A Day in the Life of Robin Greenfield - Living Simply and Sustainably — Transcript

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1. 0:00Good morning dear friends.
2. 0:01Today I am going to take you
3. 0:03along on a day in my life.
4. 0:06Although it is just me
5. 0:07in this simple wooden structure,
6. 0:10I am not alone.
7. 0:12The walls are open on all sides
8. 0:14and I wake up to see my relatives;
9. 0:18a cherry tree to my right,
10. 0:19oak trees, with sister ivy
11. 0:21growing up the trunks.
12. 0:23I look to my left and I feel grateful
13. 0:26for the food in my jars.
14. 0:27Much of it, the product of
15. 0:29my relationship with Earth,
16. 0:30and my great love of harvesting
17. 0:33the abundance the Earth provides.
18. 0:36It is around 7 A.M.
19. 0:38I am not in a rush to get out of bed.
20. 0:41I have no phone.
21. 0:42And I have no Wi-fi here,
22. 0:44so I have my mornings to myself.
23. 0:47I generally do not speak until 10 a.m,
24. 0:49and today is no exception.
25. 0:52Getting dressed is easy,
26. 0:54since I just have five green t-shirts,
27. 0:56and a couple pairs
28. 0:57of brown shorts and pants.
29. 0:59I shake out my body and stretch for a bit
30. 1:02to loosen up both my body and mind.
31. 1:05I see what kind of critters
32. 1:07might have visited me in the night
33. 1:09like mice and raccoons.
34. 1:11Sometimes I see them scrambling
35. 1:12away when I stir.
36. 1:14They cannot get at my nuts though.
37. 1:16Those are too precious.
38. 1:18I poop in my compost toilet
39. 1:20returning my nutrients to Earth,
40. 1:23and wiping with some of the softest leaves
41. 1:26that I grow right here at home.
42. 1:28It does not take long for me
43. 1:30to get right to chores and tidying.
44. 1:33I sweep the house,
45. 1:35and shake out the cotton mat,
46. 1:36and put away some dishes.
47. 1:37I check my ferments.
48. 1:39Right now my pickles are
49. 1:41bubbling quite substantially.
50. 1:43I put out the food I am dehydrating.
51. 1:45Right now it is salt, fruit leather, and cherries.
52. 1:50Today I am putting away herbs
53. 1:52that I have finished drying.
54. 1:54By now I have definitely taken a swig
55. 1:56of apple cider vinegar or fire cider.
56. 2:00Before the day has gone on too long,
57. 2:02I care for my body
58. 2:04with my simple, natural, personal hygiene.
59. 2:06I brush my teeth,
60. 2:08sniff some lavender essential oil,
61. 2:11and possibly do some swishing
62. 2:13with coconut oil.
63. 2:14No deodorant, cologne,
64. 2:16or toxic chemicals here .
65. 2:20I generally stay at home
66. 2:21until at least 10 o'clock
67. 2:23so I can have a slow,
68. 2:25yet generally quiet, and productive morning.
69. 2:28I get on my computer to do some work
70. 2:31to be of service to Earth and humanity.
71. 2:34Never until after 8 A.M
72. 2:36and I do not get onto the Wi-Fi
73. 2:39until after 9.
74. 2:41Here, without Wi-Fi
75. 2:42I am doing work that I will upload later
76. 2:44when I connect to the internet.
77. 2:46Because I do not have a phone,
78. 2:48it means that I am unreachable
79. 2:49for much of each day.
80. 2:51This is part of my practice
81. 2:52of mindfulness and presence.
82. 2:55I will often start to make breakfast
83. 2:58around 9:30 so that I can eat at 10
84. 3:01after 16 hours of intermittent fasting.
85. 3:06Today, breakfast is locally grown oats
86. 3:09with freshly picked lambs quarter,
87. 3:11and tomatoes with apple-blackberry sauce
88. 3:14that I made this summer.
89. 3:15And some local duck eggs,
90. 3:18which were a gift from a friend.
91. 3:25Today is a bit of a different day
92. 3:27because I have a cameraman, Karem,
93. 3:29here to show you a day in my life,
94. 3:33but this is pretty normal.
95. 3:35I do a lot of media interviews.
96. 3:38This week I have Vice,
97. 3:39and 60 Second Docs coming over
98. 3:42to share my story.
99. 3:43One of my most connective moments of the day
100. 3:46is going to the spring
101. 3:48to fill up my water jugs,
102. 3:50which is about a five minute walk away.
103. 3:53I find that my mind slows down here.
104. 4:00I am able to take this mindfulness
105. 4:02and presence with me throughout the day.
106. 4:04Wherever I am, I take opportunities
107. 4:07to connect with the Earth
108. 4:08and with my plant and animal relatives.
109. 4:12[singing] I have dropped my worry
110. 4:21[singing] nowhere to go
111. 4:27[singing] nothing to do
112. 4:31[singing] no longer in a hurry.
113. 4:40I am in the communal space
114. 4:41of Wild Abundance,
115. 4:42the community where I am staying.
116. 4:45Here, there is internet.
117. 4:47What I do is very diverse,
118. 4:49and I will not sum it up
119. 4:50for this day-in-the-life,
120. 4:52but most of the time I am on the computer,
121. 4:54I am in service to Earth and humanity.
122. 4:57I do still waste some time
123. 4:59on the computer,
124. 5:00but after my vipassana,
125. 5:02which is a 10-day silence meditation,
126. 5:04I find myself watching a lot less clips
127. 5:08of the Office on YouTube.
128. 5:11It is mid-afternoon
129. 5:12and it is time for a swim.
130. 5:14My swimming hole of choice is
131. 5:16about a 5 minute bike ride away.
132. 5:21Wherever I am, I try to get in a swim.
133. 5:23Lakes, roaring rivers,
134. 5:25tiny creeks, or ponds.
135. 5:27Swimming is my shower
136. 5:28and my time to connect with Earth.
137. 5:31I do struggle with anxiety a fair bit.
138. 5:34Many of my practices throughout the day
139. 5:37are very helpful with this.
140. 5:39Swimming resets and recenters me.
141. 5:43Today I am staying in,
142. 5:44but on many days, I go out.
143. 5:47If I do go out,
144. 5:48there is a good chance
145. 5:49that I am looking for food.
146. 5:50If you are in the car with me,
147. 5:52you will notice I am rarely
148. 5:53looking at you in our conversation.
149. 5:55Instead, I am keeping my eyes out for food.
150. 5:58There is a good chance we are stopping,
151. 6:00and you will be learning something.
152. 6:03You have probably noticed
153. 6:04that I have been barefoot this whole day.
154. 6:06I pretty much go barefoot everywhere I go.
155. 6:09At home, walking in the woods, bicycling,
156. 6:13walking through town,
157. 6:14and into the few stores that I go into.
158. 6:20I spend a lot of time alone.
159. 6:22Over the last year,
160. 6:24have managed to
161. 6:25get in a lot of silence and solitude,
162. 6:28but when I do go out,
163. 6:29there is a good chance
164. 6:30that I am talking to people.
165. 6:32It is pretty commonplace
166. 6:34for people to recognize me on the streets.
167. 6:36I have made a lot of new friends this way.
168. 6:39I love eating.
169. 6:41I eat a lot throughout the day.
170. 6:45Often lunch and dinner
171. 6:47kind of mix together.
172. 6:48I will make lunch, and that will be my
173. 6:50same thing that I am eating for dinner,
174. 6:52but today I did not have lunch.
175. 6:55So now it is dinner time.
176. 6:57So this is wild rice,
177. 7:00lamb's quarter greens,
178. 7:03chicken-in-the-woods mushrooms,
179. 7:04lamb, sauerkraut,
180. 7:07and then apple-blackberry sauce,
181. 7:10with a couple of tomatoes on here,
182. 7:11and different herbs and spices.
183. 7:13Right now I am eating a 100%
184. 7:16non-industrial diet.
185. 7:18All locally grown and foraged foods
186. 7:21in this meal represents real well
187. 7:24what I am eating in a day.
188. 7:26Generally, I try to finish eating by 6:00
189. 7:29so that I can get in
190. 7:30my 16 hour intermittent fast,
191. 7:32but it often ends up being more like 7:00.
192. 7:35It is actually 7:30 right now.
193. 7:37This meal took me a little longer than usual.
194. 7:40As much as nutrition is important to me,
195. 7:43so is delicious food,
196. 7:45so let us see how this
197. 7:47chicken-in-the-woods is.
198. 7:50Very very happy with it!
199. 7:53I wish you were here to taste it with me.
200. 7:58In the evening I like to wind down
201. 8:01and get myself ready
202. 8:02for a good night's rest.
203. 8:03So usually the internet is off by 7:00 or 8:00
204. 8:08and then the screens, all screens,
205. 8:10are off by about 8:00,
206. 8:12and put away for the rest of the evening
207. 8:15so that I can reduce the stimulation
208. 8:18and get myself ready for bed.
209. 8:21I like to have an evening herbal tea.
210. 8:24Tonight I am not making that happen.
211. 8:27Then ideally in bed by about 9 o'clock.
212. 8:29If not 9:00, then 10 o'clock.
213. 8:33I am generally going all day
214. 8:35and often late into the evening,
215. 8:37but on my really good days, like today,
216. 8:40I have my evening wind down,
217. 8:42and I get myself into bed pretty early.
218. 8:45Every day, there is a balance
219. 8:47of living in service to Earth and humanity,
220. 8:50and taking the time for myself.
221. 8:52My goal each day,
222. 8:53is to be the change
223. 8:54that I wish to see in the world,
224. 8:56and to live it out loud.
225. 8:57And at the same time
226. 8:59be living simply and sustainably.
227. 9:01All of this takes a lot of time.
228. 9:03But one of the big lessons
229. 9:05I have learned over the last decade
230. 9:06is that a quality existence takes time.
231. 9:09Each day I practice some
232. 9:11compassionate communication,
233. 9:13or non-violent communication,
234. 9:14and after a year of practicing it,
235. 9:16it has very much become into my flow.
236. 9:19As we call it, NVC Consciousness.
237. 9:22With this practice of NVC
238. 9:25and many other practices,
239. 9:27over the last few years,
240. 9:28my big focus has been
241. 9:30overcoming the dominator culture
242. 9:33that has been ingrained into part of me.
243. 9:36Racism, and sexism,
244. 9:38and the belief that humans
245. 9:40are superior to other animals.
246. 9:42A lot of my day and a lot of my
247. 9:44time and energy goes into that,
248. 9:46just the the self-work and the growth
249. 9:48to overcome what this dominator culture
250. 9:51has ingrained deep inside of me.
251. 9:54I have not accomplished nearly as much
252. 9:56as I have been hoping to
253. 9:58in the last three years.
254. 9:59First there was covid,
255. 10:01which stirred things up a little bit,
256. 10:04and made it harder for me
257. 10:05to do my activism.
258. 10:06And with the murder of George Floyd
259. 10:09about three years ago,
260. 10:11as a white man,
261. 10:12I definitely had
262. 10:14a decent amount of shaking up.
263. 10:15It is time for me to step aside
264. 10:18and decenter myself
265. 10:20and to use the platforms that I have
266. 10:22to bring in other voices.
267. 10:24So I have been doing that
268. 10:26for a lot for the last three years,
269. 10:28just listening and learning.
270. 10:31So that is one of the reasons
271. 10:32that you have seen a lot less of me
272. 10:34here online.
273. 10:36But after the last few years
274. 10:37of doing this.
275. 10:39I still have a lot left to learn,
276. 10:41but I am feeling like it is time for me
277. 10:44to center myself a little bit more,
278. 10:46bringing myself back into
279. 10:49these platforms online
280. 10:51and continuing to make sure
281. 10:53that I am using them in a way
282. 10:54that is bringing other voices in
283. 10:57so that our society is
284. 10:58moving towards equity and justice.
285. 11:00I have, over the last years,
286. 11:03come to find that in most days,
287. 11:05I am not able to accomplish
288. 11:07what I want to in a day.
289. 11:09I have had to do a lot of figuring out
290. 11:12what is my best gift
291. 11:13and my best service to the Earth.
292. 11:15What do I focus on
293. 11:16that allows me to be productive,
294. 11:18and successful, and effective,
295. 11:21while also not burning out.
296. 11:23I have been learning a lot
297. 11:25from Anishinabe culture,
298. 11:27which are, you know,
299. 11:28the indigenous people of where I am from.
300. 11:31Particularly the robin bird
301. 11:32as have been returning to Robin, from Rob.
302. 11:35Robin is my birth name.
303. 11:37I have learned from Pichi
304. 11:40or Opichi in Anishinabe.
305. 11:42One of the lessons that I learned,
306. 11:44which was so powerful for me was,
307. 11:46"Do not aspire
308. 11:48beyond your scope and your own being."
309. 11:52That is the lesson of the robin.
310. 11:54One of the lessons of the Robin.
311. 11:55It was so powerful for me to hear that.
312. 11:58That is really one of my
313. 11:59things that I am taking in deep right now,
314. 12:01is do not aspire beyond your own scope
315. 12:04and your own being.
316. 12:06I am really joyful to have taken you along
317. 12:09on a day in my life.
318. 12:11People have been asking me
319. 12:12for this video for a very long time.
320. 12:15And I have been hesitant towards it
321. 12:17because a day in my life,
322. 12:19well, my life is so different.
323. 12:20It really depends
324. 12:22on the different activism project
325. 12:24that I am doing.
326. 12:24I do so many different immersive campaigns,
327. 12:27that my life widely varies
328. 12:29depending on the activism that I am doing.
329. 12:32But here, what you saw today,
330. 12:34this is a tidbit of my life
331. 12:36at the age of 36, about to turn 37,
332. 12:39living here in this little shack
333. 12:41for a temporary piece of time.
334. 12:44I am elated to have invited you in
335. 12:46to this little slice of my life.
336. 12:49I love you all very much.
337. 12:51I am so grateful
338. 12:52to have spent this time with you.
339. 12:54I look forward to seeing many of you
340. 12:56in person and sharing a hug.