[00:00:00] Crystal: I am Crystal DiMiceli, and welcome to the Forces for Nature Show.

Do you find yourself overwhelmed with all the doom and gloom you hear of these days? Do you feel like you as just one person, can’t really make a difference? Forces for nature cuts through that negativity? In each episode, I interview somebody who’s doing great things for animals and the environment. We talk about the challenge they’re addressing, the solution they have.

What keeps them going, and we’ll leave you with practical action tips so that you two can become a force for nature. Today’s episode is a show swap from when I guested it on Carly Puck’s podcast. Consciously clueless. She and I just jive together and I had so much fun chatting with her. I hope you enjoy listening.

[00:00:55] Carly: The podcast is called Consciously Clueless, and I like to start when talking to guests saying, where are you right now on a spectrum from clueless to conscious? What are you feeling in this moment? Whatever that means to you, wherever that lands, just what, what are you

[00:01:13] Crystal: feeling? I guess it depends on the day that you, uh, sometimes I feel clueless.

In regards to just what the next steps are, because like you, I have this passion for sustainability and preserving nature, and sometimes it just feels like I have no idea what to do, in order to move the needle. And then other times I. don’t feel so discouraged. And I realize just every little step, keep, just keep my head down, keep moving one step after the other, and eventually it’ll, you’ll make a difference.

And so, mm-hmm. , I guess it just depends on the moment. ,

[00:01:51] Carly: I think that’s totally fair. And you really did just describe. at least where I vacillate sometimes, and I’m getting better at finding more of a middle ground. But there’s either this like doom and despair end where you’re like, I think we’re done. , . Or there’s the other side where I’m like, every, I’ve done so much today.

Look at the. People I’ve talked to on the podcast, look at the differences, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you can say all that too, right? Where you’re just like, yeah, we’re gonna do it guys. We’re gonna solve it. And then okay, maybe like maybe a middle ground. . .

[00:02:25] Crystal: Absolutely. It’s hard because I try so hard to be the voice of optimism and like positive success stories and what have you.

And so when I do feel those moments of, holy crap, we’re screwed. Yeah, I, I just. I’m like, I feel bad. I feel bad. Like I’m not upholding my promise, my brand, if you wanna even say that. Mm-hmm. . But it’s just being human and being honest about it. So because

[00:02:53] Carly: of. your, and we’ll get into your podcast here in a minute, but because of the tone of that really being on the optimistic side of looking at these stories, do you feel that pressure to not like publicly on social media, be distraught?

Sometimes

[00:03:08] Crystal: I do. Like sometimes I see things on social media that just anger me or upset me so much. Mm-hmm. and I just wanna share ’em, like, yeah. Straight out share ’em. Like, look at this, what’s going on? This is mm-hmm. terrible. These are, this is maddening. . I really make a effort to stop myself from sharing those things that always get me so fired up.

And if, yeah, I do want to say something, if I do wanna share it, if I do wanna say something about it, I always end with at least one idea of what can we do about it? , because that’s what really frustrates me a lot is when you see all these terrible things going on and then you’re like, what can I do about it?

And that answer is not given. And yeah, of course you’re gonna just wanna curl up in a ball and go into the corners you, because allowing it,

[00:03:59] Carly: pointing out the problem. Right. And then that’s it.

[00:04:01] Crystal: Totally. And so I think it’s up to everybody to at least follow up with the smallest little, but what can you do about it?

Right? Even if it’s just bringing awareness and attention to. Great. There

[00:04:15] Carly: you go. So let’s start with your interest in sustainability and the environment and this passion. Where did that come from? What’s the origin story of

[00:04:27] Crystal: that? For as long as I can remember, I’ve been an animal lover. I have a picture of myself as a toddler sitting in a dog bed, like waiting for the dog to come back.

And so I’ve always known that I wanted to do something regarding animals, and then I have an early memory. I think I must have been 11 where I was watching a show about pollution and I, for whatever reason, I was like, you know what? I’m gonna stop pollution one day. and it, I don’t know where this like innate determination and innate love for animals came from.

It wasn’t necessarily handed down or alarmed thing. It was right just in me. And I guess from that, like I kind of, I just wanted to protect nature for animals and for ourselves and, and that’s what put me on my path. I was one of those rare creatures that actually knew what I wanted to do. After high school.

[00:05:32] Carly: Wow. . Yeah. You should be studied. . . That’s amazing. That sounds lovely. Actually, that sounds a little less anxiety inducing. I’m, I like, feel like I just figured it out in the last couple years.

[00:05:47] Crystal: To tell you the truth, like when I was graduating high school, I was like, I’m gonna save the world. I’m gonna go, of course, do something like this.

And now at my age, many years later, I’m like, I don’t know what I wanna be when I grow up, but like, I don’t know what I’m doing. There’s a little bit of a reversal there. ?

[00:06:02] Carly: Mm-hmm. . So you’re saying that coming out of high school knowing what you wanted to do, you knew that this field, this idea of saving the world’s saving nature, gonna be involved

[00:06:16] Crystal: somehow.

Yep. So I, I went into, I went to the College of Environmental Science and Forestry. It’s a New York City amazing school. Yeah. And it, it doesn’t get more specific than that . Yeah. Really like, you nailed it. The people that go there have a pretty focused intent. Yeah. And so I went to that school, but within a couple of years I started feeling.

A little bit like an imposter because I didn’t necessarily fit in. I grew up outside of New York City and so my weekends consisted of going to the mall and going to the movies and Right. Being in nature wasn’t really anything. I was doing it. Like I said, it was just kind of something like I respected nature.

Mm-hmm. But I wasn’t hanging out in nature. Yeah. There. . I don’t, it’s, there’s this disconnect. I don’t have that like story of, I was walking in the woods one day, , but, but my, I guess you could say my story though, af after feeling like an imposter. I did do a summer semester abroad in New Zealand. Mm. Where in, where in New Zealand were you?

We were in the north island and then I did some traveling in the south island. Cool. But very early on when we arrived, one of the things. On our agenda were to hike the pinnacles. I had never hiked before. I had never really camped before other than mm-hmm. , like very glamping, kind of camping . And so we were hiking in the pinnacles.

I was, I had brand new hiking shoes, like killing my feet. I was gonna say, God, your feet had to dying. I was wearing jeans and we were, oh no. Practically rock climbing. Some parts hiking the pinnacles. So jeans and new boots. Jeans and new boots and we had this opportunity one morning to, to go to the summit.

So like we went pretty high up and then the. Morning. We had the opportunity to climb to the summit before sunrise, and a lot of people Wow. Had said, yeah, a lot of people had declined it. Oh, no big deal. I do this all the time, but I promised myself I would take every opportunity and so I said yes, and I joined in and it was like it was completely unfit for it.

We practically rock climbed over to the. It was completely uncomfortable. I finally arrived after everybody else huffing and puffing. I was like, yep, bunt over. Oh my God. What am I doing At the feet were probably bleeding at this point. They could have been. I think they were numb, so I don’t even know.

Yeah. You’re like,

[00:08:38] Carly: I don’t know. Feet. Do I have feet ?

[00:08:40] Crystal: Yeah. But it was in the moment, like when I got up there that the sun started coming up over the horizon and we were in a spot where, That we could see two water bodies on either side. Mm. And so the sun started shining the water silver, and the valley turned green and purple and the colors were just so spectacular.

And I was in complete awe. Yeah. And in that moment, I realized, I was where I was meant to be. I wasn’t an imposter there. So there’s so much magic in nature and you don’t have to climb to a top of a mountain to see it . But there’s so much magic in nature that it’s worth protecting any way you can. And yeah, any and with any capability you have, I don’t think you

[00:09:32] Carly: need a story of walking in the woods.

You have a story of being on top of the mountain and having your moment . Yeah,

[00:09:38] Crystal: yeah,

[00:09:39] Carly: yeah. Beautiful. That’s really beautiful. And what led you then, and you can fill in anywhere that, that you want, that feels like part of the story that needs to be told. But then how did we get from the top of a mountain in New Zealand to starting a podcast Forces for

[00:09:54] Crystal: nature?

Oh, there’s a big chunk of time. That’s a big chunk, right? . . There was a, I worked for many years in different conservation organizations doing wildlife conservation and then environmental, and long story short, I ended up living internationally. Mm-hmm. , because my husband is Costa Rican and he was in Panama, and Panama was my first international experience.

But then we moved to, and I was working in, I was still working in Panama doing environmental education, and then we moved to Columbia. Hmm. I didn’t have well strong enough Spanish skills to work, and even if I did, I, I didn’t have a work permit, and this was before Covid, so working remotely was also not.

Really a thing. And so I’m so passionate about this field and I just really wanted to stay connected somehow, cuz I knew Columbia wasn’t gonna be permanent. And so I was like, what can I possibly do to stay connected to this field and keep doing what I love? And I came up with the idea of a podcast and it became forces for nature.

Mm-hmm. . And it’s been a labor of love and it’s been so wonderful because I get to talk to these incredible people. The whole idea of the show is that, is to. and introduced an issue. Mm-hmm. , but quickly pivot from the doom and gloom of the issue and focus on the solution that my guest has found for that issue.

Whatever. Whatever the issue might be like regarding sustainability or conservation or animal welfare issue. We talk about their solution, their success, and then we leave the audience with action tips on how they can. So we don’t want, so we don’t leave somebody saying, what could I possibly do? We give some ideas and that’s been great.

That’s been now, oh my gosh, almost three years.

[00:11:43] Carly: Yeah. That’s amazing. It’s really, I love the similarities and you and I have connected before, but. Of just being like, I’ve gotta do something to keep this passion going where I can put energy into it. And I also just Googled, how do you start a podcast ?

[00:12:02] Crystal: Right?

And like, that’s, that’s what I did, . Yeah. And you’re

[00:12:05] Carly: like, okay, I guess I don’t know. Other people seem to be doing it. And

[00:12:08] Crystal: I listened to ’em and mm-hmm. , let’s see

[00:12:11] Carly: what happens. And mm-hmm. , it seems like you’ve, , um, a delightful experience in this world as well. And your podcast is truly so lovely because of all the things you just described in terms of introducing this issue, having someone on that can talk to it and explain it and then leaving you thinking, okay, here’s what I can do next based on what I’ve learned.

That’s really a beautiful model. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. I’m really excited. to see who else you have on there and what other people. That’s the thing, right, is that there’s just so many people doing things that we don’t know about. That’s the other exciting thing. Mm-hmm. is learning like all these, these people that will never get recognition in the same way or whatever, but are

[00:13:00] Crystal: doing amazing.

Absolutely. I’m learning so much myself, so in a way, this was a selfish endeavor just because I wanted to stop hearing all of the doom and gloom and I wanted to hear the good stuff, and I’m just learning so much along the. .

[00:13:15] Carly: How has it changed your relationship to sustainability and the environment doing this project and talking to all these people?

Maybe it hasn’t, I don’t know.

[00:13:24] Crystal: It was, I feel like I was pretty committed in Yeah, to, to begin with, but at the same time, it does fuel, it does give me hope when things just. Are terrible, just reminding myself of who’s out there and what’s being done, and it keep, it keeps me going so much. I’ve en, I’ve enjoyed doing my own show so much that I have decided that I want to elevate other success stories.

And so as of last year, I started working with conservation organizations, conservation, sustainability, animal welfare based organizations. To help elevate their stories, help spread their stories. And so right now I have a client called Healthy Seas. They’re this fantastic marine conservation organization that does really cool work, removing guest ghost nets, go ghost gear from Oceans.

Oh yeah. And, and so they have a podcast. We have a podcast called the Healthy Seas Podcast, and this year I’m looking to scale up that, that service with other organizations. All their good stories deserve to be heard and deserve to be out there. I love that we are

[00:14:36] Carly: on similar tracks,

[00:14:38] Crystal: with

[00:14:38] Carly: our rowing love for this field, and also it seems like we’re both just, there’s these things you should be hearing

[00:14:44] Crystal: and I can, I want you to hear them like, and it’s tough because I love doing this, but it’s one, one person show in terms of you do everything from soup to nuts.

You’re in charge of all the little bits and pieces and a lot. Think about it when you go into it, but it’s a lot .

[00:15:02] Carly: It’s a whole lot. Yeah, it’s a whole lot. Even if you’re doing the bare minimum, .

[00:15:07] Crystal: Exactly. And I just appreciate so much having met you because just knowing that other people are out there with similar passions and like dedications, it just feels like a little tribe.

So a hundred percent. I appreciate having met.

[00:15:24] Carly: Ditto. I really was do dove in and was like, wait a second. I feel like we should be friends. . . This feels like we have similar

[00:15:32] Crystal: missions in life. . Absolutely .

[00:15:36] Carly: So in terms of being a force for nature, what are some of the things that you’ve maybe adopted in your life or learned about from the podcast even, or just things you do to try and lessen your impact on the planet?

What are your go-tos when people are like, what can I do? .

[00:15:55] Crystal: That’s a really great question. So a couple of things that I’ve recently started doing, because I live abroad right now. I live in Europe and my family is in North and Central America. And so I fly a lot more, and that by far is my biggest carbon footprint.

And so what I started doing recently is buying carbon offsets to help neutralize the emissions. I do fly less than I used to when I lived in Central America, but I still fly a lot for, you know, yeah, I

[00:16:32] Carly: have family all over. I also feel like that’s is and will be for the foreseeable future.

[00:16:37] Crystal: My biggest impact and yeah, I’ve started buying car carbon offsets.

Can you you

[00:16:42] Carly: explain that a little bit, if you don’t mind? I, it’s not something I’ve talked about on the show much.

[00:16:47] Crystal: Oh yeah, absolutely. So carbon offsets are, the idea of a carbon offset is you have activities that are gonna put emissions into the air that you can, you can’t necessarily cut down on. So for me, it’s flying.

I don’t have a car, so I don’t do commuting for people. Driving happen is often their biggest carbon footprint, but. for anything that you do, you have activities that you can’t avoid, and so tho you put those emissions into the air and the idea of carbon offsets is that from a ver a variety of different, a variety of different ways can help take what you put into the air out of it.

So for example, What I did was I purchased through this organization called only one 500 Mangrove Seeds to be planted in this biosphere in Kenya. and the idea is through those 500 because I did the carbon calculation of the trip. Okay? And the idea is through those 500 mangroves, as they grow through their life, they will remove from the atmosphere the amount of carbon that I put into it with my flying.

And so you can do. Like tree planting and there there’s different companies, different organizations that offer different services. So you can do tree planting, you can do, you can support regenerative agriculture because that’s also really good at sequestering carbon. There are different, there are some companies that even provide some sort of, I can’t think of.

it off the top of my head, but like some sort of stove to individuals in rural developing countries, because what they usually do is cut down the forest and use the wood. And so these companies instead provide the stove so that they’re not cutting down the trees. Or even some companies will allow you to buy tracks of land so that it doesn’t get deforested.

There’s a variety of different methods. That’s

[00:18:48] Carly: interesting that it’s more than just. tree planting, I guess is interesting too, cuz I’ve seen a lot of critiques. Mm-hmm. on mm-hmm. , the, the validity, the actual, what is that gonna do? Do we have time for that to work? Mm-hmm. not saying it doesn’t, I don’t know enough to like make a strong argument right now, but I was.

I am intrigued to know that this, there are more

[00:19:11] Crystal: options than that. There are, yeah. And I totally understand the critiques. Mm-hmm. to different methods. And there are some companies that are more credible than others. So I honestly, I am still in like the whole research phase of Right. Which are the best methods, which are the most credible, which are the most credible companies.

And so there’s still a lot for me to learn, but what I know so far made me feel that it was, investing in mm-hmm. . And actually when I say investing in, it wasn’t even that expensive, like for my husband and I, we did, we went from Rome to New York, then to Costa Rica and then back . And that, that’s a lot of flying, that’s a lot of emissions.

Mm-hmm. . And to offset all of those submissions, it, for both of us, it was only a hundred dollars. Oh wow. That’s less than I anticipated. Totally. And so, Many people can afford to add that to their tickets.

[00:20:07] Carly: That’s really interesting and I really appreciate you saying, I’m just getting into learning about this and this is what I know so far.

Mm-hmm. , I really appreciate, like we need to be able to do that, right? Like, yeah. I’m just learning, I don’t know, maybe, you know, not necessarily in this example, but just saying in general, like maybe in a year I’ll realize this was absolutely not helpful and we have to pivot. But this is what I know right now, cuz that’s what a lot of this field is, honestly, with sustainability in the environment is here’s what we know right now,

[00:20:40] Crystal: a hundred percent.

And I’ve been in that position where I was doing something that I thought was like the right thing or the best thing. Say it. I learn. I’m like, oh, oops. Incorrect . Whoops. And so I, I really try to not be, I’m not gonna lie, like there are times where I’m judgy, I’m like, just recycle or a hundred percent use that plastic bottle, like you don’t need that plastic water bottle.

[00:21:05] Carly: Yeah. It’s hard. It’s hard not to have those thoughts once in a while when you’ve seen the, when they’re, when you dive into the reality and you’re like, you have no idea.

[00:21:14] Crystal: Absolutely. But at the same time, I try to remind myself I’m not perfect. I definitely make plenty of mistakes. And so trying to just be compassionate and understanding and helpful.

And

[00:21:27] Carly: I talk with guests that specifically are, I talk about their vegan journey a lot, about the idea of this angry vegan phase. And I think the same thing happens. And honestly, at this point, I think the same thing. when your mind gets opened up to something that totally blows. When you I, this happened in college in Sociology 1 0 1, in Women’s Studies 1 0 1.

I suddenly had the language to discuss all these things, and similarly going vegan and then dominoing into the environment and animal welfare and all these other things. I was just freaking pissed. At the world. Mm-hmm. , and I was like, I’ve been lied to. No one. Everyone should be listening to me now. I have seen the light

Why isn’t anyone listening to me? Mm-hmm. , and I was just, I was such a, I was on a war path and mm-hmm. . I look back and I’m like, oh my God. It’s a good thing I still have friends and family because when I calmed down and sunk in a little, And then just was living this life as I was exploring it. That’s when people asked questions.

Mm-hmm. , that’s when family members are like, oh cool. What’s that? Instead of me being like, you have no idea what you’re doing. Is that a good point? ?

[00:22:41] Crystal: Did you have that experience as well? This realization that doom and gloom and guilt and shame, they don’t work. It’s more about optimism, positivity, and all that stuff that works.

That’s a fairly new discovery for me, I’d say within the last five years. And, but I also think that’s the way the conservation field has been for so long. It’s so much of the shaming and the guilting and look at all these facts like things are going the hill because I was receptive to it and I. Felt their, what they were trying to say, I just assumed this is how everybody’s gonna feel.

And so I did the same look at these facts. How can you do this? This is terrible. Don’t you feel bad? And then it wasn’t until I’d say about five years ago, um, I was working for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. So the Smithsonian is Oh, wow. In dc Many people know it in DC but they have a branch in in Panama as well.

And I forgot, I don’t know, I think it was like 2017 or 18 where they had this whole earth optimism movement. Mm. And it was in. Planning the event down in Panama for the earth optimism. They had this whole big thing going on in DC and I was planning the branch of it in Panama. That’s when I started realizing, oh yeah, this makes a lot more sense.

Yeah, and it feels a lot better, and it seems a lot more effective. And so it wasn’t until then, like before then, I. All about the guilted shame, unfortunately. So you, like you, I probably have already had a bunch of people like cross me off the list of, I’m not listening to her. She’s nuts. But ? Yeah. Oh

[00:24:25] Carly: hun.

Hundred percent. I’ve had to, I’ve had to accept that in life. But I think that sting that it seems to be in some way, shape, or form a universal experience where you have to go through this elevated. . I can’t believe this thing I just learned. And I also had to definitely come to terms with my reaction is one of privilege.

I’m mad because I’m learning about all these things. I wasn’t even mad cuz I was experiencing them. Mm-hmm. , I was mad because I was learning about them and didn’t. Take into account enough at all of what my position in the world allowed me to do and how that’s not going to be the same for everyone. So that also just needed for me to come down from being like a

[00:25:10] Crystal: privileged white girl.

Oh, that’s such a great point that you’re making and. For example, what was, I just had a recent example. I don’t remember that one, but here’s another one that I was thinking of. Mm-hmm. I recently recorded an episode about, I’ve been wanting to do an episode about fashion and the sustainability of fashion, and there’s just so many different facets that you can go down.

To talk about sustainable fashion and through a friend, I had a connection with this one company that happens to be a luxury company. I can’t even afford their clothes. . Yeah. Yeah. But, but they’re doing, like, the way that the whole company is run is they’re using extra material like leftover materials.

Dead. They’re dead stock. Thank you. I. . I didn’t know if you would, that’s not a word that I knew beforehand, but yes,

[00:25:54] Carly: I’ve, I’ve interviewed some people with fast fashion and in sustainable fashion stuff. That’s why I know, not cause of my own

[00:26:00] Crystal: knowledge. Okay. And, and so their whole company is around only using dead stock.

And, but I questioned whether I should bring them on because they’re this like luxury company that’s so many, including myself. Can’t really get to. Yeah. But at the same time, they’re doing really great work and they were able to tell a really good story cuz I didn’t know about dead stock beforehand. And I am, I’m very conscious and I’m not perfect, but I’m very conscious of trying to do things or give tips that are accessible to many people, if not most.

Right. But yeah, you’re right. Total white privileged girl right here. Yeah.

[00:26:41] Carly: And it’s, um, Really crucial to keep a part of the conversation in this because it definitely gets lost in sustainability. The white savior complex is something that is threaded throughout this work and is really important to continue to grapple with and call out.

[00:27:01] Crystal: We’ve become so. Far removed and so disconnected from nature and, and I can’t even say that I am live in Rome, like I live in a city, and so I, yeah. I’m not even surrounded by nature. I just have this. This like innate connection in my mind, but it’s not surprising that people who are surrounded by concrete and stone and brick, right, right.

Forget that trees are helping them because Yeah, you don’t even see ’em and you don’t experience it. And it’s hard to understand that having these trees are acting like a sponge to pull the water in the soil for me to have drinking water at different times of the year, you know, stuff like that. It’s easy to see.

why we’ve become so disconnected, but mm-hmm. , the challenge for us, for you and I, is to figure out how to get people to wanna reconnect. Yeah. And it’s so

[00:27:55] Carly: interesting because in terms of. Growing up, my experience was the complete opposite. I’m in northern Minnesota, 45 minutes from Canada. I am in the woods and I’m living back.

Sounds nice. In my, I’m living back in my hometown now as an adult, so that’s a much different experience when I’m not a surly teenager, it’s, but it’s a very small town and it’s just nature. Like when we were bored, we went kayak. And swimming and hiking or whatever, because we had nothing to do . And now that’s a privilege.

And now I’m, when I like make totally plans, totally. I’m like, let’s go swimming, let’s go snowshoeing or whatever. But it was just like the things we did, because the closest movie theater was in Canada. So my growing up experience was literally just. Nature. Mm-hmm. all the time. Yeah. But it actually took me leaving it and going to Minneapolis for college, ah, to like viscerally feel the different, I loved my experience.

I love the cities and all of that. Mm-hmm. , but to viscerally feel the difference of living not in a place that’s quiet. That’s so great. Is a very interesting. Very interesting experience. It was, I remember the first time coming home from college freshman year and like for a break or a weekend or whatever it was a couple months in, and I remember pulling up in the driveway and it was dark.

It was night when I got home and I just got out and I just sat on the roof of my car and looked at the stars. . Mm-hmm. , because I couldn’t see the stars in the cities.

[00:29:27] Crystal: and I didn’t realize

[00:29:28] Carly: that. I was just very used to seeing the stars every night. Like it’s these little things, right, that I now just hold in such different regards because I see how lucky I am to have that around me.

But it takes some time to get there. I’d say

[00:29:45] Crystal: that’s a really great story and yeah, like. People like me who live in the city, know have like nowhere near nature like we have to and we have to escape to

[00:29:55] Carly: nature. Oh, that’s why I brought that up. I was like, that story felt incomplete. That’s not why I brought that up.

thank you for Bring me back. You’re basically hosting this show now. I brought that up because back in the day I was describing where I grew up because back in the day, , there were actual doctor’s notes from people who lived hours and hours away that they should come up the shore of and come to Grand Moray, my town as like for fresh air and for recovery from being sick.

So it’s, it’s this space, like being in nature was prescribed by doctors. They were like, I

[00:30:30] Crystal: thought that was like a new fan, like woo-hoo kind of thing. It’s

[00:30:34] Carly: like a thing that I think was happening and then we got away from. . Yeah. So there’s stories of people that, and people still come up here because we have a lot of outfitters that do guided trips, canoeing and all of that stuff.

Cause we have so many lakes and they’re, I was just talking to someone yesterday who runs an outfitting business who was saying how surprised he is. He’s taking over the business for his parents, realizing how many people just come up because they need to heal. Hmm. And they come up. and they do something like this for healing.

And we, and when we bring it back to that right. Talk about forces for nature. Mm-hmm. , if nature’s used for healing, like need it .

[00:31:15] Crystal: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And we have to remind people that’s something so important and an option, hopefully an option that you can get yourself into. And once you experience it, then I think that’s, that’s the chip that changes.

And you’re, yep. You realize, oh, this is a big.

[00:31:33] Carly: Do you have dreams of living in a greener space? I know it sounds like you’ve are dictated a little bit by your husband’s work right now, which totally understand. But do you like city life or are you like, I can’t wait to have a farm?

[00:31:46] Crystal: I do. I’m a city girl, so I do love city.

Right. You, you said you grew

[00:31:50] Carly: up city, New York City. Yeah. Mm-hmm. .

[00:31:53] Crystal: But I have found that example when we were living in Columbia, we were in the city, but we. This like utopia of an utopian apartment. I’ve been to

[00:32:05] Carly: Columbia. It’s beautiful. It’s,

[00:32:08] Crystal: it is beautiful. We had this utopian apartment that within the city our complex had was just on two acres of forest.

I don’t know, I think two acres of forest. And so I was living in an apartment building, but we had this huge balcony that was basically, Looked right into this tiny little forest, but just having that. So wonderful. And it had the, it was really small, but it had hiking trails throughout it and oh my gosh, that’s perfect.

It was so perfect. If I could take that and move it anywhere in the world, I, it was the perfect experience like, I love living where we are now in Rome, but we don’t even have a balcony in this apartment and it’s a awesome apartment in like such a great spot. But I’m always saying I just want a balcony.

Like it’s so nice outside, be able to like

[00:33:03] Carly: outside without going through

[00:33:05] Crystal: your apartment. Uhhuh, you just wanna sit outside like. Maybe I’m not even seeing trees, but I just wanna be in like fresh air and the park. There’s a park not far away, but it’s far enough away for me to be it. Too lazy to go to . It’s not the same

[00:33:18] Carly: like when you can sit out on a deck

[00:33:20] Crystal: or

[00:33:21] Carly: totally whatever it is.

In, in grad school I lived in, it wasn’t a cute view. St. Claude, Minnesota, for anyone listening is laughing. But I had a balcony on my little apartment in grad school and I would hang my hammock out. and I swear that got me through. That was one of the things that got me through grad school. Yeah. Was taking a break and my roommate would laugh cuz I’d be like, I’m going to study in the hammock, so you’re going to take a nap.

Great. Because it was so lovely to just be outside. Mm-hmm. , but not have to be around anyone or whatever. So I totally get that. You should manifest the city apartment with a balcony and view of the forest of your dreams.

[00:33:57] Crystal: Yes. That is what I’ve got focused on for the future. That sounds

[00:34:01] Carly: very lovely. Is there.

anything that you haven’t gotten to share or you wanna say to listeners that I haven’t given you space

[00:34:08] Crystal: for? I think only that it’s so easy to feel powerless and to feel overwhelmed, and it’s so much easier to ignore the issues, but they are increasingly becoming something that you can’t ignore and. and even though you feel small and completely insignificant, it’s incredible how much impact that you can have as just one person.

I often even question it myself. What’s the big deal if I do this or if I use this plastic bag or what? But it adds up. . It really does. Yeah. And there are so many practical things that somebody can do to start moving the needle. And I don’t know, like this is shameless self-promotion, but on my website, on my website forces for nature.com, if you can sign, there’s a place to sign up for my newsletter where like I send out the podcast announcements and sometimes.

Just random emails on different things that one can do or musings. But anyway, if you sign up for that newsletter, you’ll receive a checklist of things that you can do easily, like you could start doing today. And some of them are even like things that you could do from your couch that actually can make a little, I love it.

Difference

[00:35:28] Carly: can confirm. I get the newsletter and had the document and I was like, . As soon as I downloaded I was like, this is way better than my freebie. This is amazing. It’s a really, it’s a really lovely, like it’s a really lovely resource. Oh, thank you. That you’re giving away. Thank you so much. I have it saved on my desktop as inspiration.

[00:35:47] Crystal: Oh, cool. Thank you so much. So yeah, absolutely. Forces for nature.com. That’s amazing.

[00:35:53] Carly: People will be following you, I’m sure, and listening to the podcast. I hope that we continue to connect and maybe collaborate or something someday. Yeah. I really appreciate chatting with you and we can have you back on the podcast again too.

[00:36:07] Crystal: Thank you so much. I hope to talk to you soon. Don’t forget to go to forces for nature.com and sign up to receive emailed show notes, action tips, and a free checklist to help you start taking practical actions today. Do you know someone else who would enjoy this episode? I would be so grateful if you would share it with them.

Hit me up on Instagram and Facebook at Becoming Forces for Nature, and let me know what actions you have been taking. Adopting just one habit can be a game changer because imagine if a million people also adopted that. What difference for the world are you going to make today?