Trenton ReynoldsThis is Room in the Trees, a podcast about living a creative life. Room in the Trees is hosted by Sabrina Ward-Harrison and me, Trent Reynolds.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonShow notes including pictures, links, video, and more for every episode can be found at roominthetrees.com.
Trenton ReynoldsIf you like this podcast, please consider showing your support. You can become a subscribing patron at patreon.com forward slash room.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd now here's this week's episode. How are you?
Trenton ReynoldsWell, let me tell you how I am.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonPlease do.
Trenton ReynoldsToday... We had crafts in the morning. And it's feeling pretty beat up.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonBreak it all down. Oh, my goodness.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, sometimes it goes okay.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI want to hear the incubation, like the vision you had.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, that's kind of where the problem started. We didn't really have a clear idea of what we were going to do. Laura had ordered online this craft box. So it was just a box full of all sorts of, you know, tongue depressors and felt, not flannel, little googly eyes and toothpicks and stuff like that. Right. And then the box has all these wonderful things that you can make with all this, this craft stuff. Yeah. but they don't really give you enough for four girls. Right. And then we didn't really have a game plan going into it. We just had this box in the middle of the table and opened up the box, and then there was just this rush to get all the coolest things in the box and to try to make the coolest things on the outside box. Anyway, it was just... At the start, it was just like this... Just too much. Yeah. Anyway, we got through it. We did it. We made some crafts. We made some rockets. And then finally what we did is we just stopped the chaos and divided up everything in the box into four piles.
Oh, good.
Trenton ReynoldsSo in our next attempt at crafts, we will have a little bit more order rather than just kind of letting it be a free-for-all. Sometimes free-for-all goes well and it's just like, you know, cool, but there was paint involved in this and there was hot glue gun and there was, you know, it's just like there's a little bit of too much of everything happening all at once for like adequate supervision and there's paint on the table. Right.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI admire you guys so much. What happened the other night when you couldn't record yesterday? What was that?
Trenton ReynoldsIt's always something, man. I heard it was a full moon, like the biggest moon ever. So I don't know. I didn't know anything about that. But Laura said, maybe it's because of the big moon. Let's put it on that.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsSo, yeah, no, the kids went to bed, but then, you know, sometimes Mara gets up because she's scared and she wants to come sleep on the couch in our room. But then Zoe also woke up and then it was just this kind of bad combination of things. And we try not to let Zoe come into our room because, you know, if she does, then it just gets to be a problem. Like, yeah, nobody, we don't sleep and nothing. I get multiple kicks to the head when she's in the bed with us. Yeah. Anyway, so Zoe was getting up more, and she usually stays in bed until morning. I get home. I had gone out to run an errand. I came back. And I kind of woke somebody up when I came in. And it was just this, you know, back and forth thing where people kept on getting disrupted in their sleep and getting up. And then Zoe was very upset that she wasn't allowed to come into our room. And she started freaking out and crying and we were trying not to let her, you know, just trying to let her cry it out But then she woke up the older girls and they were really upset so I went into her her room and Slept on one of the girls beds and she was fine. I But the girls' beds are like super, like they're made for kids. Anyway, so I probably woke up at like 2.30, like an hour later, just every part of me screaming, you know. And I tried to build up a little bit of pillows under the blanket to make it look like I was still there, you know, snuck out. it was just a long night and it was a big moon what can you do
Sabrina Ward Harrisondoesn't it seem like everyone I don't know it seems like on Facebook it's like the biggest moon ever it's the da da da moon and I don't know, it feels like all last year I kept seeing these posts that were like, this moon, it's the biggest in the millennium. Right. It really was big yesterday. I saw it, I was like, that's a big full moon.
Trenton ReynoldsIt's funny how people make it mean stuff. I guess it's exciting. I think that we are the gravitational pull.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThere is something about that. And for women, so maybe even just girls, like there is some kind of pull. The moon does something to us.
Trenton ReynoldsSo it was just, you know, just the abnormality of it. Maybe they weren't sleeping as well.
Yeah. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThey're being pulled by the moon.
Trenton ReynoldsSomething pulling on me. I don't get it. I don't understand.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt's the moon. That probably should be the title of the episode. I need to describe what's happening right now, which I've never recorded a podcast ever like this. I'm lying on the couch. I have cheetah, my eye patch that I wear. Do you know about cheetah?
Trenton ReynoldsIs this the eye cover that you use?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, little fleecy, and I'm really attached to it. It's soft.
Trenton ReynoldsI didn't realize you had a name for it. That's pretty fantastic.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, it's cheetah, because it's cheetah print. It's cheetah print. And I'm not really a cheetah print kind of person, so it's just a funny thing. I'm always looking for cheetah in the bed. So I have cheetah over my eyes. I have a hot water bottle on my chest, and I have one of those weighted blankets over my whole body.
Okay.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonHow are your parents doing?
Trenton ReynoldsThey're doing all right. They've been really good about getting on the technology and been doing Marco Polo. We've put together a weekly Zoom meeting with the family. Actually, last week was the first week, but the hope is that it will be a weekly thing with cousins and brothers, and so we get together... Last night, this is kind of taking a different direction, but last night, Laura asked me if I would do this breathing workshop that this guy is doing online. He does a Zoom meeting and whoever wants to can join and he goes through this breathing exercise. And it was fantastic. It turned out to be a really great experience. And I'm wishing now that I would have shared that with you. The end of it was an Alan Watts quote.
Wow.
Trenton Reynoldswhich, you know, obviously you would connect with, but also the soundtrack that he used was like, like the soundtrack of the nineties, you know, it was like, all these great, you know, great songs for nights anyway.
But,
Trenton Reynoldsyeah what was the concept of it so how did that work so the idea is that it's um it's just a guided kind of like i don't even know what they call it like it's a that's that's why i'm hesitating so much because i'm not even sure exactly what it's called but it's like a it's like a guided meditation except for it's all surrounding this breathing technique that he walks you through. And then you're breathing and listening to music and your breathing follows the music and he's talking you through it and there's like a stomach first then chest thing and he's giving you like, you know, thoughts or ideas to be focusing on and then it the music gets faster and faster and your breathing gets faster and faster and then at the you know kind of the culmination is he has you do a primal scream so you put your head in the pillow or you know if you're in a place that place where you can't scream the idea is that you just do this Primally like scream is scream all the tension all the stress out. Oh, yes And then there's this kind of De-escalation, you know this kind of cool down period so for me All the concentration of the of the going into how to do this breathing technique listening to the music trying to stay in keep with the rhythm and then having that escalating, escalating, and then the primal scream, and then after all of that, you know, having just, I feel like that, the regimented breathing, rhythm of the breathing, and then the scream, it's like it cleared everything, cleared everything cleared space around me you know like it kind of took all this the stress and like chaos in my immediate proximity that you know the tensions that kind of build up and just feel like I'm I'm you know, boxed in. Yeah. And it really, really just felt like I had room to think, you know, and to see clearly. Yeah. Anyway, I felt like I was able to just have thoughts that, that were single thoughts, you know, not thoughts that were, where there was like 50 other thoughts kind of waiting for my attention on the outskirts of this thought, you know? Right. Does that make sense? It's like, I was able to just focus on this one thing. And that one thing was, you know, the thing that came to mind was just what do I want? You know, what am I anyway and that spawned a long good conversation with Laura and she had a really fantastic kind of revelatory moment too so
Sabrina Ward Harrisonthat is awesome and I love that you guys did it together yeah
it turned out
Trenton Reynoldsturned out really to be a fantastic thing but I'm thinking talking to you now is like that's that's so much wish you know that for you because it feels like that's you're in
Sabrina Ward Harrisonthat moment of just yeah I need that clarity I need to be breathing I love the idea of screaming into a pillow I love that
Trenton ReynoldsYeah. Well, it's like your blood gets really oxygenated or something like that. Yeah. Your fingers get tingly because you're doing all this like fast breathing. So it's like, yeah, this kind of, you get almost kind of, I got a little bit dizzy because of, I don't know, breathing so fast, but then you just release all that with this scream. There's just, there's something very cathartic about it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo Liberate launched Monday. Yeah, I think it launched on Monday. And I've, it feels like as much as the part of me that feels like, oh my gosh, this is such a crazy time. I think it's going to be such an anchor for me and for the people that are part of it. It just is, I need that focused and that connection and that connection. just that feeling of tribe and because of it's the middle of a pandemic I think the tribe is gonna be much smaller and it feels like for me an introverts dream to just have something more intimate and can really really share where we're at the books and I think people have been wondering like if you have to have you know a whole book idea planned out and everything it's not like that it's it's really about pulling forth and unveiling and finding the themes and you and so much about the kind of the way I created spilling open and sort of this, the liberated method of creating a book.
So, um,
Trenton ReynoldsI remember hearing the stories coming out of liberate last year and especially toward the beginning when it was just kind of, uh, you know, ramping up and this seems like exactly what needs to be happening right now. You know, like, Like people are in a space where they're being forced to just be quiet, be still, be, you know, in their homes, you know, alone with their thoughts a lot of times. And what better way to try to take that, you know, energy and turn it into something, you know, actually, you know. productive and also figure out what to do with all this, these feelings and all this, you know, the, the strangeness of these times, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like this is a good time for it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI know. And it's like, if it's not now, when we have, we're stuck at home, then, you know, when the time will be, but I did, I am really aware that for some people it's completely not, feasible right now and I was going to think oh I'll just hold off on launching it and um but I just feel like I wanted to show up for the people that have been waiting for it to open and so it feels really good to just show up and just serve well I know you you texted me yesterday that there
Trenton Reynoldshad been you know a little bit of pushback from some people in the community saying that that uh maybe that you should offer some of this content for free. Did you want to talk a little bit about that or?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, I think it's always hard to hear that. And, you know, it's also, this is my livelihood. And it just so happened that this launch fell right in the middle of this, this situation, this pandemic. So it's like, I don't, I wouldn't choose to, to launch right, right now, but it's been what I've been working all year towards. So yeah. it is really important for me to, you know, not step away from it. And it's just like that nervous feeling before camp where you're like, I'm so nervous. And then you get there and you're just like, Oh, this feels so good. You know? I think that's so interesting though,
Trenton Reynoldsbecause there is a lot of, there are a lot of companies, obviously big companies that, and organizations that are trying to, uh, put out libraries of content for free, which is, which is fantastic. And it's really fantastic that they can contribute in that way. But Man, it's so important to realize that something like 30 million people have lost their jobs, right? 30 million. And this is a devastating time. And we need to be sympathetic to the fact that people still need to make a living, right? We cannot expect everybody just to start giving away their services for free. We're all doing our very best to contribute what we can and be like... And I think in so many ways, you going forward with this in such a challenging time, that is part of what you have to contribute, right? It's like that's what you have to give, and it's an important thing to contribute. So I think this sentiment that everybody ought to be giving away everything for free really feels like a selfish sentiment. You know, well-intended, but ultimately kind of a selfish thing to be saying to you. Like, that feels, it just feels a little bit yucky to me that they would come back at you with, you should be giving this away for free.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsI don't know. It kind of makes me angry a bit because you've spent a year developing this, you know, and... and there's been lots of anticipation, and this is your livelihood, and I don't know.
I just boo back.
Trenton ReynoldsBoo whoever sent that. Come on. Come on. Get over yourself. You have no position to be telling. As well-intentioned as I'm sure you are, that's not yours to be, your judgment to be making.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, and that was the first email I opened to the morning.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, what a horrible, like this is already such an anxiety-inducing thing to take something that you've put all your heart into and presenting it to the world, and then to have somebody come back at you with that? Like, come on. Anyway, goodness, goodness, it's hard times.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt really is. What can we offer our audience?
Trenton ReynoldsWhat can we offer our audience? Yes. We could offer our audience like a little playlist of go-to songs.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. I'd like to see what Trenton's picks are. What are my picks? I made a 90s mix for the Liberation Tribe. Did you? Yeah. Brought up the old Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs, Cowboy Junkies. I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, yes.
Trenton ReynoldsI just opened up Apple Music and looked at my most recently played, recently listened to. I'm like, I'm not sure I want to share these. I'm just going to read, this is my, I think an auto-generated playlist from my library. Time to Move On, Tom Petty, top of the list. Don't Change by In Excess. Teach Your Children, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Yeah. Tones of Home, Blind Melon, and Hey 19 by Steely Dan. Going to California, Led Zeppelin. Desire, You Too. Here Comes the Sun, The Beatles. This is great. Into the Great Wide Open, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Rodeo Clowns, G11 Special Sauce. Dust in the Wind by Kansas.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAwesome.
Trenton ReynoldsHeart of Gold, Neil Young.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI want to have that playing.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsI'm doing a little bit of editing as I go down this list. Oh, goodness. Yes, those are... Oh, man. I'm feeling just so muddled.
Yeah. Right? Muddled.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWhat's the schedule like for you teaching-wise? Is it every day?
Trenton ReynoldsThat's part of just the kind of unsettledness of this moment is like my kids are on spring break and I'm on spring break. So there is no teaching schedule and there's no school schedule. And it's raining every day. So it's like, yeah, right now there's no schedule. I have two weeks off. The kids go back to school next week. But yeah, I've got... Back to school on Zoom? Yeah. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonLast year this time, were you going up the coast of California?
Trenton ReynoldsIt was about this time, wasn't it? Yeah, spring break. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, what a great trip that was. Yeah. That was the first time that we really did a, like, our family trip together. Yeah, usually when we go on vacations, yeah, usually we're going to visit, you know, cousins or family somewhere else. But that time it was just us and it was so relieving for some reason just to have it be our little group.
Sabrina Ward Harrisonyour tribe. Can you share the story about the van? People probably need the follow-up after the accident. I only got a little sliver of Phoenix. Of the new van? Yes. What cost you to go to? So was it just that people weren't selling cars or they were closed down in Los Angeles?
Trenton ReynoldsNo, so dealerships, I think for like when the shelter in place order was given, some dealerships went offline for like a week or something because it seemed like I was not getting any responses from inquiries about cars. Yeah. I was looking on the site called car gurus, which is really good. That's where we found our last van and I was sending emails and I just nothing, nothing was coming back. But then the next week I, We started making phone calls and we were getting some dealerships were open, but you had to make an appointment. Anyway, it's just like this is the worst time to be looking for a car. And we needed a replacement car because our insurance was no longer paying us. for the rental van that we had. So we were paying every day for this rental van. So we're just feeling, you know, like pressure to get this done. We found three or four different options in L.A. and they were decent but not great. Yeah. And we went out and we, like, if we want to go together to go look at these cars, it's, you know, we've got to get a babysitter for four kids and try to get a babysitter in the middle of a pandemic, you know, for four kids. That's no easy task and... Anyway, we were thinking about going out to Arizona to visit some in-laws out there. My brother-in-law, because he knew we were coming out, decided to look on Craigslist for options, people selling cars in Arizona. with the idea that we could go and pick it up on when we came out. We were going to go out there for spring break, which we haven't obviously ended up there. He found a really great option and turned out that he wasn't able to go down and check it out for us. And so I just kind of, I was worried about it being bought without us having time to go check it out. So, when I found out that he wasn't going to be able to go check it out for us, I just decided, like, I'm going to leave right now. And it was, you know, 8 o'clock in L.A. Well, it was like 7 o'clock when I decided I'm going to leave right now. But then I stayed around for bedtime routine. So, by the time the kids were in bed and I was on the road, it was 8.30. Wow. So I got into Phoenix. I drove to Phoenix, Arizona. With the rental van. With the rental van, right. Important detail because if we bought the car, then I could leave the rental van at an enterprise in Arizona and drive the new van back. So I wouldn't need two people to... I wouldn't have to drive our car. Right. Right. So, yeah, got to Arizona at 2.30 a.m. And then I had a Zoom class to teach high school photography. Middle school photography, actually. A Zoom class at 8.30 in the morning. So I got in at 2.30, went to bed at about 3, got up at 7.30. to try to get my Wi-Fi up and running, make sure that I was going to be able to do it. Wi-Fi ended up being a total bust. There was all sorts of delays, and the kids couldn't understand what I was saying, and it was horrible. But I did that class, and I went out and saw the... So the car had all sorts of problems getting money from enough money to pay for the car because the banks weren't open and to get cash advance, you have to go inside the bank. Oh, right. Yeah. And I thought I had covered all my bases with our bank the night before to make sure that we weren't going to have any problems with limits or whatever. Right, right. And all of our ducks seemed to be in order. But then the next day, we got this decline because we went over some kind of limit, which we thought we had, you know. Yeah, they'd taken off.
Anyway.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, so we called our bank up and they said they made a mistake and they got it fixed. But anyway, the end of the, you know, the point is that I decided to buy the car, but then it took all day to actually get it settled.
Yes, absolutely.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd so it took all day to buy this car. And the guy that I bought it from was totally cool. He was really helpful. He dropped me off at the rental car to return the van so I could then, you know, take the new car. Yeah. And I drove back to L.A., got in at 10 o'clock at night.
Wow.
Trenton ReynoldsWow. Yeah, it was a brutal 24 hours.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the van looks beautiful. And did it drive well?
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, yeah. So it's two years newer than the one that we wrecked. We wrecked a 2004 Honda Odyssey. And we've had such a good experience with our Honda Odyssey that that's all we were looking for. They're such good cars. So the car that we found was 2006, two years newer, and it was a little bit less mileage than what we lost. And it was a touring model, which has all the leather seats, DVD player, and the upgrades. So it was a bit of an upgrade from the car we lost, which is kind of fun, but... that's a heroic husband dad
Sabrina Ward Harrisonrallying and just making it happen that's awesome yeah that's a lot and thank goodness the van worked out because if you had gotten out there it just was not what you thought and
Trenton Reynoldsyeah that would have
Sabrina Ward HarrisonNo, yeah, no.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, yeah. Not gonna. Yeah, no, it turned out it was, and I had a pretty, pretty solid, you know, reason. He took a lot of pictures of it that were posted online and, you know, just based on the numbers, it seemed like a really good deal. So it, yeah, I had a reasonable, reasonable assumption that if I saw it, I was gonna like it, so. turned out to be great. And now we're, yeah, we've got that kind of behind us. At least, you know, we're back in a van and,
Sabrina Ward Harrisonand staying in place.
Trenton ReynoldsYep. Yep. Stay in place, not going anywhere.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd then the frigging calendar, the calendar I sent you that Sean had gotten.
Trenton ReynoldsNo, I, I know it just, it feels like the universe is just dumping, dumping,
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThat sucks. Oh. I know.
Trenton ReynoldsThat is a huge, huge bummer. How's Sean doing? Is everything good?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. Yeah. It's really good to see him. I'll see him later on today.
Trenton ReynoldsAre you letting him carry some of your burden? Are you trying to be delightful?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonHe's been really helpful with helping me. I was just trying to write. He was helping me take notes and- bullet points and just really really trying to be there to support and he said I'll help film stuff and I think and then I just kind of freeze in front of the camera because I think it's easier for me to record on my own because I feel a little self-conscious with him like watching me and he's the biggest support but I feel like a little funny so but he's just to have him and he's such a good friend to me and so kind and helpful and very grateful for him in my life. And our wedding is scheduled for September 20th, so I'm hoping it will still be able to happen.
Trenton ReynoldsSeptember 20th. We've got to be back to some amount of normalcy by then.
I hope.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, this is a time to rely on each other and to just lean into the people that we love, that draw strength and give strength where we can. Keep me posted on the goings on with this launch, and I certainly wish you the best. figuring out how to do it in a way that's authentic and feels feels right yeah and also like maintaining your boundaries you know keeping keeping yourself healthy and keeping yourself in a position of power rather than feeling overrun by negativity or negative voices. It's a hard balance to find. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonPlease help us grow our audience by rating us or writing a review on iTunes. To do that, you can use the link roominthetrees.com forward slash iTunes.
Trenton ReynoldsYou can follow us on Instagram at Sabrina Ward Harrison and at Trent Reynolds Art.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd check out the show notes at roominthetrees.com where you can also get in touch if you have any ideas you'd like to share.
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With a friend.
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