Autumn Equinox: Harvesting the Wisdom of the Season with Krissy Shields - EP 055

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Change can feel uncertain, but it also brings opportunity. In this episode, I sit down with Krissy Shields to reflect on the wisdom of the autumn equinox and what this seasonal shift can teach us about life, growth, and leadership. Together, we explore how nature reminds us to pause, reflect, and let go of what no longer serves us, making space for deeper clarity and alignment. We talk about the power of storytelling as a bridge for connection, the role of discernment in decision-making, and the journey of thought leadership that grows out of lived experiences. This conversation is an invitation to trust the process, navigate your shadows with courage, and lean into community as a source of strength. If you’re ready to embrace change and harvest the lessons of this season, this episode is for you.

Episode Takeaways:

• How the autumn equinox is a time for reflection, discernment and aligning with what truly matters.
• Nature offers lessons that apply to both personal and professional growth.
• Storytelling fosters connection, learning, and leadership.
• Embracing shadows and letting go supports transformation.
• Community strengthens us during times of change.

Key Insights:

“Autumn is a time of flourishing. It’s a time of abundance. It's a time of harvest. It's a time of gathering the information, knowing what worked and what didn't work.” — Krissy Shields

“The beauty of this time period of autumn is like the serpent analogy of shedding the skin that no longer fits. What is really aligned for me right now and what is pulling at my attention that isn't aligned or what is fraying my energy that isn't actually helping me to move forward in the way that I want to move forward? It's that discernment that comes with this time period. What am I going to continue to invest in and what am I going to release because it doesn't fit anymore?” — Rachel Anzalone

 

Connect with Krissy Shields:

• Instagram: @krissyshields 

 

Connect With Me:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @RachelAnzalone
• Facebook: Rachel.Anzalone
• LinkedIn: RachelAnzalone

 

Question for Your Reflection:

What is one thing from this past season that you’re ready to release? How can you lean into discernment when making decisions in your life, work or business?

 

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Remember: Your pleasure is your power. 💫

 

Ready to step into the pleasure revolution and transform how you do business? Let's explore how to maximize impact, profit, and pleasure in alignment with the new paradigm. Schedule a time to connect with me right here >>>

 

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Episode Transcript

 

Krissy Shields (00:00)

So I was having a moment, I was saying goodbye for the season. Labor Day is like my toughest weekend. Like I need to be fully distracted. Otherwise I will be very, very sad. And I was not distracted enough. I was just living in sadness and it was okay. I was very aware. It's very historical, hysterical.

But I sat there in my garden, basically saying goodbye in the marigolds. And I was calling in my ancestors. I was calling in wisdom. I was calling in, just thanking my garden for the abundance that I do have, because there's a lot to be grateful for.

And as I'm doing that, I'm giving offerings of my tears into the marigolds and a hummingbird came. And the hummingbird just sat on the fence staring at me.

 

Rachel Anzalone (00:57)

Hello and welcome to Pleasure and Profits. I'm your host, Rachel Anzalone. And in today's episode, we are in conversation again with my dear friend, Krissy Shields, this time about the September equinox in the Northern hemisphere that is the autumn equinox.

And what that means for us in terms of transitioning from the summer season into longer periods of darkness as the days get shorter and really taking this time of moving inwards to reflect on what has worked for us and what hasn't worked for us in this past season, developing discernment and shedding what no longer fits and what it's time to let go of.

Krissy has joined us over the course of this year for the spring equinox, for the summer solstice, and she's here with us again.

If this is your first introduction to Krissy you're in for a pleasant surprise. She is a wise woman, a dear friend, has so much wisdom to share, and so much value to add to this conversation.

Krissy is a wellness expert, artist, and activist who's been empowering women and families with accessible movement practices, spiritual herbalism, and mindfulness for over 20 years. In her work, she weaves together her passion for social justice and advocacy for maternal health. She's led yoga teacher training programs around the US, taught in homeless shelters, prisons, and public schools, and has led global experiences to foster well-being through embodied movement and collective care.

She lives with her family in New York City and in the Catskill Mountains, where she was again for our conversation. It's a place where she is in deep reciprocity with the land, where she’s carefully cultivating garden and her own connection with nature.

As always, our conversation is lively and winding and just such a pleasure for me. And I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Rachel Anzalone (02:45)

Welcome back, Chrissy. I’m so excited to have you here again with us.

 

Krissy Shields (02:49)

I'm so happy to be here to chat with you.

 

Rachel Anzalone (02:53)

So we have gathered on the spring equinox, the summer solstice, and now here we are in the autumn equinox. And I'm loving having these conversations at these transition points and really taking the time to reflect on what this season means and what this transition means energetically and in terms of nature and then how that relates to our businesses and our lives and like if we are choosing to build and grow and live in alignment with nature. And so moving into this equinox that, or yeah, this fall equinox, autumn equinox, what do you feel is the energy or the message of this moment that's most present for you?

 

Krissy Shields (03:26)

Well, this point in the land, we are sitting in abundance. We are the halfway point in the Celtic wheel between Lunisa and Samhain, right? Where the peak, peak, peak celebration of harvest or the beginning, sorry, I should say the beginning of harvest, we are now in peak harvest and winding down to close and for everything to go into darkness. 

Samhain is around November 1st. In some cultures, it's all Saints Day or Day of the Dead. And we know that in terms of birthing, all things are born in darkness. So when I spoke about the spring equinox being the Persian New Year and holding a space and a place of renewal and hope that we all know it's like beginnings, you know, it's where our astrology begins. 

The time of beginnings in the Celtic calendar starts in Samhain, in the depth, in the darkness, as we enter that liminal space. 

So this is like sweet spot between where we can celebrate. It's not necessarily one of the major fire festivals of the Celtic calendar, but it is a point of ritual or ceremony, however you want to be in relationship with your land and your relationship to your business. 

And so it's a time of flourishing. It’s a time of abundance. It's a time of harvest. It's a time of gathering the information, knowing what worked, what didn't work, right? So really seeing how certain things last year might have been more abundant than, this year it just didn't work so well. 

Calendula for me. I had so much calendula. I didn't even buy seeds the year before. My land was abundant in calendula. Calendula is a healing plant. It's a sealer. So if you're chopping the heads of the flower, you get this little film, this little stickiness on your fingers as you're harvesting the calendula. So I don't know why this year I just felt like I should buy some more seeds because I just love the abundance of what calendula brings into aesthetics. You know, in the, you know, they're just like little sunbursts. Yellow, orange, yeah, they're just like.

 

Rachel Anzalone (07:30)

There's yellow flowers, right? Little, yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (07:35)

They're just so fun. They're like, they're mini Starbursts, right? And so I was like, I'm going to get seeds this time. I'm going to get, you know, local seed place that I use and in the, you know, Hudson Valley and in the Catskills up in upstate New York. And I've, I've never, it was one of the first flowers that, you know, organically grew on my land from the former owners. I was like, right, the calendula is, you know, prime for this area. 

And nothing grew. Like no, I, no, I have, shouldn't say nothing grew. I have maybe three to four little flowers that are growing.

Rachel Anzalone (08:30)

A tiny, a tiny bit.

 

Krissy Shields (08:35)

But that's nothing in my, yeah, that's… What happened? And as I was closing up my shop and I was taking dried herbs and putting them in jars and gearing up for more harvest to come in and kind of work in that way as I do from the beginning of August through to the end of October, I noticed a jar of calendula in the back of my cabinet. That I had been using another jar, but I had, and like, I will get through this winter with calendula. I have enough calendula. It was like, psst, you're okay. Use what you have.

 

Rachel Anzalone (09:17)

Yeah, you don't like you don't need more. You have enough. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (09:22)

And it was like this temperance of like, you know, what did I do wrong?

Right? To then come into... You didn't do anything.

 

Rachel Anzalone (09:40)

Yeah, you have exactly what you need, even if it's not what you thought you needed.

 

Krissy Shields (09:42)

You are a nut.

 

Rachel Anzalone (09:47)

Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (09:51)

This is, before the call, we were talking about lightness and darkness. And I'm really getting in touch with darkness and my shadow on a personal level. And what I'm discovering in this, in terms of the gardening, is my inner stars, my friend.

Becca reminded me, we are made of stars. We are stars, right? We are star shine. But my inner star can outshine whatever darkness I think I am. And it's all the telomeres, the grooves that have been inserted. I didn't think, and I've talked about this in one of the other podcasts about perfectionism.

 

Rachel Anzalone (10:47)

Yeah, yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (10:49)

Because the corn didn't grow.

 

Rachel Anzalone (10:51)

Yeah. What did I do wrong? How did I mess this up? Like sort of all those, the mind chatter of when things don't pan out the way that we wanted them to, or we expected them to. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (10:53)

Right.

And it came back again. Later in the season, I forgot that message of perfectionism. And I had a fawn go under my fence, which is like a deer-proof fence. Like, it's never happened in the history. And they found a little way and the fawn got in.

All of my red raspberry leaf, all of my lettuce, all of my arugula, all of my peppers, so much was decimated. The potatoes, like just the tops of the potato plant was just like, and it looked like what it should look like in a few weeks in the middle of August. And it's like.

 

Rachel Anzalone (12:03)

Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (12:07)

And there was, because I'm a young gardener, you know, there was shame. I didn't realize. And what I did was when my friend, my seasoned gardener friend was coming over, I was like quickly, like this is all underneath, like I didn't uncover it until later. Like I was like, what am I gonna, how am I gonna? And there was like this like cleanup process of like, instead of when a different friend who was like, “haaa” with everything that I had done, like seeing the magnitude of the land and like the garden, because there are two other separate gardens that nothing happened to all of my medicinal plants are completely untouched and fine. It was just more the food and the red raspberries, which is food and medicine. 

I think it's all food and medicine, isn't it? It's food as medicine. But what ended up happening was this, she goes, oh you fed a baby.

 

Rachel Anzalone (13:07)

Yeah. Yeah. 

 

Krissy Shields (13:21)

Like, I'm part of the ecosystem.

 

Rachel Anzalone (13:29)

Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (13:31)

Where can I see the gratitude? Right? Where can I find like the humor and the lightness of being around a little baby Bambi came into my garden and ate it all. And then the other, I'm going to stop there. I would love to hear what you, cause I have another thing to say, but I'm like.

 

Rachel Anzalone (13:56)

I'm thinking about just on sort of the last thing you were saying about that nothing goes to waste and that this is the time of year where, like you said, we're at like the peak of the harvest. We've done all this work. We're in this peak harvest season and sometimes things didn't come to fruition the way that we thought that they would. 

And just the lesson, the learning or the reminder that nothing goes to waste, that even the things that we invested in that didn't produce what we thought they would or expected they would, there was still something gained from that effort. And I think that happens so often in our activities, our daily activities, our business activities, like whatever it is, anything that we're cultivating that, sometimes we don't get the result we were looking for. 

And really what we're provided with in that moment is information for how to adapt and adjust. But that some benefit came from that, like something. And even whether it's, in your case, the baby deer eating, feeding from that, which was not the intended goal and yet was highly beneficial, right? And in terms of connection with nature.

Or it's something that we've invested in and we didn't get what we expected from it, but there was some other lesson learned, or there's some piece of that that we take with us to the next thing that we do or the next learning and how important all of that is. But almost without exception, I don't know that there's anything that we just show up to once and poof, it pans out perfectly.

Everything is a process of learning and iteration. And even in the peak harvest season, you know, there are like “mistakes to be made or errors or things to be lost or mishaps or whatever.” And yet those are all like information. That's all like fodder for what comes next.

 

Krissy Shields (16:12)

And it's not clockwork. And if it is clockwork, something isn't, you know, it's, it, it,

 

Rachel Anzalone (16:19)

Human.

If it's clockwork, something isn't human. It's a machine. Yes. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (16:22)

Yeah, or breathing, or breathing. It's a machine. It's like, then it's AI generated. You know what I mean?

 

Rachel Anzalone (16:30)

Right, it's not alive, it's not connected.

 

Krissy Shields (16:51)

Like, it's not a living breathing. And maybe some people would say that AI generated is living breathing. I don't know. But I haven't gotten there yet. Yeah, and it's a chance to go back to the spring, where I talked about listening to the lands.

And that can be in all sorts of way of really listening to the landscape of your business and your platforms of getting information from your clients or your customers and using that information to come back and kind of sift and see what is really, really like looking to be pulsed out and, you know, and what can we make medicine with? What could we, you know, what could we be of service with this information that we get? Right. So I'm thinking about like, all right, Calendula didn't happen. I guess the SAVs aren't happening in abundance this year. Maybe we won't be so dry. You know what I mean? 

Like, Mullein, and I talked about this before, Mullein came up through the land during COVID. When I got COVID, the things on my land that were abundant were thyme for the lungs, Mullein for the lungs. And I was able to heal myself from the land. 

So it's like, how can we not only heal ourselves, but also where can we be of best service with the information that we get?

 

Rachel Anzalone (18:27)

Yeah, I think, thinking about in terms of where can we be of service with the lessons that we're learning, I think in the realm that we find ourselves in primarily in terms of entrepreneurship in this world of purpose driven. Are you seeing a bird, a butterfly? What is it? I see your eyes.

 

Krissy Shields (18:55)

It's a bluebird and the bluebird is having a feast on the round berries. So I'm sorry to distract, but it was...

 

Rachel Anzalone (18:57)

No, I live in the, I have my blinds closed for sound purposes, but I'm constantly in distraction by the bird feed around my window. The number of calls and conversations I'm on and I'm like, there was a hummingbird, there is like whatever it is.

 

Krissy Shields (19:30)

My gosh, it's the best. It's so the best.

 

Rachel Anzalone (19:36)

Yeah, it really is. It brings me a lot of happiness.

But yeah, this idea that like we are, everything's iterative, we're constantly learning, and then we have the ability and the opportunity to share and to teach from what we've learned. What's coming to mind right now is around the idea of thought leadership and a conversation I was having recently around this idea of, you can't have something of value to give, to teach, to share until you've lived through experiences, until you've iterated, until you've had failures, until you've cultivated and won and cultivated and lost and all the lessons to learn from that. 

That that's what allows for an evolution of teaching of something new that's like a leading edge, like something that hasn't been said before or done before, a perspective that hasn't been shared before. And that happens in this season, this sort of third season where it's not the spring and bright and shiny. It's all the lessons that have been learned over the course of these last six months, eight months, nine months.

That is also the wise woman era. There's so much to be shared from that space that just isn't available any earlier.

 

Krissy Shields (21:14)

It's so true. I mean, we can textbook teach, right? And we know how that feels as elders, as having gone through school, whether you've been through school or not, you know what it's like to be lectured at versus witnessing and admiring the person that's living and being it and taking in that person's perspective versus the person that maybe went through it but is really speaking out of like a cookie cutter box idea.

 

Rachel Anzalone (21:51)

Yeah. Yeah!

 

Krissy Shields (22:08)

It's also really interesting to play with it in thought leadership. Like, so much of ourselves are we revealing? How much of ourselves, you know, in social media, what's resonating? Is it the truth of where we are or is it just a bunch of old quotes that other people have said? 

 

Rachel Anzalone (22:35)

Yeah, just like recycled information.

 

Krissy Shields (22:38)

Yeah. And I think each individual, you know, I have a hard time with it. I have a hard time with, I don't have a hard time in a room full of people telling the truth of where I am. And I'm in a constant state of radical truth telling and radical acceptance. And, and I like to be surrounded by that. I, but it's very interesting to be in, in a different space of like, what are we, what are we revealing of ourselves? It depends on what our business is, right? 

 

Rachel Anzalone (23:15)

Yeah. Versus what are we keeping to ourselves? And what are we keeping to ourselves for the reason that it's nobody else's business? It's private. That's mine. 

Versus what are we keeping to ourselves because we're hiding it, because we think it would somehow devalue the other work we're doing, or we don't want to be truthful. We only want to shine the light on the pretty beautiful sunny part and not on the dark, shadowy, uncomfortable part. And when I think about the idea of teaching what we've learned and then also teaching what we're learning actively, I think there's a fine line. And maybe you and I can parse this out. There is a fine line. Of course, when we have like, fully immersed ourselves in learning something, studying something, living something, and we've gleaned messages from that. We have valuable things to teach. Sometimes we can teach while we're in the work from the perspective of I'm in this with you. I'm just holding the container or I'm facilitating it, but I'm doing the work with you. Like we're in this together.

And those environments, you don't have to be the expert. You just need to be the container creator in order to bring people along for the journey. But you're being transparent that you're in the journey with them. And there is a difference between that and teaching something that you don't know yourself or you haven't fully embodied, but positioning yourself as the expert in it. Right? Does that?

 

Krissy Shields (25:13)

Yes. I mean, I'm thinking about in the birthing world, you know, I, that was the world that I had been in for many years. And I was tasked to teach pre and postnatal in a portion of a larger training for people that were going through a yoga training. And it was much different to teach that portion, having not given birth or choosing to not tell my story, right? And what happened when I started to tell my story, which is a fine line. I don't necessarily, people don't need people's birth stories, maybe aspects of it, right? Pieces of it to tease out, because birth stories are epic and very personal and very, you know, I want to hear people's birth stories and there's a whole podcast.

 

Rachel Anzalone (26:20)

I was going to say, I feel like there is a lot of value there. Just, you need to like, what's the time and the place and do you get the short version or the long version?

 

Krissy Shields (26:28)

Yeah, do they need my birth story or do they need to know positions for helping a birthing person? Right. And so I learned that through my teaching, right? Like, and, but I also learned that I came to life when I started to tell that part of my story and it lit something up in me. And it also was, I was able to see my students reflect back to me.

Their excitement, their interest, their awe in the whole kind of kit and caboodle, there like, many students went down the road of then learning more about pre and postnatal and, you know, wanted to study it because of the enthusiasm. And also because knowing this is a potentially gonna be in their lives, you know? 

But it's interesting, it's like, it's a borderline, how much of it is necessary and boastful, kind of, you know.

 

Rachel Anzalone (27:47)

Mmm. Like an ego-driven version of the story. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (27:53)

Versus what are the pieces? And it was, you know, it took me time to play with that. You know, it was like, I was empowered by this truth. Now let me get to the science of how and why it all came about. Let me get to the postures. Let me get to the breathing. Let me get to the meditation, which are the nuts and bolts of why they would be sitting there talking and listening, you know, like being in class with me versus me getting up and giving my, you know, birth story in a TED talk. 

It's like, that's not very useful for anybody. 

 

Rachel Anzalone (28:42)

Right, it's like what's it in service to?

 

Krissy Shields (28:46)

Exactly. So am I telling this story to talk about the empowerment of the ego driving force? Or is it in it to enlighten and and like you said, be of service to these people?

 

Rachel Anzalone (29:05)

Yeah.

Okay. I love this tangent that we're on. Let's just keep going on here. And we'll circle back to the autumn and the season change, I'm sure in some way. You're bringing to mind an experience I had not that long ago where I observed, I had this really profound experience at an event where I felt like I was maybe, it felt a little bit out of body where I was observing what was happening from a point or a perspective that I had never observed these things before. 

Having been at event after event after event and seen speaker after speaker after speaker and having worked with so many people and I found myself observing this event from a perspective where I could see the reason or the motivation behind what was being delivered as it was being delivered. And it was really profound for me and being witness to this person is telling their story and they're speaking from a place that is deeply of service. And this person is telling their story and speaking in a way that's really about feeding their own ego. And this person is speaking and telling their story in a way that's really about  manipulating or selling something, like very much about, I'm gonna get my hooks in you and get what I need from you. 

And it was like a visceral difference that I could feel from speaker to speaker to speaker. And one of the things that I've sort of been contemplating or deliberating for a while is this sort of culture wherein where it's like, everybody, everybody needs to tell their story, tell your story, tell your story, tell your story. There's so much power in the storytelling because I think that that is true. And the way you deliver it and where you deliver it and is I think it's really important to understand what your intention is with delivering it, because sometimes the intention could be, I need to get this out of me into the world. And that like, it's in me and it needs to come out. And that's incredible and healing. And that is more of service to you than it is to out there, right?

Maybe, and sometimes I need to get this out there because I know that there are other people who are feeling this and experiencing this. And I want to be able to show them like, here's a way through this or here is my experience. That's different than I'm doing it because I need for people to witness me. I need people to hear this. And I'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying it's a different place you tell that story. You know, it's a different, there's a different objective, right? 

And so sometimes it feels like where there's storytelling happening for the sake of driving or supporting the ego to feel important, to feel seen, feel validated. And those feelings I think are all meaningful and important.

And it feels to me like if that's the way we're sharing, we should be doing it with the permission of the person on the receiving end.

 

Krissy Shields (33:01)

Hmm, asking for consent? 

 

Rachel Anzalone (33:04)

I'm asking for consent, yes.

 

Krissy Shields (33:07)

I mean, isn't it about knowing your audience?

 

Rachel Anzalone (33:10)

Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (33:12)

It's about, you know, assess who are the people that are drawn to the work. And then from there, find the Ted Talk or maybe just tease it out and, you know, see what feels good. But I get the feeling that this isn't the best word. It's not coming to me, but people masturbating their stories.

 

Rachel Anzalone (33:50)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely, absolutely.

 

Krissy Shields (33:56)

It's not what I'm feeling drawn to.

 

Rachel Anzalone (33:59)

No, it's that self-gratification of like, at this particular event I was at, there was one individual who was speaking from the stage and it was like, he would say something and then he was like, kind of like looking to see how people were reacting to it. I was like, this is all about making him feel good in this moment, not about the value he's providing to us, you know? Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (34:20)

Yeah. Right. Right.

So it's it is about knowing your audience and then also, you know, the delivery and the most important thing is being of service always. 

 

Rachel Anzalone (34:40)

Yeah, yeah. So what's the value of the thing? So like, if we go back to this, like gardening, this autumn, this seasonal transition, telling the story of the, the calendula not growing, because it could be helpful to somebody else's gardening, because it could be helpful to somebody else's experience of, of like what that translates to in terms of whatever they've cultivated that they might be feeling disappointed didn't pan out the way they thought it would. Sharing it because it's a funny story. Like there's value to all of these. And that's different like dumping it on the cashier at the grocery store because you just really want to tell this story, right?

 

Krissy Shields (35:11)

Totally.

Totally. And then the hidden gem underneath, you know, the calendula. all, you know, could be in the back of your closet. Like, it could be underneath it all.

 

Rachel Anzalone (35:32)

Yeah, that story of like, you have everything you need. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (35:56)

Yeah. But it... And you are enough. And tell your story, even if what you're doing is, you know, at the grocery store, like we need the story. We need the connectivity.

Rachel Anzalone (36:07)

Yes.

 

Krissy Shields (36:26)

We did a meditation before we started and it just came to me this mushroom growing out of moss and and we were the mushroom growing out of moss, right? Like embodying that mushroom growing out of moss and, and really what came to me as it was happening was the connection between us, between the listener, between anyone else who might listen. It's the mystery of the connection, what's underneath all of the surface. And so just start by telling the grocery store clerk your story because your story is valid and we won't judge you silently.

We might judge you. Okay, but you know, know your audience and who is your audience.

 

Rachel Anzalone (37:14)

Yeah, think that's my point. It's not like, oh people shouldn't be telling their stories. It's a mindfulness about who your audience is and what your motive is, your motive, your motivation, knowing what that is, which comes back to this iterative learning, paying attention to the reception, to what the feedback is and gaining wisdom about the value of what you have to share and where and how it's valuable versus just dumping and dumping and dumping, which it feels like there's a lot of dumping happening in our world right now. And the consent thing, like dumping without consent.

 

Krissy Shields (38:07)

And the manipulating is also having, the hard selling of your, of your, you know, $25,000, you know, you know, I was so into this thought leader, so into, got the workbook like, and even love some of the teachings. But the, the way that I am, I feel hard sold and manipulated. Maybe I do need that, and it's like everything right now, we're in late stage capitalism, Everything is, do I really need this? Anything I pick up is, do I really need this?

 

Rachel Anzalone (38:51)

Yeah.

And I think there's, even if we step away from the word need, which I have a little trigger to because I was raised that you didn't get anything unless you needed it, right? So learning to have things and enjoy things that I don't need, that's my own personal trigger. 

But, is this aligned for me right now? Is this of highest service to me right now? Is this the right next step for me right now? Or am I just reacting because of FOMO or because, you know, I think that this is going to be a magic wand that waved or, you know, whatever it is that's going to solve my problems.

 

Krissy Shields (39:52)

Yeah, yeah, it's teasing out the discernment.

 

Rachel Anzalone (39:53)

Yeah. It's the discernment. And that's the thing that comes with wisdom. And that's the thing that comes with age and iteration and experience. And that, I think, is the beauty of this time period of autumn, of sort of the third quarter. Like the 11th hour, is what's coming to mind is like the serpent analogy of shedding the skin that no longer fits and that discernment in this time period. I'm feeling this really, really, really present right now of what is, I want to say necessary, need necessary, what is really aligned for me right now and what is pulling at my attention that isn't aligned or what is like fraying my energy that isn't actually helping me to move forward in the way that I want to move forward. It's that discernment that comes with this time period of like, what am I going to continue to invest in and what am I going to release because it doesn't fit anymore.

 

Krissy Shields (41:18)

Ooh, I heard that loud and clear. I have a little, another little story to tell about releasing.

 

Rachel Anzalone (41:29)

Yeah. Are you asking for consent to tell your story?

 

Krissy Shields (41:35)

Imagine if every speaker got up and was like, do I have your kids? Do you mind if I tell my story? There's a little bit of like, you know, with the I don't know, I'm an 80s gal. And I believe in, you know, we should have  be garnered consent. We should be given consent or we should give consent.

So I… I have this stunning elder tree, these little bushes. And I learned about the trilogy.

 

Rachel Anzalone (42:20)

I think you did. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (42:37)

I'm not sure if I told this story. Yeah, thought I need three. And I think I was super excited because last year I got one little bundle of the flowers turned to berries. So I was like, this time, I mean, I think I had bursts of flowers when I spoke to you when I was so excited about the elder. So, you know, like the corn and like the peppers and the, you know, the lettuce and the red raspberries, the bird, the bird got all my elderberries.

And when I say all of my elderberries, like I was gone for a portion of the time for family stuff over the summer and missed, I missed much of the harvest. And I was so excited about these berries. Like these berries were gonna end.

My friend who said the wise thing that like, you fed the fawn said, but you fed the birds. Like the blue jay there, I fed the birds. 

So I was having a moment and I was leaving. I was saying goodbye for the season. Labor Day is like my toughest weekend. Like I need to be fully distracted over Labor Day. Otherwise I will be very, very sad. And I was not distracted enough. I was just living in sadness and it was okay. I was very aware. It's very historical, hysterical.

But I sat there in my garden, basically saying goodbye in the marigolds, which is for me placed right in the center. Marigolds are my ancestor connector, I'm sure I've said. And I was calling in my ancestors. I was calling in wisdom, I was calling in just being, just thanking my garden for the abundance that I do have, because there's a lot to be grateful for. And as I'm doing that, I'm wiping my tears into, giving offerings of my tears into the marigolds and a hummingbird came.

But the hummingbird has been in my garden many, many, many times. And I would hear the wings and I would look up and, you know, frolic with the hummingbird and watch the hummingbird like go into, you know, the comfrey or whatever flower, you know, the anise hyssop and like getting, you know, like whatever, you know, the hummingbird could get. 

And the hummingbird just sat on the fence staring at me. And I was able, cause I was in a heightened sadness, like my breathing was in this place, right? And I was able to drop into my breath and think breathing with a bird that is in a constant state of flutter and movement, like unlike other birds that, you know, can kind of settle in and tell you to, you know, stop harvesting. You know, I haven't, I don't know what the, I don't know, bird, all bird calls, but I know a bird is pissed off. This one bird in particular is like, get off my, get off my, my berries.

And we sync our nervous systems. And I was so calm saying goodbye, where I had been a flutter all over my property and you know, saying goodbye to my new yard, which is like this, you know, like the greatest center for me of alchemy and transformation and growth and learning. You know, right now, you know, it's just, it's just been amazing center and I'm calling in community right now in that space. I'm calling in, you know, a space of healing and space of change and activism and space of art and beauty.

And it's just so much a flutter and then having this moment with the sinking with a humming, was just like...

That lesson for me was we are in a time of great, a place of unsettled. We're in a place where we are being hit with news after news. We can't even keep up with what the news is or where we can trust what we're getting discernment, where we can, what is the truth?

Coming back to that intuitive center and that calling in the wisdom of listening to the land, calling in the wisdom of connecting to the moths, right? And the softness of what that brings. The mushrooms that are all interwoven, what is community, what is connection? What is, what are we bringing in, in terms of, you know, what are we giving? What are we, we, we able to receive? How do we have discernment and care to protect ourselves, you know, with the hawthorn, protecting ourselves with the thorns.

I've talked about this in the past. Yeah, it's been a fascinating season. I'm hoping that we can find a time to find our center again.

 

Rachel Anzalone (49:17)

Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (49:18)

Our moral compass, our moral center. Finding our moral compass and our moral center has to come from within.

 

Rachel Anzalone (49:27)

Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (49:29)

We, individually, we need to find it.

 

Rachel Anzalone (49:33)

Yes, that like, is this true? Is this useful? Like that inner knowing versus looking for the information out there that we think is going to remove the burden from us of needing to have discernment, right? It's sort of like outsourcing, handing it off to somebody else to tell us what's right and wrong and what's true and what's not true instead of trusting ourselves and developing our own discernment, which is, I mean, just full circle back to this, the lesson of this time period of like having the ability to look back over the previous season and pull from those experiences, what was valuable and what we've learned to develop our own understanding of our own lessons learned from the experience that are then of value. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (50:38)

Yeah, I mean our data has been pulled.

 

Rachel Anzalone (50:40)

The data has been pulled.

 

Krissy Shields (50:42)

We know what the analytics is. So now it's like, what do we, how do we move forward from here? So this is the season of, of in some ways knowing, you know.

Rachel Anzalone (50:45)

Yes.

Krissy Shields (51:00)

Yeah, of the wise years, so of knowing.

 

Rachel Anzalone (51:05)

The wise years. And the shadow season that we're moving into, this season of, you know, and I say that I think so often so much in our culture, it's like, the shadow is perceived as bad or something to be avoided. But the ability to look inwards and reflect and be present with the shadow, with the things that make us uncomfortable, with the lessons learned, with the hard times, the challenges, that's what allows us to grow. That's what allows us to evolve into the next iteration, the next sort of expansion. 

If that doesn't happen, we eventually, we just sort of burn out, right? If we don't take that internal season that we're moving into now to really have that reflection and develop that discernment of like where are we gonna put our energy going forward?

 

Krissy Shields (52:01)

 Mm-hmm. Yeah, as we slowly then emerge again. Yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (52:07)

Yeah, because we will emerge again. I was thinking about this and we do our with, Rochelle and Qoya we do LORE classes often. And it's one of my favorite things is to see your little photo in the Zoom box that I know you're on there with me. And one of the classes recently, I was looking out the window and thinking about like what season, what season am I in? What season is this here in Texas, which is different than the season where you are. And having the realization that this time period here, all of the plants, all of the nature is in a state right now of reserving energy, like conserving energy because… if it was trying to grow right now, well, it has been 105 for two months, where it has barely rained for six weeks. If it was expending energy trying to grow, it would be burning energy with no outcome. And that it's been in this season of conserving energy and that that conservation of energy is necessary.

So that as the temperature starts to cool a little bit and as we start to get a little rain in the fall that it is like ready for what's next and that we all need those those time periods of conservation.

 

Krissy Shields (53:37)

Mmm.

Yeah, and forgiveness if you're in that dark, the conserving or even in the dark for longer than you think because systems are shifting drastically in our world. And so we do need time to recalibrate. And I think it's the time of coming back to community and community connection. I think that we're like, we've been desperately needing it, but it's really an uptick right now of needing, yeah.

 

Rachel Anzalone (54:29)

And not, I was talking, I was sharing this with somebody recently that the feeling I have these days is like, yes, we want to be together again. And I think that there was some momentum in the last year or so of people saying like, everybody wants to get offline. They want to be back in the room, live together. And then that to some people meant putting on huge events with like massive things happening.

And I think what's becoming clear is that that's not the version that we want. The version we want is the intimacy. We do want to be alive, alive, not alive, yes, alive. We want to be alive, but we want to be alive together in the room. But we want it to be in a way where we feel really connected with each other, not in a way where we're just having like information funneled at us and we're just receptacles for it because that's what we're experiencing online all the time is for just being inundated. That intimacy is what we're craving in so many ways.

 

Krissy Shields (55:36)

 Yeah. Especially because there is so much disconnect.

 

Rachel Anzalone (55:42)

Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to read this little clip from our card that we pulled at the very beginning. Before we started recording, Krissy and I did a little grounding, which Krissy's an expert at. And we pulled a card from the Earth Warriors Oracle Deck by Alana Fairchild. I don't know. I don't know if that'll… That'll translate to a video on YouTube, we'll see. 

But the card we pulled is Circle Cross of Tenon, and it is the rare intersection of heaven and earth. And it says, your plans and purpose are aligned with greater cosmic forces. Whether you see it coming or not, things will fall into place and what you've been working toward will come to fruition.

A rare intersection of heaven and earth will result in a precious manifestation of grace. The divine shall correct a situation that is in need of realignment. Fear not. Pray boldly and be faithful. All is well.

And I think what speaks to me most about this and the conversation that we've had is this, like, whether you see it coming or not, things will fall into place. And that, you know, like you finding that jar of calendula of like, even when we think things have gone wrong and we think that something is lost, we don't know, like what's what's hidden in the cupboard or what's like just waiting to show up.

And this season of sort of transitioning into the darkness and developing that discernment and being trusting to let some things go allows us to lean into that trust of like, knowing that what's meant to come will come and what is, yeah, that it's all happening, whether we see it or not, it's there. Yeah.

 

Krissy Shields (57:54)

Yeah, deep trust.

 

Rachel Anzalone (58:02)

Is there anything else that's present for you before we wrap up or as we wrap up here that you want to share?

 

Krissy Shields (58:04)

Can I talk about the Rowan?

 

Rachel Anzalone (58:13)

You did last time about the Rowan and the one that had died and the mushrooms.

 

Krissy Shields (58:21)

It is so, the one that has died, the Rowan tree that has died has become a little bit of a shrine with these, cause I've taken, you're not supposed to touch the branches, but they were all just like, they were just falling. And then the whole basic top of the tree kind of tilted and then fell.

And so I just made this, this little bit of a shrine of gratitude that I, um, I love. And the, mean, I still have round berries that are just like bursting off of these trees. Uh, this one in particular, that's right here. Um, you know, we just never know what is supposed to be and things have to die off. Things, things really do have to evolve in the way, you know, as we move toward the dying, right, and the letting go and the shedding, we do come back to that rejuvenation. There is a birthing time again. So let go of what, be okay with letting go with what doesn't work. And what, as you get the data, is no longer working. It's okay to just release into the ether. It doesn't go unnoticed in our own kind of checkpoint of really learning. We're always learning. We're always growing. So it's okay to let go of some things.

 

Rachel Anzalone (1:00:05)

Yeah.

I will close this out with a blessing that the bird that ate all of your berries will poop those berry seeds all over and that a thousand new trees will be born. Because that is what happens when something goes awry, right? Like the bird ate the berries, guess what? Now there will be berry seeds spread all over. And so there is abundance and fruitfulness yet to come.

 

Krissy Shields (1:00:36)

Yes, may the elder just grow. May the elder grow and thrive and come again.

 

Rachel Anzalone (1:00:58)

So good. Thank you so much for being here again, Krissy. And for everyone who's listening, thank you for being here. And remember pleasure is your power. Take care.