Embodying Gratitude And Love Through Business And Soil Regeneration (interview with ryland engelhart of kiss the ground)
Ryland Engelhart (@lovebeingryland) is the co-owner of Cafe Gratitude (@cafegratitude) and Gracias Madre (@graciasmadresocal) and the co-founder of Kiss The Ground (@kisstheground), a nonprofit that educates and advocates about the connection between soil, human, and planetary health. (Our podcast host is a graduate of Kiss the Ground's soil advocacy training course, which has really reoriented her views on sustainability!)
He also just started a #LiveItUp 21-day challenge on the theme of participating in planet regeneration—you can sign up for that here!
In this podcast episode, Ryland sheds light on what it means to not just lessen our environmental impact but to become healers and regenerators of life and biodiversity, which can help to reverse climate change; how Ryland embodies a deep, spiritual sense of gratitude and love through his restaurant businesses as well as his nonprofit focused on regenerating soil and supporting the circularity of life; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Ryland and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by Mining for Steal by Fuchsia
“... within 60 years, we’ll have no more agricultural soils and we’ll have completely desertified all the land that’s currently feeding the world.”
If you feel inspired by this episode, please consider donating a gift of support of any amount today!
This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological balance, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes.
On realizing that we can do good and not just less bad:
“The best case scenario I knew for human beings was to do less harm—to be less harmful, but our impact was always going to be somewhat harmful.
And this was the first time I saw a new relationship emerge, where we can actually be regenerators and probiotics on the planet versus a virus on the planet.”
On the hopeful message of healing and regeneration:
“Every year, we're losing the size of England as land that was once productive under agricultural management becoming a complete desert—no matter how much agrochemicals you put on it, it's completely destroyed.
We've lost one-third of the topsoil, globally, in the last 40 years. The U.N. has said that within 60 years, we'll have no more agricultural soils and that we'll have completely desertified all the land that's currently feeding the world.
It's a dire situation, but the story of regeneration and the ability to heal the soil and bring fertility to the land that's broken is a very hopeful message. It really is possible, and it gives humanity a horizon to step into.
We can use our ingenuity to work with the ecological technology of nature that's developed over 500 million years, working in concert with that system versus working against it, which is what most of our current land management practices do.”
On holding reverence and compassion for the sacredness of life:
“There's a beautiful quote by Wendell Berry:
‘Everyday, we break the body to build the blood of creation. If we do it knowingly, reverently and carefully, it is a sacrament. If we do it with greed, gluttony, and carelessness, it is a desecration.’
It goes back to many traditions of Indigenous wisdom, understanding that we are one with all life.
Through our oneness experienced, there's a cycling of life that all things that grow have a life cycle and die. When they die, they become the parts and parcels of new life to be recomposed. If we can do that with care, consciousness, and love, I think that's the greatest expression of compassion.
We must participate in death.
The question becomes: What is the ideal relationship with nature, such that the ecology can continue to give, produce, and expand upon the life-giving effect of our stewardship of the land, animals, plants, trees, etc.? And can we live with an understanding that we're all interconnected and that there's no escaping that we must consume off the substance of other things that will die to sustain us?
If we can be in deep gratitude and understanding for that, then that, to me, is an expression of compassion.”
Final words of wisdom:
“Love is an indwelling presence and we always have access to that love. It's always our responsibility and opportunity to be that love.
That love is not found in people, places, and things—it's found in our heart and there's an ever-flowing spring from our heart, so we can always be love in the world.”
