Do you hear the whisper of that inner voice, telling you to lean in to the mystery of life? Can you hear the call to adventure? My guest, Cory Richardson (aka Rusty Cutts), shares how he broke out of his limiting beliefs and habits to create a life full of creativity and wonder. Cory's journey is nothing short of inspiring. I hope this episode provides you the spark to stop waiting and start co-creating the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
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Cory Richardson 0:00
It's okay to be weird weird is good weird means that you're not just falling the fall in the crowd that you're allowing yourself to be yourself. You know, so I my friends are the weirdest you know, my friends are. I think my friends are all stars actually. They're all stars in their own ways. They do things that are uniquely themselves and they accept themselves for who they are.
Stuart Murray 0:33
Welcome to episode number 11 of the connected movement podcast. I'm your host, Steve Murray. Are you disillusioned with our old outdated systems and stories? Are you tired of the growing polarization in society? So am I my aim is to engage in and unpack conversations with people from all walks of life as a means of CO creating a way forward for humanity. Today's guest is Corey Richardson. Corey loves adventure and watching plants grow now at 44 home on Dream Seed Farm and Jen sack he finds balance between family life and making a living doing many creative endeavors rooted but still dreaming. Corey has traveled the world and during his adventures actively participates in and enriches the communities that he visits. This has included but is not limited to serving for disaster relief in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina, hosting a circus school in Mexico, starting an NGO called chat to the future, which funded two new orphanages in Uganda. Cory is the owner of hanging hugs a custom luxury hammock brand, which promotes values of freedom and comfort in nature. He also recently purchased 10 acres of forest to create a community project under the dream seed banner, which will host endless summer camps for egalitarian experiential education. Based on talking circles, you can connect with Cory and his many projects and visions through his website hanging hugs.com I really hope you enjoy this episode. And before we dive in a thank you to our sponsor, Karen Phytoplankton. Many daily discomforts are the result of malnourishment. You may be malnourished, if you crash in the afternoon, you have digestive issues, you get lots of headaches, have trouble sleeping, that muscle or joint pain, have trouble concentrating and so on. The good news is the right supplementation can help with this. I've personally benefited from using Karen Phytoplankton, which has helped me find more energy in the afternoons and beat that crash. You can find Karen Phytoplankton products at Costco locations or online at the Karen project.ca. Without further ado, let's dive in.
So, Cory, when you when you were young, you mentioned that you almost went into military school, and wanted to become a chopper pilot. And in your high school days, there was a big shift that happened for you you want to share for us?
Cory Richardson 3:14
For sure. Well, for me is 12 to 17. I was in Army Cadets. And I wanted to be a chopper pilot because I thought that would be the coolest job. And then I was in high school chemistry class and watching sunglasses and off the water off of you know, around Partridge Island. And I thought how cool it would be to be out kayaking, like what am I doing inside on a beautiful day like this, wasting my time learning about quadratic equations or not learning about quadratic equations. So I went down into high school library, and within the span of a half an hour planned on my life from age 17 to 35. Of what I then thought would be, you know, the coolest life that I could possibly have, because I really am a goal oriented person, I need to have some sort of direction to be excited about. And so I plan to pull out an atlas and I was just looking at the world and I plan to kayak from Vancouver to Nicaragua, to like through this, Lake Nicaragua, the San Juan River. And the reason why I chose there is because there's like a 13 mile Portage from the Pacific Ocean into Lake Nicaragua to get down to San Juan River into the Caribbean. And then from there, I could follow the coast up to the Yucatan and then the Yucatan Peninsula where like Cancun is you can kayak across to Cuba and Cuba to Florida with just like only like 90 miles and then all the way back up the intercostal waterway to Canada and I would arrive I have home right? In St. John. But at that time, I'd never been in kayak before. And so I bought a kayak, I bought a folding kayak, which I have actually recently, kayak, portions of the coast of Cuba in my folding kayak with my wife. We I bought a folding kayak for her to, and but anyway, I'm 17 years old planning out my life of, you know, how am I going to do this, you know, like, what, what's, what's the theme of this project. And I called it max at school living an adventure novel. And Max was an action hero. And Max is an acronym for motivational academic experience. So I created this, this image in my mind of the person that I want it to become. And then I stepped into that role. So I, I actually went to cable television, you know, like to cable 10 at the time. And I created a television show called extreme adventures where I went scuba diving and skydiving, and had, you know, a camera crew follow me. And this is all for free. I'm just doing it for the experience, right. But on the show, they called me max. So it helped, you know, build that character in a way, right? Because I again, I'm like, from that moment that I planned out my life. I'm just, I told everybody, this is what I'm going to do. So I don't back out of it, right. I mean, this is, this is now who I am. I'm Max. And so at age 19, I left from Vancouver. With Oh, I should just say i i By the time I was ready to leave on my trip, I had bought this folding kayak and kayak to school. Like, in the mouth of like the harbor, the St. John harbor and around parts of Jilin this stuff and had some adventures kayaking, from like, St. Martin's to home and St. John's. So, you know, I was like, I mean, it's on the Bay of fun day. It has a lot of currents, but not being swell. So starting in Vancouver, and kayaking down the coast, the West Coast, United States is, you know, a big jump. There's huge waves crashing on the beach of Washington and Oregon, and California. And when I posted my trip when I said I'm going to do this trip on kayaking forums, this was before, you know, this is, you know, chat rooms and stuff for kayaking. Back in the day, right, this is we're talking, you know, 1997 here.
I told people, this is what I was going to do. And they're placing bets on where my dead body was going to wash up on the shore. So they didn't have much faith that I was actually going to make it. So I put my kayak in in Vancouver, and I had bought a kayak there. So I I picked it up in Vancouver, loaded it full of gear, including my laptop. And, you know, it was just so heavy that all the gear that I was carrying, you know, and I paddled down to Seattle, Seattle, Washington through the Puget Sound very beautiful. Had no problem and then i the whole idea was like paddler walk the whole way. So I would you know, put my kayak on a cart, I had a little like cart with, you know, folding cart with wheels that I could put on the highway if I wasn't going to, you know, paddle I could, you know, find some other way to get there and walk with the boat. So I got to the chilis river by doing like a 10 mile long Portage. And, like walking with all my stuff down the highway and people pulled over and like, hey, why don't you just throw your kayak on? And, you know, I'll take you and I'm like, no, no, I'm gonna do this all by myself, right. And then I get to the Black River and the Black River. I mean, I couldn't have known it at the time. But the Black River was just like, choked with logs and stuff log jams. And it was a real challenge to get down through it, but it took me to the chain helis river which took me out to Grays Harbor on the coast of Oregon, on the coast of Washington. And, you know, there's like a big mud flats and stuff there that I had to deal with where when the tide goes out, you're kind of stranded, like a quarter of a mile from land and you know, had to move my boat through all this mud and stuff as hell. But anyway, I finally got to the ocean. And I met a guy in a sailboat who said, you know, can you throw your kayak on the sailboat and helped me sail this boat down to the mouth of the the what was that river? Anyway, right at the top of Oregon, there's there's a river that comes out there. And it is a graveyard of sailing ships because where the water comes out and the current comes in it creates huge standing waves. And so it's just a really tricky place to single hand bring a boat in. And so I hummed and hawed about it, and I said, Well, let me think about it. Because I really, I mean, this whole idea of like, Oh, I'm gonna do it all by myself. It, it was, that was more of an ego trip, right? Like that, that wasn't in line with having an adventure, where you're open to anything you're open to,
you know, whatever life throws at you, you know, it's like, no, I'm going to be strict. I'm going to I was creating my own institution in a way here, you know, like, that I was going to do this. And so I decided to do the sale with him, you know, it was only a one day sale, it wasn't a big deal. But it just really opened up my trip to whatever was to come, whatever possibilities were to come. And so for from there, I did kayak the entire coast of Oregon. And it was, it was really tricky getting on and off the beach, through, you know, sometimes 10 foot high waves, and the waves would like crash over me. And I'd have to like, you know, it'd be set after set of waves, you know, and sometimes I'd like wash back up on shore, because I just don't have the energy to go. See when you have a shallow beach. The waves kind of pile up when you have a steep beach, one wave kind of just crashes onto the beach. And if you can get through that one wave, then you're now safe out in the ocean. But when it's a shallow beach, it's just like, you know, surf after surf that you have to pound through. So here I am a brand new kayaker, doing this narrow, super gnarly coast that other kayakers wouldn't think of doing. But in my naive in my naivete, and my you know, youthful ignorance, I was just like, I'm just doing it, you know, I'm gonna put on a scuba mask and a snorkel and I'm gonna, if I flip over the kayak or you know, whatever, you know, I'm just a single guy with you know, all the piss and vinegar, you know, I'm just gonna do it. And now thinking of it, you know, I'm now you know, 44 years old. I'm like, Man, I was crazy. You know, I mean, not like crazy, but it's amazing what you can accomplish. When you don't know better, you know, you just kind of like bumbling your way through things you actually can get somewhere right. So I kayak the entire coast of Oregon. I I crashed my kayak coming in through 20 foot high wave in Northern California and busted my boat a bit and had to get it fixed at like a Coast Guard base and you know, re fiberglass it and stuff and ended up meeting some rock climbers and other kayakers and, and so I went rock climbing in Yosemite and then paddled out through the Golden Gate at San Francisco and kayak the rest of the way down to to San Diego, and then came home and did a slideshow tour. So a big part of my whole max at school living adventure novel was that I'm sharing this all live on the internet. Okay, so this is a 1997 My website is solo max.com. And there's not that many websites like this is a blog before the word blog was invented. So you can go on solar max.com right now and read my journal of all of this. And Irving sponsored me to get a satellite phone. So when I was kayaking the coast of the inside of the Baja Peninsula of the Sea of Cortez, my dad joined with me for two months. And so that was a great experience just like spearfishing every day like a spear gun like a like a you shoot the fish with this big long gun and I mean it was so exciting was my favorite thing to do. And we have fish every day for supper and just a lovely time with my dad and he had never kayak before. And he like one day there was big swell and he capsized like seven times. And one time was like pretty close to a cliff where the waves were crashing into cliff and you know, we had some great adventures. But just to have that time with my dad was wonderful and He's, you know, he, he raised me doing kayak trips, or sorry, canoe trips. So we he led boys Wilderness Canoe trips for, like 10 men and 20 boys each summer. So that was really inspirational for me that my dad was taking responsibility for other people's children to take them out to have adventures that they wouldn't otherwise have. And so a week long canoe trip, with all you know, food, and everything paid for for like, the trip was like $100, which included all transportation and food and everything. So he would look after buying all the meals and organizing everything all people had to do is show up. And you know, and so I was like, this is a real educator, you know, like he was a high school chemistry teacher. Well, he actually taught me in junior high as well. But I just really felt like the education that I learned through these canoe trips and through his example of taking responsibility for other people's children. That was a real, I know, just a inspiration for me and my grandfather was also a, like a principal of a one room schoolhouse at age 17. And he was an educator his whole life. His name is Allison Richardson, and he was the principal of Barnhill School in St. John. And he took his students on bicycle trips, and he went overseas 36 times, and they would put their bicycles on freighter ships, and, like, go over the ocean. And this was back when, you know, there was, they weren't using telephones and stuff like they are now. So he would book a hostel by writing a letter. And it would take, you know, a month or two to get to the hostel to book the place, and then a month for them to write back. And, you know, say yes, we have reserved your booking or whatever. And so, him leading all these kids on these bike trips, you know, I'm sure inspired my father. So, I mean, he used to take his eighth grade classes to Maine, and they'd bicycle from St. John, all the way to Maine. And he would drive a station wagon, ahead of the kids set up tents and set up the food and everything and the kids would arrive on their bikes, and he would have everything set up. So I mean, it now taking people like guiding people on trips like this, this kind of feels like a you know, a family tradition. Right? So that's where I learned learn this from is from my dad, my grandfather, but I can't go into my my whole two year kayak trip, but I had a an experience where I was in central Mexico, living with indigenous people there. They don't like calling themselves indigenous. But you know, they are they're living in mud huts. And they're just like this rural people, right? They're just like, chickens and pigs are running through their house. And, you know, they're they live in a spot where people have lived for 3000 years. It's where the people who made Mexico City before they like, left and went over the mountains to go back to Mexico City. This is where the original people lived. And there's, there's artifacts in the shell mounds, so the people who live there, they used to eat lots of oysters. And so they would lose their artifact Well, they didn't call it artifacts, they they had these little balls called mela copies and I actually have some here are these 3000 year old finely carved pottery balls that they use for spinning yarn with and they would find these in these pottery mounds and pipes and all this stuff. And I was just fascinated that these people they just had like a box of artifacts under their bed, you know, like and lots of people had them because they find them all over the place and they don't bother turning it into a museum or anything. So anyway, I was living with these people. I had showed up there because I had heard about the shell mounds I hadn't heard about pyramid of shells. I was like oh my god this place sounds amazing. A guy a dentist in Mazatlan had told me about it that he had heard about it through like National Geographic. So I paddled in there into the estuary and found these people using dugout canoes. And I'm like this is like, like, a time capsule like If these people are just like I placed out of time, you know, like, and I, they actually had me smoke some not had me but they had some weed that they grow or something. And they had me smoke some weed with them out of one of these 3000 year old pipes. And I got really nervous, I got really freaked out, like I had only started smoking weed when I was 20. So this is just like, months before this had happened, right? But I got I got a little paranoid. And I was like, I gotta leave here. i These people are being so nice to me. It's almost like, they're, they're going to take advantage of me in some way. You know, they're giving you these artifacts and stuff. And I was like, No, I gotta leave right now. But I had promised them that I would make them immobile out of the shells and barbed wire and cool things that I had found there. And so, here I am packing my kayak, and all the townspeople are watching me, you know, all the people are there showed up because I mean, I'm the only show in town, right? And so unpacking my kayak, and then I got all this stuff that I collected all these shells and things that I collected, and I'm making them immobile out of the wire and the wood and everything and I hold it up, and I'm like, Oh, who wants it? And they're like, they're like, that's just a bunch of junk. I'm like, Okay, well, I'll just enter it on my kayak and take it with me then. And they're all like, you know, slapping mosquitoes. And, you know, it was it was kind of a scene, but I paddling away through the estuary, it's getting dark, and the stars come out. And it's completely like glassy, calm. And so there's stars reflecting off the water, and there's bioluminescence coming off the front of my kayak. So the water is glowing, the water is glowing with bioluminescence, you know, like the bacteria or whatever it is that's in the water, it's glowing. And I am tripping out. Unlike stars above stars below. There's nothing but darkness all around me and flashing bits of light from bioluminescence. And I feel like the Starship Enterprise, you know, when the Starship Enterprise goes into hyperspeed, it's got this like, you know, thing going on, is like coming off the front of it. And I was like, I snapped out of it. I'm like, those people were nothing but kind to me. And I just left them. And they think I'm crazy for you know, because they invited me to stay and whatnot. So I just turned around, you know, it's pitch black now. And I'm like, I don't even know where I'm gonna go and camp. So I turned around the boat, and I went back, and I parked the boat. Nobody's around. Everyone's in their, in their houses now. And I go back to the house of the family who had kind of like, adopted me, the first guy who had found me, and he was in his house, and I knock on the door, and I step inside, he's like, big smile, Max, like, so happy to see me. And I ended up staying there for four months, and learning so much from these people. Because they have nothing in comparison to what what we have in our modern culture, you know, but they are the nicest people. They are so kind and so generous. Like, they would just give you the shirt off their back. And that really taught me that like, whatever people are striving for all the material wealth that they're striving for, if they don't have that sense of community, like, and that sense of belonging, like what I found in Roberto, Roberto is the name of this little village. It's only like 250 people, if they don't have that sense of community, and that sense of like, like, that's what really makes you rich, I felt that these people were were rich, because of the sense of pride that they have the sense of, even though they don't have a lot of stuff, you know, they don't have cars, they don't have fancy clothes, but they do have a real pride. And I I learned a lot from them. And so that was a turning point in my kayak trip. I was just like, I think I should, you know, maybe, you know, be a little bit more open here, like about what I'm doing. And actually something else that had brought on, you know, that this decision of like, you know, maybe I don't need to continue on my kayak trip right now. Is there is a mountain on the horizon called Sierra the muerto? The mountain of death or dead persons mountain, and it looks like the profile of it looks like a person laying down. So the top of the mountain has been nose. And I mean Rob Leto and I'm like, It's the highest peak on the horizon. I said, I'm gonna go climb that mountain. And everyone in the village was like, No, it's Wednesday home. Well thought, I thought, yeah. Vegus. So they're like, No, it's very high. It's very far there's snakes. There's tigers, like, you don't want to go there. And I'm like, it's not very far. I can see it. It's right. They're like, I'll just paddle through the estuary, and, you know, go climb the mountain. And they thought I was crazy. You know, so I paddled through the estuary, but ended up getting lost and some fishermen from I mean, the estuary is like, elaborate, if you can just imagine when as the tide goes up and down, pathways, you know, appear and disappear, like so anyway, these these people from Polonius, which is a town at the base of the mountain, they, they find me and they take me home, and I sleep overnight, their house, and the next morning, I am walking to the mountain to go climb it. And people are like, Oh, where are you going to climb? And I'm like, or they say, Where are you going? And I'm going, Oh, I'm going to climb the mountain. And they're like, oh, no, like, there's snakes. There's tigers, it's far like, don't do it. Nobody goes. And I was like, you guys live right below the mountain. And like you don't go climb the mountain? And they're like, no, but we need to take you to a guy who has climbed the mountain. And so I met this guy AlphaGo. And AlphaGo was like, yeah, it's dangerous. But I have climbed it. Let me show you the path. And let me show you where there's water on the mountain. And so where there's a spring, because you'll need to have that. So as we were walking towards the mountain, everybody would say,
Where are you going? And we're like, oh, we're going to climb the mountain. And it became like, a parade of people going to climb the mountain. And it started to get steeper and steeper, and they're like, well, let us carry your things. Because I was, you know, had all this water. And I had my big backpack. And I was like, no, no, I'll carry it. But as like it got a little steeper and thorn bushes and all this stuff. I was like, Okay, you, you can help me. So I was afraid like, here I am handing over all my gear to these random people that I have no idea who they are. And they're like, taken off. They're like going way ahead of me. And they're saying, Oh, we're we're gonna go find where the water is. When we find the chiclet tree. We'll find the water. And I'm like, it hasn't rained here for eight months, we're not going to find any water. And the chiclet tree is actually what they make Chiclets out of right, so they they have a slingshot, and they can fire it at the tree and make like a little dent in it. And this white liquid will ooze out of the tree. And they showed me you know how they do it. So they ended up I was like, You guys go ahead, I don't believe that you're gonna find water. And then they ended up calling Max Max, we found water. And so they actually did find the spring they knew where it was. And so I camped out that night where the spring was, and they the last person to leave was like, Oh, don't worry, there's no Tigers here right now because it's late in the season or whatever. But that night, all of the animals would come and visit the spring. And I would be like rattling my pots and stuff to scare them away because it was freaking me out. But anyway, that that next following day, I climb the mountain. And I you know, I'm climbing actually like rock climbing up a cliff face and I'm finding like Hornet's nests and snake skins and I have ticks all over me. I had like 100 ticks all over me and I had to take off all my clothes and pick out these ticks. And I get to the top of the mountain and hearing like, sticks break and things and I'm like, oh my god, it's a tiger. So I pull up my pepper spray my machete and, you know, mock into the top of the mountain screaming and then I see cow turds. So it was actually like cows on top of the mountain, right? So I on the top of the mountain. There's there's a cave that drops straight down from the top of a mountain. Like, like a nostril. And I'm like, This is unbelievable, you know, like this cave. I'm dropping rocks down I can't hear them hit the bottom so I'm like, Oh, this is this sounds dangerous. This seems like freaking crazy. So I I decided not to go down the cave. And but I found that my water bag had a pinprick and so I my water had the doubt and I had like a cup of water left. And there's no trees on the mountain. I mean, they're just spindly little trees, there's not much shade. And so I couldn't climb back down the cliff that I climbed up. So I had to walk down the long way all the way around the back of the mountain through thorn bushes, and I literally thought I was gonna die. Like, I was just my body was raw from getting scratched up and the ticks and everything. And I was literally like, crawling, you know, through the thorn bushes and stuff. And I made a deal with with God. I mean, I'm not I'm not a real religious person. But when you feel like you're gonna die, you start making deals with God, you know, you start, you're so humbled. You're just like, Okay, listen, if you allow me to survive, I wasn't actually maybe praying to God, I was praying to the mountain, okay? Because I felt like the mountain had a certain energy to it, that nobody goes to visit the mountain and the mountain did want visitors. So I made a deal with a mountain, that if it let me go, I would bring other people back, I would bring people I would make a trail on the mountain and bring people back to the mountain. Okay, so I survived. And I got back to the watering hole where they had led me to, and they saved my life because I was able to, like drink from this puddle, basically, you know, and, and then I went back to Canada, I left my kayak hanging in a tree and Rob Leto, I went back to Canada. And I made some more money and did some kayak, guiding and whatnot. And then I drove my Subaru wagon all the way back to rob Leto. And I, I spent several days making a trail and putting ropes and whatnot. All up the mountain, I have a friend of mine that went with me, a girl from Texas, and her name was seed. And so we made we we machete a trail all the way to the top of the mountain and put ropes. And I took a car full of kids, like teenage boys from Rob Leto to go climb the mountain. And we camped on top of this massive boulder on top of the mountain. And they had a great time, and everything went smoothly. And then when we were driving back to rob Leto, the boys seem sad. And as like, why are you guys so bummed out? And they're like, Well, we're sad, because the other people in the village didn't get to experience it.
As like, they didn't want to brag about this great experience that they had. Because the others would feel bad about it. Now, I mean, maybe in our culture, we wanting to post it on Instagram and make everybody feel, you know, jealous or maybe you know, like, and you know, talk about it. I'm sure a lot of kids would probably want to do that. Right. But they were so in touch with the other people's feelings, that they did not want to make people feel bad about it, you know, and I just thought that was so sensitive of them. That's the kind of stuff that kind of emotional intelligence that Rob Leto was my school. You know, it was, um, I have a tear in my eye. I don't know if you can see but even thinking about it right now. Makes me a little teary. But the family that I live with there, they gave me a plot of land to create a school. So my my goal then became was to create a summer camp like school in Robledo. So I was like, Okay, this is my thing. I want to create a school so they gave me land to create a school. And so for several years, I would bring people from Burning Man and rainbow gatherings to rob Leto. And they would bring soccer shoes. They brought guitar or piano, a sewing machine, like all this stuff, to these people who couldn't afford, you know, these things, soccer shoes, all this stuff, because they would play soccer and their bare feet. And we would play with the people, you know, we would set up as a free summer camp for the people in Rob Leto. But like we were getting maybe more out of it than they were. Right. So when I say that, I mean the whole thing was, I'm bringing people there. My friends that I've convinced to come and have this experience to do this, what I call the ROB Leto, you know Community Center for Cultural Exchange, was the was what it was. That was Not just for them, it was for us, you know, to introduce people to these to this other way of living. So, I'm telling you all this because the school isn't a building, the school is the experience, right? The school is about interaction with people. And you can't always have a curriculum or create a curriculum, to say, oh, you know, I'm, I want to learn this. And these are the steps that I need to do to learn this thing. Sometimes you just need to throw yourself into a situation into the unknown. And you're going to learn a whole bunch of things, and things that you can't even imagine you're going to learn, you're going to learn. Because when you go into the unknown, that's where learning happens. You know, you don't learn very much doing things that you always do. So, you know, you'll learn the most by making mistakes, right? So after several years of doing that, taking people there. I, I was going to Rainbow gatherings and Burning Man and meeting a lot of a lot of interesting folks. That was like school for me as well, learning about alternative culture in the United States.
I don't know if you know much about rainbow gatherings. But it's like a week long gathering of, you know, hippies from all over the world. You know, just like, we used to call them hippies. But other people would say, oh, yeah, here's a bunch people running around naked and sharing food and whatever. So the way that they work, the way that these two festivals work is that groups of friends host a camp. And in that camp, they provide a service, maybe it's Kickapoo pizza, making pizza, or Montana mud, making coffee. So anybody who shows up, gets a free cup of coffee or gets a slice of pizza. And the whole purpose of this group is just to have this like, you know, this gift, it's the gifting economy, you know, or the love economy as I like to call it. And so, that's what brings you together you have a purpose you make you make something which is a gift to the whole festival. And so Burning Man is the same way, you know, some Burning Man is you know, a little funkier a little sexier or whatever, you know, more techno music, that kind of stuff. And they're you know, you pay your ticket rainbow gatherings are free, but they're you pay your ticket but after that the only thing is you can buy a Burning Man or like ice and coffee, which are sold by like the Burning Man organization, everything else is free. So all the bars all free serving free drinks, you want to go get your breakfast, you go get pancakes, served by a lady in a French maid's outfit, you know, wearing nothing but underwear. You know, you want you want you want to have your you know, genital Id taken, you go and you get you go in to get your take your your genitals photographed and put on an ID card that you can wear on your on your chest, you know, it's this like, ridiculous stuff, right? But every camp has some sort of offering. And so that's always been my goal is to create a a festival here, or a kind of festival culture in in the Maritimes that is more like camp based where these camps would provide a service or an artwork or something. So my goal now is i i bought a 10 acre plot of land between like St. Martin's and Hampton. And it's a beautiful forest with waterfalls, and I raised the money through crowdfunding. So I put down $10,000 In a tax sale and said, I'm gonna pay $10,000, which is like the bidding price that's like $9,000 think was a big price. But I said, to ensure that we get it. I'm going to take memberships of $500 and anybody who gives me $500 now has a lifelong membership to come and camp on this land and create this festival, you know, or the school as I'm, you know, framing it. It's like a school that we're creating ourselves, for ourselves. And so we raised like $16,000 So on top of my $10,000 that I did, we raised another $6,000 And and so now we own this land or I I own it's in my name, but the goal would be to make it a land trust. So when I trust that the membership has a good grasp on the values that I want the school or the festival to adhere to, which is that we have talking circles, we meet in circle to, to plan events and to, you know, every morning, we would have a circle, and each night we'd have a circle. So in the morning, we have a circle, which is like your planning circle, to say what you want to do that day, so that we can all get on the same page, and the circle at night is the show and tell to talk about what you learned that day, and to share a poem or a song or whatever, you know, whatever you did that day, that's how we learn from each other, you know, so the structure that I'm trying to create, is the circle. And that what that means is that it's a non hierarchical structure, that means that you're not coming to, you know, Coreys project, where I'm, you come in, you have to do it, I say, you bring whatever you want to do to the circle, and you say, Hey, this is my project, this is what I want to do. And if people think that's not a good idea, then we'll let you know, you know, but that's not me, you're not coming to me asking permission. So one of my fundamental things that I learned from Rainbow gathering, is that, you know, the circle is the really only alternative that I know, to the top down, hierarchical structure that we're all familiar with, where you have, you know, a priest, or a chief, or whatever, that sets the standard, and everyone else is disempowered, in my view, because you have to ask permission, of that higher authority, you know, to, to do anything, you know, you're like, Oh, well ask the chief and see what they have to say. And I don't think that's, that's, that's disempowering, you know, so what I'm what one of my goals in life is, is to create these Talking Circle spaces, in parks and playgrounds all over the place, so that there's just a ring of stones or a ring of logs. And people can sit in a circle and tell stories, and, you know, share whatever's on their mind, or, you know, hey, I need a babysitter, or, Hey, I got an extra, you know, basket full of squash if anybody wants them, or, you know, that kind of thing. And so, the circle is a way for people to, you know, a meeting of the minds to get on the same page to create a consensus, so that you don't need to have a whole bunch of laws that we all abide by, we have more like, an agreement that is updated all the time, you know, we're continuously checking in with each other, so that the rules aren't just set in stone, the rules are kind of like, you know, what is the appropriate solution for now, you know, what is the most appropriate thing now, and it also people have to own it, people have to own like, we, we have decided that this is the way forward, or this is what the appropriate action. And so, I'm coming at this project, this school that I'm talking about called Dream seed. So I call it my farm dream Seed Farm, and the land is Dream seed. And I think dreams and seeds are two of the most powerful and undervalued things. Because everything comes from a dream, everything that's been created, has, has come from a thought at one time, right. And everything also that was created also comes from a seed. So you know, and when you have like a dream, it's kind of like building a castle in the clouds, you need to build that foundation under it, to, you know, to stabilize it. And I find that the more that you tell people about your dream, that's building that foundation, you know, so that it becomes more and more solid. Because I mean, nobody knows your dreams unless you tell them and by you telling people, this is who I am, and this is what I want to do. They start seeing you in that light, and they can help you, oh, I know that you want to do this. So I know somebody who knows what you know, or has the tools that you need. So it's been a real theme for me, obviously, to you know, create that action hero persona or to, you know, set goals in this way of like, Hey everybody, this is what I'm gonna do. What do you think about it type thing, right? So I when I was doing all these projects in in
Can you tell I like to talk? You haven't asked me? I haven't asked a question for 40 minutes here. But this is all stuff that I've said a million times to a million people. But I'm just going to show you this, this logo here for the action hero network. So the action hero network, your network is your grassroots community. And the hero's journey is going from the seed, see the little dot there. So this is action hero network.net Your network is your grassroots community, the hero's journey is to take action and to branch out to do something new and the fruits of your labor is love. So what you do is you take the energy and the tools and the people from here and you take action. So the people that you want to, that you want to work with, like you, Mr. Ati personality right here, I want you in the action hero network, you are already in the action here network, because everybody is an action hero, this is part of it, we are all action heroes, sometimes we just don't believe it, you know, we don't step into those roles. But what this is a mind map, what I'm showing you right now, this logo, the action here network logo is a mind map. So what you would do is you'd write the names of the people in these letters up here. And this is something I do when I go to schools and I talk about mind mapping and life planning, I use the action here network logo as an example of that. So what you do is you write these people's names up here in the action, and then you write the people's names in your community down here that might have the knowledge or the tools to connect with these people. So that you can help. So you are a bridge between the known world and the unknown, or the dream world, we are the bridge the hero. Okay. So that's how that's how that works. And then the fruits of our labor, the fruits is the love returns to the earth to nourish the network, right? So how is these fruits going to benefit the whole thing? So this is, this is a reciprocal process, right? This looks like what I call that the torus or something that that energy flowing spiral like that. So, you know, this is this is the the the cure, I think for the top down hierarchical system, you know, as the leader, you're not at the top, you're actually a pillar, holding up the people who need help in your community, right. So that's where we're at now. That's, I mean, I did this kayak trip, but I didn't, you know, get to Nicaragua, and Cuba and Florida. But I did achieve my goal of having a website, I had 4 million people visit my website. over a span of I don't know how many years, it's still the website still up. But for the first, let's say, four years, I had 4 million people visit it. So that is a lot of people for that time, when the internet was very, very young. I was featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul. I was, you know, in lots of newspaper articles and different things. So there's a lot of people in St. John and other places that were following this trip, I got emails from all over the world that people who were following me, you know, through this, this blog, right? And so I just, I took all of that learning, and I just made my life about summer camp, you know, like this idea that the school that I was creating was not a place the school was an experience. And so I never went to university I but I've been able to teach at many universities where I do lectures, and I do you know talks about, you know, my kayak trip or about life planning. Um, I'm a professional hula Hooper, if you can believe that. I mean, I don't know maybe you've seen the hula hoop, but it just seems like such a thing to say being a professional hula hoop or but I teach people how to hula hoop in gym classes. So I'm not really like a person who wants to be up on stage hula hooping. I mean, I do that too, but I'm more like, Hey, let me teach you some tricks so that you can do Have fun with it, you know, so you can like, because people, they don't know where to start, you teach them a few tricks, they build their confidence a little bit. And then then they're like, oh, I can do this, right. So I just feel like my job is really more like an art therapist. I teach bead working. So we sit in a circle, and we make these little betta dragonflies probably have one around here somewhere. So I've made like hundreds of little beaded dragon flies, where we're sitting in a circle with a bunch of kids or adults, it doesn't matter how old you are. And we bead something that's like physically the size of a dragonfly that fits on a pin with like beads and wire. And then people after they make it well, well, they're making it they're, they're weaving their intention of what kind of person that they want to become into that because the Dragonfly is a symbol of metamorphosis, it spends two years underwater as a nymph, before it becomes a dragonfly. So it spends two years as this like swimming little creature. And then it emerges as the dragon fly. And it's only a dragonfly for like two weeks or a month, and then it's dead. So it spends most of its life in its nymph stage. And for me, my kayak trip, which was two years was like my new stage. And then when I started going to Burning Man and rainbow gatherings, hula hooping, it was like, I got my, my dragonfly wings, right, my hula hoop is like my dragonfly wings. And so I, I use those metaphors for doing the beadwork and whatnot. So when people are making their their dragonfly, they're projecting the meaning of who they want to become on to that art object, so that when people see the dragonfly they say, Oh, that's cool. And then then they say, I made it and this is what it means. So it's reinforcing that idea that the same concept so I mean, everything that I'm telling you about, you know, learning how to hula hoop, and thinking, Oh, I am a hula Hooper, they no see, even if you do it a little bit, oh, I can do this. So oh, people say, Oh, I'm not an artist. And I'm like, no, just because you're not in the practice of being an artist. You made this betta this little betta dragonfly, you are an artist. So start seeing yourself art as an artist. So that's a big part of my my magic, I guess you could say is trying to make people believe, you know, it's all about make believe, right?
Stuart Murray 52:51
Wow, man, I feel like I could respond and speak to so many of these things. A few things that I was particularly inspired by us as listening is and knowing you also Korea's the power of story, you are such a tremendous reminder of the power of story that to ground us out of our head and back into our hearts. And that seed of possibility that exists when we allow ourselves to sit in story. And, you know, I love how you created this character, this persona is like, oh, Cory can't do that trip up, Max can, you know he can get out there and go and do these things. And then that became this lived reality. And, you know, noting your your take on learning as an experiential process and a collaborative process. And an ongoing process that requires hardship and breaking outside of our comfort zone is such a different concept than what our traditional schooling system is used to. And perhaps that's by design, you know, perhaps that's by design to remain entrenched in the power dynamic institutions that, you know, disempower us from a young age. So we seek outside of ourselves for what is true, seek outside of ourselves for how we ought to do something, am I doing this right? And rather than looking within to that intuitive knowing, I'm looking out to some some hierarchy or power source be that a parent or an official or, you know, whatever hierarchy, we're talking about insert there, I'm looking outside for what is right and what is good rather than that, knowing that I'm born with, of what is right and what is true. And, you know, I love what you've been doing with the dream seed land and how you've been putting that out, even prior to the land and this emphasis on community. i There's a definition of leadership that I quite like and I think you embody that so well, Korea is that a leader is somebody who brings out the best in people and processes. And so we don't need to look at what position is of what hierarchy or position they occupy. But do they uplift and inspire the people in their sphere? Do they do they produce the fruits of love, in their thoughts in their speech and in their actions. And I think that speaks for itself. And when we can create that landscape that we are all students, and we are all teachers, and we don't need to change anything, just to show up and become as we are and to co create together in that space, that intention moves me to my core. And I agree, I think it's time to evolve past institutional ideas of existence that keep us small, and keep us dumbed down and, and powerless to affect change, and to live a life that's authentic. And I'm wondering, from your perspective, like in a culture where we're bombarded with ideas and images of what we should be, how do we carve out an identity for ourselves that remains true and authentic?
Cory Richardson 56:08
Well, journal writing has been a huge tool for me. Finding Your voice is so important, you know, you're just when you when you write with your with your hand, you know, with with a, I'm going to screen grab a pencil here. When you when your focus your consciousness through the tip of a pencil or a pen, you have to clarify your thoughts. You can't be wishy washy. I mean, we have a million thoughts about all kinds of stuff. But when you when you have to focus your attention through the tip of a pen, you really decide, what do I really think about this? What do I think about that? And then when you can express it to other people, when you can put your thoughts out there for everyone to read, whether that be in circle, or for me through my my journal. And, you know, maybe I was expressing things about I mean, my story, my solo Max story, is is a coming of age story. Right? I mean, this is a teenager, that is throwing himself out into the world, had never had sex had never smoked pot. You know, I was I was climbing I was raised in a religious home. You know, I was just like, I'd never done, I'd never traveled before. Like, I was just throwing myself out there, out whatever the world had to offer me and being completely open. And writing about it. Honestly, very honestly, brutally, honestly, for literally millions of people to read. And you know, when you are that honest, and you worry, what are people going to think? And then nothing happens? You're like, Oh, nothing happened. All right. You know, it's like, the world doesn't come to an end because people think you're weird. Okay, I got over the idea that people I know, people think I'm weird. But as, as Tom Waits says, expand your abnormality. It's okay to be weird, weird is good, weird means that you're not just following the fall in the crowd that you're allowing yourself to be yourself. You know, so, I, my friends are the weirdest. You know, my friends are. I think my friends are all stars, actually. They're all stars in their own ways. They do things that are uniquely themselves, and they accept themselves for who they are, you know, and that's, that's something that is, for me has come through journal writing, and that I promote, you know, to other people, if you want to know yourself, pick up a pen.
Stuart Murray 59:12
I love that I actually got into something that's called Morning pages where I write three pages a day, every single morning, whether I'm excited to or not. And I started that just over a year ago in March and it's it's dramatically changed my life. And you know, it's starting the day in a conversation with yourself in a really intimate way. It has definitely helped me be more honest with myself. And I also love that idea Korea, surrounding yourself with people who reflect that mirror, you know, people who are willing to get weird as well and surround yourself in that because we're in such a culture that again, you know, it reinforces at every opportunity that we're not enough. And so, you know, we were seeking In this sense of being an authentic man, and it's so beautiful to share presence with other people, and we don't need to feel like we have to perform or be anything other than we are, there's something. So healing in that within this culture that we live in.
Cory Richardson 1:00:20
Yeah, I find that in the circle where I invite people to do, like a, like a video circle, like we're having a chat right now. And some people, like, they don't want to do it. Because like, I don't know what to say. Like, you don't have to say anything, you know, I mean, maybe you're going to be inspired. And you're going to think of things that you wouldn't have thought of before, because people are gonna say things that you never thought of before, and something will bubble up. And it's okay, if you don't say anything, you know, like, a circle. Like, don't waste our time talking about stuff that doesn't matter. Sing your heart song, tell us what's really going on for you. You know, and I mean, it's important to have a safe space where people it's not to say, people won't judge you. I mean, supposedly, the, the Dalai Lama said, you know, only a fool does not judge a man by his clothing. So judging isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just mean being discerning, you know, I would rather people tell me what they think. So I can stay clear of them. If I don't like them, you know, I don't want people being fake around me, and, you know, smiling to my face, and then talking shit about me behind my back or whatever. Like, I want people to be honest. And I can handle honesty, but I can't handle lies and manipulation. You know, I would rather sit in circle with people and them, tell me what's really going on for them. And, you know, tell me what I'm doing wrong, or what I'm doing right or whatever, then we can fix it, then we can like, move on. But when people went a lot goes unsaid, and a lot does go unsaid. You know, like, the reason why it's so important that we show up at Circle, you know, each morning or at night, for those who are on the dream seed land, is that we don't want people showing up there. And, you know, a week goes by and they're not showing up at circle, and we're like, Who is this person? Like, what are they doing here? You know, it's like, it's a way to, to really get to know everybody and to check in with everybody. So if you don't want to show up at circle, and you know, tell us what's going on for you, then this isn't for you. You know, that's this isn't a place to party. Yeah, we'll have parties will have fun. But the fun is in getting to know each other, the fun is in the building of creating the hobbit houses and the tree houses in the playground. And we're here to work, like the fun is in the building of the thing, like don't just show up for the party, you know?
Stuart Murray 1:03:09
Yeah, it's so interesting, I really agree with what you're saying too, about that deep desire for honesty, and I'm somebody who can get stuck up in my head. And I, you know, we're meaning making creatures, right. And so, where our mind has gaps, it wants to move to fill in its own understanding. And we'll create our own stories around these things. And rather than being in a knowing what to live in the other person or what they're needing or what I'm needing, we can get stuck in these delusional stories that don't even exist in the realm of reality. And for me, that's a really uncomfortable place that I don't I don't like spending much time in because it's not, it's not real anyways. And, in addition, you we were talking before about institutions, and I think we're at a time in society where more people than ever have become disillusioned with the archaic institutions that we've allowed to govern us, as the people for some time, wide variety of institution, corporate institutions, governmental institutions, religious institutions, you name it. And so there's this growing disillusionment. And I think, you know, so many of us are, are fed up so many people are, but we're stuck.
Cory Richardson 1:04:23
What are you going to do? What are you going to, like, the institution is this powerful thing the parliament buildings of Canada and, and like, I mean, you look at the cathedrals of Europe or whatever. It has such a big, powerful, imposing building, it must be real. Right. But the way that I see government is like, we should live our lives, like government doesn't even exist. Like if we shouldn't have to spend it. Government should work so easily and so fluidly, that we shouldn't have to be bumping our heads up against it or thinking about it at all. So like, I'm really not impressed by the cult of personality, I'm not impressed by, you know, any political figures or whatever, I have very little time and attention for the call to personality. So what people think government actually is, you know, the way government actually works compared to what it's supposed to be, I think, we don't know anything, I think the way that things actually play out is that our politicians are the messenger people, for the Masters. Okay, so there's people who actually do have some control over the world, but they only do so by casting spells, by wielding the power of money and economy and all this stuff. But all of that is make believe the money doesn't really exist. It's just numbers plotted into a computer now more than ever. And so, you know, Justin Trudeau is not, he's not sitting at his desk, working hard writing laws and all this stuff, he is merely the water carrier for the billionaires, that's all he is he serves his constituents are the billionaires that he serves, you know, so you think that he's, you know, giving you this child benefit program, and blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, they're doing everything they can to serve the global elites, not the regular, you know, middle class, Canadians, they are not telling the truth. They are basically professional liars, as far as I'm concerned. So whatever, people think that they're gonna elect, a new, a new politician who's going to, you know, who's going to be their friend and speak on their behalf. Myself and a lot of other people are, yeah, don't believe it anymore. And the only, the only solution to that to giving our power away to them, is to have real community, meaning really knowing your neighbors, really understanding who has the resources and the tools that live around you. And we can thank COVID for forcing us to, and I say COVID, in parentheses, let's just say in the past two years, because of all the lock downs, and all of this stuff, we have been forced to meet our neighbors, the people who are maybe more freedom minded. And so now I have a better community than ever, because of the people who stuck to their guns and said, I'm not going to become a GMO, human. You know, I mean, hey, I want to create a t shirt that says, I survive COVID And, you know, G have a little GMO free label on it type thing, you know, you know, it's just, people are realizing what's important. Now, you know, I think more than ever, they're living, you know, kids are living with their families, people are moving out of the cities and buying a plot of land and growing food for themselves. So I think there's a lot that we've benefited, but you know, maybe things are going in, in a good direction, even if, you know, the gas prices are high and all of that maybe it's all engineered, because of, you know, climate change, you know, I think it's all engineered to make people drive last and, and transfer wealth to the wealthy.
Stuart Murray 1:09:08
So, well, there certainly seems to be an agenda at play. And you know, it's just varying degrees of falling down down rabbit holes, and there's one, I believe being informed is, is a great thing. And we're all going to have different ideas and definitions of information. But as you said earlier, that bigger question is, so what, right and at the end of the day, so what what do we do about this stuff? And how do we move regardless of the degree of nefarious or maybe they're just stumbling through and genuinely trying to do the best and but we've moved into this age, we've gone beyond that promise of the American dream of the comfort and the convenience and this globalist idea of utopia. And this these last two years have really triggered a back down to the local people want to be disconnecting people value privacy. They value community they value self sufficiency and, and sovereignty. And we look at how easily supply chains can be disrupted in, in our province alone, we're importing over 90% of our produce, we can do better, we can do better. And the way we're going to do that is not wait for a policy to take shape, or for some dictate from somebody else to tell us how to live. And I think that really aligns with how you live your life in a really non dogmatic way away, a heart centered way that you're, you're inspired, and I aspire to myself to live in a way and say, No, this is my life. And I want to be aligned with my intuitive center, and act from that place. That's not selfish. That's being honest. And if I'm connected with that heart space, then I'll have my ability and my capacity to be of service. You know, my, my daily prayer is like, allow me to be of service in the way that I need to be today.
Cory Richardson 1:11:01
It takes a lot of work, too. Last night, I was filling buckets of dirt at two in the morning in the rain. Okay, so I had just tilled up a whole bunch of different spots around my my land, here we have, we have six acres of our farm, and then we have the house across the street that I that we just bought also in a tax sale. So we bought both houses in the tax sale. So you know, I these are houses that take a lot of work to fix up. And, you know, they're they're over 100 year old houses, and land that has been farmed, you know, for well over 100 years. So there's a lot of benefits to buying a place that is already developed as a farm, you know that the soil is really good, like this area where we live here in gem sag is really good for climate wise and the soil is good. That's why people settled here first, this used to be the capital of the Maritimes back when the first settlers came here, it was gem sag. And for gem sag was here, you know, there's grim Ross Island that had a little settlement there. So I take people, you know, kayaking around here, if anybody wants to go kayaking, we can go do that. And we also have our sailboat. So the sailboat is like, we have a 626 foot sailboat who can take people out on Grand Lake and, but I mean, what I'm doing is I'm living my dream now, you know, I bought this very old house for $12,000. And I'm fixing it all the time, you know, I'm I replaced half of the basement now I'm fixing the beams in the basement that are rotten, I got to replace the roof. So basically, the whole house is getting bit by bit done. And I'm doing it all myself. But last night, I'm just saying I was I would add, you know, two o'clock in the morning, I knew it was gonna rain for several days. And before the soil got so soaked, I needed to pot a whole bunch of pots to to read, you know, transplant all my peppers and tomatoes and all that stuff. So like, I feel like I'm crazy sometimes out in the rain or in the bugs or whatever, in the heat of the day. But the fact is you have to work with the elements. I mean, you can be smart and you can think oh, I'm gonna, you know, get up early in the morning and or, you know, there's certain times where it's easier to do certain tasks. But all day long from the moment I you know, go outside till the sun goes down, I am working my butt off to you know, and having a farm it's like endless distractions. There's like endless projects that you could be working on. So I'm just, but I'm very happy I call myself the king of puttering you know, I'm just pottering on this little job over here doing a little bit here doing a little bit there. But there's nobody telling me what to do. It's all me and and it doesn't get done. Unless I do it. You know, I mean, I think in the future I want to have people working here and that sort of thing. I want to have this as the school this is the dream Seed School where people can come and learn how to be a homesteader with me. There. There may not be learning, like I took a permaculture course and I studied that in Africa and Uganda. But you're gonna learn how to be a farmer, like rusty cuts, you know, you may not be learning. You know, I'm just gonna give you the opportunity to learn. This is how I do it, you know? And I may not know all the science and everything behind it, but I believe that all you have to do is spark the desire to want to learn some Think in the student in the learner is the most important thing is to have the desire because if kids coming up today, they don't have the desire to be a homesteader, or to even have a garden or even to grow a tomato plant, then there's no hope, right? I mean, but if all they're interested in is, you know, whatever playing video games or whatever watching YouTube or whatever it is that they do, they need to have somebody show them that growing a garden is fun, you know, or can be fine, or eating a tomato off of your own tomato plant tastes better than the one at the store. If if you can do that, if you I don't need to teach them all the permaculture, everything, all they have to do is taste the tomato, or all they have to do is see that they plant the squash seed, and a week later, the squash is coming up. And it's like magic, you know, and that may be just the thing that turns them on to wanting to have their own garden. So I have a project in mind called squash hunger, where I take squash seeds to schools and handout all these squash seeds because I mean, they're hugely abundant, easy to squash is an easy thing to grow and to take the seeds from. So I want to if there's any teachers out there that are listening to this podcast, I would come to your school and give out squash seeds. And, you know, pumpkins or whatever, I have tons of tomatoes, you know, it's it would be really easy to turn kids on to gardening, I believe, if they can start with just one plant, you know. And so that's, that's the whole idea of dream seed is that I'm not creating any curriculum, I'm just creating a circle, you show up in circle and you say, This is who I am, this is what my dream is, this is what I'm interested in. And then other people, you know, can comment on it, or say, Hey, I know someone that knows what you know, or, Hey, I have, you know, you can come sailing with me or come rock climbing with me or whatever. Like, that's what I'm offering. So when you get a dream seed membership, all you're getting is an invitation to come to circle, you get an invitation to come sailing with me or to come rock climbing or, you know, come to the land, and what's gonna happen there. I don't know. But something's gonna happen. And you're gonna meet a bunch of cool people. And, you know, it's $500 for a lifetime. So, I'm not really advertising that, you know, big time, because I really want it to be people that I know and trust, because I don't want to invite people in that, you know, are going to cause problems, or that don't, their values don't align with mine. But, you know, if it really attracts the right people, I think it's, it's gonna like right now we have about like, you know, 1516 to 18 people, I forget how many people we have so far in circle, but we're just meeting through video chats and having these content, you know, like a video chat circle, so that we can plan for meeting in person, and then those people can host events on their own property. So if you if you want, if you are a JMC member and you want to have a work party at your house, then you host the circle, and you say, Okay, this is this is my land, this is what I want to do. These are the things that need to get done, you know, what would your role like to be? What would you how would you like to play a part in this thing? So as a dream scene member, you would you would know how to host a circle. And that's about it. There's no other structure other than that is knowing how to facilitate a circle
Stuart Murray 1:18:55
hmm, there's so much that can come out of that. And I really like what you say in the, in the aspect of deconstructing that institutional hierarchy offense is this idea that you know, change has to be forced or mandated people aren't going to change if we don't mandate this or force this and this new paradigm or parallel structure that you're talking about, you know, the hammer on the head, it's like, we need to spark that desire change comes from inspiration, not comes from not coming from being forced or mandated or, or coming that way it is. So it's really true. What you hit the hammer right on the head to me and I think what you're doing and creating community and creating these opportunities for people to come together is spectacular. And every time I collide with you, there's there's magic in that and I'm left with the seed of inspiration and each each collision has made me a better human being that's that's for damn sure. And well I'm curious what would you like to tell my head?
Cory Richardson 1:19:56
Well, I was just gonna say I'm I'm I'm Trying to be I'm trying to lead by example. So like I said, the school isn't the land, the school isn't necessarily a place. I have to, I have to make whatever it is fun. So if I want to teach hula hooping, I need to make hula hooping look fun, you know, or if I need to, if I want to teach, if I want to teach photography, I need to show people my love for photography. And when I'm gardening, every, every bit of water that I put on the garden is love. And every, I'm like, on my knees, cutting with garden grass, with garden shears to create mulch, so that my plants don't wilt. That's love. I mean, every handful of mulch is me loving those plants and pouring love into my cabbage plants. And then that then gives back to me because I get to eat, you know, kimchi or whatever that my wife makes. But, you know, it's all love. It's all coming from a place of love. I'm not doing it because I'm getting paid in dollars, you can't quantify it, right? So I, if what I can do is share my love of being a homesteader or my share my love of being an adventurer, you know, I mean, it might scare people to death, rock climbing, or kayaking or sailing. But I'm like, Look, it's easy, you just take one step at a time, you know, and maybe you won't get to the top of the mountain that day. But if you break through that fear barrier of like, I can't do it, because I'm too heavy, or I'm not strong enough or whatever. Take one step. And then if you can't get any further rest, okay, recalibrate, whatever, and then get back on because sometimes when you are rock climbing, as you know, I took you rock climbing and Walton gland gorge, I've been developing that place for eight years by myself. And I love it, I love the piece of like, just having it all to myself, no other rock climbers there. And I'm just, you know, I love being there. And I love introducing, bringing climbers there to, you know, to try the roots that I'm developing. But it's quite often that people when they don't make it the first time, they will say, Oh, let me down, I can't do it. I'm like, I'm not letting you down. You just have you know, take a breath, take care, relax for a second. And try it again. He stopped, you know, just stop and then continue after you've, you've rest for a second. And then they end up getting to the top. And they feel good about themselves because they have a little win. You know, so it's so important to help people make those easy wins. You know, growing one plant is an easy way. You know, so if you can create easy wins when I'm on pulling rocks out of my garden, and throwing them like basketball into the wheelbarrow. easy wins. Okay, so I'm just kind of making a game out of it. I'm just like, I'm pulling rocks. And it's like endless right pulling rocks out of my garden. But every every rock I get in the wheelbarrow. easy when you know, and it just puts a smile on my face.
Stuart Murray 1:23:44
Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. And the easy ones do build tremendous amounts of competence. It's it's incredible. If somebody's interested in learning more about the dream seed project about rock climbing about exploring, you know, the hidden gems of New Brunswick, are these these different ways of connecting with themselves and connecting with the land? Where could people get in touch with you?
Cory Richardson 1:24:12
Sure. Well, my main website is is hanging hugs.com So I make a living sewing hammocks. I've done that since 2008. So I didn't really talk about that very much. But my my hammock company is custom made hammocks and my, you know, my information is on there and whatnot. Contact me through that. But yeah, I'm kind of like a hammock. A hammock missionary. I've traveled all over the world teaching me how to make hammocks and that's what's funded my life. So if anybody wants to support me, that's the way to do it. But um, come on Sierra is a Facebook page that I made to share my adventures and as like a guidance service. So if people want to go kayaking or sailing or rock climbing, you can look on come on Sierra on Facebook. Dream seed has a like a private group on Facebook. You can look up dream seed, it has a Facebook page, which I update with little bits to. But yeah, Dream seed, you just search that on Facebook as well. My name on Facebook is rusty cuts. And that that came because as I'm fixing up my house, I'm Mitch I was started making these funny while to learn how to fix my house. I'm watching home renovation, YouTube videos. And so as I was demolishing different areas of my house, I started making like, funny videos. Pretending like I was a home Reno expert, but like totally bullshitting and making making cracking jokes. And so rusty Cutts was like a just like a comedic personality that came out of that. And I pretend that I'm like, super famous and have all these followers and stuff, which I doubt. But yeah, you can find me on Facebook, I'm really, I'm really trying not to give my attention to screens, I'm really trying to, like I created a group on Facebook, to help people that weren't connected through these, you know, pandemic years, so that they would have a community of people to share information with, and it just became a whole lot of what the fuck links, so people are just sharing, like, you know, the doom and gloom. And I find that disempowering, you know, I mean, it's good to stay updated on like, you know, what the World Economic Forum, you know, is making plans for us. But I My motto is, you know, if you don't make plans, someone else will make plans for you. So I'm, I'm really focused on just making my own plants and not giving them any of my brain space, or giving them as little of my attention as possible. Because we live in an attention economy. So the attention economy is like, you know, you only have so many hours in the day, if you're spending, you know, an hour watching YouTube videos, then that's an hour you're not spending maybe with your kids or with your wife, or, you know, doing something that you really want to be doing. So the most precious thing that we have is our time. And so use it wisely. That's, that's, that's where I'm going right now. It's just spending more time crafting the land around me and my house to create the life that I want for myself and others. Not not not one blaming other people not not not trying to say, oh, it's Justin Trudeau, his fault that I don't have everything that I want, or whatever, like, Justin Trudeau doesn't even know who I am. Who cares about him?
Stuart Murray 1:28:20
That's so true. I think that's that big shift away from feeling disempowered and moving towards empowerment. And I think that's a really wonderful place to wrap things up here is, you know, we have so much more power than we give ourselves credit for. And if we can step into that, and then come into community as you as you keep saying, if we can step into our power and be empowered with others, man, there is no stopping that force of creation.
Cory Richardson 1:28:50
Totally. I absolutely believe that the Talking Circle, the structure of the Talking Circle, is the structure of community top down hierarchical, that is not a community. That is that is a pyramid, you know, and there's a there's a, it's very clear in my mind, that if you have a very strong circle of people who know each other than people who have nefarious things in mind, or want to manipulate or Co Op things, they can't get into the circle, because everybody's gonna know, like, oh, yeah, you're wanting to take us in this other direction. And we're not going to allow you to because we are like, a solid unit here. So it's really about who has the mic, right? Like, the only reason why we paying attention to Justin Trudeau is because he's on CBC news all the time. If he wasn't, if he didn't have the mic, then we wouldn't hear from him. So the only way that the that the so called elites or whatever, you know, can control us is through the media, without the media, the government would have very little power, because that is their access to our mind. They are casting spells on the population through the media, without the media, how can they get in our head? They can't. So it's so important that we spend more time in circle with our community than we do. Watching the news, you know, supposedly that news means north east west south. Have you ever heard that?
Stuart Murray 1:30:40
Never. Yeah, never. That's fascinating. Yeah, I mean, most most news now, it's hard to even call it news. At best, it could be called entertainment. Yeah, you have one last message, or a story to leave us with on a, on a heart centered note.
Cory Richardson 1:31:50
I I've just been, I've been very fortunate to be raised in a family, like a very stable upbringing, where my parents, you know, have raised us in a loving household. So I've always had that. self respect, you know, they've always respected me for for who I am, even though that I'm, you know, sort of the black sheep of the family, I didn't follow the regular unit, go to university and have a regular job, you know, but somehow I've, you know, always focused on what I wanted to do, and somehow meeting made a living from it, even though I don't make a lot of money, I'm still happy, and I'm able to provide for myself. So, you know, now I'm raising my daughter, I have a three year old daughter named Sierra. And she is she copies everything that I do everything that I say she copies it. So it's just so important to treat our children with the respect that they deserve as a independent bee, you know, to try to I mean, I raise my voice at her, sometimes I'm frustrated, you know, she's walking through the garden, she's stepping on plants, and I'll yell at her, you know, but we have to be, I think, more, more loving in the sense of respecting that each individual is an individual, each person, there is only one of them on this planet, everybody is special, everybody is unique. And don't try to be something you're not. Okay. Don't try to, you know, oh, I wish I could be like that. No, you're never going to be mean, you can emulate what other people do or whatever. But love yourself, for who you are, and the tools that you what you have. And if you don't like some aspects of yourself, then change, like, take the steps that you need to do if you don't like how your body looks, or you know how it feels. If you're not feeling healthy, then do whatever it's going to take to make a plan for yourself set some some goals to get yourself healthy to eat the right food to exercise more, like don't just wish your life away. No, even if you're seven years old, you know, or you know, 50 years old or whatever you are. It's not too late to change. You know, it's start now is is the theme of the dream seeds school. Start now the festival that I'm going to create is called start now because I think that is so powerful. Whatever you want to do, start now.
Stu Murray 1:34:20
Dude, you are a real blessing to chat with. It's always a pleasure, man. Thank you
I hope you enjoy this episode with the adventurous and inspiring Cory Richardson. Once again, a big thank you to our sponsor Karen Phytoplankton. You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And you can also find me on Facebook and YouTube at the connected movement. Thanks again and see you next Monday.
