“Wisdom From The Woods” - Psychology Meets Mother Nature

What if the forest could translate psychology into plain language you can feel in your body? We sit down with clinical psychologist and author Mark Langenfeld to unpack Wisdom from the Woods, a pocket-sized devotional designed to guide a year of growth through practical nature metaphors, guided imagery, and mindful practice. From juggling as whole-brain therapy for dyslexia to moonlit walks that dissolve labels, Mark shows how storm clouds, willow trunks, and flower buds can teach forgiveness, patience, and grounded resilience without a single clinical buzzword.

We explore how to balance two modes of attention—hawk vision for planning and owl focus for execution—so you anticipate challenges without getting blindsided or burned out. Mark’s story of an owl’s tragic tunnel vision becomes a memorable reminder to shift perspective on purpose. He also opens the book’s structure: 52 stand-alone chapters with a subject index that lets you jump straight to anxiety, assertiveness, habit change, mindfulness, relationships, or visualization. Each chapter offers clear imagery, accessible exercises, and the kind of field-ready wisdom you can carry on a hike and apply the same day.

Beyond ideas, the conversation lands in service. Mark donates 100% of his author royalties to student nutrition at Northwood Technical College because learning starts with a full stomach. That choice fits the book’s ethos: wisdom should feed people. If you’re craving mental health tools that are practical, poetic, and portable, this episode will give you strategies you can try on your next walk—breathe like a storm that passes, stand like a willow that bends, and remove the old thorns that still catch on your sleeve.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more listeners find these nature-driven tools for clarity, focus, and well-being.

_______

Bio: 

Mark Langenfeld is the author of Wisdom from the Woods, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from Alliant International University in Fresno, CA. He teaches psychology and sociology at Northwood Technical College in Superior, WI. Before teaching, he worked as a therapist for several years. Additionally, he presents workshops at conferences on various topics dealing with improving psychological well-being. His hobbies include juggling, hiking, gardening, meditation, rock collecting, fishing, and doing random acts of kindness.

My book, Wisdom from the Woods, is the culmination of a lifetime of observations, writing, and reflection on the natural world. The stories in my book are very relatable to the average person.

100% of the author's royalties are donated to the students' Nutrition Assistance Program through the Northwood Technical College Foundation. 

Facebook: @MarkLanenfeld 

Transcript

Host Intro And Guest Setup

GDC 0:01

Welcome to Belief Being and Beyond with your host, Granddaughter Crow. Hi everybody, Granddaughter Crow here with yet another episode of Belief Being and Beyond. Okay, so this time I had a tall order. I was looking for a psychologist that spent a lifetime checking out the woods, observing the woods, getting lessons from the woods, writing about it and reflecting, and putting it into a devotional book that we could utilize for a year. Yeah, that's a tall order, but guess what? I found him. And I'm going to bring him on in just a moment. But before I do, let me tell you who I found to bring to you today. So it is Mark Langenfeld, and he's an author of Wisdom from the Woods. Wisdom from the Woods, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from Alliant International University in Fresno, California. And he also teaches psychology and sociology. I wonder how much of that wisdom he got from the woods, right? At Northwood Technical College in Superior, Wisconsin. So before teaching, he did work as a therapist for several years. Additionally, he presented workshops at conferences on various topics dealing with improving psychological well-being. And it's just really kind of incredible to me because in his improving psychological well-being, he found himself in Mother Nature. And if you guys know anything about Granddaughter Crow, you know that is my jam. So his hobbies include juggling. We're gonna have to talk a little bit about that just because juggling, hiking, gardening, meditation, rock collecting, of course. All my listeners are probably rock collectors fishing and doing random acts of kindness, such as being on the show with me today. So without further ado, we have Mark. Hello, Mark. Say hello to the audience.

Mark L 2:27

Hello, everyone, and thank you for having me on your show. I do appreciate it.

Juggling As Neuro Therapy

GDC 2:32

Oh, it's a gym. It really, really is a gym. I mean, it's almost like a no-brainer because your book, which we are gonna get into after we talk a little bit about juggling, of course, is Wisdom from the Woods. And we are gonna talk about that, but I kind of mentioned in the intro why it was such a perfect match, because I, as Granddaughter Crow, wrote Wisdom of the Natural World. And so I'm like, oh, this is going to be a very interesting conversation because I too am a student of Mother Earth and I absolutely love it. So before we get into the book, juggling, my friend, juggling. Where, what, how?

Mark L 3:25

Well, that's an interesting story because it was and still is a way for me to accommodate my learning disability. When I was in elementary school, I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and so I had difficulties not only getting letters and numbers reversed, but with my dexterity and penmanship. Got it. And eye coordination. And so it wasn't until I was in junior high, I think I was 14 years old, that I took a summer school drama course. And so I learned how to juggle. And I practiced for probably, I bet I practiced for a good six months before I was fluent in it. And so what that did for me was it helped me become what we call whole-brained, the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere, and the corpus callosum is that cord that connects the two hemispheres. And so when you use both of your hands at the same time, you're using your whole brain. And that's what I was practicing when I juggled. So it notably improved my dexterity, my hand-eye coordination, uh, fine motor skills. And so I still have dyslexia. It's not like it went away, but I learned how to manage it better through the skill of juggling.

GDC 5:00

That is absolutely incredible because that's one thing that I talk about in some of my books and also talk about in different things that I do is the balance within the right and the left hemisphere, and how sometimes we just whether it is because of dyslexia or even just a disconnect where we're hovering, doing any type of you know, right, left, right, left drumming, and now I can include juggling and refer them to you.

Mark L 5:34

Yes.

GDC 5:34

I love that.

Mark L 5:36

Exactly a therapeutic tool.

Nature As Psychological Teacher

GDC 5:38

That's what I'm saying, and I didn't even know, you know. And so that's it's so interesting to me because you then not only were able to master writing, obviously, you're a published author by Llewellyn Worldwide with wisdom from the woods. So thank you, the spirit of juggling, for helping bring us mark. I absolutely love it. So, okay, before we get into the book two, I gotta, I love psychology. I love sociology. Those are not something that I have a degree in, but for me, it's something that, like, if I were to do my life again, or maybe in a parallel universe, I that's exactly what I would study because I find human behavior and all of that so beautiful. And it's interesting to me because when I was writing about wisdom of the natural world, uh, spiritual and practical knowledge from plants, animals, and Mother Earth, to me, the natural world provided a touchstone or a basis, a core practice to be able to see the balance, the beauty, and all the lessons for a healthy life, for psychology, for balance. And apparently you see that too. So before we talk a little bit, let's kind of ease into it. Psychology, what drew you to that? And then also, how did you how do you tie it in with the woods?

Mark L 7:34

Yes, uh, psychology has always interested me because it's the understanding of yourself and your emotions and your thoughts. And sociology is the understanding of other people, our interaction with other people. So that's what originally drew me to psychology because it resonated with me. And then my whole life I've been hiking and going into the woods, and I started noticing the parallels with human behaviors and things as simple as okay, sometimes I come back from hiking and I've been in the brush, and I may have a thorn, and I notice that, you know, it's such a thin, almost like hair-thin thorn, and I can't always get them out. But whenever I move up my sleeve or something, it touches that thorn and it irritates me. And I'm like, hmm, you know what? That's just like painful memories. Hurts from the past. I if I don't totally get rid of them, if I don't let them go and release them, then I may forget them, but as soon as something touches it, as soon as something reminds me of that past memory, it's like touching the thorn, it brings it back. And so people need to do the psychological work of removing that thorn. In the book, I talk a little bit about forgiveness, and I make it clear when I say forgiveness, I don't mean you're excusing the destructive behavior of someone else. Right. I'm saying you are letting go of the bitterness and you're letting go of the resentment while at the same time holding the perpetrator responsible for his or her behavior. So that's releasing the thorn.

GDC 9:40

I love that. I absolutely love that because it's something that I really enjoy about your work or your book, is that these are wonderful like wisdom that you bring to us, but anybody could understand that. Like you could explain that to a kindergartner and explain to them that the thorn is there, let's pull it out, let's heal, and let's so that we don't have to continue to do that. And so that's another thing that I really enjoy is that the woods brought you very practical teachings that psychology, you know, talks about in at length in these like $20 words that people can't necessarily always understand, but you solidify it into the grounded woods. Yeah. So how did you okay? So you've been out hiking, juggling in the woods, if you will. No, I just think but and looking for stones and and and looking around. When did it start? I mean, was it always there? This uh that it was showing you a model about human behavior and about psychology and self and others, or did it just hit you one day? How did that develop, the the correlation between the wisdom of the woods and our practical life?

Forgiveness And The Thorn Metaphor

Mark L 11:14

The lessons and the messages have always been there. I receive them when I set my ego aside, and I humble myself to receive the messages from Mother Nature in whatever form. And it can be as simple as a tree or the clouds or the water. So I want to make it clear: this is not my wisdom. I'm not claiming ownership of any of this. I am uh conduit, picking up the messages that Mother Nature has out there, usually in the form of metaphors, and I am putting that into a book, sharing it. So I'm not taking credit for the wisdom, I'm just passing it on from Mother Nature. So, to the point of your question, it didn't just suddenly hit me. I notice these things when I am still, when I am silent, and when I set aside my ego and my identity and my sense of separateness, and when I realize I'm not separate, then oh, I start seeing things that are right before me, and I start noticing, you know, there's a storm coming and the winds are blowing, but notice that weeping willow, the top branches are whipping back and forth, and it looks like the tree is in turmoil, but I look at the trunk, and the trunk is stable, and we too can be like that. We can be grounded, we can be stable, and yet all this chaos is going on around us, and our branches are flying back and forth, but we're still stable in our foundation. Those metaphors have always been there, but I have to humble myself to recognize them when they're right there.

GDC 13:16

Yeah, I love that because when when people walk in or say, you know, the woods, you know, it has a connotation of like the forest and all these trees and this lush. And so they're like, they might automatically think, well, just the woods being the trees or druidic type of, you know, just like that first, I guess, at first blush, you think that, but you just brought up, oh no, it has to do with the weather, it has to do with the clouds, it has to do with the whole organism interacting. And I love that it actually makes me want to ask you animism, a question about animism. What is animism? Do you believe, or I can describe animism? Let me just tell you that, guys, animism is something that I hold very, very dear as granddaughter crow. I believe that everything has a soul, and in such, I translate that as a personality of sort, that everything is alive, especially when you walk into the natural world. And so I'm tossing this kind of sideball at Mark to see what do you think, Mark, about animism and the woods?

Mark L 14:41

Certainly everything has what I would call a life vibration. And that's not even an opinion. That can be proven scientifically, that even something like a stone, the molecules are vibrating ever so slightly. It may appear to be a solid surface on the table, but even the molecules are slightly vibrating. Well, that has energy. So everything has some sort of vibration, some sort of life energy. And usually the message is in what it is showing us, how it is connecting and playing a part of nature. So I don't need to tell people, oh well, this symbol means that, and that symbol means that. No, I don't tell people what to think. I simply point out, look at what it's doing. We mentioned a moment ago, storm clouds. Okay? Storm clouds rage for a while, their strong wind blows, and then they move on. Well, I need to be that way too. When I am upset, I say what I want to say, I let my, you know, energy like anger blow out of me, and then I'm quiet. I don't go on and on. And I talk about that in the book, how when you need to say something and it's it's a burning desire, be like the storm. Just let your wind blow and then stop. Don't keep on and on and on. The storm doesn't go on forever. It says what it needs to say and then it moves on. So there's always these lessons there, and there's always that energy in every single object, every single element.

Animism And Nature’s Energy

GDC 16:34

I absolutely love that. I agree with that. And so now let's dive a little bit into your book, Wisdom from the Woods. Um, so this is broken down into 52 chapters. Because there's 52 work weeks in a year. Do I get an A on that? Do I did I I got it. I got it. 52. And so it really is a devotional, and each chapter is dedicated to different wisdom. Like, walk us through what people will find in your book and how kind of it works. Sure.

Mark L 17:17

At the back of the book, they list what is called subject chapter index.

GDC 17:25

Got it.

Inside The Book’s Structure

Mark L 17:26

And it's on page 277. And so whatever your particular issue or concern or interest may be, I'll just read through some of these. Yes. Under the category of behaviors, let's say you're interested in that, there's chapters on addiction. And then it lists four different chapters. Chapter 13, 33, 38, 49, and then assertiveness. If you want to read about assertiveness, it lists several chapters for that. Bad habits, breathing, perseverance, self-nurturing. And then it goes on to another category, emotions. So if you want to read about emotions, you can look at the subject index and you can say, oh, okay. They cover anger and list several chapters, anxiety, depression, fear, happiness, self-acceptance, stress, and then it lists all the chapters that talk about those things. Then they talk about the category of metaphors. And I have areas such as large birds, like hawks and eagles, small birds like chickadees, carnivores, dog wisdom, elements, herbivores, insects, plants, trees, water creatures, then another category, relationships. A lot of people want to know about that. Well, if you just want to dive right into the chapters that deal with relationships, it breaks it down here in the subject index. Families, interconnectedness, romantic relationships. So you can just dive right into any of those. And then a category of thoughts. Okay, well, I'm interested in changing my thoughts and my attitude. Alright, well, there's a subdivision of on forgiveness. Five chapters on that. Mindfulness, perspective. And then the last category is visualization techniques. When I was getting my doctorate in clinical psychology, I had to pick, as we all do, a dissertation topic. So I chose the topic of hypnotic pain management for people with HIV and AIDS. Wow. And that dissertation was successful. It was a two-year treatment study. And I had been clinically trained in clinical hypnosis. Just to be clear, it's not stage hypnosis.

GDC 20:15

Right.

Mark L 20:15

And I specialized in hypnotic pain management. So I include, of course, a lot of visualizations in these chapters, and it lists them. If you want to just jump to them, look at the subject chapter index, and it says guided imagery, chapter 4, chapter 10, chapter 24, chapter 28, chapter 34. So there are plenty of areas in my book where I have you close your eyes and visualize something, and you go on a guided meditation. All of those things are included in this book. And you can kind of pick and choose what you want depending on what your uh preference may be.

GDC 20:58

I absolutely love it because it's so it's basically one of those books. Like for me, what I would do if I didn't, you know, if I didn't have a topic that I wanted to do, I'd be like, just kind of open it up wherever and see what the book wants to say to me. And it's yeah, and it's just so incredible because it's not necessarily a read straight through book. It's more of a devotional. Is that how you would describe it?

Mark L 21:31

Yeah, a person can look at the contents and see the chapter titles. I purposely made the chapter titles to be very descriptive, so you get a good sense of what the chapter is all about. So even, I mean, it may take a while because it's 52 chapters, but even if you just read through the chapter titles, you see, oh, okay. This one says, chapter four, the kind-hearted grandmother moon. Okay, I want to read about that. And then later on, let's say chapter 26, Grandfather Son teaches by example. And I talk about how, you know, the sun shines on everyone equally. The sun does not discriminate, nor do I. And that comes to me because when I'm out there in the world, I realize there's no need for us to discriminate against other people. The sun doesn't discriminate, the sun shines equally on everybody. And that came to me in a real life situation where it was May Day, and I was giving little May Day baskets to all my neighbors, and one of my neighbor who didn't get along with another neighbor said, Well, I hope you didn't give one to so-and-so down the street. And I'm like, Yeah, I did. Well, why'd you give him one? And I said to him, Because I'm like the sun. I shine on everyone without discriminating.

GDC 23:08

I love it.

Mark L 23:10

So just reading through the chapter titles, you get a good sense of what that particular chapter is going to be about.

GDC 23:17

I absolutely love that. You know, a lot of times, especially, you know, with the internet and people connecting and social media and all of this, there's a lot of different people coming up with all sorts of bizarre belief systems and you know, all of this kind of cult this and Kool-Aid that and tennis shoe this and all of that man-made type of thing, which always makes me kind of go, wait, but I want something that's tried and true. And when I return to Mother Earth, that's where I'm like, oh, it was here before us. In my opinion, it'll be here after us. It holds, it is my greatest teacher. When somebody asks me, Granddaughter Crow, who is your mentor? And I'm like, uh, the wisdom of the natural world. My my mentor is butterflies, flowers, trees, storms, landscapes. And so I find it just so beautiful that because you are, you know, a clinical psychologist, you are a professor, and you see the same thing, kind of makes me go, I saw it right. You know, it's just uh it's such a beautiful, beautiful thing. Would you share with us um how about the other day I was talking with you about flower petals and being what patient, or what would you say? Share that story with us.

Patience Lessons From Flowers

Mark L 25:01

Well, this is when I lived out in the country. I currently live in town, but for 20 years I lived out in the country, and I had a nice uh vegetable garden and a flowering garden, and I particularly like irises, and so I had planted some hybrid irises, and they were all different colors, but they hadn't bloomed yet, so I was wondering, okay, when are they gonna bloom? And one of them had a nice large bud, and I was like, okay, tomorrow morning it's gonna it's gonna bloom, and it didn't. And then the next day it didn't. And then I after about three days, I was like, oh come on, because it was starting to open up, and I'm like, come on, come on, come on. And I got impatient, and so I I started to pry open and peel back some of the petals, and I was able to force it to open, but it looked tattered and it looked ragged, and I was like, oh, yeah, I got to satisfy my curiosity and see what color it was, but I didn't let nature bring this to fruition in her own time. So you see, there's the lesson there about being patient. Let things happen naturally, and we need to be patient with ourselves as well as each other. It may not be the right time. If things aren't happening as fast as you want them to happen, realize that Mother Nature may have a different timeline.

GDC 26:38

Or a different reason that is even beyond what maybe we can see at that moment. I love it because it it kind of reminds me of like you being a little kid waiting for, you know, Christmas morning and it didn't show up, or you know, and that kind of an excitement and anticipation. I really love the ability to learn lessons like that. I mean, one could say the same thing about a project and compare it to, you know, but I've got a timeline and it's supposed to go live at this time. Maybe take a wisdom from okay, but it might not be ready. And if you wait till its intelligence, its wisdom, its vibration is there. And plus, you never know. I mean, maybe it was waiting for the sun to hit it in a certain way. We don't know, but the the wisdom of being able to have patience with yourself as well as even just projects.

Mark L 27:48

Yes, that's very true. There's another chapter that I deal with that's very similar to that, where it talks about don't tug on the plants to make them grow faster. And that talks about the exact same thing. If you're growing a garden and you're waiting for these plants to hurry up and grow, it does no good to pull on the plants to try to stretch them. You're just gonna uproot them. So there's that lesson as well. Let things happen naturally. Yes.

GDC 28:23

I absolutely agree. You know, with me, um, when I do one-on-one sessions and somebody is talking to me about, you know, a project that they have, or even doing, you know, a small business or things like that, and they're like, but I've been working on this for like three months. It should launch, or I've been my first year wasn't as productive as I thought it would be, you know. Does you know, isn't the divine smiling on my project? Like, what's wrong? And they get so frustrated, and I'm like, are you growing like a little a little plant or are you growing a tree? Because if you're growing a tree, it's gonna take time. But if you're gonna grow a little plant, that's fine, but it's gonna have shallow roots. And and then if you think about it, what if I were growing this tree and I tug on it and I pull, I unearth the whole thing and it disconnects it. And so it is once again wisdom from the woods. So tell us about like, do you go out into the woods with a lantern? Because the beauty of this cover has that lantern in the mystical moonlight, which I'm all about, stars, the moon, as you can see with my background. But how do you do you go out into them under the moonlight or how do you do this practice?

Mark L 29:58

I often, but not always, go out into the woods in the moonlight, particularly on a full moon, because then there's more light that lights the path, and I'm able to sit more quietly and observe nature, and I compare that to some of the day creatures as well. And I compare, for example, the hawk and the owl, because the hawk has the big picture, the hawk looks to the horizon and can see what's coming up, and we need to do that too, like you mentioned, some of our projects. We need to be able to say, okay, well, here's what might be happening, here's what could be coming down the pike. The owl, on the other hand, is very, very focused. The owl will focus on what it wants, and it develops what I what I would call tunnel vision. And I've actually read about this. I've I've done my scientific research, and the owl, once it sees its prey, let's say a mouse, it focuses on that to the exclusion of all else. Now we need a balance. We need to have that broad vision for a while, but we can't only have the broad vision because we have to deal with the here and now. Yeah. We also need to deal, like the owl, with being sharply focused on what we're doing at the moment, but we don't want to get so focused that we're blindsided by something coming in from the side that we didn't see because we developed tunnel vision. And I have a rather sad, tragic story to share about the owl. When I'm originally from Minnesota, I went to California to get my doctorate in clinical psychology, and I would occasionally go up to the Sierra Mountains in the foothills. And one day, one night, as I'm driving up the foothills to the Sierra Mountains, there were all there was some traffic, there was a truck in front of me, and I saw an owl come down and dive right in front of the truck and got killed.

GDC 32:24

Wow.

Mark L 32:25

And I pulled over and I picked up the owl and I put it in my car and I took it home and I buried it in a respectful manner. And then I talked with the DNR and I said, Why would an owl do that? It looked like the owl was committing suicide. It went right from the tree and dove right in front of the semi. And the Department of Natural Resources explained to me that if a mouse crosses the road and an owl sees it, the owl will get tunnel vision and it will focus on that mouse and dive right in, and it will not see anything else. It will not pay any attention to anything else. And it dove in and got killed. And I thought, now that's a heavy metaphor for life. How many of us in life have gotten so fixated on some little minute detail that we got blindsided, perhaps in business, perhaps in a relationship? And it's like, well, where did that come from? I didn't see that bill coming. I didn't see that expense. I didn't see that uh relationship problem. That just blindsided me because we were so focused on something else. So we need to have both hawk vision and owl vision. And there's a couple of different places in my book where I talk about that.

GDC 33:49

I love that because once again, people were talking about the wisdom from the woods so that we can, it's a devotional where you can, it's kind of self-help, self-healing, and it explains the world around us not from a cultural point of view, not from a religious point of view, and but from a natural world point of view, which to me is our greatest teacher. I already said that, but I'm saying it again. So you said something at the beginning that is still tickling my mind, and so I want to ask you. So at first you were describing that you go out into the woods and you're still and you set aside the ego, and it kind of sounded like you were alluding to setting aside the ego helped you to understand that you were not separate from. Did I catch that right?

Mark L 34:52

Right. Yeah.

GDC 34:53

Could you could you tell us a little bit more? Because I would love to hear how you articulate that because I feel it, but I don't know how to articulate it. How do you what what's going on there?

Losing Labels In The Woods

Mark L 35:06

I articulate it in this way. The woods absorb me, and I disappear into the forest. Now it mentions at the at the front of the book that I practice both paganism and Buddhism. And so there's elements of earth spirituality and there's elements of mindfulness in the book. When I go into the woods, not only am I worshiping the earth goddess as a pagan, but I'm also meditating as someone who practices Buddhism. And I noticed that when I sit there, perhaps on a moss-covered log, the more I let go of all the things that I think I am, I start to disappear and get absorbed into the woods. What do I mean by disappear? Well, the labels fall off of me because there's no one around me to tell me who I should be. For example, I sit there and there's no one to tell me you're a man. So I forget that I'm a man. There's no one to tell me my age. There's no one to tell me that my skin is pale. My ethnicity doesn't matter when I'm sitting in the woods. There's no one to tell me that I have dyslexia. There's no one to tell me any of these things. Society labels me all the time. And I don't like that. I don't like being labeled because it's like being branded. Like everybody, you know, I have my preferences, I have my sexual orientation, I have my likes and dislikes, and that may matter when I'm interacting with other people. Right. But when I'm in the woods, all of those labels seem to fall away, and thus my identity temporarily falls away, and I get absorbed into nature. That's where I disappear. And that's what I mean when I say I set aside my ego. I disappear and I become one with Mother Nature.

GDC 37:35

Um of separation. And, you know, people, um, not just identification, but this this separation. There's a lot of people um feeling like they're separate from, uh, feeling lonely, discouraged, uh, sense that they don't belong, sense that they need to watch what they're saying. But when I what I'm hearing you say and how I interpret that, it's kind of like if you go into Mother Nature, if you sit within the woods and you allow yourself to slow down and to release the labels and everything, all of a sudden you get a sense that you are a part of, not separate from. And, you know, when I see that and when I experience that happening with me, that's when the birds start flying and dive bombing me and the chipmunks come up and start talking to me because they they almost sense that you now know that you are having an energetic exchange with them instead of walking in there with a camera, taking pictures like an observer that they all have to hide. What do you think about that?

Mark L 38:54

Yeah, I totally agree. The elements, the animals, even the insects, the butterflies, the dragonflies, they all feel that your energy has changed once you let go of all those things like labels. And along with labels are also the roles that we played. And I think it's very important to let go of those roles when we're in the woods. Because at work, my job is I'm a teacher, I'm an instructor, not when I'm in the woods. Right. So we need to let go of those roles, and a lot of people embrace their roles like it's an identity. Well, when I'm in nature, I don't have to play the role of a man.

GDC 39:45

Right.

Mark L 39:46

And society tells me how men should act, and society tells me how someone my age should act, and society tells me how gay people are supposed to act, and you better play along, and you better play the role because. This is what we expect from you. And you're a white person, so you need to do this, this, and the other thing, and you're not allowed to do those things because that's not you know, I let go of all of those roles. I love it. And I just sit and I'm just being myself, connected with the earth goddess, and I'm not concerned with what other people think. And that's where I think perhaps my energy aura changes, and the animals and the other creatures come out because they're they're sensing that my aura has changed. And they'll you'd be surprised how close the animals will get to you once they realize that you're not a threat.

GDC 40:44

I absolutely love that. I love that. You know, Mark, there's another thing that I really want to share with the listeners about wisdom from the woods, and it has to do with a part of your bio that says random acts of kindness. Apparently, 100% of your royalties are donated to students' nutritional assistance program out of the Northwood Technical College Foundation.

Mark L 41:22

Right.

GDC 41:25

So tell us where that random act of kindness came from, your passion, and just know people. Pick up wisdom from the woods. You can buy anywhere you get books if you want to support your local bookstores. Go down there and ask them. If they don't have it in stock, they can order it direct from Llewellyn. And when you do so, you are also feeding a fund that will help support nutrition. Talk to us about why you did that and what this passion is.

Kindness And Feeding Students

Mark L 42:03

Food equals love. And that is something that is talked about in psychology when I was enrolled as a student. We learned that in all cultures, not only do parents feed their young, but when you get together for a family reunion, for a wedding, for a funeral, for any sort of gathering, just having guests over, you feed them. It's your way of showing that you care and you love. And so I started donating my time at the Damiano Center in Duluth, Minnesota, volunteering at the soup kitchen. And I've done that for at least 10 years. And since the pandemic, they haven't needed me as much, so I'm only on call. But for a good 10 years, I was down there every Sunday volunteering and feeding people. It makes me feel good about myself to feed hungry people. At the college where I teach, they have the nutritional assistance program for the students where they get grocery cards, grocery vouchers, and they can go out and buy groceries because a lot of our students don't have enough money for themselves or their families. How can we expect them to study and pay attention and learn when their stomachs are empty? So for years before this book, I was donating to the student nutrition assistance program to help feed the students. And then when I got my contract with Llewellyn to get my book published, I thought, well, why not donate my royalties to the student nutrition assistance program? I'm already giving to that program every year anyway. So I decided to make an agreement with the school to give 100% of my author's royalties, you know, after taxes, of course, to the student nutrition assistance program. And that way the students can get fed, they can feed their families, and that's one less worry for them to have on their mind. I did not come from a rich family. When I went to school, I had to pay for my own schooling, for my undergrad, my master's, and my doctorate. My parents were not able to afford to pay for any of it, not even groceries. So I know what it's like to, as a student, okay, when I was in my doctoral program, we would get together with other students and we would say, Where can we get the best deals? Who has the coupons? Uh, where do they have a food shelf? And some students would even say, Well, you know, that nightclub down the street, at noon, they actually have a buffet and it's free hors d'oeuvres. All you have to do is order a soda pop and you get free hors d'oeuvres. And so we would hunt down these places where we could get a good deal on food. And I'm like, okay, if I did that when I was a student, certainly the students today need to get some assistance with their nutritional needs. So my heart goes out to the students who are hungry, and I think that food equals love.

GDC 45:23

I absolutely love that. So, listeners, other ways that you can support this is not only purchase and gift, purchase this and give it to other people. If you already share this video, get the word out there, put it, do book reviews on your social media, go to Goodreads andor Amazon or whatever you're comfortable with if you'd like and give it a review. Because when you do that, then a book, the algorithm, blah, blah, blah. I don't know all about it, but I know that they help give this book a review so that it can get out there into the hands of others that not only will be nourished by what is inside in a very practical way, but also nourish literally college students who then are going to be a part of our leadership team in the future.

Mark L 46:21

Yes. In fact, I I jokingly say to my some of my students, because we have many different programs here. One of them is the nursing program. And I jokingly say, I really want to teach you well because you may be the nurse that takes care of me someday when I'm in a nursing home.

GDC 46:39

True. It is true. I mean, let's take care of our students because, yeah, they are going to decide our fate, so to speak. Absolutely. Mark, it has been so lovely. Is there any other thing that you would like to share about you or your book, Wisdom from the Woods, with the listening audience?

Portable Field Guide And Closing

Mark L 47:04

One little fun thing. Llewellyn purposefully made this book able to fit in your jacket pocket so you can take it with you into the woods.

GDC 47:17

See.

Mark L 47:18

This is a little bit smaller than standard size. I'll hold it up to my face. So you can see this is roughly about like five inches by four and a half inches. So you can fit this into your jacket pocket, take it with you into the woods as a field guide, if you will.

GDC 47:40

Also, to be able to sit there and read some of these things after you go through the practice of stillness and then actually start getting into the vibe of whoa, I am supported within my life with the wisdom from the woods. Mark, thank you so much. It has been an absolute delight. Thank you for writing this video. Oh, I appreciate you too. Until next time, people like, subscribe, share, etc. But please, please, please, this one in particular to help students get groceries, pick up wisdom from the woods. Until then, I love you and we'll see you on the flippity flip.