The Collective Awakening: Pleasure, Politics & the Power of the People

Speaker A: 00:00:03

Welcome to the Connected Pleasure Podcast. I'm Kayla Moore, sacred disruptor and sovereign guide, here to share liberation wisdom for sexual healing and feminine rising.

This is a space to return to your pleasure, your power and your body, while remembering your deep connection to the earth and to each other. Each week we explore what it means to lead with soft power and to weave a world rooted in embodiment, love and connection.

Together, we are holding the frequency of what we want this world to look and feel like as we collectively weave together a new paradigm shift called the Great Turning. Because pleasure is not frivolous, it is foundational. And it's time to come home. This podcast is for education and inspiration only.

If you're wanting to explore pleasure more fully for yourself, I invite you to go deeper with me through the offerings linked in the show notes or through the offerings of my guests.

If you're unsure whether one of these containers or a therapeutic approach would best support you, you're welcome to schedule a free 45 minute consultation with me. Together we can explore what path is in your best interest. And if I am not the right fit, I'll be glad to connect you with the resources you need.

Welcome back, beloveds. I'm Kayla, your host. I go by she, her, hers, pronouns, and this is the Connected Pleasure Podcast. So today you are here with me again.

I am in the process of trying to book some more guests for me to have on my podcast, so hopefully I will have some more amazing conversations coming to you in the next couple weeks. But for today, you have me and this podcast is going to be a little bit of a lot of things overarchingly. I think it will be about community.

It'll be about kind of the things that are happening right here, right now in this week and the celebrations that are coming up and the things that I'm a part of that I want you to know about. And yeah, it's. It's gonna be a very like here in the now type episode. So before we begin, let's just take a moment to breathe.

Not gonna do a whole grounding exercise, but let's just take a moment wherever you are. I know a lot of people listen to this in the car or somewhere where they can't just fully like stop and drop in.

,: 2025

And as you know, I am part of the sacred feminine tradition. And tomorrow, November 1st is what we call Samhain. It's spelled like Sam Hain. It's s a M H A I N, but it's pronounced Samhain.

And this is a festival that is in between the fall equinox and the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere.

So the fall equinox and the December solstice, or the September equinox and the December solstice, because in the southern hemisphere, it is the opposite that it would be spring and summer. So it is the halfway point in between the equinox and the solstice. And this is a really special time. This is called the Witch New Year. It is.

It has roots in the Celtic tradition, as well as a lot of other cultures celebrate something similar to Samhain. It's believed that the veil is very thin during this time. And so this is really a time where work with ancestors is very prevalent.

That building altars to ancestors, talking to ancestors, allowing them to be present in your life and guide you on your journey is really important during this time. It's also Dia de los Muertos in the Mexican culture tradition. I'm not sure if there are other cultures that celebrate that.

I looked it up, and it sounded like it's rooted in Mexican tradition, but there may be other cultures that celebrate that, too, and that is on November 1st as well, and November 2nd. And they also build altars to their ancestors, their loved ones that have passed away, and offer gifts and their favorite foods and things to them.

And it's a way to just keep their memory alive and, again, like, honor that lineage in their life and know that it's a way to connect to the people that have moved on, that they're not just gone, that they, again, are with us. And so there's a lot of talk about death and rebirth at this time.

I would really love to get a death doula on to talk soon, because I think this is a great time to talk about, like, our understanding of death in our culture. And we've been so just brainwashed to fear death so much.

And yet a lot of these traditions are embracing the other side, knowing that, like, we are all going to die at some point. And that it doesn't mean that we are erased. It means that our traditions, our love lives on through the people that are still here.

And we can still have a huge impact even when we are on the other side. And, you know, some of the traditions around Halloween or how Halloween came to be, was that, you know, people used to decorate to try to keep.

Keep the spirits from invading them a little bit too much, but to also honor the spirits. So there's lots of different things that come into this weekend. Lots of different traditions, lots of different festivals that are happening.

I wanted to share that on Samhain. So I am part of a sacred feminine community.

It used to be called Holy Woman, and we are now moving into a completely new iteration of this community, and it's now called the Living Temple. And it's actually like building a 21st century temple that is going to be a hybrid of online community and in person community.

It used to be that we would do most of our ceremonies online, and we used to do them on the new moon, and then there would be a little bit of a different type of gathering online with the full moon, but the main ceremony was on the new moon. And now we are transitioning into doing the eight Earth holidays. So all the equinoxes and the solstices.

So there's two equinoxes a year, two solstices a year, and then there are holidays in between each one of those. So there's basically a holiday like every six weeks or so. And Samhain is one of those holidays.

And so we are switching to doing a longer ceremony on those holidays. And now we are starting to have what are called temple hosts.

And I am a temple host, and those hosts are we have signed up to open our homes to build community.

So anyone that is a temple member in our own communities can look up on the app that we have now where there is a gathering or where there's a temple host in their area and they can sign up to go to that host's home. Or some hosts are like, renting out spaces if they have bigger communities that they can bring in.

But most people are just doing it in their homes, in their living rooms, and those people can come to their homes.

And we are opening our homes not just for the ceremony, but usually hopefully for a little bit of time before the ceremony and after to gather together to create the altar together. It's very much like everyone is bringing something to contribute to the altar as well as maybe to their seating or to the meal.

That we're going to share. And so we will be coming together.

The host's job is really to kind of facilitate the space, facilitate the like, energy of everyone coming in, helping it be like a grounded experience, something where everybody feels welcome and safe in that environment. And we are given the option to have a meal together where everybody brings something to share with each other.

And it's not about necessarily being friends with everybody in terms of like, you know, having this big commitment to meet with each other outside of these times, but it's about building community with each other and being with people that just like, you know, in the tradition of going to church or to temple or to synagogue, whatever other type of religion you have heard of or been a part of, it's coming together in community to share in our spiritual traditions and to, you know, be with each other. For some people that have more space or more land, they can offer like a walk on the land.

In my neighborhood, I don't have like a ton of land to walk on, but we do have some really nice nature trails that have been preserved along the edge of our development.

And so if time permits, that could be an option for the people that come and join my ceremonies is to go walk in the nature trails that I walk along A good chunk of my time when I'm out and about, I. I love to walk in the woods. I have a favorite tree that I say hi to every time. And so that is something that can be done.

So this is new and this Samhain ceremony is the first time that we will be joining together. So far, we have 45 temple hosts around the entire country and world because we have members that are all over the world too.

So it's really cool that people will be joining in. And so I kind of forgot the part of like the actual ceremony. So people come, they will kind of co create the altar together.

We might have a meal before the ceremony or after the ceremony, depending on your time zone and kind of when you are having people over. And then it's the temple host's job to like seat every or you know, like gather everyone before the ceremony starts.

We do an invocation, we do a land acknowledgement and get everybody kind of in the energy space for ceremony. We don't conduct the ceremony, we just kind of hold the space for everybody to be in ceremony together.

And then we stream the ceremony from our temple headquarters, which is in Massachusetts and is headed by our temple priestess, Sarah Jinx. So I just stream the ceremony on my laptop that I will be connecting to my TV in my living room.

And they're like two to three hour ceremonies that we will be partaking in that Sarah will be leading. And then afterwards we get to again, have like, a little bit of processing time together and chat with each other, and then people go home.

So it's a really cool experience. I'm really excited to be a temple host. We are in a process of, like, just building this.

And if you are somebody in, like, the Gig Harbor, Pierce county area that wants to join, it's free the first time. You can come and sit and just check it out, and there's absolutely no strings attached. You get to just enjoy and be part of the community.

And then after your first time, if you want to, like, continue to keep coming and be a part of the community, then you do have to join as a member of the temple.

And there is tiered pricing, so they are trying to make it so that is, it's as accessible as possible to anyone and everyone that wants to be a part of the temple. But we are really about being a regenerative space, giving back to each other.

And part of the temple is also called the Agora, which we still haven't really done much with yet.

So I don't have a ton of information exactly of what that will look like, but essentially it's supposed to be a part of the temple where we do a lot of, like, bringing our spirit, spirituality and thoughts into the actual, like, physical world. So it'll be talking about.

Talking about a lot of the issues that are part of daily life right now and thinking about how we as temple members can actually take action in our own communities.

And so I will kind of get to some of that towards the end of this episode, but that's a really important part to know if you want to be part of the temple, that this is not just about, like, our own spirituality.

And I should say, for people that, like, have no real context to Sacred Feminine spirituality, it is different than other types of patriarchal religions because, well, one, it's not a religion. It's like it. Spirituality is in everyone.

I think it's just part of being human that we, we are spiritual beings, we are divine beings, we are part of the earth, we are part of the cosmos. Like, we are magic just within ourselves.

And so these traditions teach us how to tap into that inherent divinity and love and power and magical, mystical, like, unknown that we as humans all have in us.

And Sarah, as a priestess, she is just there to also, like, lead us through ceremony, lead us through, like, the archetypal energy that each festival will have. And she leads us through, like, all the different teachings and learnings that we can get from that time.

But she is not seeing, saying, like, you have to follow me and you have to only be connected to the divine through me. She facilitates our own spiritual journeys through just the creation and, like, holding the space of a ceremony.

And so that's very important because if you go to. I just went to church for the first time. One of my family members was getting baptized, and so I was invited to church.

I just went to church for the first time, a Christian church. And I was like, whoa, whoa. There is no talk about women in this at all.

And it's all like, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and I am the pastor, and, like, this is our community, but you must be a part of this community to be in the community of God and blah, blah, blah.

And I won't get on a soapbox about that at the moment, but I just really want to, like, root in that, like, Sacred Feminine spirituality is so much about your own journey and your own connection to the divine and that you don't need an external person or source to be your connection to the divine. Like, you are the connection to the divine.

And this is just a space to, like, cultivate that connection and understand that connection and root deeper into that connection for yourself. So, you know, she is not, like, the one channeling everything, and we all just have to follow her. That's not how it's.

That's not how this spiritual community is set up. And then, you know, it's taking that spiritual connection and saying, okay, how can I lead with that in my own community?

And, you know, I don't love that. There's so much in the Christian tradition around it, evangelizing. There we go, people. And it's very much rooted in, like, your.

Your spirituality is connected to whether or not other people find their own spirituality.

And it's like, part of your duty to go out and make sure that other people are hearing the word of God and, like, connecting to God and like, joining the community. Because that is part of being a Christian is making sure that other people then Christian. And that is not what this is either.

We are looking for more people that want to be part of this community if that's resonant with you. But if it's not, that's totally fine.

Like, there's no, like, my spiritual connection to the divine and to the universe is predicated based on, like, how many people I bring into this community. That's definitely not it either.

So I just wanted to put that out there because I, I am offering the opportunity to come and join us if that's something that you want.

But it's also, you know, it's it's only if you are open and willing and that feels like a fun, interesting and community building thing for you to do that. There's no like tied to me and my spirituality or the temple's overall well being. If you know, people are like this isn't for me.

So, so yeah, I will have all that information linked below about the temple overall if you just want to get to know more about it.

We they are having tons of free like workshop meetings right now as it's the official opening so you can join any of those calls to get to know the community a little bit more too.

And again if you are in like the Gig Harbor, Pierce county or even a little bit further away and would like to join us on Samhain this Saturday, the ceremony will be from 3 to 6pm and I'm having people come a couple hours early. So email me. I'll have my email down in the show notes as well. You can email me and I can get you set up for that.

So moving on from that, I did also want to talk about how like Samhain is the it's kind of the opening to the dark period of the year. This is when we are kind of shutting down our stuff a little bit. It's time for rest, it's time for reflection.

It's time to just kind of like be with ourselves, be with our families, enjoy the coziness of the season and really like take it easy and take her time. And so Samhain's kind of the opening to that season. And for a lot of us the reflection part is also about letting go of things.

And we're still in this year 9 wood snake year of shedding and there are a lot of things that we are all still needing to still shed and let go of. And so one we still have one spot available for the shed retreat.

So if you are interested in going to Vashon island in a couple weeks on November 14th, 15th and 16th, go listen to the previous episode that I did with my co host, our co retreat leader Shauna Stewart and we talked all about the shed retreat. We also did a episode on her podcast as well, Life Turned On. So you can go listen to that.

It's linked in the show notes in the previous episode too, all about our upcoming retreat.

But we still have one spot left so if you are like, I am in need of deep shedding and I would love to come on a retreat with other amazing women that are there to really step through the threshold and shed whatever does not serve them that is available to you. I wanted to talk specifically about one kind of story that I think a lot of us, especially women, are connected to that we need to shed.

And that is this idea of like, perfectionism and wanting to be the good girl and like doing our best.

And it's no surprise that in our society, just as black people and brown people, anyone that's not white has had to work, you know, like 10 times harder to even get a fraction of what white people get in this country. Similarly, it is the same for women. And you know, there is a lot of intersectionality there.

It's definitely different for like a black woman or a black trans woman versus a white woman or white cisgender heterosexual woman like myself.

And, you know, women collectively in general have had to work, you know, X amount harder to be able to get a fraction of the opportunities that men do. And obviously it's a lot better today than it has been before, but in some regards it's also getting a lot worse today than it has been previously.

And so I think previous generations had to basically compensate with the trauma of that by being perfect.

And again, I see this in like, race understanding of like how again, non white people have had to cope with being persecuted for their race, that they become like overly perfect, they feel like they can't put a toe out of line and are hyper vigilant around what they do, how they act.

And I think it's the same for women that I think we have been taught to be hyper vigilant around how we look, how we talk, how we interact with people, how we present ourselves, that, you know, we tend to shrink a lot around other people to make ourselves smaller.

And it's just, it's interesting being in a relationship and also having worked with couples that I feel like men just don't have this sense of just like always being aware of everybody else, that women are just taught very much to be aware of everyone else, to be aware of like how you are in relation to everyone else.

And that perfection is a way to cope with some of the uncertainties and the unknowns and the unfairness that we have been given for generations and generations. And I think dismantling that is imperative to us being able to move forward.

I think dismantling this need to be the good girl, this need to be perfectionistic, this need to, like, overdo and over give in order to be worthy of something needs to be let go of.

In order for us to move forward and in order for us to come into community with each other and to feel like you can access this power and this love and this divinity within yourself, that that is something that needs to be shed. And by letting it go, we get to now heal this and say, we were always meant to have this. This was always ours.

We didn't need men to grant us permission to be powerful and to be in these spaces. We were always meant to be here. This was always ours to take and to have.

Because we are divine beings, because we are humans, we get to be whole and connected and loved and have a seat at the table, that we are no longer fighting for it. We just get to claim it. And we don't need a patriarchal system. We don't need patriarchal religion.

Again, that outward confirmation of who you are and your worth by listening to somebody else, that we just are remembering and knowing in ourselves that we are divine, that we are powerful, that our lineage is here to help and guide us and love us. And we don't need men to tell us that we're worthy of that anymore. We get to just say it on our own and offer that.

And we don't need perfectionism anymore. If we let go of that, we get to root back into our softness, into our bodies, into our natural rhythms.

We get to reclaim our relationship to the earth and to each other.

And we get to create community that isn't behind a paywall, but is something that is actually nourishing to our souls and to our lives, that actually gives back to each and every one of us as much as we put into it.

And so I think that is something that has been coming up for me as I am doing a lot of my own work and healing of my ancestral line is around the fact that as hard as it is for me to look at some of my elders and feel like, why are you so stuck in these models? And it's so hard for me to see you stuck there when I'm trying to break free of it, but I think it's really helpful to put it in the context of.

Of like, every generation has been given a task to move forward a little bit, and they did. They moved forward in the way that they could.

And, you know, a lot of the women that I connect to have, like, what we determine, like, over functioning moms. Sorry, Mom. I know you listened to this, and this is totally said with love. Just like, constantly doing, constantly doing, not ever really resting.

And I feel like all the women that I'm surrounded by that were all like, yes, this is my experience growing up. We're all just like, I'm just tired listening to, like, the amount that you do. I think we're just all tired. We're just like, I. I don't.

I just want to take a nap. Like, I don't. I don't want to do all the things anymore. We're just tired and we want to, like, come back to a place that feels harmonious again.

And I feel like that's our task in this current time right now, is to come back to these rhythms, come back to this place of reciprocity with our bodies, with each other, with the earth, that we no longer have to do so much and be, like, over the top all the time, doing more and more and more and never filling ourselves up and just leading from overflow. We're always leading from empty, especially in this culture. So I just invite you to think about that as we go into the darkness of the year.

And darkness doesn't have to be scary again. It. It can be as interesting as it is to say darkness and then illuminating. Like, it can be illuminating in the fact that we quiet ourselves.

Really, the way that you can connect to your divine and connect to your connection to the divine is quieting yourself. And that's what this is. It's letting go of this need to constantly do, to do so that we can come back to this place of.

Of reverence for ourself and connect to our inner voice, connect to our inner child, connect to the things that we think and feel. But don't ever let ourselves have time to really process. It's coming back to a time again of reflection and rest and calm.

And so if you have some time over the weekend, I encourage you to take a few moments for yourself to connect to your body, to connect to the moment through your senses and think about for yourself, what are the things that I need to let go of and how do I connect to my ancestral line that could help me continue this journey and guide me? So that was kind of my, like, priestess sermon for the day. I don't know if sermon is the right word.

I don't really love that word coming from, like, a patriarchal religion, but that is something that we will definitely be talking about on the retreat.

And I just wanted to give you, like, a flavor of something that I've been thinking about in my own journey of healing that I think is very helpful for a lot of women. So what can we do right now? Here's the agora piece of the temple that I'm creating in this community on my podcast.

Okay, I'm gonna have you take a deep breath in through your nose, out through your mouth. We're gonna talk a little tiny bit of politics.

I promise I won't get too in the weeds, but I just want you to be aware that I'm gonna just lay out kind of the lay of the land of where we are right now and why I think this is important for us to be thinking about. Okay? So if you're here, maybe you are already checked in to all of the things that are happening.

So this might be a recap, but for those of you that don't know, I'm going to go a little bit into it and I will also be linking my favorite source of all things politics in the US Right now so that you can go and get more information.

Because I'm definitely not like the end all be all on all the information, but I just, I just want to give you a little bit of a heads up that that's where we're going. Okay, so where are we in the US Right now? We are in a government shutdown. Why are we in a government shutdown? Good question.

We are in a government shutdown because. So the Republicans need to pass the, this spending bill. They threw everything in the kitchen sink in there.

And Democrats, I totally understand, there are so many problems with Democrats right now. There's definitely Democrats that need to go, that still want to keep the status quo and are still taking corporate money and all the things.

Totally get that. And they are, you know, as close to an opposition party as we have at the current moment. Definitely need overhauling.

Definitely want to vote a lot of those people out. And in the current moment, you know, they're, they're, they're the people that we want to root for right now.

They are saying, we are not signing on to this. The Republicans need a certain amount of Democrats to sign onto it, to move it through.

And the Democrats are like, we're not signing on to this because you are trying to slash healthcare for everyone. We all know that. Everyone's been talking about all the premiums going up.

So many people are getting kicked off of healthcare because it's going to be too expensive. They essentially, they didn't like, extend the.

Again, this is where you need to go listen to Heather Cox Richardson, because I, I can't remember exactly like what, what it is that they have to extend, but they have to extend like subsidies for Medicaid and Medicare. And she talks about how that all affects like the whole insurance system. But essentially the Republicans don't want to fund health care.

It's getting really expensive for everyone because so many people are not going to be able to afford health care because of the subsidies that have been taken away are not being like re upped. And so because of this, the government shut down. Now when the government shuts down, a lot of programs shut down and people don't get paid either.

There's a lot of government employees that are not getting paid right now. So that already is a huge issue.

And people are needing help with food and all their necessities because they're literally not getting their paychecks because the government is shut down. And where are the Republicans? They are not in D.C. trying to create something that could stop the shutdown.

They're not negotiating with the Democrats and trying to get a bell a bill resolved.

They are just MIA Speaker Mike Johnson has just decided we're canceling all of this because there's also an added little tidbit in here where there was a special election, I believe in Nevada, do not quote me on that. But I, I'm pretty sure it was in Nevada Democrat one and they will be the 218th Democrat or person.

I mean anybody could sign this could be Democrats and Republicans. But you know, Republicans don't want to sign on to anything right now.

So it'll be the 218th Democrat that they need to sign a petition to release the Epstein files or to start an investigation or something with the Epstein files that would end up in them releasing Epstein files. And of course the Republicans don't want to do that because they know Donald Trump is all over any of those things.

And so Speaker Mike Johnson one does not want to have to deal with the Democrats.

And they're trying to put pressure on the Democrats to make it so that they're the ones that take the fall for this shutdown or you know, they eventually will sign on to this bill so that the Republicans get can get everything that they want.

And also he's refusing to come to the table because as soon as they're back in session, then he has to swear in this new Democrat that got elected and he knows that that will start the chain reaction of the Epstein files coming out. So essentially the Republicans are just like by, well, I like I don't know what their end game is here.

It's like there's no, you can't just, like, not run the government for the rest of time. Like, I don't know what their end game is here, but I think they're kind of playing a game of chicken.

They just think that the, the Democrats are going to fold eventually if they keep going. And so they're kind of playing a big game of chicken. Meanwhile, the Democrats are just like, no, we're holding our ground.

We're in D.C. we're ready to work. And you're the ones that are doing absolutely nothing to help the American people and are actually actively not helping them.

So, again, government shutdown. Republicans don't want to work on anything. So it's been going, I think it's been going on for about a month now.

People aren't getting paid, and these programs that need to get funded through the government are going to run out. So now I'm getting to the meat of what I'm saying.

So snap, which is food assistance in this country, and wic, which is for Women, Infants and children, to also help with food assistance. And things that they need, like baby formula, will run out on November 1st, which is tomorrow. So it's a big crisis.

And actually usda, which is the Department of Ag Agriculture, has earmarked, again, I don't know the exact number of the funds. I feel like it was in the billions. I could be wrong on that. It could be millions, could be billions.

It's a, it's a good chunk of money that is earmarked to make sure that even in a government shutdown that these programs will still be funded so that people can eat, because we don't want people in this country going hungry. But of course, the White House does not want to do anything about that, and they don't care.

And so they're not releasing those funds to be used to keep these programs going, even during the government shutdown.

So not only are people not getting paid, not only are people, like, either about to lose their health care or their premiums are about to skyrocket because so many other people are not going to be in the market.

And so it's driving up prices for everyone else, but also these food assistance programs that people need to eat and to feed their families and their children and their babies are going to run out. So that's kind of the lay of the land. Okay, we're, we're done talking about politics. And again, this is me just giving an overview. This is not.

Obviously, I have some personal thoughts around all of this, but this is just me giving the lay of Land. So what are we going to do about this? I have been thinking about this over the last couple days.

I am going to link down below in the show notes the food bank that is closest to me in my area. But I would really encourage anyone that can touch donate to their local food banks.

If you are somebody that is kind of in this zone and already has ties to food assistance and knows other things to do, great. But the very least that we can do. I watched a video on this on on Instagram. I know best source of information but it made sense.

The kind of recommendations were 1.

If you have anything in your pantry that you feel like you can donate that you're not gonna eat, that obviously is still good to eat, donate that first cuz it's free for you and it's like food that's already sitting there so you might as well donate it to your local food bank or food pantry. But then the second thing that was recommended is to actually donate money instead of products.

Because most of most if not all the food banks, food pantries, they have special like contracts with whoever they buy food from and buy it in bulk and can get it at a way lower price than what we pay at the grocery store for it.

And you know, it also gives them the opportunity to figure out what the community is really needing at that moment and buy the things that people are asking for instead of just getting a bunch of random stuff that may or may not be helpful to people. And I think this is especially important when it comes to like baby products.

We did a clean out and I donated all the like old diapers that were too small for my son and we didn't end up using them cause he had to move up to another size to our local food bank.

Just know that like food banks and I don't really know the difference between food banks and food pantries but I know that most places it's not just food, they usually have like basic items and essentials like that too, especially for babies. So if you have any things like that, those are really good things I think to donate as well.

And then the like final thing that was mentioned to donate is like if you really do want to buy some stuff to donate, buy things that as sad as this sounds are easy for young kids to make themselves.

So things that are easy like tops to undo, something that's like already pre cooked or like a can that has one of those pull tops that you can open instead of having to use a can opener.

Unfortunately for a lot of low income families like Parents are working, parents have to be out of the house, and young kids are often left by themselves a lot of the time to make their own food. So having things that kids can actually make themselves can be really helpful for them. So those are the things that I'm giving you to think about.

Again, if you want to donate to my local food bank, feel free to do that. I'm going to put the link down in the show notes.

If you want to start your own local food drive or donation, that is totally something that you can do. It's as. As much as it's like, oh, that sounds like a lot. Really, all you have to do is like, hey, I have a box. Do you want to put food in it?

Like, I've.

I've been thinking of sending out a message on Facebook in my neighborhood for Halloween tonight that, you know, if people want to donate any food, that we will have a box by our door that people can donate food and I will take it to the food bank. So it can be as simple as that. Like, again, we want to get away from the overdoing.

A lot of times we think, oh, it takes so much to do something, and either I don't have time or I feel like I need to do all of the things, and then we get, like, analysis paralysis. So I am encouraging everyone to just look at what is in my realm of ability to do already. Like, what community do I already have in front of me?

What are things that I already am tapped into that I could just like, send a quick text, send a quick email, maybe just chat with somebody really quick about, and we could easily put something together. And again, this is not like a few people giving a ton of money that. Or a ton of resources.

This is like all of us collectively doing just a little thing here and there, just giving a little bit, just helping in any way that we can. And I think collectively we can all really come together this holiday season and help anyone that is not able to feed their families.

I also think that this is really a great time to just, as I have mentioned in some of my other videos, to think about the fact that, again, this is not charity. You know, I feel like for so long we have thought about charity and how, you know, it's like good to give back and good to do something, but it's.

It's almost like trying to prop yourself up.

And one, it's kind of like, I don't know how to put this, that there's something where we're kind of expected to do some type of charity work or volunteering or something like that. And it's like, oh, we give to the needy, we give to the poor. And it's othering. I think that's what I'm trying to get at. It's a little bit othering.

It's like these other people over here need help and, you know, once a year or something, I, like, give back to them.

And I don't know if that's true for everyone that you think that way, but I think I kind of grew up thinking that way that, you know, I was in a pretty privileged home. I. We weren't rich by any means, but I never, like, wanted for anything and we always had extra.

And so I think I kind of grew up feeling like, oh, those other people over there, like, I care for them and I always have compassion for them, but I don't really feel like they're like part of me and my community. And I think this time is a great time to start thinking differently.

That, like, these are our neighbors, these are our brothers, sisters, our community. And rising tides. What is it? Lift all boats. If we help each other, everybody is going to be helped in some shape or form.

There are plenty of stories going around on social media about how people that can't get SNAP now will. Won't be, you know, purchasing food.

And that food then isn't getting taken from the farmers that also get, you know, rely on these programs to pay for things on their farm. And now the farmers can't, like, buy the thing that they were going to need to buy to help produce their crops.

And then those farm supply stores aren't going to be getting, you know, the customers that they are getting. And it's just. It's just a huge chain reaction. And I think we've all been seeing that.

Anyone that owns a small business like myself has been seeing the fact that people are spending less and less and less over the last couple years. And especially right now, like, we all are going to feel the impact of this in one way or another.

Whether or not you are actually on SNAP and WIC or not, these programs help these people be able to stay a part of our economy, not only to just be fed, but, but to also, like, stay in the flow of, like, paying for things and other people receiving those payments so that they can keep doing the things that they do too. And this is going to impact all of us.

And so I really feel like this is the time for us to all really feel like these people are not just the other people, these people are Our people, these people are our community, that we all need to come together to really help our community.

One beautiful thing that is happening right now and is going viral on social media is this coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, that decided that they were going to do a free Snap Breakfast for anybody that comes in and says they want this Snap Breakfast. They're really trying to honor people's privacy and feeling like, you know, they shouldn't.

They don't need to be ashamed of asking for something that they need. So they're. The owner, like, prepped all of their workers and said somebody just needs to come in and say that they need this.

The baristas know what to do. They just tap a button and it's completely paid for by the coffee shop.

They're just doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and putting it on their tab. And they are making sure that whoever comes in saying, hey, I need a free meal, we'll get it.

And I guess somebody within last day or so told them, oh, hey, you should set up a donation link. And so they put a donation link up right next to the register. And.

And I think people have been sharing it on social media and they have already raked in. I don't know exactly when they put this up, but I. I don't think it's been more than like a day or so.

They've already raked in 86, 000 from all around the world. Like, there are people all around the world donating and just seeing, like, the emotion that the owner had about that. I mean, he was just floored.

He was just like, I can't even believe that people all over the world are sending us money to help feed our community. And it's just.

It's beautiful things like that that really are inspiring me to, like, keep that momentum going and seeing the little things that I can do in my community. Because, like, we all have been also witnessing this forced famine and genocide in Gaza.

And there, you know, are famines and genocide and tons of other countries too, in the Congo and Sudan, to name a few others. I know there's others. And I think, I mean, what a, like, parallel process that is happening where we have just been so.

So witness to that and the horrors of that. And now our government, because they don't want to face the music, are essentially creating, like, a forced.

And it's probably not in the category of a famine, but forcing, like, millions of people to not be able to feed their families. So maybe that is considered a famine. I'm not 100% sure. On, like the actual definition.

But regardless, they're using this as a tactic and it's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. It I just, like, as a human being, as a mother, as a wife, like, I can't. I can't even imagine.

I can't even imagine saying, you cannot feed your child. You cannot feed your family.

I was a mother that needed formula during the formula shortage during COVID And thankfully I was somebody that had the resources to go get, you know, formula, that one I wanted for my baby and was able to, like, do the research and find avenues to get it from Europe and all of these things. It was insane. And I was able to feed my baby, but I can't even imagine.

I can't even imagine being a mother that could not feed your baby because you don't have money or don't have access to the nutrition that they need. And it's not okay. It's absolutely not okay. And these are not people that are, like, not deserving of it.

These are not people that are not like, there's. Again, it's. It's not about hard working. It's not about whether they are like a person in our society that deserves this or not. We are human beings.

We deserve food. We have to have food to live. Babies need formula or breast milk to live.

And I'm not going to get down the train of if you don't have formula, then breastfeed. If you are not a mother, I'm not having that conversation with you because it is a very complicated one. It, yeah, fed is best.

And a lot of babies need formula. I needed to give my kiddo formula even when I really wanted to breastfeed. Because we couldn't figure out breastfeeding.

We tried all the things, worked with all the professionals for, like months and months. He was not gaining weight, and we had to end up using formula against everything that I wanted out of that experience. And guess what?

He turned out great. So not going down that train. Babies need food.

If breast milk is not the food that they can get, then they need formula and parents need access to formula. So that is just me kind of bringing it again to a place of.

Instead of it feeling like we all individually have to make something work in our lives to like, achieve this place where we can sustain ourselves as like this little unit. And if we can't, then we're failing at life. We're failing at the American dream.

This is about us collectively coming together and saying, again, we all can thrive if these people are taken care of. Taking care of these people are our community. And therefore, they will be able to, you know, have less mental health issues, have less health issues.

If they can eat, they will be able to, like, have less stress. Like, we all benefit when the lowest people in, like, the status of our communities are taken care of.

And so if we can collectively all come together and say, yes, these are our people and we are taking care of them.

And we are not going to listen to the billionaires anymore trying to divide us and telling us that, you know, you need to just go make millions and live in a mansion by yourself. We're not listening to that anymore.

Just like I was saying, you know, people are wanting to buy land together with their families and with their community so that they can live in more, like, tribal, like, spaces with each other.

I think this is really the same type of feeling where it's like, we are now pulling all of our resources together, and it's not just our country, it's also globally. It's so cool that, you know, we as Americans have, a lot of us have been trying to be like, how do we help Gaza? How.

How do we help all these other people in other countries? And now people are saying, how do we help Americans?

How do we help Americans feed their children because their government is trying to take food assistance away. It's just one, it's crazy to think that that's what's happening in our country.

But two, it's just, like, amazing that people are carrying across borders. And it's not just, like, our country's problem, it's a global problem. I heard on one video, I'll just share this and then I'll wrap up.

I heard on one video, you know, I. I love all my, like, what's happening, what's coming in the next year or so videos.

And one person talked about how eventually, again, this is not like next year, but eventually they think that we are going to get to a place where we are no longer governed in countries, that we are going to start to be an actual, like, global community and have, like, a global governing system. And we're not going to be, you know, just this country, this country, this country and have our own systems.

And, you know, in this country, we have the country and then we have the states that are kind of like their own little individual countries at this point. But that, I mean, and it makes sense, like, we are already a global economy. We are already.

Everything that happens in one country affects another, affects the rest of the world. So it makes sense that eventually we would probably get to a place where we just have like a global governing system and not so hyper local anymore.

How would that work? I'm not 100% sure because we also need like hyperlocal governing systems too. So who knows? I don't exactly know what that looks like.

So I also just mentioned that I have the idea to donate the earnings that I get as a temple host to my local food bank this week as well, and to talk to any of the people that are coming into my ceremony about how they want to either donate or can bring food items to my house and I will donate them for them. But I'm just really trying to think again of all the, all the avenues that I can help participate in getting more food to the people that need it.

I did want to just mention that on Instagram I saw a video that my legislative representative, Emily Randall put on about WIC that she answered a question that Washington State has actually gotten funding from USDA to fund WIC through the middle of November. It sounded like, but not snap. To the best of my knowledge, it sounds like that was the case. So SNAP will end.

Well, the benefits will end on November 1st, but WIC will be extended through the middle of November and then will also be discontinued if this administration doesn't do something about it.

So I just wanted to also put that information in there for anyone in Washington state to know that WIC is still available through the middle of November. All right, I think that's it for today. I know that was a lot. I know I threw a whole lot at you from a lot of different angles.

So thanks for hanging in there with me.

I really think that we're moving in a really positive direction and I'm hoping to create a community with this podcast that is really holding again, the vision and the frequency for what.

For what our future could hold for a world where our kids can really thrive and learn to love and be compassionate and to be divine beings within themselves and know the magic that is in the universe that can help guide them on their journey. So with that again, we have one spot available on our Shed retreat in the next coming weeks.

So if you are interested, go to the link in the Show Notes as well as go listen to the previous podcast that I did with my co leader Shauna Stewart. I still have availability for one on one coaching, so if that's something that you are interested in, go to the link in the show notes as well.

If you have any questions questions you can email me@kaylaonnectedpleasurecoaching.com and I will see you all next time. Happy Samhain. Happy Halloween. Happy Dia de los Muertos. Happy all the things that are coming and I will talk to you guys soon. Take care.