#4-001: Love is the Answer: Songwriting, Ayahuasca and Forgiveness with Lipbone Redding
As we embark on the fourth season of the Mother Tree Network, it seems auspicious that our first episode coincides with a day of love—Valentine's Day—and the birthday of a renowned figure of love and freedom, Mr. Frederick Douglass.
This season begins with a commitment to centering love consciousness in 2025—a year where decisions and actions are rooted in love, even amidst the chaotic events swirling around us.
**The Power of Love Consciousness:**
In a world where executive orders and political tensions weigh heavily, it's crucial to ground ourselves in love consciousness. This practice isn't just a sanctuary for our spirits; it acts as fuel for the actions we take in this world. Sometimes, as I experienced recently with emotional responses to political decisions, we need to break down before we can rebuild with love.
**A Conversation with Lip Bone Redding:**
Who better to accompany us on this journey than Lip Bone Redding? This idiosyncratic and spiritually harmonious musician from North Carolina embodies what it means to live with love. His presence is a testimony to divine masculinity expressed gently through music.
In our heartfelt dialogue, Lip Bone and I explored critical societal questions, thoughts on forgiveness, and the depth hidden in simple-sounding songs. Lip Bone's talents don't stop at singing; he's a storyteller who invites his audience into his narrative with songs like "How Does It Get Any Better Than This?"
This particular song, in its deceptively simple charm, pricks at the heart and invites reflection on our outlook—whether we're faced with joy or adversity. The essence of this question, derived from a friend's encouragement in times of self-reflection, illustrates how sometimes the simplest phrases open us to possibilities and teach us about the significant details in life.
**Embracing Forgiveness:**
A significant part of our conversation revolved around personal growth and forgiveness. The difficulty many face in forgiving themselves stems from not wanting to attach to past misactions. Lip Bone illuminated his thoughts on how revisiting every detail of past actions, even if painful, helps reclaim parts of our energy tied to those moments.
For Lip Bone, forgiveness is about presence – acknowledging every detail not to dwell but to release. Forgiveness often pairs with acceptance and compassion for our journeys and others', as both are nurturing facets of love.
**Songwriting and the Antenna of Artistry:**
Lip Bone shared his creative process as a musician, listening to the muse that guides his artistic expression. His belief in the power and responsibility of sharing through art reflects a natural state of being that gently disrupts and inspires. Art is a leading force, reshaping our perceptions and guiding us towards more profound questions and truths.
**Creating Spaces of Okayness:**
Living at a spiritual retreat center, Lip Bone has embraced the power of creating spaces that allow individuals to just ‘be.’ His work, especially through music and meditations shared on his YouTube channel "Infinite Okayness," extends the invitation for people to tap into a state of feeling good.
**Conclusion: A Call to Love-Powered Action:**
Lip Bone's anthem "Love is the Answer for World Peace" encapsulates what we truly need today. The repetition of love as a mantra permeates our defenses, reaching into our consciousness to sow seeds of understanding and change.
As I continue this season, I invite everyone to ask, "How does it get any better than this?" Let this question guide us in cultivating love consciousness and approaching our actions with boundless love and a fresh perspective.
To discover more about Lip Bone Redding’s music, visit his website at lipbone.com, and explore his substack for a deeper dive into his spoken artistic reflections.
Thank you for joining me on this journey—with love and awareness, we pave the path forward.
**Stay Connected:**
Join me for more enlightening conversations this season and share your thoughts. How does love consciousness resonate with you, and how do you incorporate it into your daily life? Let’s explore this beautiful world together, one heartbeat at a time.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00]
Hey, gorgeous Aminata here, and I am so excited to be with you for season four, episode number one. All right. So here we are, as I said, season four, episode number one of the mother tree network. And we are beginning our first episode on Valentine's day, which is also the birthday of one of the greatest lovers in history.
Mr. Frederick Douglass. All right. How many people knew that? Not me for a long time. On this love day, I want to say two things. One is I want to say that for me this year, 2025, I am putting love consciousness at the center of everything that I do and of all my decisions. Love consciousness. And what I mean by that, get myself into a state of Feeling love of [00:01:00] feeling loving in my body and from that place of being, make decisions, make statements, offer gifts to people but to cultivate love consciousness as the non negotiable before I'm out here in this world.
And given. The recent executive orders and whatnot cray going on in the United States of America government. It's more important than ever to root ourselves in love consciousness and to take action that emanates from love, especially. When we feel so much not love, I had a I had a little breakdown last couple of days.
I have been crying because of, I think the thing that really tipped me over was Guantanamo putting people seeking asylum into Guantanamo. I just feel wow, what a failure of [00:02:00] Obama to have allowed that to stay open. What a failure of. Everyone who's contributed to that place still being allowed to be here.
And now to use it to, to continue to leave it, to have it open and to use it against life. It just, I just broke down. And sometimes we need to break down. Sometimes love means that we cry. We cry in the face of not love, and we yearn for something more and then we find that love inside of ourselves, and we offer it to those people who we feel are being, love is being withheld from.
And because we're all one, when we withhold love from any part of ourselves, We are withholding love from ourselves. So who better to help me communicate this message, this way of [00:03:00] being than this idiosyncratic, wonderful musician, Lip Bone Redding out of North Carolina. Lip Bone. First of all, what kind of name is Lip Bone?
Oh, but what a wonderful. Loving presence, what a wonderful expression of divine masculinity coming through this musician. So I encourage you while you're listening to this interview with Lipbone, who is a singer songwriter, who is a, as he calls himself a storyteller. I encourage you to to listen with your heart, to take this in as medicine.
We laugh a lot in this interview and that can be so healing when you talk about really serious issues [00:04:00] and yet you can feel the humor in it, the gentleness of how we can approach this time. I also want to invite you with this first episode to look around you and recognize. That spring, according to traditional Chinese medicine is here.
We have been through the winter and we are now in the very early days of spring. And so what that means is it's time for us to, pop out of our little. Caves in our boroughs and start to move above ground and to help you with that, to help you move above ground in a way that is sustainable so that you do not burn out in a way that helps you to actually launch.
Or to make, bring into the world that which you want to bring into world, whether it's your business, it's a a [00:05:00] creative project or a community, this spring is the time to get that moving. And I'm inviting folks who have something on their hearts, something that they want to. Grow bigger or birth to get in touch with me because our so good apprenticeship is especially meant for you, for founders, for leaders, for creatives who have something really beautiful to bring into the world and who are dealing with a lot of self doubt, I don't know, paralysis.
Difficulty with money, the issues you face when you're trying to bring something new into being. And so that's what this apprenticeship is about. It's about using the wisdom of [00:06:00] nature, incorporating the guidance from our ancestors and the divine pacing ourselves with the moon and the sun. So that when we actually bring forth what needs to be brought forth, it is done in a way that is sustainable and that carries the essence of love.
Edit center. So if you want to talk to me about that, I want to talk to you about that. And we're calling it a sacred listening session. So just go to my website, dr. Amanda, camp. com forward slash free. And you will see a place to sign up for a sacred listening session or check the show notes. So without further ado, let's bring on someone who I think could be Santa Claus, Mr.
Lip bone. Ready?
[00:07:00] Hey gorgeous, this is Firewoman and I'm here today with my special guest, Lipbone Redding. Hey Lipbone! Hi, how are you doing? Oh my gosh, I'm good. Do I, so do you, do I call you Aminata? Do I call you Firewoman? Fire Walker. Do I just call you Dr. Amanda? What do you prefer? Oh my God. People are asking me that all the time.
Aminata is perfect. Aminata. That's such a beautiful name. And I'm happy to, it feels good saying it. It, especially because you're a musician, so you deal with sound. Aminata. Yes. It's beautiful. Beautiful. Yes. Great name. Love it. Thank you. We're here to talk about you. I'm so excited because my first question for you, lip bone is different than the first question I have for every single guest.
So you get your own first question. You ready? [00:08:00] Okay. My question is how does it get any better than this? I'd like to know.
Now that is the name of one of lip balm, Redding's really beautiful songs. And I'm definitely going to incorporate that into this interview, but lip balm, like, how does it get any better than this? Tell me about that and how you came up with that question. Gosh, that's a, that's so much in that question that you just asked.
There's a lot of history over, especially over the past four, five years. I, when I came out here to Oak Grove retreat to live it was like a blank slate. And there's a woman who lives on the property named Trish and Trish she asked me that one day she said, cause I think I might've been down or something and kind of want to, and she goes how does it get any better than this?
And I thought, that's a good question. That's a really good [00:09:00] way to, to frame all your troubles in a way. So you can say instead of. Getting down on things and going like this sucks and it'll never get any better than this. And it's a mantra. And so it's one of these mantras that it just opens up and allows.
Possibilities, it allows your intention to come through. And so I, I've taken it's turned into this, as I unpacked it, that one saying, how does it get any better than this? It's turned into this awareness of people sometimes having a negative outlook and not even knowing that when you say a thing that it's, you're really asking for the opposite.
And so it's just started there. So how does it get any better than this? We just keep turning all those negative questions into positive questions. And that, [00:10:00] that opens up so much too, because I feel like. We get our ability to ask questions about ourselves from how we were raised from the people that we keep close in our lives.
And we, cause we like to, we're social creatures. We like to imitate the people around us and it's, and I've had relationships where everything was phrased in the negative. Yes. Like, how can you not do this right now? How, what would it take for you to not do this thing right now or whatever it was.
And even with a negative attitude and I just it always bothered me. So I felt like when I discovered this phrase, how does it get any better than this? That I, it was a key and I was able to start unlock this little door led me into this big wide open world. So maybe that is some kind of an answer.
I'm not sure. Yes. When I heard the song, I think you sing it live [00:11:00] at a small house concert that I was at. And that wasn't the song that invited me into your world. But that was one of the songs that I took away because it is a contradictory question. How does it get any better than this?
It's almost like you could ask it when you're feeling really good, or you could ask it when you're feeling really bad. And one of the spiritual teachers I used to fall. Follow Rika Zimmerman. She used to just say, just ask that if you can't do anything else, just ask that question to try to jiggle things around, in the universe.
Works. So everybody try that question out. How does it get any better than this? And I F I find out here. So I live on a A retreat at a retreat center. And it is a I guess some would say it's a spiritual retreat center. Although we don't have any overarching. Dogma or [00:12:00] any specific thing that we adhere to.
Maybe how does it get any better than this might be our one and only official mantra here. And I find. That I remind other people and other people remind me, and it's just really, it's a very positive and I know certain people may even think naive, truly the power, obviously, you're in the world of podcasting, truly the powers in the language and how you use the language, how you, the thoughts you can think and the questions you can ask.
Yeah, they go together. Yeah, you can ask one of the people who I love bio Kamala Faye, one of the things he's saying is we've got to pause more, slow down and ask different questions. Dare ourselves. To ask different questions. [00:13:00] But I do want to get into how I met you because there was something really disarming.
It was like, you sat in a room, you played a song and then I felt like you looked at me and you were like I'm going to play this song. Who knows, right? There's whatever, 50, 60 people. And we all felt like, Oh, he's playing that song for me. But that song was something like, it was very soft and it just struck me like the way to get to people sometimes it's very soft, it's oozing in or I used to call it. It's like a stiletto, right? Okay. And the song was it. The song began with the words, I love you. And it was very quiet. It was so quiet. So Lipo, can you tell us some of the lyrics to that song so our people can hear the words and we can maybe talk about it and [00:14:00] then.
I'll also play some music. Yeah, I love you. I love you. Let's not worry. Let me ease your mind. Cause true love is easy to find. Something like that. Yes, and I was like, that's crazy. And the last line, it's just that the path is undefined. I thought that was so wise because sometimes the worry that happens when someone says, I love you is you start getting tense.
Oh, what do you expect from me? And then he said, let's not worry, but let's ease your mind. I was like, yeah, okay, cool. And then you said, it's just that the path is undefined. So we don't have to control it. Or name it, limit it, make it safe, do you hear what I'm trying to say? I know exactly what you're trying to say.
You wrote the song, but here's the thing about a song like that. And I'm a big [00:15:00] believer in what we artists, musicians, and creative people would call the muse. And it's about getting out of the way and saying, come through me, speak through me. And because what we're doing is we're fulfilling our destiny as creative people, which is something for everybody truly.
And so every now and then, the antenna goes up and a really strong signal comes in. And my job as a musician is a craft person is to know what it is that my tools are have know my limitations know what to limit my own expectations in that and then open up and allow things to come through.
And it's more work than it sounds because you have to, if you're working in this sort of muse based economy, you have to work hard to rise up to [00:16:00] meet her as she comes through. And then when she does You're there. It's like being ready to, it's like making a nice strong bucket with no leaks so that when it rains, you can catch all the water.
Yes. Yeah. Something like that. So that song was, I guess the muse coming through and just speaking on behalf of whatever needed to be said at the time. And I feel like in some ways you could think of that, you could imagine that, that, that message came to you from the universe, from God, from your beloved ancestors, from the trees, saying, I love you.
Let's not worry. Let me ease your mind. Your love, true love is easy to find. It's just that the path is undefined. Chill. Yeah. Yeah. And I, we live in this [00:17:00] like kind of construct of I, maybe I don't live in it as much as most people do, but I see, and I feel it there, there's this expectation to perform and to always be right.
And to come away with results, man, we need results. And I've just. I the older I get and the more I do what I keep doing the less I understand what that is all about, or the less I can, sorry, I understand that I can't relate to it though. I can't get with it because it's all a process to me at this point.
And every now and then during the process, a beautiful gem will fall out or, there's a big mess that'll happen sometimes it's just, you never know, but it's all part of it. And you learn from. the messes and the mistakes. And you learn from the I think you probably learn less from the successes because they're, they just go on and into the world and do what they do.
Unless you ask, how [00:18:00] does it get any better than that? Unless you ask.
So you're on it. You laugh like my friend, Christian. I'm another musician. I'm going to have to put you together. Okay. Yeah, with your whole body for those who aren't watching the video version, you're going to have to come over to YouTube and see, watch you got a little bit of Santa Claus going on. I do.
I've always had a little bit of, yeah. A little bit of that. I want to come back to what you were getting at when you said, the messes because I've been dealing with this I just had a birthday, happy birthday. Thank you. And one of the, this birthday, what is opening up for me is going deeper into forgiveness.
And self forgiveness. And I have been shocked at my resistance to forgiving myself. I really have been. Define the term [00:19:00] forgiveness. It's always my first question. Yeah. What does that mean? What does that mean to you? It might mean something different for someone else. Thank you for asking.
You've done a great job interviewing me. I'm just having a conversation. This is what we should be doing, right? Okay. I guess a working definition when I say I'm having a hard time with forgiving myself, like acknowledging. something in the past that I did that I would not do today.
I did it coming from a space of selfishness or I did it coming from a space of unconsciousness. Yeah, let's just say that. And and it was disrespectful and and so forgiveness, so that sorry, what I'm trying to, that's what I'm working on right now. And and I've been working with accepting it and not being attached [00:20:00] to, because I did that.
means I have to I can't allow myself to be free. I can't trust myself anymore. Or I can't love that part of me. You know what I mean? Because maybe I think I know what you're saying. Yeah. So forgiveness implies not being attached to it anymore and not letting it not letting myself be limited by it.
It's it, gosh, I, here's what I think about the forgiveness thing. I, the key to forgiveness is to is in the details, I think. And if we can.
A lot of times we're, I'm just speaking from personal experience. So I'm not like a, an expert at this except for what I know. But when I am confronted with this, [00:21:00] you're like, I need to forgive something. First thing I try to do is I, close my eyes. I breathe. And then I try to recall every single detail as painful as it may be, because it seems like to me, the reason we want to forgive a thing is because we've left a a bit of our energy.
Somewhere in this place that exists, I don't want to say in the past because it's a location somewhere in the grand scheme of things. And it just happens to be in time, that's how we're measuring it. But somewhere we've left this bit of energy of. intention. And what you really want to do is I think you want to go back and reclaim it.
And if you could, you'd set the past, right? You'd change things. So the only way to do that is to go back and really, for me, it's to just, Sit with it and look at it. You don't have to do anything. You just have to be there [00:22:00] with it. That's enough because the person that you've become and, or the person you've revealed you've been stripping away layers basically all your life, right?
If you're doing it right. I think you're accumulating knowledge. And as you accumulate knowledge, you strip away these layers of unnecessary. Hesitate to call it ego, but whatever it was, selfishness conditioning, all these things. Yes. Correct. And it's it just. I feel like if you could just be present with it, whatever that thing was, and, that's where the acceptance comes and it's not like you have to go, I accept you and bring you, relive it and bring it back.
But you should go and look at every detail and every aspect. Because also. There's the world is complex and we are part of a complex matrix of actions and thoughts and so a lot of times empathic people are very kind people tend to blame [00:23:00] themselves for things that happen. And I think by recalling details of whatever it is, that way you can put yourself in a, in the frame of a greater context.
And. Then then it brings up the question of who am I, which is a whole, opens up a whole other line. You are deceptively simple in your songs. You are deceptively simple over there. There's a lot of big things underneath or frames that you're operating in. We've already said you hesitate to call it the past because maybe it's.
That's just how we look at time. You've got a lot of big things, but so I want to come to some of those big ideas, but I appreciate what you said. Thank you. And I don't mean to, I can never tell somebody else how to do their thing. I'm just speaking from my own insight. And I love that.
I feel like one of the things I like about what you just suggested [00:24:00] is it's like actively. Going back or going there to that location as a witness, and that's a different position to be in. And as a witness, you can look at maybe, all the parties with compassion, with doing the best that they could in the situation, given what they had been through and how they're.
Trauma was just expressing itself or what have you. So I really liked that. And that whole thing about being with it, just taking a breath. For me, I love taking breath and I drink a lot of water. That's, those are great things. Those are great things to do. To be with something that's hard to hold and just to be with it.
And I feel like this does relate to your music because your messages are so tiny. There's so tiny and they weasel in there. You're like, I love you. You like, [00:25:00] I love you. Let's not worry. And it's okay, you know what I'm saying? It's we don't have to figure out what did you do that time?
And, yeah, there's a, I guess there's an art to being very specific and personal. And at the same time speaking in generalities and I've always appreciated. Things that can do that. That can speak to you as a person in the moment, but also speak to your and others lives, like I said, in the bigger, broadly.
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to get to the bigger picture. Because to me. You clearly are impacting the bigger picture, or I don't know, you're doing something out here in the ethers. So let's so let's talk about that. What do you, first of all, you said that you hesitate to say the past because it's a [00:26:00] location and we call it time.
So tell me. What are some of these bigger, what are you thinking about this? Do you not think there's a past, present and a future? Yes. All those things. I just, in that context, I think we're, if I was just speaking before of where energy is kept and I didn't want to say we're keeping the energy in the past, because when you say the past, it sounds so far away and irretrievable.
So I just wanted to say a location, because if it's in a place, you can go get it. That just for in terms of that. I don't. Look, I'm not a physicist or a quantum physicist or any of these things. I'm a storyteller and a musician. And, but the word musician means that I listen as much as I can to the muse.
And I try to be receptive to that. And some days I'm not, and some days I really am. And I try to figure out how I can. [00:27:00] Be prepared all the time to receive whatever I need to receive as an, as I want to say, when I say artist, I don't mean a painter. I necessarily, a creative person as an artist, somebody who, if we take the word art as to be.
Which is what the word means, right? Just to be then you're an artist is somebody who's really good at being, it's made a craft out of being so that's the kind of where I come from and I think about things a lot, probably too much. And what was the question?
I know what was the question? What was that question? Something about art is, and I was like, Oh my God, that's true. Wherefore art thou? Like now, okay. I'll make a confession and. Who knows what it'll, what reverb reverberations it'll send out to the universe. But it's very fashionable and there's all, it's a, I don't know if fashionable is necessarily the right word, but it's very [00:28:00] popular, excuse me, popular right now to do ayahuasca and things like psychedelic drugs.
And I, at one point someone invited me to do it and I think you have a song about that. There is. I have one about it. Yes. Someone invited me and I said, yes, because I, have discernment and judgment, but I often just say, yeah, let's do it. So I did. And I, I prepared it was with a very experienced shaman who I trusted and know, and.
It was a long time coming, and I knew about all this that was going on, but I, it took me a few years ago. Okay. All right. I'm ready. Let's do it. And I, my experience was such that it was very joyful and and maybe it was because I did the diet or the diet beforehand where you you're clean and I'm already a vegan and I don't drink alcohol.
Yeah. Maybe that had gave me a leg up, but I [00:29:00] had a very pleasant experience compared to some of the other people that were there. And I had, I heard this distinct voice and it was a woman's voice. And I've heard this woman's voice other times in my life when I was asking certain questions or I was being silly or, whatever.
And I heard this voice and she said, all you have to do is show up and be you. Which was just a huge confirmation for me because that's what I knew I was already doing and then it just was like, that's it. That is everything. And that it let me stop worrying about certain things like, Oh, am I going to be good enough for this or that?
I still do that. Everybody does that. But it gives me a tool to say, look, something higher and bigger. And more knowledgeable than you, then the you that's yakking right now, [00:30:00] myself, that's like constantly going in there. Something bigger than that came along and said, Hey, take it easy. All you have to do is show up and be you.
That's enough. You're enough. You're more than enough. And I really took that to heart. And I like to think that's my default state now. I would hope so. Wow. Yeah. That wouldn't be bad. No. No. And it hasn't always been that way. No. It's been a lot. I'm a very, I can be very hyperactive and moody and I just depends on.
My environment and what's happening up here. And I do like to meditate a lot. I actually lead meditations sometimes out here at Oak Grove retreat. I want to come back to something you said, because I think it will resonate with some folks who are listening. And that [00:31:00] is the in a con there is a there's a word Sankofa.
And it's go back and get it, and a lot of times it's used in relationship with African Americans about us going back and getting our heritage, going back and reconnecting, with Africa, our ancestors. And but you could also use it in terms of going back and get the piece of yourself.
That is still stuck there because you get in regret. So thank you for helping me to make that connection and the conversation so far. And then when you talked about, your journey with plant medicine with ayahuasca and how yours is joyful. Oh my God. That is, I had the bucket and everything.
I just, I didn't really need it. Damn. Unfortunately, I think my book is going to be full. But but I think that, that you are enough, you're more than enough. I've also gotten [00:32:00] that message on plant medicines and and here's why I have resisted it. My resistance from it is if I'm enough, if I'm more than enough, if there's nothing else I need to do in the world to make.
Maybe any more lovable by God, the universe. And I already am, if it's all good already then I don't know not just what do I do? Cause there's still lots of stuff I want to do and create, but it's what do, what about. Guilt as a driver or, discomfort at injustice as a driver.
Tell me about some of that. I think those are two completely different things in my opinion. Yeah. And discomfort and justice is look, that's a great motivator. And if you're going to be motivated about something, justice is one of those things that is, the motivation for justice comes from guilt.
Have you? Yeah. I'm not saying for [00:33:00] everybody. I'm not putting it, but so often I've heard it couched as I have so much. I have to know what I mean. It's a little bit. Tell me about your feelings about that or your thoughts. I see that a lot, as you say with everybody. And I don't, I think you asked me what, before what would be the title of the, of my podcast and I would say the best things in life aren't things.
And I don't, maybe I've just built up this world around me where I don't have a lot of things. Like when most people go for things and I feel like it's, I don't really live in this world of where commerce is King where I'm out to get something, and claim stake my claim there's moments like that, but I don't think that's how I live my life.
And there are people [00:34:00] who do that and there comes a certain point. And I think that's where the guilt arises because when people go and they get things and they accumulate things and all those things are attached to some person or previous action, or, just think about the. I've got a cell phone.
Think about all those, rare metals and things that are in there and how many people suffer just so they, they can mine them and are, in Africa, but also all around the world, it's either people suffering just so I can have a conversation. And Is that where does guilt motivate me to do things?
I don't know if it does or not. But but here's your quandary. Here's your question. I think that's right at the heart of it. So what, yeah, what do we do? I don't necessarily have an answer, but I also feel like there's the analysis paralysis thing where you think too deeply about it.[00:35:00]
Something, and it's connected to something else and something, and soon you'll see that the whole world is connected in, in, we're not only connected in this joy, we're also connected in this suffering and there's different layers and differences. And you could go there and people go there and they go deeper and deeper into that and then they, it becomes hopeless.
So you have to somehow figure out your own hopefulness and know your limitations and also know your strengths. And then you can do what you can do in the moment. It's like you meet someone on the street and you just try to do the best you can possibly do. If you could see the way that I live a very simple life.
I haven't lived, this is a tiny house. I have a garden all summer. I eat out of my garden mostly. It's a pretty homesteady, simple lifestyle. And I try as much as possible to not have my, whatever I consume to be attached to the suffering [00:36:00] of others. And yet if I want to go get gas or fill up my vehicle, it's attached.
So how do you, yeah, how do we mitigate that? I don't know, but it is a question and I think about this. So thank you for. Putting a spotlight on all of it. Yeah, I think asking the question and making conscious choices. Is a pathway forward. And I also think what you said about if you look at how the sufferings are connected, so you think, oh, this is from this country and these people and then this fuels this other industry and, you Yes, you can spiral out to just how big a mess it all is and how interconnected all the systems.
Are and maybe some people need to do that just to get a sense of how vast it is. And then so we know it's not a simple, tiny little thing. Oh, if you do this, if you become [00:37:00] a vegan that changes the world for everybody. So we're not like diluted with just that there's one cause or one thing we can do that.
Changes it for everybody, but
but I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go. No I was just going to come back to that thing about being a hundred percent. Okay. Like you said, the what you were told by this voice was that you're enough. You're enough already. Just show up, just keep showing up as who you are each day. And it's what am I trying now?
I've lost myself. I guess I'm trying to say holding maybe holding or releasing the big, all the big systems and coming back to that truth in each moment. Yeah. There's certain East, especially in Buddhism, there's schools of thought that more. It's about [00:38:00] attachment and the more you are attached to a thing or a desire.
Or especially a concept or an idea, then that's what creates the suffering, which, I'm not making any blanket philosophical or religious statements, please, this is my disclaimer. But I'm just saying there's, I think there's different ways at different moments to look at where we are personally in the big picture.
And how do, because how we act usually comes from a place of, I think of a perspective, hopefully, if you're mindful you're going to form a perspective just by being in a place. And you can see if you're mindful, and. And I just said the word mindful and all these other words came to me like, are we communicating?
Are we, are we listening? Which is communicating is listening a lot listening. [00:39:00] Are you listening?
And then I just lost my train of thought, but I think that has a big, that, that plays a big part in our perspective so that we can see our suffering in within that you can, there's questions you can ask yourself, like, how does it get any better than this? Let's say.
I'm just piecing together. What's going on through the pageant of my, of the characters in my mind, right?
We're going to take a break right now. So we're going to come right back. And of course our special guest is lip bone, Redding musician and person who works with the muses and artists will be right back.
So this is Aminata Desert Rose Plantwalker Firewoman and I am back with my special guest musician artist LipBone Redding. So LipBone, we started talking about some very big issues and and I appreciate you sharing your [00:40:00] perspective. I really do. And thank you. It's nice to be isn't it?
Yeah, it is nice to be heard. And I appreciate how you're saying you don't have all the answers. You're just like opening up for what's happening right now. Yeah. And a lot of, I think a lot of communication issues come from like my dictionary in my life doesn't match up with yours.
We may be saying the same thing, but the words are coming out. So I'm always trying to be a little aware of. I make up so much words and things and I coined phrases that only I'll ever hear for myself. And I, sometimes they slip out and people go, what are you talking about? So can you give us an example of one of those crazy lip balm phrases?
Oh I was just working on a song called The Party Safari Blowout Bonanza [00:41:00] Extravaganza Rolla Corolla We're a Hot Damn Togo Bahama Pajama Beach Party Part Two in 3D. Wow. Okay. Whatever that means, there's a story with there, but it's just, I just, I like putting words together. I like the sound of words.
And I think there's power in there and there's power in the space between things. You'll see, I have a sub stack and you'll, I noticed the other day I said, I hyphenate a lot on my sub stack because I'm just making up a word is what I'm doing. And you're putting things side by side that maybe don't necessarily usually go together or trying to like that phrase you just gave us, that was like 10 or 12 words.
Yeah. And that's not even one of my good ones. I, and I say that because it's just, it's very whimsical, but there's, I actually have, I can't think of one off the top of my head, but when, just when I'll describe something, I'll just, if I can't [00:42:00] find the word, I'll just take two words that I know and put them together.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a little bit how does it get any better than this? It's yeah. A little disruptive, and that's the thing I'm going to come back to you with, because I feel like as a musician, performer, storyteller, you are disruptive. I have to be disruptive a little bit.
It's important about that. I think art is disruptive. If it's good because you're challenging in a way, but if you don't want to put people on the defensive necessarily, I don't, I know some art that does, I don't necessarily do it by putting people on the defensive. However I'll say things or do things or make funny sounds.
And I. I think what I do is I get people to go, that's not normal. And
what's [00:43:00] going on here? And then that's a space that's an opening and an opportunity to to share honestly. Yeah. And to reimagine, reimagine, reconsider, can we, or even just to listen, there are a few things like I've learned over years and years of playing out and that's one of them to do something that's so outrageous that people go.
They all turn and go, what is going on? And then you can get real quiet and say something very important. I love you or, but also just the fact, just the act of getting very quiet will cause people to, maybe it's our gossip gene kicks in. We want to know what's going on.[00:44:00]
So as a musician, as a storyteller, a disruptor, but I feel like you're very gentle. So I'm thinking, Oh, here's the word that came to me. You said musician, like from muse. Another, you could also think of yourself as a Ooh, maybe pastor is not the right word. Cause that sounds very determining of other people, one of those very Abrahamic.
Yes, exactly. And I'm not going there, but I am going spiritual disruptor maybe, or I don't know, teacher, but by creating spaces, not by telling you what to think, I don't really know, but you do something. Thank You are working with energy and you are getting in there. I, and I'm aware that's what's happening.
I don't so here's the thing, right? I, like I said, I live at a, for lack of a better term, a spiritual retreat center and people [00:45:00] come from all over and we do workshops. We have, we do a lot of sound healings. We do concerts, lectures. We have people. Who, from all walks of the, that sort of spiritual and self help spectrum and things like that.
And a lot of the people are really amazing. And some of them are just like, you just want to roll your eyes like, okay, you're going to tell me you're going to tell me what I need to do. And and then I have to buy the book and then subscribe to the thing anyway. So I, not that's wrong, but I don't necessarily resonate with that.
So much. But what I'm trying to say is, I've seen a lot of this and I've even taught classes where I feel like my, the best thing I can do for people is give them a space with themselves. Like when I do a meditation here, I create a space [00:46:00] or I've tried, I've tried and it's been a process.
Like I've had to learn over time. Don't put too, don't put so much in there. Don't put so much of myself. In it, create a space, hold a space. I have a new YouTube channel called Infinite Okayness, and it's if you just go to infinite okayness.com, I don't know if I can put that or you need to edit that out or whatever, but if you go to infinite okayness.com, you can, it's just videos of music.
Long form sort of very meditative music, beautiful imagery that I do on my little camera. I was just like, all I want to do is create a space for people to feel good. And that takes a place within. That's one of the ways that I do it. It's [00:47:00] also, I show up at your house and we have a really fun party and everybody dances and sings along.
I just want to create a space where you feel good because I'll a lot of the, if I'm going on too long, just stop me, please, but a lot of, I feel that a lot of the, we can start to get into trauma and this idea of trauma. And addiction and abuse and things like this so it comes from just trying to feel okay, like we all just want to feel okay.
And so we do the, we have this behavior that we're always trying to, if we don't feel okay. There are people do different things. So you might take it out on somebody else or you might go and, start doing a lot of very unhealthy drugs and, or, overeating or, just mistreating people or just thinking badly about yourself.
And so if I feel like [00:48:00] if people can have a moment every day where they just feel, okay, everything's all right. This moment is fine. I'm fine. You're fine. Room is great. I don't have to do anything. I don't have to be anything. I don't have to perform anything. I feel that if we all could just have a little bit of that every day, our lives would be a lot better.
And we, we'd stop taking it out on each other, which is what happens when the trauma goes unresolved you take it out on something, maybe this is just my experience. And like I said, being at a place like this, where people come through. That was what I want to say.
So being at a spiritual retreat, a lot of broken and traumatized people come through and they're all looking for something and that's what they're looking for. If they just want to be okay. And a lot of times people do it through trauma dumping. I don't know if you're familiar with that term.
It's a thing people just [00:49:00] tell you every single problem they've had since a child. And you just got to go. And at some point you go, okay. That's enough. I think I get it. And then walk away because, I'm a person too. I don't necessarily want to hear it all, but it happens out here, especially since I'm one of the people who's I'm the artist in residence and I'm here all the time.
But we've also set a precedent to a, how does it get any better than that? Like, how do you get better than that? And then you get people start thinking about their own their own. Resolution and cure, for what is going on. Anyway, that was a lot of words I just used to come back around to that point.
To that point about you being a spiritual space holder, disruptor. Yeah. Yeah. Energy mover. Yeah. And that doesn't mean you have to be necessarily like I have boundaries. I have a lot of if people cross the boundaries, I go, [00:50:00] Hey, you're crossing the boundary. And I think that's a very healthy thing to do.
The sort of the pathological version of that is shutting yourself off from everything and becoming like this ultimate gatekeeper thing. And it's easy to do. I feel like when you're in a community situation, and so you have to maintain a more positive like I said, try to find a positive way to frame things and ask those questions.
And you'll get better answers and you'll get better results. I wonder get it talking about your music again. And I wonder what was coming to mind is your favorite song, but I know you've, how could I ask you to that, but what phases I go through phase. Yeah, let me, when, so this is the question. So given where we are at this time, which is fall of 2024.
What's a song that you've created that you [00:51:00] feel is medicine for these times? Is there anything that comes to mind when I say, what's a piece of medicine that you would give to us in this moment? I. I think it could be just being authentic with whatever's coming out, right? That's one way to look at it.
But as a song, I always go back to this one song that I sing, it's called, and it's called love is the answer for world peace. And whenever I sing it, I try to get everybody to just sing it with me or answer back with me. And it can be a dance thing. It can be as funky and fun as you want it to be.
I play with other musicians and I see what happens when that happens. People. are often resistant to what fluffy nonsense love is the answer. But I think when you say it enough times, it [00:52:00] happens and you realize what, the every, what is that saying? Everything either comes from love or lack of, I say everything, all our behaviors, all our things so that we do.
And we're always trying to get that love or it's coming from. Us loving and putting that love towards something or towards a person. So I don't know. There's some truth in it and is the answer. I think, but to know what love is a really important part of it too. But that's another song. I want to know what love is.
Yeah. Yeah. This is the thing, we got to listen to the artists and to the musicians of the world, because they are so in touch with what the real questions actually are. That is so true. I remember I was with the the group of theater people and this person who worked in managing, he said, art has to lead, art has to lead, even though his job was to, was [00:53:00] it's the job of a manager or a fundraiser or whatever, the administrator, it's a hard job because, artists are, whatever, but he said, it's true.
Art leads, art has to lead because. It does. Go ahead. I you're in Lancaster. You see what that, how art has changed your town. It's amazing. I'm blown away. That's true. From when I moved here in 96 to where it is now, we're now in 2024. Wow. So much art. So much art. So much karma. Say so many generations.
Yeah, that's true, but I meant art leading in the way that you said about the questions and the ideas. Yeah. Yes. And the pronouncement, the challenge to us. Yes. Love is the answer to world peace. That's right. Cause that's, now that is not one of your stiletto songs. No, that's one of your [00:54:00] anthem songs.
That's a blunt club, or no, that's a terrible way to put that. It's more of a it's an anthem. It is an anthem. I think you're right. It is an anthem, but it's so interesting. You don't begin with your anthem. No, you begin with all these other things. Oh, yeah, you say that for the end.
Yeah, and that way also, I feel that
maybe people wouldn't buy it in the beginning either because everyone's bringing their own biases and their own. Maybe they had a bad day. Who knows? They who knows what they're coming from into that. So I think that's a part of it is you have to warm people up and just be with everyone.
And that's always been a big part of it to me. Wow. So you really take people, invite people onto a journey with you so that by the end. We [00:55:00] can sing Love is the answer to world peace and be yelling it. Yeah. Oh yes, but it, yeah, but you have to get to a certain pace, place on maybe energetically or vibrationally, yeah. I think that can real for you. Yeah. And as an audience, you have to learn my lexicon, like what am I talking about? Where we're here, what's he talking about? And so I'll tell other stories. Things that have nothing to do with that, but I just my dictionary, where I'm coming from.
And so when that happens and I sing love is the answer for world peace more than you'll go, Oh yeah, sure. It does. So hopefully if that's all happening. Wow. So I'm doing my job. You are doing your job. You are doing your job. Thank you for being on the planet at this time doing your job.
Thank you. It's a pleasure. Is there anything that you want to leave our audience with? Anything else you want to say? Oh, good. [00:56:00] Oh, I got to spend my, I got to spend my wheel of good fortune. And if this is going to be an audio podcast, probably right. It's audio and visual. Oh, okay. So it's a video thing then too.
So for those of you who are audio, you can say, I've got this beautiful colored sort of prices, right? Style wheel here. And on each little sliver, I have some different icons that I've just randomly pulled out. Let's see. I've got a balloon, a hot air balloon that says, imagine I've got a telephone or old style telephone.
It says intention. I've got a sign post with arrows as choice Dive deep. Oh, intuition. All the, a whole bunch of them on here. So anyway, I'm going to spin the wheel right now, and I call it the wheel of good Fortune because whatever happens here, it's only a good thing. So here we go. Okay. Wait, you're spinning the wheel for me.
Who's wheel hold on. What is this wheel being spent the best? That's a good question. I was gonna spin it for. [00:57:00] In general for just for anyone listening, just for everybody listening, because it works, but I could spend one for you to let me spend one for you and then I'll tell you what, this is for you.
Okay, here you go, doc. Okay. This is so exciting for me. It's my wheel. I do this on my live stream and people tend to really have a good reaction for the hero. I love that. It's a, and for those of you can't say it's a guy in a it's someone in a luchador. The Mexican wrestling mask and it just says hero.
And so every time I do this on the live stream, I like, I look, I say more things that just come out and I feel like I learned something new and. Okay. The you're a hero and here's the thing. So I just finished reading the Odyssey Homer's the Odyssey. And it was a fantastic. It was very emotional and, but the thing that struck me [00:58:00] so much was that the hero throughout the entire, which was Odysseus, they never realized they're the hero until the story is told.
So while you're in it, you don't know you're the hero. You're just doing what you do. There's other people looking towards you. And see, here's the other thing. Odysseus, he spent the entire 10 years trying to save his friends, and none of them made it. Only he made it back. He was the one. And he was the one who got to tell the tale.
So he's, but he is the hero. So you've got to just do what you can in the moment. Don't try to be the hero. You are the hero. Always. And then by the time you get to the end of the story, you'll be like, ah, there it is, wow. Thank you. That gave me something to work with there. There you go.
You're the hero. [00:59:00] There you go. Be the hero you're supposed to be. Yes, I feel like that's a message for all of us, for everyone on this who's listening to this podcast. Yeah, I'm good with that. So Lipone, I know you have a special gift for everybody. To get some of your music.
So tell us where they can go to find out more about you and get the special download. I'm at lip bone. com. I have which is my singer songwriter, storytelling website schedule, you can get a t shirt, all that good stuff.
But then I've got a sub stack, which I do writing. And then I've got infinite okayness. com, which is a place where I put my meditation and my meditation music. So great to have you here and I can't wait to continue encountering you. I'll have to come back and visit you guys in Lancaster one of these days.
Yes, or we'll have to show up in North Carolina. Oh yes, at Oak [01:00:00] Grove Retreat. In Tarboro, North Carolina
Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you so much.
