.
Speaker 1:It's one of my favorite colors too.
Speaker 2:My least favorite color is forest green, awesome.
Speaker 1:So I would like to say that one of the biggest problems in the studio is that there's no green. No, I was going to say, we always run out of paint. So, my listeners, if you would like to send acrylic paint to this studio, it would be much appreciated. How the hell are they going to do that? All the colors Mail it. Yeah, they have my acrylic paint to this studio. It would be much appreciated. How the hell are they going to do that? All the colors Mail it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they have my email. I'll tell them how to get the paint here. There's an Instagram hashtag Hashtags in this paint. Let's do a. What's it called?
Speaker 1:Go fund me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go fund me studio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard to afford this shit. It's true, it's because we spend so much money on beer.
Speaker 2:And paint and canvas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right man. Thank you so much, dustin. I love you so much. This has been a great episode and I hope that your wife likes me a little bit more tomorrow. After hearing this, dustin, you should say goodbye to my listeners in the most profound way you can think of.
Speaker 2:You're asking a lot of me.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's why we're friends. You ask a lot of me too.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope you all have a beautiful day, a beautiful night, a beautiful tomorrow. Hug your family, hug your children, hug yourself. Look, you're safe, look yourself straight in the mirror and love yourself. And it's all right to not be all right sometimes, yep, but just keep doing you and walk with integrity, walk tall, walk with honor and know, in my opinion, creator has your back. You may not have your back, your friends may not have your back, your family may not have your back. Creator has your back. Just walk with integrity, keep doing that.
Speaker 1:Do the next right thing. Why not Not? Why how?
Speaker 2:Not, why how?
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. Right, dustin, I love you. Thank you, my listeners, for joining us for this episode. Please send paint is badly needed. Hit me up on my email and I will give you instructions on how to send us paint. You can find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. So I hope you guys have a wonderful day. Thank you again and we will see you next time. Bye, guys, thank you.