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Join couple-preneur Ruth and Brian Steinmetz as they share their expertise in real estate, design and social activism. As co-founders of “Steinmetz”, a real estate brokerage and interior design firm serving mainly Chittenden County, Vermont, they explore the intersection of wellness and the art of conscious dwelling through what they call dwellness. They’ll cover topics like equity- in all its forms, environmental and social justice, conscious consumption, mental and community health and so much more. Each week, they discover more about dwellness through unfiltered and nuanced conversations with change-makers, dreamweavers, and many more awesome and inspiring people.
Change your life, your home and your community by discovering what dwellness means to you.
Welcome to the Dwellness Podcast. I'm Ruth Steinmetz. And I'm Brian Steinmetz. Join us on our journey to discover the connections between physical and mental well being and our dwellings.
My quote is by Elie Wiesel and it says, ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. Do you want me to repeat that? No, I think I've got it. It's like, uh, Actually, no, yeah, go ahead and repeat it. Yeah. Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.
So the only, the only power man should, a person should seek is self control, essentially? Um. Is that, that's what I, that's what it feels like it's saying to me. Yeah. Yeah, because like, or like the power of your own mind to stay positive, because he must have seen some. Nightmarish things. If he was in a concentration camp, but yeah, that's really because if you think about the nightmare that that must have been, or like being a POW or something crazy like that, um, you know, going for a jog at 5 a.
m. doesn't seem that big of a deal, you know what I mean? Or, or, or trying to stay positive when, you know, the electricity bill is overdue or what have you. Um, it's a lot easier when you keep those kinds of things in perspective. To just be like, you know what, it's all good. I don't really have that many problems.
Right. How do you feel about it? It makes me think about, you know, so we are constantly looking for power as human beings and, and the, the benefits of that, like there's benefits to seeking power and obtaining power. It helps us be okay. Um, and there's times that what I'm getting is like, there's things that we seek out from other people, but we're not willing to get it, flesh it out for ourselves or put ourselves in that like, um, position to like exact that control over ourselves, like it's easier for us to like, try to control others and try to like, Um, seek to have a power that we can control others with, but that same power, we need to also apply to ourselves.
Can we put that power on us? And if, if we can't put that power on yourself, then why are you seeking it to put it on other people? That's what I'm getting. And, you know, like his experience at the camp, he. Obviously experienced a lot of atrocities and pain and people really going to extremes with their, um, um, thirst for power to the point of harming other people.
Would they have put those controls on themselves? What would it have looked like? And so he's saying that that's the kind of power to look for. I see. And not the one that you're just using to exert on other people. Well, you know, in the end, we only ever have control of ourselves. Yeah. We certainly can't control other people no matter how much power we have.
You certainly can't control their thoughts because if you, if you have uber power, um, and like, you know, it's written to lodge, you can't say anything bad about the dictator for life or what have you. They can still think it and you can't control their thoughts. They can still think you're an SOB. So you know, I think you're right.
Yeah. The only power we ultimately have is that which we exert over ourselves, right on.
Keru-. Fuck.
Let me try again. All right. It's a tongue twister. Karibu. Kerubo. Mama Kerubo. Asante sana. Asante. Thank you. Uh, yes. I just said, in my terrible Swahili, no, I don't think it's terrible at all. Welcome KeruBo. You said it as authentically as you could, the only way you could say that, thank you. I'm so happy to be here now.
We're happy to have you. Yes. Yes. Hello mama. Hi. How are you? I'm well. I am just getting over a migraine, so I'm not my tip top self, but I am, I am here and I'm so happy that you're here with us and we'll get some real. It is. It really is. This is our job now, too. Can you believe that? Yeah, it feels so unreal, but yeah, this is what we are doing now and come so far.
We've been in so many places. Yeah. So thank you for being here. We will start with our first question that we ask every guest. So the first question is, how do you find your dwellness? My dwellness at presently, or my, my dwellness from the time I arrived here. It's a hard question. I wouldn't even know where to start to answer that question because I feel like I'm still in a transient.
situation. Yeah. So how are you currently finding your dwellness in transition? Right now? Well, I'll tell you, we're trying to move from Winooski to another, a new place. So I just took vacation a few weeks ago and we were on a road trip from state to state trying to find a place that pulled us and made us feel.
Have that sense of, of, of home. And during that trip, I kept thinking, Oh my gosh, am I ready to start again again? Cause I've done this before. And will I lose the friendships I've made? Will I lose contact with my kids and my grandkids? So it's, it's a, it, it brings up a lot of emotions cause it's just a, we never really.
Rest, rest, because life is, is like that, it moves, it moves, it's always moving. So you have to move with it. Maybe not to look at it so broadly and bring it closer to home. I would say that I, I'm in a, in a, I'm always called switching. Yeah. So I'm not completely at home as I was when I was. In the country I come from, which is Kenya, Kenya is home and, and even when people ask me my name, uh, sometimes I have to pause and depending on who's doing the asking, should I say Irene?
Because I just want this conversation to just flow without having to say, well, this is what it means and this is where I'm from and all this other, right? I believe when I say Irene, sometimes they might say, well, you have an accent where you really from, I know, but it's, it's not, it's a, it's always sometimes a good point of, you know, a good conversation.
That's a teaching point for me. I get to tell them that I am from Kisii, this is where it's located in the eastern part of Africa. A country called Kenya. You mean Africa is not just one big country? No, it's not. That was sarcastic, sorry. I get to teach people about who I am and where I'm from.
I can't really completely answer that question because it's still happening as I speak. And while I am at, uh, this present situation at my place of work, I'm code switching at my house. I'm called switching. My husband is American. Sometimes I have to become the American Sometimes I just, I'm myself and so I'm just dwelling in buildings and looking at my environment and just switching codes as I go.
Yeah, I guess that might have been one of the better definitions we've gotten of that because Dwellness is constantly like evolving. It is evolving. Yeah. Yeah. It's not constant. Yeah. Yeah. And, and when you are in a, in a place that is not your natural setting, you, you bring with yourself the things that are authentically yours, your own, your culture, your heritage, et cetera.
And then when you're in this new environment, you're trying to fit, find a place to fit And survive or be around the other people without clashing or if sometimes clashing, you can't help but without clashing and just be together, have that togetherness of existing in that same place. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of assimilation that occurs when you're both of us are immigrants from Kenya.
It's It's a lot of somersaults you have to do to figure out, okay, what's this context. First of all, what do they value and how it comes out in the way they dress, the way they speak, the way their sense of time. And, uh, you constantly have to insert yourself so that you don't really stand out because your values are, are very different.
But the fact that you. Would tend to stand out kind of isolates you as a person and we all have that innate sense of just wanting to be long. And so we we switch so that we can be long and I really resonate with that thing of like, not feeling like your home and really feeling like, you know, Kenya is really my home and that's where I feel most at home.
That's where I'm most relaxed. You know, Brian seen me. Yeah, there is. There is actually, it's like a switch. You even change your, the way you carry yourself is much more confident. The way you talk is, is, is different. Yeah. Especially when you're around, uh, your, your cousins and stuff. Cause you guys have like a secret language almost.
And it's not just Swahili. It's just like the way you communicate with each other is, is yeah. Yeah. The Snicket's crew, lots of talking with your hands. So, yeah. So let's come back to you and, and the challenges. What, what kind of challenges, or I know you can't encapsulate all of the challenges of. Not feeling home or having that sense of home in this country, but can you highlight like a few of the challenges that have stood out to you?
Maybe breaking down per the areas that you've been in this country and how you've experienced various challenges that have that are all about the code switching that you're talking about. The biggest ones.
When I have to assume a persona so that so that people can be able to relate to me, it's not for me, really. It's for them that I'm doing it. When that when this happens, sometimes you lose yourself. I feel like I've lost myself. And it didn't hit me until one, one day when I was in my quiet, in my quietness, I started thinking, I'm like, I'm, I'm always doing these things to please people.
Mm-hmm. , what about me? Mm-hmm. , I've been, I, um, taking up, I'll be this per persona. I'm, I'm a stage person. Of course, I'll be, I get into character and get there, sing and put on my makeup. Do do the thing of being the artist and then. Go back to work, do the thing of being the social worker. I'm always changing these personalities.
I find that I miss being able to speak a language that I can to people who don't look like me or people who don't speak my language. You know, I'm trying. I'm working on it. Yeah. So like when I'm on stage, sometimes I want to say, Hey, what's going on people? My language, right? I can't do that here. I have to try and be the artist who is, uh, an immigrant from another place trying to appeal to a crowd.
And, you know, E explain to them why I am here, what am I, what I'm presenting to them, what I'm speaking about when I speak, when I sing a song in a, a language they don't understand. Mm-hmm. , why I dress the way I do . Mm-hmm. . In fact, I find that I'm so attached to the things from home now more than I was at back at home.
Sure. Yeah. Now I feel like I need to wear my. This is my personality. Yeah. It's, it became me. It's been a process of becoming the person that I am. But in that process of becoming, it's been the process of also switching codes and switching personalities. And, and it's at the detriment of putting myself on a shelf for other people that are around me.
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's sad. It's heartbreaking. Yeah. You know, and language is a big part of it, as you said, because even when we're all speaking English, there's a, and I, yes, there's accents and you know, Brian speaks really fast sometimes and I'm like, please slow down. I am.
And, and then there's also like, How we adapt the way we speak so that other people can understand us because we know if I speak the way I usually speak. You might not capture all the words I'm saying, or I may use different, you know, because we were brought up with British English, which is very different from American English in some ways, and it's more formal, and you know, there's pronunciations, like I remember when I was in school and I said Yeah.
And they're like, excuse me, it's status, uh, you know, things like that where, yeah, where you, you constantly have to, um, adapt even your language, even the way you speak the language, even though it's the same language, you package it in a way that is. is receivable. And in that way, you also kind of diminish your core self and how you communicate as your core self.
And, you know, being in Kenya, it, that challenge is not there. You literally just can be yourself and people will take you the way you are. And, and that can be isolating too, because it feels like you're, you're hiding some part of yourself because it's not understandable. Yeah. And sometimes you don't know if people are really being genuine with you.
That's the, that's the other thing. And it took me a long time to, to get the, that people don't always, uh, they're not really honest in the way they present themselves to you, especially when you're not from their place. Right. They'll smile with you. They'll be pleasant, you know, but they're not really genuine.
Yeah. Um, there are things that are really over that they don't that make it hard for you to feel like you can click with them completely. Uh, I worked in a place where I was just about the only black person in a sea of white people. I was so lonely yet I was the friendliest person there always had something to chat.
With people talk with them and smile with them. But I was really, really lonely in a sea of white people and I missed home. Sometimes I would chuckle to myself and I would be chuckling in Kisi or in Kiswahili and I find that I either I would call you to talk and get that homing feel. Of just that language thing, or I would call my sister back home, Lydia, or I'll call mom and we'll chat and laugh about things that are not here.
Like I would, I would, I missed standing by a bus stop and buying some corn, you know? Yeah. Uh, lemon and chili and the roasted corn. Yeah. You're waiting for a bus to come and take you home, but you had something to munch. That's healthy too. You know, things like those you miss, you miss when you're, you can't leave home.
You can't leave the house right away to go to work. In the winter before wearing a bunch of layers, so it takes you longer to dress It takes you longer to undress and then you got to scrape off your car on the way. Oh my goodness. When the food doesn't taste right. None of it does. I, yeah. Yeah. My, my month so far in Kenya, when I got back, people were like, you fast weight.
Yeah, I'm like, I didn't do anything. I just went to Kenya and the food was just not processed and yummy and like, good for you. I know. Imagine that Americans. I'm talking to you. Well, there are, there are good, there are good parts of, you know, being American. In fact, when I go to Kenya, sometimes I miss it.
Being back in the States where things are orderly, people are polite for go that far. It's not Canada. No, there's that cordiality, you know, open the door for you, let you go in first. Things like those. You miss that. Order. Yeah. And cordial behavior in public places. I tell you, the traffic in Nairobi is terrifying as an American, it scared me.
Yeah, you tell me about what about that is terrifying. Oh my God, it just seems like it's lawless, you know, and everyone's just kind of, and I've driven in New York City, I've driven in Boston. Nothing compared to this question. No, I just was commenting on, on, uh, what she was talking about. Just my experience in Kenya and how I want many more experiences in Kenya.
I love it there. Honestly. Yeah. And I, it gets, I get a glimpse of how you guys must feel being in like a 97% white state. Uh, it's very isolating and I feel like just like a. I want to, I don't want to use the word beacon because that sounds like hope or whatever. But like, I just feel like this spot in the middle of a sea of, of, so you must feel that all the time when you're in America, especially in this very pale state that we live in.
Yeah. I never thought about the color of my skin until I came here. That was alien to me. In fact, I was in a class, uh, where we were talking about, it was about connecting. Cultures or intercultural development is something like that. And, uh, the, the teacher actually asked us, gave us a piece of paper and asked us to write down everything about our identity.
And I, I began with me as a mother who is, uh, Grandmother who is a wife, who is a sister, who's a, but I never thought to write down that I was black because I just was, I didn't think that that's something that I needed to write down until she mentioned and said, Hey, did you forget to write about, was it a white teacher?
No. Oh, where you're from. Oh, okay. Then she still didn't. Asked me along and ask people questions and I like, Oh,
it didn't come to me. Yeah. Yeah. It's a thing here. Racism is a thing here. Yeah. And we know about tribalism, but racism is a different animal. Yeah. Being the a black woman is the first thing people see. That's right. Whereas, you know, where we're from, it's being a mom, maybe is the first thing people see, you know, when you're walking in town, let's say you're trying to get into a matatu.
Oh, what's your mama? Mama? You know, like, they see you as a mom, maybe if you have a kid, and they, they take care of you based on that. They don't see you as a black woman. Whereas here, That's the first identity. And then there's, there's things that follow that you being a black woman, that it kind of takes away from, you know, how you want to present yourself.
First of all, this is how I see myself, but, and this is how I want you to treat me based on the things that I'm seeing. As part of my identity, but that's not the case here. You have to sort of fit into the mold of like, I'm a black woman. And then now what follows after that? That's right. And, and the way you get treated everywhere you go, it's from that first identity of being a black woman.
So how have you been able to, I know you mentioned a little bit about like you following Oh, Or really holding on to, you know, your Africanness by the way you dress and the way you present yourself like it's something that has become even more pronounced here. I say even for myself, like, you know, we have Ugali Wednesdays.
We make sure that we have aspects of my culture represented in the way we are living day to day. So how do you insert or assert? Your identity and your background and your culture in your day to day life on top of the dressing. Yeah, on top of the dressing Yeah, so if you are to come into my house, you will see that I have artifacts on my walls Everywhere you can tell oh, this is a someone from another place Africa somewhere and I'm I'm a teaching artist So that gives me a really good platform to share my identity and culture with young young kids I am affiliated with the Clemons family farm, and she has been providing opportunities for artists, various artists in their form, whatever form they practice, to work with young minds from K through 12.
And in these workshops, we, uh, I get to teach about the history, my history, uh, not just Kenyan history, but the diaspora history. And we write songs, song workshops, we just pick a topic and we talk about it, we unpack it, and then through that, um, unpacking, we write a song and it becomes more meaningful and it's an easy way for kids to learn hard topics that they find difficult to talk about.
And so that personality has kind of grown. Um, on me, I've become that person that schools want to reach out and say, Oh, we heard that you're in this. Oh, no, but you have to go through the family farm too. If you want your kids to learn about this. So it's, it's a, it's a thing that has been packaged really well for students for schools.
So I get to practice that in my, my art, which is really cool. And then when I'm, Singing. The songs I write are in languages that are not spoken here, of course. So when I'm performing, I have to tell my crowd, my crowd, this song is about this. Mm-hmm. , and it's from this place. And then it, you know, people get to know more about who I am as an African.
So my music has given me that platform, uh, in, uh, Teaching in schools and also in my singing my songs. Yeah. Hmm. That's beautiful. Speaking of learning, teaching, you mentioned a word that I don't think many white Americans are familiar with. I know I wasn't when Ruth first mentioned it two years ago, and that's diaspora.
I don't think many people even know what that word means, uh, which is really unfortunate. Can you just kind of talk a little bit about that for us? I didn't know about that word too until I came here. Oh really? Okay. I think these are people who are living away from their, from, from Africa, abroad, and they find a way of existing.
While away from home. I think that's what, that's the best way to, to sum it up is the community of people. Yeah. And, and do you think it's possible for diaspora or people in the diaspora to find that sense of home away from home? It's difficult. You just try the best you can. And then you find, you find that community and Keep it going.
You share things and grow sometimes have projects back home that, you know, still helping the people back home while you're here because being here is actually a good anchor for your, your ability to help people back home. Yeah. Yeah. So if you have your community here, I think it's easier to, to exist or survive back.
Because like if I have my cup of tea, my Kenyan tea, ketepa, I was able to make my chapati. Yeah. I was able to make my ugali and I'm still living in the big of U. S. where there is snow. Somehow it makes it a little bit easier to be away from home. Yeah. You know. Let's talk about your music. Yeah, because you've mentioned you share a little bit about yourself through your music and you have your music is in different languages.
There's one in Swahili and there's also one in English called you are enough, which has. And it's taken on a life of its own. Can you tell us more about your music and the first album that you came out with in 2021, which, you know, we're all very proud of. Yeah. So I arrived at each song at different points of my life.
So when it came to getting a title for none. Finally the album, it was hard because every song was different. , it was one bluesy, one was jazzy, one was really folk traditional. So the genres were all, it was a mixture of, of genres. And so I, I realized that I was there. One was confounding myself trying to find a title, because those songs were all themes.
They were a thematic. Um, songs about the way we humans exist together. So, I called it Halia Utu, not because I'm some philosopher who can tell you about, oh, I know about life and stuff. But no, it's just that the way we exist together is our ability to show emotions, get mad, fall in love, die, give birth.
That's the condition of humanity. So that's the theme I found. So are you tying it to the question of, uh, you are enough? One of the songs from the album, you are enough has sort of blossomed into this mantra of just as the word says, being enough. And in the face of all the pressures that every human being experiences with social media, with society, trying to pigeonhole people into different identities and boxes.
What is the core of that message and, and where is it coming from for you? For me, it's from the point of the way I was raised as a, as a Christian and knowing that I am made in the image of God. That's a big thing. To know that I am formed and given a spirit that is holy. And I know that when God created the universe, everything he created, he called good.
In fact, he didn't just say good, he said very good. Very good. It doesn't mean that because I knew. That to be fundamentally truthful that that was how I was feeling or how people are feeling because they're living in a sinful world that is
so much is quite so many layers of false messages thrown at people out there so people have lost that connection. Of feeling that they were complete in the way they were formed and made and I'm scathed. All of us are scathed. Everyone is scathed. I mean, it's hard to be an artist who has to show up in different personalities.
You know, you have to also think about what is acceptable. Can't I just show up the way I am? No, I have to do this, put on my makeup, I have to, I'm going to the camera, I have to do just, I have to look good for the camera. All these are facades that hide. That connection keeps you away from you feeling that you're completely enough the way you are and it's okay to show up just the way you are Because God looks at you Differently than you are looking at yourself with the world eyes of the world Which keep you from feeling that gap that confidence?
It just goes away because you're looking at yourself with the way the the materialistic world is looking is telling you you need to present yourself. So, um, what I think is more valuable is you're the character that you have. Those are the beautiful things. Are you kind? Are you a kind person? Are you are you helpful?
Do you? You know, the things I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The characteristic things that hold value that make you beautiful, not makeup, not fancy cars, not the house, not Not materialistic things. Yeah. Yeah. But you being able to feel inside that I'm worthy. I'm valuable. I have something to offer the world. I have the right to be here as much right as you have that right.
So that's what the song is about. You're enough. It's very beautiful. It reminds me when I was young, when I was a teenager. I remember this time. You told me walk with your head held high and don't walk around as if you're excusing your existence, you know, and that really stuck with me because as you know, like the circumstances of my birth and coming into the world, there was a lot of feelings of like, I'm not enough and I'm not worthy because of the rejection I received and just having that in my head that You are enough and the world can't get away with like saying that you're not Because you can assert yourself and keep your head held high Made made a big impact, you know, it really helped me Um, in the way I was walking when I was walking down in town, it impacted the way I was holding myself because of the words that you gave me.
So I think it's really important to, for us to affirm one another and remind each other of that divine. Source of who we are and where we came from because there's so much so many things that we do to invalidate each other's existence and it's, it's, it's damaging and it's so unnecessary because we all want to belong.
We all want to feel like we're enough and we all want to feel a sense of home, you know, especially diaspora and you know, immigrants, migrants. It's like, And so forth. I'm so happy that you're getting a lot of attention. You just got a song picked up from the album by Putumayo called Farajah. Can you briefly talk about Farajah?
Oh my gosh. Yeah. So Farajah is a Swahili word that means having that sense of tranquility. And finding that tranquility inside of yourself, but not from things that are external. Because I realize that there are a lot of people who are searching, they're out there searching, and they have this sense of dissatisfaction, of um, they're restless, they feel like there's something they're looking for, they need to reach that place, and when they get there, that's when they're going to feel.
But that, uh, you cannot find it out there because it's, it's been inside you the whole time. You just need to learn how to reach deep and get that, uh, and exist in whatever situation you are and be okay. Yeah. That's Faraja. Because I remember one time my husband, you know, he likes hiking and I don't particularly like it.
Such a white activity anyway. But we were doing it just because we wanted to, the challenge of the exercise is good, yeah. But when you get to the peak and then you finally see the panoramic view around you that, ah. And I'm like, really, did we have to do all this? Yeah. Helicopters exist.
I could have seen this view just as well when I was down.
But then that brought home to that thought of Faraja. We are always driving to get that, uh, feeling out there. But if you learn to, to meditate and think, like get rid of all the noise, you'll find it. A glass of wine will not get, it will do not hit the spot. A cup of tea will not hit the spot. But God put it intrinsically inside of us and we just need to know how to reach and get it and be okay.
And that takes work. It does. I am okay. I am not in control. God is. Some higher power is around these circumstances of mine. I can't pay the bills. I can't pay the rent. I can't, I can't, I can't. But can you still in that? I can't, I can't, I can't be able to breathe and say, Okay. I still have my Farajah. My Farajah never left me.
Actually, I left my Farajah and went out looking for it. It was here the whole time. So, that's Farajah. Makes me think, in a way, Farajah is that sense of home and wholeness, you know. And it's, it's, it's inside you. It's not necessarily a building or a structure or a geographical location. It's something that follows you and is within you and you can reach into it and feel okay wherever you are.
That's, that's so beautiful. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
Now we're at a point where we ask questions. Three questions. Standard questions. That we ask every guest. Which ones do you want to take today? You want to do the Star Trek one? Uh, sure. Yeah, I'll let you do that one. I'll get started then. Okay. What domestic task do you do well? Dishes. Dishes? You're not lying.
I am not lying. I love to wash dishes. I hate to wash dishes because it hurts my lower back because the sink is so low. Oh, it's not a problem for you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it would be a problem for me if the sink was too high, but I love doing dishes. I don't know why. It's just so therapeutic. Yeah. Stand there with the soapy suds and the hot water and the clicks and.
I clean around the sink and I just love doing dishes. Nice. That's your, that's your mountain to climb, I guess, huh? Finding the view of the clean sink. But I know, but for every good thing, sometimes you have to put in the work, including hiking. It does have its benefits. It does. Your jeans fit better.
Yeah. I saw it. The laundry didn't shrink your jeans. I saw this thing the other day. Speaking of hiking, it's a little off topic, but I mean. Yeah, say it anyway. It was like, hikers, just need to admit that it's just walking uphill. had this like video of like, someone being like, no, no, . That's not . That they, they, they take like longer trails, like from Georgia all the way to the Oh, the Appalachian trail.
Yeah. Yeah. No, those trails are crazy. I we're a long trail. Yeah. They're very dedicated hikers and they must have, uh, satisfaction. that they derive from it. So it's just not for everyone. Yeah. Being in nature is usually pretty. Zen. It's beautiful. Yeah. I mean, I enjoy the panoramic view, but I just had to get out of the space of, Oh my God, this was so hard.
And now we have to turn around and go back and go back down. It was just downhill on the way back, right? No, even that is not easy. Yeah. It's scary too. Cause you could trip and roll down the hill. Yeah. Yeah. That's not for me. All We don't like, I don't like, it's not for me really either. Flat terrains.
That's, that's good. We have a little trail right out of our door that we just walk down. It's much nicer. Yeah. I do like walking. Yeah. As long as it's not over boulders. Yeah. No. All right. Question number two. Are you ready? I am. All right. If you became a Starfleet officer. And was sent on a mission for an indefinite period of time, and you could only take three personal items.
What would they be? My Bible. Family pictures. And my teeth.
Yeah, I can see that. I see you in a Star Trek uniform, just like in a chair, looking at pictures of the kids. Please know I'm off the clock. It's hard to, to, to. I'll be like Lorde's wife to tell you the truth. My tea!
Yeah, and I can't trust that like, uh, I even forget what it's called. That thing that creates the tea. Earl Grey, 65 degrees. No. I wanna make it the way I'm used to. With the spices. No, and Star Trek, cause there's this like, uh, thing that creates. I forget the name. So you have to bring your kettle and your tea supply.
Yeah, and the spices, yeah. It's it's glued to perfection. I know you can get, you can digitalize your pictures too, but then there's something to be told about putting a picture on a frame and putting it a tangible picture that you can see, hold, touch, feel, look at, remember, but when pictures keep transient, they keep passing on your screen.
It's not the same. No, just like the Bible. Yeah, the Bible is a book. When you flip the pages and, uh, you know, find that particular scripture you're looking for. The whole process of looking for that scripture is a, is a, an experience in and of itself. And so, it's beautiful. So those are, I picked those things quickly because they were thematic.
The Bible is spiritual. The pictures are the physical. T is also what? Spiritual, I guess, right? I don't know. There's something about it that's like also mental, psychological, like, Well, I think it's probably, it's a
taste of home, Yeah, that's right. Comfort, yeah. Yeah, yeah, contributed. Alright. Last question, if I could pull it up here. Mm hmm. What is one thing, I might be able to know the answer to this, what is one thing that can instantly make your day better? Um, instantly? Mm. Well, I'm sorry,
but I
don't even know. I'm apologizing. It's just, I don't apologize. All of your answers could have been tea. If you want, how do you find you do all this? That was my answer too. There you go. Tea Irene, the tea girl. She gets a grounding. Yeah. I mean that was my big dream when I left. Uh, I was about to say Kenya when I left the US in 2019.
Mm-hmm. , I was like, I'm gonna go to Kenya and open a tea shop 'cause that's what I wanna do. Like just have a tea shop where, right. It's. It's more than just the tea itself. It's the community because you're, when you're having the tea, it's usually with someone and you're talking and you're connecting and then the taste and the warmth, Oh, it's the, ah, it's the Farajah.
It's the Farajah, Farajah chai. Honestly, I was, I was very anti tea most of my life. Yeah. And then I met Ruth and that, you know, I drink tea way more often than I used to. I still prefer coffee because I'm a. Yeah, you're an American, but you get a whole lot of tea requests from me to
like, do you need anything? Yeah, I carried all my teas with me and I carried, so I know it's such a process when you go to a restaurant, mostly they'll give you a cup of tea. Something that's lukewarm. Mm hmm. Not the right temperature. It's usually like black british tea or something like that Like lattes or chai teas i'm like no that's not so i'll bring my flask For my hot water, very hot water, and I just ask for milk, and I have my own teapot.
You're like an alcoholic with like preferences. You're just like, nah. Or hot sauce in your bag. Or use like a thermos. I cannot stand lukewarm tea. Yeah, I cannot. What's the point? It ruins it. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, well, um. That's all we've got. I think we just wanted to keep telling jokes about tea. It has been lovely.
Mama, to have you here. Santa. Santa. Santa. Santa. Santa. Santa. Santa. With your words of wisdom and your, your talk of teas just, uh, brought home much closer to me today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I feel like I was just in my living room talking to you, but no, that's a lie. We will be, we will be louder.
Much louder. Big laughs. I couldn't think of a better interview was. People that I already know that are my own and I'm very excited. Yay. I'm excited. You know what I'm holding to say? Say it. I can. Yeah. Go ahead. I'm going to be a grandma again! You're here first, ladies and gentlemen. Oh my gosh, it's about mid morning.
Yeah, I called her and I was asking her, How are you feeling today? And then she goes, Tired and sick. ? No, I'll say my mom. Nico Ball like, huh, . So I just wanna make sure I heard you like, could you say that again and I just screamed in my head and I did my, you in my hands? Yes. Oh my gosh. Really excited. Well, congratulations.
Oh, thank you dear. Thank you, congrat. Thank you mama.
And that's a wrap.
The Dwellness Podcast is produced by Steinmetz and recorded at Dialed Studio at Hula. Our audio and video production is handled by Syntax in Motion. Our audio engineers are Wesley Davis and Will Davis. Our show producer is Will Davis. Intro music is by Sam Barsh and outro by Ian Koloski. Artwork and promotions by Snicket's Public Relations.
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