Conversations with Mother Earth

My apologies but this is our first episode with any technical sound problems. 

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So, please use captioning and, as with so much in life, remember that “patience is a virtue”. Hence, please tolerate the less than ideal sound quality at the beginning because what Xiongboo shares throughout is truly enlightening and inspiring!

This Conversation with Mother Earth is a bit different regarding the setting as well. My guest in this episode is Professor Xiongbo Shi, who is, thankfully based in Shenzhen, China – as I am right now – and we are able to meet face-to-face. 

Do you remember being taught handwriting? In my childhood, in the former Yugoslavia, we were duty-bound by our teachers to write in very precise ways with all the alphabet letters slanted slightly to the right. More recently in my life, when I started to learn the Mandarin language, I became fascinated with writing the Chinese characters. They seemed to be an art form. What astounded me was the strict rigour and discipline that is applied when writing Chinese characters. Each stroke must follow a long-established certain order of movement and even a certain rhythm of motion. 

Calligraphy is also held in high esteem across East Asia – like in Japan and Korea – but in this episode we will focus on China. 

My guest today can share deep insights about Chinese calligraphy. He is Assistant Professor at Shenzhen University and has studied Art History in Christchurch, New Zealand and in Nanjing, China. He has also written scholarly articles and books about calligraphy. Xiongbo, welcome to Conversations with Mother Earth and especially for taking the time to meet with me in person for this episode.

We talk about calligraphy as fine art as well as the outer form and the inner qualities of calligraphy. Xiongbo demonstrates how to hold the brush for the calligraphy writing, as he writes down several characters. He also explains why it is possible for Westerners to appreciate Chinese calligraphy without speaking Chinese. At the end, Xiongbo elaborates why calligraphy and Mother Earth are so closely linked. 

Writing Chinese calligraphy is a philosophic lesson in mindfulness and thus one obviously needs to be fully present to appreciate the beauty of all the characters. 

Join us…

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This episode of Conversations with Mother Earth is dedicated to the exceptionally beautiful printed cloth called Batik. 

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Why am I dedicating an entire session to Batik, you might be asking? The answer is because weaving and designing cloth truly resembles and parallels life itself. Afterall, like designed cloth, our lives are an intricate pattern, woven by moments of joy, excitement, pride, and love, intertwined with grief, sorrow and loss. Each strand of cloth – like each of our lives – has a different colour and texture. 

Just because in today’s complex and busy world we rarely take the time to closely inspect the intricacy of the fabrics we use every day to clothe and keep ourselves warm, does not mean that there are not countless true artists, near or afar, weaving and designing textiles for us at this very moment. If we weren’t so preoccupied with other things, perhaps we would stop to wonder: where does the cotton of our shirts come from? Or, how is possible that our cashmere sweaters can feel so soft to the touch? And how is it that each fine thread, with its own unique vibrant colour, can be so artistically weaved into resplendent patterns?

All types of weaving and designing cloth have earned their right to be presented here in Conversations with Mother Earth but today’s focus is on a very distinctive textile renowned for its culturally rich and complex, colourful depth: Batik. It is a millennia-old art form brought meticulously to life by accomplished artisans repeating the processes of waxing, dyeing and boiling. 

To learn more about Batik, we are travelling to Indonesia, a country blessed with majestic landscapes and timeless cultural traditions. Our speaker is Putu Arnany Oprandi, the owner of Batik Popiler – a purveyor of some of the most stunning Batik products in the world.

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My guest in this episode has several nicknames: The Reinvention Guru and The Queen of Reinvention, to name just two.

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In past episodes of Conversations with Mother Earth, guest speakers have talked about some wide-ranging and very direct topics regarding caring for our Mother Earth. For example, if you have not already, I encourage you to watch the episodes about our planet’s soil, how winds bring change, discovering the diversity of bugs in our urban environment, the advantages of consuming organic chocolate and understanding the importance of oceans.

We have also discussed subjects that are less directly connected to Mother Earth BUT are equally crucial for our collective well-being on our planet such as storytelling, dance, and poetry. At the core of all these themes is something fundamental to us humans, namely our ability to creatively change as we adapt to our environment. These exact same traits can obviously also be witnessed by learning from the miracles that our Mother Earth has performed as She constantly manages how our planet must adapt and evolve. 

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that “we cannot step into the same river twice”. He is renowned for teaching that our World only exists because of the continual change of – and interchange between – ALL of the elements on our planet. He argued that the Laws of Nature must become a “moral law” for all human beings to follow. Now, over two and a half millennium after Heraclitus, his wisdom about everlasting change still resonates. This reference to Heraclitus and the role of change is meant to be a thought provoker to introduce today’s speaker on Conversation with Mother Earth. 

My guest Nadya Zhexembayeva was born and raised in the Soviet Union and a daughter of today’s Kazakhstan, she completed all her studies in the United States, including her PhD in Organisational Behaviour. Nadya and I have few things in common: we were both raised in Socialist states (the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia), we are both professors and TEDx speakers, both book authors and also consultants. I first heard of Nadya in 2015 due to her programme at INSEAD in Paris and I have been following her work since. 

In this fascinating conversation, Nadya reveals that change, destruction and construction are happening all the time, within us and outside. We also talk about creativity, how companies reinvent themselves in ever-shorter cycles and how companies can solve environmental problems and why everything is Nature. 

Nadya also has a special present for you, dear listeners. You get first 85 pages for free. Check out this link.

https://www.learn2reinvent.com/handbook

This concludes today’s Conversation With Mother Earth, brought to you by Grounded Press. Next week, we will wave our way all the way to Indonesia. Stay tuned…

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What did you do at the age of 15? You probably went to school, met with your friends, played sports. You might have been in love. 

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My today’s guest, Muhammad Najem, became a war reporter at that age, by filming the unspeakable events in his home country Syria and sharing with the world via social media an unfiltered glimpse into his now war-torn home. Until the age of 8, he had been living a football-loving, happy childhood with his family in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, just like many other kids. Then, in 2011, Muhammad got acquainted with the reality of war – food and water shortages, attending school in underground bunkers, as well as bombings, missiles and chemical warfare that killed so many – including children.

Today, he lives in Turkey but continues to fight for justice, especially for children that are experiencing their lives turned upside down by war. I first learned of Muhammad by reading The Guardian interview with Angelina Jolie who has been an UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador for over a decade, has made movies about the horrors of war and is also a coauthor of the book “Know Your Rights and Claim Them”.  

This episode is about war as war steals peace from us. More than anything else, this episode is about finding peace. Tune in and find out…

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What do terms like Sirocco, Aeolian, Gale, Zephyr, Squall or Haboob have in common? They all are names of winds with different regional sources and strengths. Of course, there are many more, as every region has named winds in their own way. In my country, the powerful north-east wind Bura is the one that sailors fear the most. And, in my book “Vana’s Adventure With Mother Earth”, Vana and Mother Earth talk to Khamsin, the wind that is known in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

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Why are winds important? You will see in this episode that winds regulate weather patterns, offer a fresh breeze on a summer day and even pollinate. They are powerful changemakers that we sometimes fear and resist but that we cannot live without. 

My guest today is Renee Baribeau, who calls herself a “wind whistler” and who researched winds for her insightful book “Winds of Spirit: Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, Health, and the Divine”. This is why I invited Renee to be my speaker about wind. Renee is also a practical shaman and go-to soul coach. She is from United States and calls the West Coast her home.

In this episode, she shares the motivation behind writing “Winds of Wisdom”, what “a wind whistler” and “a practical shaman” do and why she says that the wind existed first and how we can adjust our sails. We also talk about inner winds, sometimes even storms, and how we can navigate these. We both agree: Wind is life! And, without the wind, everything would stagnate and eventually die. 

Renee’s work is truly fascinating and multi-faceted, just like the winds. And just like we humans and our Mother Earth. 

Join us!

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I confess I have to thank serendipity for today’s guest on “Conversations with Mother Earth”. I say this because my meeting with Christian Busch happened by chance and ended in a beneficial way – which is of course what serendipity actually means. Christian and I connected on LinkedIn and, after visiting his profile and discovering his fascinating book “The Serendipity Mindset”, I eagerly invited him as a speaker.

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This is a topic all of us ought to be interested in because haven’t we all been in situations where we met extraordinary people when we least expected it. I am thinking of our spouses, friends, business partners, maybe even people we don’t like. Hence, my today’s guest is Dr Christian Busch, who grew up in Heidelberg, Germany, and who teaches at New York University (NYU) and the London School of Economics (LSE). At NYU, he directs the Global Economy Programme of the Center for Global Affairs.

We talk about his concept of “smart luck”, how focus and serendipity work together and why we should avoid patterns to really open our minds to the unexpected. I really like this quote at the beginning of his book: “Imagine a world driven by curiosity, opportunity and a sense of connection, rather than by fear, scarcity and jealousy. A world in which enormous challenges such as climate change and social inequality are being tackled by solutions that are bold and up to the challenge. In our fast-changing world, many of the emerging problems are so complex that much of our future will be driven by the unexpected.”

The reason this quote resonates with me is that it echoes the core message of “Conversations with Mother Earth”, namely the need to imagine a world where we value each other again as fellow human beings, with each one of us striving to make a living for ourselves and families while respecting the delicate balance of Nature on our planet.

Imagine that despite our differences we accept, face and tackle our common problems together because we value the world in which we live. I am grateful for the serendipity that has brought you to my podcast “Conversations with Mother Earth”. Join us!

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Last week, we dived into Oneness within the context of Chinese and Arabic poetry. This week, we are about to experience Oneness because we are going to dive deep – at least virtually – into the depths of rivers and oceans. And I will be taking you to a country that I fell in love with immediately: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. 

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So far, the conversations were with entrepreneurs, professors, bug enthusiasts or bestselling authors. Today, we will zoom in from a viewpoint of a politician. 

So why are rivers and oceans such an ideal topic for Conversations with Mother Earth? Well, let’s start with oxygen production and storage of carbon dioxide in what is called a carbon sink. In addition, rivers and oceans regulate our climate and are popular destinations for our recreational activities. Linked with this are the multi-billion-dollar economies of global tourism, fishing, and transportation. But oceans are far more than climate regulators. As a little girl, I can still vividly remember my father encouraging me to dip my hand into the Adriatic Sea so I could connect to the whole world. 

Today, my guest HE Yaseen Khayyat who had to make numerous decisions about the environment. In his role as the Minister of Environment for the Kingdom of Jordan he had to walk the tightrope between supporting aquatic tourism and commerce while at the same protecting Jordan’s delicate ecosystems. Yaseen and I worked together in the past, as he is also passionate about the circular economy. His powerful speech “One Dead Sea is Enough” has resonated with me ever since. The list of his contributions to the protection of the environment is extremely long and spans few decades. Today, Yaseen is Director of Environmental Affairs at the Royal Hashemite Court.

We talk about some of the toughest decisions he had to make during his time as the Minister of Environment, what prompted him to make his powerful speech “One Dead Sea is Enough!”, and how he walked the tightrope between the economic progress and ecosystem protection. He also shared what we as citizens can do to support decisions by our governments. 

The link to Yaseen’s speech “One Dead Sea Is Enough!” is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mV3A__yZ2Y

So, stay tuned!

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Our topic today is likely one of the most complex ones on “Conversations with Mother Earth” – at least so far. I refer to poetry. 

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Let’s start with some history. The word poetry is derived from Greek, poises, but the earliest written poems were composed in Sumerian which was spoken in today’s Iraq. We may remember from school days the Epic of Gilgamesh. Egypt, Greece, Israel, India, the Roman Empire all contributed greatly to the field of poetry. Not to forget the later works of Dante, Shakespeare, or Lord Byron. The list is very long and many poets have influenced our lives. And, as we discussed in our second episode with the bestselling author Yejide Kilanko, some of the oldest verses were not ever even written down. 

Hence, I had what Germans call “Die Qual der Wahl” which translates into the “The agony of choice”. Which focus should I choose in this vast and endless sea of verses? 

I have decided to focus on Chinese and Arabic poetry for two reasons. They are some of the oldest poetry cultures on our planet. Secondly, some verses are so timeless – like Rumi’s – that we still enjoy them today, 800 years later! 

My two guests today are both scholars of Literature. This is where their similarity ends. Dr. Mengwen Zhu is a Junior Fellow within the “Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts” at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTECH) in Shenzhen, China, while Professor Hamid Masfour is an Associate Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at Sultan Moulay Sliman University, Beni-Mellal, in Morocco. 

We discuss the connection between poetry and philosophy, what defines poetry and what differentiates it from prosa and why poetry is a necessity. We talk about two societies where poetry thrived and how poetry and Mother Earth are linked. We finish with our favourite poems. I opted for the most famous Chinese poet Li Bai and his poem “Thoughts on a Tranquil Night”.

Before my bed a pool of light – 

O can it be frost on the ground?

Looking up, I find the moon bright; 

Bowing, in homesickness I am drowned.

From “Tang Poetry in Paintings”, translated by Xu Yuanchong

We invite you to join us and take some time to explore A Timeless Verse.

I Died  by Jalal Addin Rumi

I died to the mineral state and became a plant,

I died to the vegetal state and reached animality,

I died to the animal state and became a man,

Then what should I fear? I have never become less from dying.

At the next charge (forward) I will die to human nature,

So that I may lift up (my) head and wings (and soar) among the angels,

And I must (also) jump from the river of (the state of) the angel,

Everything perishes except His Face,

Once again I will become sacrificed from (the state of) the angel,

I will become that which cannot come into the imagination,

Then I will become non-existent; non-existence says to me (in tones) like an organ,

Truly , to Him, our return

THE PAINTED ZITHER by LI Shangyin trans. Mengwen ZHU

The painted zither, for no reason, fifty strings.

Each string, each fret, recalls a blooming year.

Master Zhuang’s dawn dream — a butterfly lost.

Emperor Wang’s spring love — a cuckoo found.

The indigo sea — moonshine, tears fall from a pearl.

The blue mountain, sun-bathed, smoke rises in jade.

How could one wait to remember this feeling,

When at the time he was already bewildered?

Chinese Original: 锦瑟 李商隐 (ca. 813–ca. 858)

锦瑟无端五十弦,

一弦一柱思华年。

庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶,

望帝春心托杜鹃。

沧海月明珠有泪,

蓝田日暖玉生烟。

此情可待成追忆,

只是当时已惘然。

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Today, we are talking about a nurturing topic, in the real sense of the word, our Mother Earth’s soil.

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For many of us, soil maybe simply dirt under our feet, and the cause of us getting irritated when our hands or shoes get dirty. Yet, that same soil under our feet is where and how our food grows. That dirt is also a home to millions of organisms hidden in a whole ecosystem underneath the soil’s surface. 

My guest today is Professor Nancy Karanja from University of Nairobi, Kenya, who has dedicated much of her career researching our soil and its health. The list of her accomplishments is so long that it would fill the whole podcast alone. 

I will only say this much: Nancy is not only researching soil but rather life in all its beauty. That dark place where we put our tender seeds to eventually open-up, pierce the surface and become mature plants. Those of you who have gardens, or even just indoor plants, have seen this miracle of life unfolding.

We discuss the diversity that lies hidden from us, yet that has such a lasting influence on our health and well-being. We talk about what fuels life and how minerals, that we need for our bodies, are created. We also address some of the pressing challenges of our time like monoculture, food waste and food insecurity.  

It is an important conversation and an even more crucial understanding how we are connected to every single stalk of corn, every single blade of wheat, every single rice plant that was placed into soil as a seed. Those little seeds nourish our bodies now.

Life above and below surface is one.  

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Thus far on Conversations with Mother Earth, we have covered natural chocolate, the compelling strategy of storytelling, admiring bugs in our urban environment, how our diverse lives can be connected through dance and how essential trees are to our lives. Next week, we will talk about plants and the richness of soil.

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Linked with the topic of trees and other plants is, of course, how we breathe. With every breath we take our lungs continue their never-ending work to keep us alive. Breathing also continually connects us with the world around us. So today, fittingly, we will dedicate our broadcast to the topic of breathing. 

Today’s speaker is a person who spent most of her career in the business world, teaching the theories and rules of commerce to Business School students and consulting managers. As an academic researcher, lecturer and consultant, for the most part, she lived mostly “in her head”, creating lesson plans and also publishing business content.

To counterbalance this cerebral lifestyle, in her free time, she wrote books, one of them a children’s book. She felt deeply that the undertaking of writing each and every day provided her soul with the oxygen that kept her feeling alive. A reflective period that followed after a major loss allowed her to find her purpose and align the two lives. 

She is also a person whose work demanded that she travel the world whereby she richly benefited from experiencing new cultures. Despite the weariness of travel and setting up a new home over and over again, she also learned that the most challenging journey she ever confronted was to make the move from her head to her heart. 

Hence, who is today’s speaker? How can she help become more grounded, more connected with the world around us? How can she make you feel one?

As you will see, this is an essential Conversation with Mother Earth.  

Enjoy!

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