Elements of Community Podcast
Unpacking The Magic of Community
Fostering a Deeper Sense of Community by Unifying Connections
In this episode of the Elements of Community podcast, we'll discuss fostering a more profound sense of community by unifying connections with our guest, Akasha Skaldeman. Akasha is a Swedish Grandmother extraordinaire! With ten grandkids and three children, she has certainly left her mark. But beyond family, Akasha's true passion lies in engaging with
Show Notes
Akasha Skaldeman, our special guest on this Elements of Community podcast episode, dives deep into how to create a strong sense of community. From unifying connections to exploring what it takes for individuals and groups to bond together, prepare for an engaging conversation about building meaningful relationships!
Connection is essential to Akasha and her village community, whose members come together regularly to practice activities such as ecstatic dance, meditation with singing bowls, and invigorating yoga. She sees that cooperation within a community is the only way for everyone to ensure survival without individually preparing with limited resources.
Akasha firmly believes that prepping alone can only get you so far and that establishing collective support systems between fellow community members will foster resilience during difficult times. Connection with others provides an invaluable resource – not only on a physical basis but also an emotional one.
As far as leadership within community settings goes, Akasha states that it is most effective when there is clear prioritization when it comes to young people and when a loving yet consistent attitude is displayed by leaders. It also helps when authority roles are shared in the community so that no individual is burdened with too much responsibility. The connection among its members builds strong communities where everyone feels valued.
Other subjects we covered on the show:
- Akasha has tapped into a remarkable power – the authority of being a grandmother – to keep her family connected and united despite conflicting opinions.
- She also discussed how dancing could be used to activate one’s superpower.
- Then, Akasha talked about a project that would create a community-run co-op store where people could buy food at reduced prices in exchange for five hours of work per week.
- Lastly, Akasha shared the meaning of her name with a twinkle in her eye, like she was sheltering an ancient secret.
AND MORE TOPICS COVERED IN THE FULL INTERVIEW!!! You can check that out and subscribe at https://pbp.li/eoc35.
If you want to know more about Akasha Kaldeman, you may reach out to her at:
- Website: https://spaceoflove.nu/
Eat Real Food!
[00:00:00] All right, we’re live. Akasha, I am absolutely delighted that you were able to join me just as a quick reminder, I put out a call or request for exactly you in episode 29. For all of those who are listening, I said, I want powerful, amazing grandmothers who have built amazing communities.
And you showed up in my life immediately thereafter. And thank you. Thank you for coming and joining me. Would you like to tell the audience a little bit about yourself?
Well, thank you Lucas. Thank you for inviting me to this program and about myself. I live in Sweden, so it’s nighttime here and storm outside, and I’m Grandmother of 10 grandchildren and three ex-husbands I have, and three children. I have, I think I got that mixed up now. I meant three children, [00:01:00] and three ex-husbands.
And yeah. Very interested in community.
Lovely. Thank you so much. Can you tell us a little bit about the community that we’re talking about today?
By the way, just to seed this, I love this community cuz you and I of course, have had this conversation already, so I’m excited to talk about this.
Yeah. By community. I have two different ideas of community. So the one is where I live in a village, and have a lot of contact with the other people in the village. And that’s not so common in Sweden. Maybe nowhere else either I mean anymore. But the many people moved here that were looking for a better solution to things.
And so we just have contact with each other and do things together. Those in the community that will, and so it’s probably just like a community was before, before we stopped getting to know our neighbors and everything. But [00:02:00] we do have a bit of a common purpose you know, an environmental interest and an interest in nature and an interest in culture.
And so there’s all kinds of lovely things that have come in the village, the, they took over the train station, some people and another organization, an environmental organization, was able to support them monetarily for buying, and fixing up this train station. So now it’s a, like a cultural center.
Lovely. I remember from our conversation that you also have deep connection inside that community, the community of your village. You guys do, you know, you do events together. I think you were talking to me about a dancing event.
Oh yeah. Right, right. so I just have dance or die every [00:03:00] week without exception. And it’s open. You just walk in the door and we don’t, it’s kind of like ecstatic dance. We don’t talk about stuff. You just dance and get into your kind of an inward journey. And that makes it easy, the fact that it’s just come on in and it doesn’t cost anything.
And you know, it’s always happening every Monday that makes it able to happen.
Yeah, so, I would call that a common project, a project of the community where we get together and we do something together in order to deepen our community connection and further our purpose. And if that’s true, And it may not be. And of course you are a power. We had a great conversation.
You have a strong will and you’ll tell me if I’m an idiot. If that’s true, then one of the purposes of the village community is connecting deeper, both with yourself, which is really valuable and valid, and also with the other people there connecting [00:04:00] deeply.
Yeah, I would go with that definitely. It’s definitely a time to exploration and just love, giving yourself love, doing what exactly what you wanna do in that dancing time. But also we do come together and we exchange a few words and we, you know, make sure it happens every week and things like that.
So it’s a sweet, it’s a sweet activity, then there’s a center five minutes away by feet where there’s also meditations, yoga, music courses all kinds of different things. And that brings together other people in the community and of course people from far away also. But then, you know, the Thursday night meditation is, and singing bowls, that’s only local people generally.
Singing bowls kind of lose some of their value, like their power, if they’re done over Zoom, I mean, it [00:05:00] still helps, but it’s different, right? It’s not the same.
Yeah, no, we don’t do Zoom in the community, but people come from farther away. That’s what I meant. I mean, there’s the village where you can, pretty much, everybody can walk to, you know, a few, couple kilometers, three, four kilometers to each other. It’s not more than three kilometers really, but yeah, people drive here from the big city called Gothenberg, which is an hour away.
Mm. That’s amazing that your community is so deeply connected that it’s, it’s encouraging other people to come in and experience that.
Yeah, you could say that, it sort of sounds, maybe we don’t wanna, it’s a course center, so they have people coming from all over, you know, and that center could be located anywhere, but it is located in this community of people.
That’s what I’m seeing. It’s not an accident.
It sure [00:06:00] isn’t, and it attracted some people, including me to move here.
And you and the community there are supporting it. You’re supporting it partly monetarily. You’re supporting it energetically. You’re supporting it with the way that you hold together the village as a community, not just as a village.
Right, right. But it, that’s it. I don’t want to make this sound too like flowery and stuff because there’s people who don’t go to that place, don’t support it. Maybe don’t even like some of the things that go on there, but it doesn’t really matter, does it?
Of course it matters. I think that a healthy discussion inside a community is a valid thing and a valuable thing. We as a community get to sort of explore who we want to be and how we express who we want to be together. And maybe that’s part of what you’re describing there, is that you and the [00:07:00] village there are having that healthy discussion and that healthy exploration.
Did I say we were having a healthy discussion?
And choosing to interpret it that way.
Yeah, no, I’d say people that we don’t really discuss things you can also in a fairly healthy way avoid discussion.
Sure.
Yeah. And, you know, people can do their thing. Like, they do their thing and we do our thing, but we live, we’re neighbors. I mean, I’m really, I’ve really been reflecting on how divide and conquer is a huge method of making people powerless.
So for me, a bottom line is, whoever it is and whatever they do and think and who they vote for and pray for or pray with, it’s okay, you know, if they’re vaccinated or not vaccinated, you know, they’re [00:08:00] all, we’re all I would never let any of that get in the way of the relationships in my community with my neighbors.
That’s beautiful.
Yeah.
That’s beautiful. Talk about that more.
Well. I don’t know. It’s just, I don’t know what aspect of that you want me to talk about because Divide and Conquer is just, I’m just realizing the extent of that as a method of making people weaker. And we’ve seen it where, you know, between races, between genders, but now there’s more genders to get more upset about to divide us more and different countries, different religions.
All that stuff has fomented separation.
That’s such a good word, fomented.
Yeah. And it’s not, now my personal belief is that, [00:09:00] that is not, that is intentional. There’s something driving that, whatever it is, the media, or education or something that is driving that’s weakening us as humans.
You know that that’s why we’re here chatting, right?
Well, I don’t know
Not necessarily that that’s their belief.
What we’re talking about
Like, humans are better in community and me too, when I see the separation, regardless of what’s driving it, when I see the separation, I see weakness. And when I see people coming back together, like what you’re doing, I see strength.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Exactly. Of course, that’s what we’re talking about. I forgot that for a moment. But Mickey Willis, if you know who he is, he’s a filmmaker. He made the films pandemic one, two, and now three coming out. He made a short film about so many times when there’s [00:10:00] been some kind of tyrants trying to take over and people fighting against that.
Some kind of a fight and people have gotten together and made it. But they’ve never quite succeeded, is what he said. Because of what, okay. I’m not gonna have, I’m not gonna expect you to guess in fighting. So that’s the same, that’s the word he used, but that’s the same thing I’m talking about.
We start bickering with each other, husbands and wives, you know, families, I mean, every single unit. And so it’s like, I mean, I have a big family. We’re, you know, 16 people altogether. And that’s downwards, that’s not upwards with my family of origin. You know, and different things happen and totally, totally different philosophies and agendas in that family.
But it’s just like, and I’m the [00:11:00] grandmother, you know, and it’s just so, I just take that role so seriously of being a grandmother, being a good example being kind to everybody and being grateful, and just appreciating, I mean, I live with two 14 year twin boys that are, you know, getting on my nerves just today.
You know, I’m like, I don’t wanna see them today, just, I might get angry, but you know, cuz I want to, it really work. It’s work. It’s not just simple to be the nice grandmother and make pizza and things like that. It’s like also clear about my values, and trying to share my values.
And of course, and this time we have a war on the devices. So if the children have way, they would eat candy and look at devices, even two at a time works well. You know, you have the phone in your hand and you got the TV on. And you [00:12:00] have no need to talk to anybody and you get fed in front of the tv, things like that.
So this is, especially with boys, some people in the audience might recognize this. So, you know, grandma has to be a bit strict and that’s not popular, but it’s just what has to be done and it has to be done in a nice way. So, yeah. So family and not allowing ourselves to be divided.
I love that. And you’re sort of personally using, you know, inside your own family. You’re using the authority as a grandmother to help people continue to come together, even with their disparate opinions.
Which is natural, right? There’s nothing wrong with that. And what I’m calling attention to here is the beauty of you using that positional authority to bring people back together again.
Right? And reconnect that family. Reignite the community inside your own family.
[00:13:00] Yeah, I hope so. Best case, and Best I’m doing it again. Yeah.
That’s beautiful. And you’re doing the same thing in your village.
In the village. Yeah, I just, I don’t have to solve all the conflicts that come up in the village the same way I do with. Not that I solve all the conflicts in my family either, but, you know, it’s just, it’s a priority.
I mean, let’s be honest. Nobody can.
Yeah, it’s a priority to get discipline.
Bringing them together.
Yeah. I just, you know, I think of it as what are your priorities? What are my priorities? And my priorities would always be the young people, you know, these kids, and especially the kids that are here because of me. You know, it’s, so I take this job of being a grandmother really seriously. I can’t let my own kids. I mean, you could say, you can’t control it at all, but, absolutely not.
But you can still like be a good example [00:14:00] and be consistent and loving and all that.
Yeah. I love it. That sort of leads us nicely into a question. How do you consider leadership inside a community, and what makes a great community leader?
Well, you know, it’s really funny because we have you know, before I lived where I lived now I lived in a community for 16 years and it was people that came together and we had a course center that was our common purpose. And another we where, you know, having people come and go to courses, meditation, yoga, weaving.
This was back between 74 and 90 and we had conflicts and we were young, we were in our twenties and what I learned, well, the main thing was we could live together. We could [00:15:00] create something together support ourselves, hopefully garden, and all that. But we had a lot of conflicts and we had a big conflict that we finally split and somebody left and we paid him to move.
And he was an important person in the community and it was like couple years of fighting and, you know, dispute, but I’m sort of talking about two different things here because the thing was, you asked me about leadership.
And in my vision of a community if we take for example, that kind of community where we lived in a two big houses, or two big houses and a cottage, and people came together and there wasn’t a leader, and the idea was that we had structure and a common purpose. And [00:16:00] that ideally, would be that people did different things.
People took different responsibilities. Somebody was doing carpentry and getting other people to help, and somebody who’s doing the kitchen and somebody who’s doing the garden. And it wasn’t like it developed organically.
Yes, I agree.
Yeah, there was no leader. And to me, when you talk about having a leader in a community, then I’m not sure what kind of community that is. Because…
oh, this is beautiful.
It’s like, do you want. Okay. I actually have an example. There’s a person who keeps that I know that talks about wanting to start a community, come to my community, and I always feel like he’s doing, he is on the wrong track. That doesn’t work that way, everybody, it grows organically.[00:17:00]
Can I give you some language for this?
Yeah.
Because I love this and you’re a hundred percent on track with me. This is fantastic. Believe it or not, you are only the second of my guests that has been able to articulate this and it’s hard for you to see, but I’m actually over here like quivering with excitement cuz that was so beautiful.
It was awesome. So I have started talking about leadership in a very different way from the way the rest of the world talks about it. And here’s why, most of the people in the world talk about leadership from a static perspective, and so I have in my own term named that static leadership. Now static leadership is not normal human.
In fact, it’s not normal biological leadership. It’s this thing that we’ve created that’s weird static leadership, the way that humans want to be in leadership. The way that we want to interact with leadership [00:18:00] is from a community perspective, and I’m calling it by comparison to static leadership. I’m calling it fluid leadership. And what I define as fluid leadership is the skill of seizing leadership. When you are the right person to help the community take the next step.
And seeding leadership, giving it up, releasing it back to the community when you are not the right person to help the community take the next step and so, if that’s, I mean, it’s beautiful that, that you just said that even without me seeding, s e e d i n g without me seeding that idea because I’m so delighted, like really, I’m quivering with excitement here.
How cute. Yeah, I mean, that’s, it’s number one, the whole idea of leaders, and one person. But you know, at Fin Torn, are you familiar with Fin Torn?
I [00:19:00] am.
Yeah,
Our audience probably is not so can.
Okay, so it, I like to call Fin Torn, the mother of all communities, and it started in 62, beginning of the sixties in Scotland, and three people got together, and then other people started coming.
They were, because one of the people, two of the people were very intuitive and one was receiving messages from God and the other one was receiving messages from the Devas the angels or the nature spirits. And they were, so, they started off, they were on sand dunes and with really terrible soil, and they had nothing. They were really poor.
And then they started listening to their guidance and they started a garden. And then that garden got to grow like sahar big, you know, cabbages and everything, and they got famous. [00:20:00] They attracted all these people. How could they do this? And that became the community.
All these people that were interested. Just for fun, I have this book that I just picked up again and started reading again. You read it every day. And this was the messages that the woman got from God. They’re dead now. These, the two of the three are, not with us anymore.
For those who are listening, it was Eileen Caddy opening doors within.
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so that was a community, and what I was gonna say about that in terms of leadership was that of course the people who did actually started had some, they probably created a rather a structure that was, you know, pretty clear. But there were facilitators that was the organization system.
And I think that facilitator was a very good word. You know, because you took care of this for a while, you know, and you were, I [00:21:00] may, there were, you know, different sex and you’re just making. You know, helping, everything, coordinating, coordinating, you could say facilitating it. So that was a great model.
And the thing was that in our community, when I lived in our community in Sweden, in this period 74 to 90 We were actually creating the same thing, and I didn’t know about Fin Torn, and then somebody came and said, oh, this is like Fin Torn. And then I’m like, oh, tell me about Fin Torn. And then I went there a few times and it was already, you know, it’s kind of my natural thing. It wasn’t that I was copying them, so, so.
I think that’s a natural human state actually is, we step forward to move the community forward and when we’re done with that piece of our journey, somebody else will step forward and and we encourage it.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, why would you want to be bossing people around? I’m just kidding. We don’t boss. A facilitator doesn’t boss people around either, but having [00:22:00] that responsibility forever, you know, it’s,
It’s exhausting.
Yeah. And then there’s, you know, there’s all kinds of areas to, you know, like I’m taking care of the dance area, today I was thinking, you know, one of my.
I also put on a festival and last year we had the theme of activating your superpowers. And today I was thinking, you know what, what I wanna do is to activate. Because, and I was thinking in terms of dance, you know, and in terms of movement and in terms of doing things with your bodies, you know, running and chopping wood and all that, and you know, being in the force and, you know, doing, actually activating your body to do good things, you know.
Yeah.
You know, so many of us have been, are sitting in front of computers all the time, and you know, we have a job where we [00:23:00] don’t, we’re not really activating with our passion, you know, so I was just activating, we’ll, activating yourself like that. We’ll activate your superpower. So that was my, the insight for today as I was dancing in my room.
Beautiful. Thank you. How will you help people activate their superpower?
Well, that’s what Dance or Die is. My daughter doesn’t like the name, but I think for me, I kept it even though she doesn’t like it. And I usually listen to her because for me, in my age, at my age you know, I gotta keep moving. I don’t wanna be, you know, sitting, getting stuck cuz it’s very serious
I love it. So this is a, that title is actually a message to you from you.
Dance or die. Yeah. It’s also, there was a, I also heard a story from a very good friend had a near death [00:24:00] experience and when he rewoke, when he came back to life, he heard the message Dance, or Die, and I said, I’m taking it. And he is still dancing. Yeah.
Add he still hasn’t. died.
Right.
I think that’s a good coincidence. Let’s say correlation is causation in this case.
Oh,
Because reality is what we make of it, and I’m gonna make that my reality.
Okay. Good.
Dance or die.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Thank you.
I could talk about, I’m a belly dancer and I’m all kinds of other dance things that I love and I could talk a dance about dance for other, but let I could talk about dance for a long time.
You could, how does dancing activate people’s superpower?
Well, I [00:25:00] feel like, at my age now, it’s kinda like, I can’t remember how I was before it. It just feels like everything, at my age, in my body when I stretch, it hurts a little bit and it feels like it’s getting stuck. And then when I move and especially moving to music, one thing that it does is there’s feelings in the music.
You know, I always use music that’s made by real people. It’s not technologically electronic stuff. And so I have these feelings in my heart of the way, the music or the words. It’s usually, it’s world music and then, but then I feel like when I stretch out my body and express all these things that I’m feeling with my body, it’s fun, but it’s also it’s like allowing my body to become less dense and [00:26:00] more porous. So, the idea is that I let spirit in and in the spaciousness that I create.
That’s beautiful. I love it.
Thank you, thank you.
I got a few different ways to connect with that in my own world. And let’s see where that takes us. The first is people talk about emotion as energy being in motion.
Yeah, there you go.
And it is absolutely certain, I mean, this has been scientifically studied and shown.
We store emotional triggers in our body. And the more that we can move our body, the more we can move those emotional triggers and either resolve them or release them however we need to. And or if we don’t they, they get stuck. Like it actually gets stuck in your body and it starts to cause problems, as it sits there and is stuck.
Exactly. Perfect. Yeah, that’s what I can [00:27:00] really feel. I move and yeah. So,
Well, there’s more to it. Right? So that’s the basic, that’s the get free part of it. But what you talked about was actually more than just getting free. What you talked about was a level beyond that.
Yeah. It’s the creativity and it’s expression and it’s, I mean the funny thing is I have this, that I’m not clear about is that I have this experience of being a belly dancer and performing alone for, you know, not in a group, but at parties and things. And then I have an audience that’s like, you know, so I’m performing for these people. And that’s one experience. It’s really fun.
But not everybody gets that opportunity. And so, you know, and or not even me even though I did dance quite recently at a party, but this is not about performing for anyone, but it’s still about, I mean, [00:28:00] you’re not getting that juice and that connection to the people.
So it’s different experience, but it’s just really generating your own joy.
Mm. So, you know, like just the feeling of your body moving these different things. And like I said, when you have a little bit of pain and you move in, it sort of, oh, oh, you can relate to that, can’t you? It feels good, you know? Some places I think I should be able to move more, but little stuck, but yeah, but I also mean the expression, the expression that the music inspires and all that.
And I’m like doing my little show kind of, I mean, I’m trying not to, I’m working on. Because sometimes I can imagine I’m doing a show for, and that gives it a different quality than if I’m just feeling into my movement. And those are two different things, and they’re both very valuable.[00:29:00]
That’s lovely. Little story. My wife and I used to do a couple of different things related to music together often. We used to dance together and we particularly like the Latin dances, so Menge, salsa. We used to dance together a lot, and we haven’t for a while.
And I love you know, part of the reason why this whole podcasting thing works well for me is because I really love having that microphone in front of me. Not necessarily because I want people to hear what I say, but it’s just fun. And so I used to do karaoke a lot, like that used to be a regular part of what I do.
So this past week I’ve been in Sarasota. Not an important part of the story, but just whatever. And we both me and the people that I was with, we both went out dancing one night. And we went out and did karaoke on another night. And both of these just sort of reignited the passion for the music within me.
And in both cases, after we were done, I called my wife up after dancing and I was like, we have to get back [00:30:00] to dancing. Like, we need to put this back in our life. You know, I don’t care if we do like five or 10 minutes a day after we’re done working. Like, let’s just turn the music on and dance.
Let’s do this, and after karaoke, I called her up and I was like, we have to get back to karaoke. Like now she doesn’t sing, but she loves to show up and be there while I’m singing. So, I’m so with you Akasha, that being in the music, it doesn’t just release the stuff that you’re holding onto.
It does do that, but being in the music opens you up to a flow that is greater than, it releases, but it also opens you up to a flow that is greater than just releasing.
Oh, I think it’s really fantastic that you manifested this talk about dance or die, you know, because I promise you now you will get your wife to dance and she will get you to dance also and do karaoke.
Yep. It’s a partnership. Oh, she’s here for Like, this is [00:31:00] not a hard ask.
No, that’s great.
We’ve just sort of,
what I
let life pull us away. And this just reminded me that we need to not let life pull us
away.
And I mean, what better thing to dance? You can just do it at home, you know? It’s nice. I always make a little atmosphere, you know, if it’s dark, it’s candles, and you know, good music and, just, it changes everything changes, you know, like maybe you’re in your kitchen, but your kitchen, in your living room, but still you’ve changed the atmosphere.
You know, maybe you put on some aroma therapy or something, and
Mm-hmm.
music and that’s all you need. And I also dress, I also put something other than my work clothes on, but you don’t have to that, but it’s fun.
I think that’s a great recommendation. People should do that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you. What a beautiful discussion. We’ve [00:32:00] mentioned a couple of the elements of community. We’ve mentioned purpose, we’ve mentioned projects. Is there an element that you’d like to talk about that shows up in the way that you engage with the community you love and are a part of?
Well, I realized when I named it the five elements that the one I forgot was purpose. And that’s the one I wanna talk about cuz that’s definitely, you know, an important part there. So what, see, because when you talk about community, then I have like the, I have my community of my family.
I have my community of the farm and I have the community of the of the village. Yeah. So and I’d say the purpose of the community, in the Village is that we cooperate. Yeah. You know, whenever it’s, everybody can live their own lives. We don’t have to meet each other at all. But if there’s an [00:33:00] area where we need to cooperate, like when I buy food because I have my own little community here, the farm. So I buy large amounts of food and so when I’m gonna make an order, I send out an email to everybody in the community and say, would you like to order some food with me? So we get it cheaper, and now I’m…
That’s amazing.
Yeah, you know, it’s not a no big job. And then, oh, I’ll tell you, this is kind of cool. This is
What you mentioned was an actual measurable benefit of co the cooperation of community that the people who jump in and say, I want in on that, and then we get it cheaper.
Yeah. And we have people sharing cars here. And we do here in the farm, and my family, and other people here. You know, and then.
How dare you deprive big corporations of their little bit of extra profit.
Yeah. And we don’t have TV’s in every room. We have one TV for everybody.
What’s wrong? [00:34:00] No, we can’t have this. Wonderful.
But let me tell you about my, this idea that I’m just developing. Cuz I think it can be appropriate because there’s a lot of going on about food right now. And yeah. So we wanna start, I want, I, we want to start, some people wanna start a community where I mean co-op, a co-op, co-op that’s like an, a store right?
Where The food is the cheapest, best, I mean, organic good food. Now I’m thinking of grains and beans and stuff like that, dry things. And then of course we have all our farm vegetables and stuff and eggs. But the thing was we forget about that. I just think about things we will buy in, in large quantities and then we’re gonna distribute them or sell them or whatever.
We’re gonna make this thing work so that, so, I had a friend in a neighboring community and they had an association and everybody paid into that association and everybody worked. And then there [00:35:00] was a big place where they went and got their food and wrote everything up. There was nobody there, but the food was in barrels and they could weigh their own food and write up.
And so everybody’s worked and everybody’s bought the food they need at the cheapest possible price. But my idea was that it wouldn’t be an association, it would just be a group of people. Who and that do the main work, like say five hours a day. For one day a week, say it like that, one day a week, and that we would go and sit in the store and it would be like a cafe and a store because there would always be a person there so that when the people come to buy their food or pick up their food, there’s gonna be a connection between them.
And you know, and that person sitting there, they can do other work and they can talk to people and they can just enjoy. And like, why wouldn’t I wanna go there and sit for five hours? That’s not [00:36:00] getting paid. But the thing that would make it work is that the prices on the food would be the price that we bought it for, you know, this costs a dollar a kilo or whatever, $10 a kilo.
And then they would have to put on a percentage for everybody that’s coming, but it would still be so low that it would be beneficial for them. And anybody could come. They didn’t have to just be in the association. And then the people that are sitting there, they maybe get a 10% discount on the food.
Hmm.
So, that would be, I mean, they would do it mostly just for fun and to be there. It’s not like a job, but you’re getting a reduced price for your food. So I feel like that’s, so that’s the model that I’m suggesting to people and I’m just, I just told few different people, what do you think about this?
What do you think about that? You know? And of course there’s all kinds of legal things in Sweden. It’s so complicated and they’re trying to take away [00:37:00] cash in this country. We’re kind of on the forefront of the digitalization of stuff, so but I would love to do a cash only store.
Mm-hmm.
The, yeah, the community, the village shop.
What a lovely idea.
There was a shop, there is a shop here now, it’s been here for years. Nobody goes to it. It’s a little health food shop that’s, you know, we should all go to, but it’s not cheap enough. So people go and buy stuff cheap and it’s not as a heart center. And so we’re gonna take the same place and transform it into a heart center.
So yeah, it’s really exciting.
Service first. Value First. Community first.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What else is there really, you know, people talk about prepping, right? There’s a lot of prepping going on and one of the most important aspects of, you know, you want food [00:38:00] and you want toilet paper and you want community, and you might put community first.
I would.
Yeah. And you know, and then you wanna also have developed, it’s not something that you, yeah, that’s something that you build up. Right?
Let’s be honest, right? I mean, when you look at prepping, let’s be honest. Like, let’s say that that one small family survives. Then what?
Yeah, exactly. I got all my stuff, and yeah I dance too.
Yeah. Now what?
What are you thinking?
What you gonna do? I mean, you survived. Cool. Now you’re gonna live 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, all by yourself, and then you’re done too. If we can’t survive together, we don’t survive.
It’s so bizarre. I’m glad you said that. I mean, that’s what I always think, and it seems so obvious. You know, I actually have a member of my family, farther away family, like my, I’m not gonna say who it is, but relationships that I mean, they’ve got [00:39:00] so much prepping stuff in their house that there’s no space on the floor, and there’s weapons.
And I just, I mean, I feel like we never lock our door and I feel like, we had a door locked on the farm. That’s the only place that ever anything got ever got stolen, they broke the lock, you know, and they, so they didn’t steal any of the stuff we had out, you know, and, you know, now we have a store on the farm that you just come and you just take your stuff and you pay with.
Honor system.
Yeah. And works fine, you know, and if somebody wanted to steal a carrot or something, you know, go ahead. We usually put stuff out. Also, when we have too many zucchini and stuff, we give them away.
Yeah. Amazing. Yeah, you know what, I have more power to the people who feel like they need to prep, but seriously, if we can’t survive together, we don’t survive.
Yeah. Yeah.
I don’t want to be in a world where I’m the only one.[00:40:00]
No, not a bizarre idea. I’m gonna shoot these people that want to eat. You know, when instead you can just, I mean, I always think about it when I buy a whole lot of food. You know, we’re gonna be people that the people would come to and you just have the soup ready, you know, and you know, what’s the fight about?
Yep.
These are my potatoes. Yeah.
Yeah. What’s the point? Do it together or don’t do it at.
Yeah. Yeah. . Yeah. And if you have that conviction, like we were talking about before, that never divide and conquer. These aren’t your enemies. You can offer them something. You know, I know there’s bad guys in the world, but that you have to do the self-defense thing and all that, but I’m just not expecting them on my doorstep.
You know, I’ve read it before. I’ve heard it before. You know, it’s common to say everybody’s the hero in their [00:41:00] own story. And if you take that idea and you put it into the idea of community, my suspicion is that there aren’t really any bad people. Maybe a few people that are just so broken by commentary, that they can’t heal themselves. But really nobody wants to be bad.
It’s true.
That’s where I come from. And it sounds to me like you’re there too. Nobody wants to be bad. Like, we want to be good. We just have the wrong story going on in our head.
Exactly, exactly. For various reasons. Yeah.
Well, I’m hoping that this episode with you is helping people tell a different story that when you locked your door, that’s where things got stolen, and when you stopped locking your door, things stopped getting stolen.
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:42:00] That’s what I like to hear.
Yeah.
Thank you. I’d like to wrap up my episodes with three really powerful questions. First one is for the people who are just absolutely in love with you, and they should be, how can they find you?
Oh, I don’t know. I think just by my name.
All right. Any website or social links or anything?
I have Facebook. Facebook is good enough. Yeah, that’s maybe old fashioned. They, I don’t know if you have young people listening, cuz I know young people don’t have, it’s boomers. Did they talk about boomers where you are? Yeah. Or I’m a boomer.
We definitely do.
Yeah, I learned that from my grandchildren.
Yeah.
That lived on Bali. They moved here from Bali and they’re calling me a boomer. I’m like, where did you get that from?
The baby boomer generation in the US came from the World War II return soldiers, who [00:43:00] then, you know, came back and made big families and you are the result of that.
Yeah,
That’s what boomers are. Cool. Just look you up by your name. That’s beautiful.
Yeah. My name is very unique.
Yeah, it sure is Akasha Kaldeman. Second question, is there something that you wish I had asked you so far but did not?
No, not that I can think of.
No magic question that unlocks the power of the universe?
That’s too big of a question.
I love it. I get it. I love it. The third one is you told me a little story, and I’m not sure if you’d be willing to tell it, but where does your name come from?
Oh yeah. I’ll just start with my last name because my last name is the name of my second husband and his brother made it up, and that’s why I know we have a very unique name because it’s, we’re only this, like 10 people in Sweden have this name and they’re all my relatives through [00:44:00] my second husband.
I’m now on my third and Akasha means, Akasha. Yeah, that name came into my head. It was a revelation and intuitive revelation, which I don’t have more than one of those haven’t had yet in my life. Or maybe too, and I just heard that name, and it was like, that’s your name, Akasha.
And so I didn’t know, I wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but I was aware of the Akashik records that I learned about when I studied Rudolph Steiner. And I thought it had to do with remembering. And I thought, well, that’s a good thing. I need to remember things. This is about 15, 16, 17 years ago. And then I looked it up on the internet and it said that it was the ether or the fifth element or the sky or the field or heaven.
And I really liked that idea of the fifth element. Ether. The ether. [00:45:00] I thought, yeah. And so I went with it. My husband didn’t change. Stop calling me Pamela for probably 10 years, but everybody else did. So yeah. So anyway, I’m getting more and more fascinated because of this concept of the ether and that we do everything we create, we first dream up, or think up or construct, create. We create it from within, and the more creative we can be, the better. The more we can realize that it’s through my intention and my dreams, my visions that I create. Then I like to think of that as we’re, I’m creating in the ether.
I’m creating, by choosing my thoughts and choosing to, to be loyal to my I was [00:46:00] thinking in Swedish. Now my beliefs convictions. That was the word. Yeah. You know that there’s more to life than we see. You know, it’s not, it’s this hard stuff that you can knock on and, and stuff. There’s something there.
one’s, This one’s pretty hard for most people.
Yeah, right. There you go. There you go. But there is some, and it’s good, you know, and I, so I’m what, whether you call it God or whatever, it’s good. It’s life affirming it’s life force and that I try to stay in contact with and imagine that, and I imagine the powerfulness of that, and I use that to create in the ether.
So I imagine things up and I’m just choosing to believe that more and more that that’s a big part of my journey is to realize that I can create in the ether, and then it’s like, [00:47:00] oh yeah, my name’s Akasha. Yeah, that was interesting.
I love it.
Yeah.
Here’s one of the things that I find particularly delighting about that story. It used to be, and it unfortunately is not quite so common anymore, but it used to be very common for people to change their name as they move through stages of their life. So you’d start out as a child and you would have a child name and you’d move into adulthood and you’d have an adult name and it would be different.
And then you maybe would move into another phase of adult. Maybe you achieved mastery in ssomething and you would get a mastery name. And then you might move into elder and you’d get an elder name. And each time that you moved into a new phase in your life, you would have a name that went with it.
Sometimes it would be added on to your name and sometimes it would result in an entirely separate name. And it was powerful. It was powerful. It helped us step into this new version of us and and I love it. I think that’s a [00:48:00] tradition that maybe we should be bringing back. And you have.
I totally agree with you. I mean it, it’s so weird that. It should be, I mean, my mom was really mad when I changed my name and stuff, but I thought just as you do, just as you explained, you know, you go through these different stages and it’s really good to make them more real, and you change and you get more clear about your intentions, and who you are and what you’re here to give, what your gifts are and everything.
And whether, I mean, it’d be nice if the community gave you new names. That’s probably what has happened in the tribes, you know, earlier.
Yeah, that was part of it.
Yeah. Yeah. But . You know, now we have to figure it out ourselves. Yeah. I would love to get more back to the roots. Tribal [00:49:00] roots.
Me too. Akasha. Thank you. You’ve been a delight and a gift. Do you have any parting words?
Oh my gosh. How much time do I have?
As much as you’d like?
I was just thinking because I do have this because we talked about tribal roots and I’m on my way to Brazil to live with a tribe. And I was thinking about, you know, the tribe, it’s all generations all together.
Yes.
Without devices connected with nature, connected with the plant world, connected with the food , you know, connected with their clothes, they’re making their weaving, all their stuff, they’re making their jewelry.
And this is gonna be such an amazing, I think this is gonna be a life changing experience for me to live with it’s only a few a month, but one month.
That is [00:50:00] lovely.
I think it would be it’s so sort of what I’ve always wanted to do, so,
I’ll be delighted to hear how this gets reflected in your name. That’s amazing. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Anything else?
No, it was enjoyable ha having home a conversation with you and yeah. Thank you for having me.
My pleasure. Thank you for joining me, Akasha.
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Lucas Root
Lucas is the host of Elements of Community. He is a community growth strategist and works with mega companies like The Pokemon Company to help build and foster community. This podcast is Lucas' way of giving back what he has learned about the magic of building and growing community.
Join Our Inner Circle
Like what you hear on the podcast? We have more secret recordings from every guest. We keep the microphone rolling after the podcast is done and get our guest to spill the beans on the best tactics for growing their communities profitably. You don't wanna miss this.