WEBVTT - LaRayia Gaston on Embracing Love Without Reason 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.400 Holy Human with Leanne Rhymes is a production of I 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:13.200 Heart Radio. Hello, my friends, I am so very happy 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.720 to welcome you to today's show because I am tremendously 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:20.400 inspired by the woman you're about to meet, activist, filmmaker 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:24.120 and author, Laria guest Stone. She is here to share 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.800 with us her passionate and practical ideas to bringing more kindness, generosity, 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.839 and love into this very needy world. And she is 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.040 truly someone who walks her talk. I am so pleased 0:00:36.040 --> 0:01:06.039 to have her on today's Holy Humane. Thank Thank you 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.000 so much for joining me on the Holy Human podcast. 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.920 I am honored. I'm really honored to talk with you. Um. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.400 I think I'll probably cry during this podcast because your work, 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.520 what you're bringing into this world is so beautiful. And 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.920 you know, I I think I I feel like I 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.480 already know you through reading your book. Um, and I 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:32.039 think it's just like heart recognizes like heart, and so 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:33.920 I just want to say thank you for the work 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.800 you're doing the world. It's it's done. Thank you so 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.000 much for having me here. Yeah. Um, look, you've you've 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.840 written a book called Love Without Reason The Art of 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.919 Giving a Fuck, which I think is just a fantastic title, 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.040 and you You've created a nonprofit called lunch on Me 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.559 that feeds everyone on skid wrote organic food on the daily. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.200 You know, you you have so much going on if 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.600 I feel like you've almost made love your job, like 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.520 that's your time job, which I think is so beautiful. 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.440 If people are just coming upon you for the first time, 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.200 how would you describe what you do to people? Lunch 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.800 on Me are nonprofit love without reason. It's radical philanthropy. 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.840 It's curated, intentional love. It's love for love's sake. You know, 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:23.880 it's an expression. It's creating a voice in spaces that 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:28.040 I feel don't always have that, and it's really it's 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.600 doing the right thing. You know. We serve organic, healthy food. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:33.840 We've set the bar really high because I kind of 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.600 you love in that way. So everything is in a 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:41.040 space that it's given the best of the best to everyone. Yeah, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.119 that's so beautiful. I love that you say you're giving 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.919 a voice to those who don't have one or are 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.520 unable to use it, because I you know, growing up 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.000 with my voice being my my catalyst, you know, as 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.840 a as a performer, as a singer. Um, it's been 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.639 I think one of my missions in my life has 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.639 been to learn how to utilize my voice not just 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.280 for singing, but for for other purposes like you know, 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.080 this podcast and and giving you know, creating a space 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:16.760 for community and curiosity and and learning, you know, to 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.079 be better human beings. So you know, I think that 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:24.679 that voice, it's so important. It's so powerful when we're 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.840 able to to learn to utilize our voices for not 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.959 only ourselves but for the betterment of others. So I 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.200 I really commend you for for that, because that's we 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.680 don't realize what a gift that is. It's the most 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.600 powerful I think, you know, between especially when it's connected 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:47.120 to our hearts like yours is. Yeah, it's nothing between 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.480 know which I love. I mean I've always found that 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.680 on stage when I sing, But I think I'm really 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.120 starting to learn to utilize that piece of myself. Um, 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.200 just in the world. I think that's that's what uh 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.160 you know, that's what I see you doing. I see 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.640 you this really beautiful living embodiment of of love, not 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.880 just the concept of love, but like the the doing 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.160 and the being in the world. Like love is a verb. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.680 I mean, you know, I don't know if love can 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.520 even be defined. I think that I'm not really sure. 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:24.160 I don't know, you know, I don't know if we've 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.440 ever truly defined it, But I would love to hear 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.760 what you since you talk about it so much. What love? What? 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.720 What that definition is for you? Well? When I think 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:34.560 of love, I think of love without reason, like that's 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.480 the driving force of it. Um. I think that love 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:41.320 is the most written about thing of all the universe, 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:45.880 and yet very few hold it. And for me, love 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.120 without reason is loving for love's sake and nothing else, 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.920 and being not attached to any form of an outcome. 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.880 It's an expression. And when I also think of love, um, 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.000 I don't think you define it as one thing outside 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.840 out of being a verb in action, because it's been 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.800 so many different things to so many people. And I 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.440 think that we have to look at two things, what 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.480 love has been to us and what we want it 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.080 to be, And I think that they're very separate, and 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:19.120 not enough people put an emphasis on curating love, because 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.560 if you define love for only what it's been to 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.680 you and not what you want it to be, I 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.599 think it makes it passive. And I don't think love 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:30.360 is passive, and I think it needs to be intentional 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.279 and curated and I think that when we move into 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:35.919 that space and we start looking at it as an action, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:38.800 then we can embody it, we can hold it. I 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:40.440 don't think a lot of people have got to hold it. 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:45.400 Oh wow, that's beautiful, so interesting because what love has 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.600 been to you because to so many people we confuse 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:53.400 love with many other things, pain, abuse. Um, I know 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:55.840 that you read after reading your book, I know that 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.800 you've experienced that growing up, you know, and and to 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.240 be able to shift into what you want love to be. 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.760 How that's that's so powerful? Can you talk about a 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.039 little bit about what love was to you growing up 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.720 and how that shift occurred. Yeah. I think that I 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.840 was given a gift because I learned what love was 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.720 and what love wasn't at the same time why I 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.760 was developing. So I think that that gave me an 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.400 option to choose. You know, I think I had seen 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:30.240 the idea of when love is absent, how corrosive it 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.520 can be, and when love is present, how infinite it 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.360 will be. And because I've seen it at the same time, 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:38.800 and they were both labeled labeled as love because of 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.360 who the lessons were coming from, you know, our families. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.760 You know, a lot of times that's the first place 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.320 we're learning love. And because I learned such contrasting spaces, 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.039 I think very young, five six years old, I understood 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.760 clearly what I felt love was, not just by what 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:58.600 it was to me, but what I wanted to mean 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.840 and what I wanted to grab take more towards. And 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.719 it really was the light, infinite space, not the scarce 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:09.159 space space. And again, when people come from whether it's 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:13.680 any form of abuse or neglect or whatever their experiences, 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.040 I think we have to be very clear in knowing 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.280 that is not love, that is not you know, it's 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.160 it's the absence of love. But you know, sometimes it 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:25.880 comes in the place that we think. So I think 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.200 it's very important that we know what love is and 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.760 what it isn't. And it starts with even if you 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.360 don't have it, define it for yourself and show up 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:35.800 as that first Yeah, because I was gonna say, I 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.680 don't think. I don't think all of us get the 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.600 opportunity to know what it is. We grow up knowing 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:43.520 what it's not, but we think that we know what 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:45.880 it is. And so when you're saying to know, you 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.440 gotta you have to know what that love is. I 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:52.119 don't know if some people even we know where to begin, 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.080 you create it for yourself. I think that's why. I 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.000 think that's why I say love is curated. You know, 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.920 if you're lucky and you're in, you're rare, you get 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:07.160 to experience its entirety, you know. But if you aren't, 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.120 that doesn't mean you can't have it. You have to 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:13.600 create opportunities of love for yourself. And that's what I've 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.880 been very adamant about is if it's not there, don't 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.200 stop there. And you know, when they say be the change, 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.600 be that love, like I believe that's what it's referring to. 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:27.200 I think that sometimes we hear these ideas and because 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.520 we don't have steps, we get kind of confused. It's 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.360 muddled with what that means and how to implement it. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:37.520 But truly um to be able to experience love, you 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.199 decide what it looks like for you and be that. 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.120 Because I also think that sets a tone when I 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.600 think about the dynamics of my life, the people I love, 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.800 the people that are closest to me, I set a tone. 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.480 And I decided I wouldn't love to be infinite for us, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:57.200 and so I decided to be that. And it's been that. Yeah, absolutely, 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.199 um yeah. I have a have a song that I 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.640 record a long ago called give and it's you know, 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.319 it says, if you want to get loved and give it, 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.360 you know, if it's like you have to. I love 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.640 setting the tone and I love taking that power um 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.480 back for ourselves to be able to to set the tone. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.360 I know when I walk into spaces, um, especially on 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:22.000 airplanes because I used to travel all the time. UM, 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:23.920 so there's something that I would do is sit in 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:25.840 my seat and then everyone who walked by, I would 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.000 just bless them. I feel like when you bring that 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.400 just consciously, it doesn't have to be you don't have 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.640 to be telling everybody that you're around, like, oh I'm 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.560 blessing you today. You know there you think you're nuts, 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.679 but but it's if you just consciously put yourself in 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:46.199 that space, like it's it's amazing what what flows out 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.960 of that? What opportunities present themselves in front of you? Uh, 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.320 to be able to give that love to someone else. 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:57.559 And I think that people feel it, you know. I 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.760 do think love fills up rooms and think that you 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:05.280 can feel it, so that intention energetically a hundred I 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.280 believe in that That's how I feel too, Like I'll 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.959 go places and I'm like, I hope everyone's good today 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:14.320 or light and they let things go forgive. You can 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.320 see it in people, you know absolutely, and I God, 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.400 I feel like when you when you've understood pain, when 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.000 you truly have understood pain, you just don't want, I 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.080 know for myself, like I just don't want to see 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.520 people feeling that, Like I just so deeply want people 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.959 to be happy. And yeah, I'm going to kind of 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.080 jump around here a bit because I just flow out 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.040 the conversation. I watched your the trailer for your documentary, 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:42.560 UM forty three days, and the trailer itself, I watched 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.440 it three times because I was I was so shook 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:50.400 by it in so many ways. Um because because of 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.200 many reasons, but it just touched my heart so deeply 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.199 because I think, you know that thought of God, I 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.040 don't want to see people in pain, and there's so 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:01.360 many people in pain. Um. But I there are a 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.760 few things that just caught my attention. The artistry, the 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:10.080 artistry of these people living on skid row was so incredible, 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:16.319 and you know, I almost wonder their their imagination. It's 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:18.599 like you can take everything else from these people, but 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:20.840 they thought it was so beautiful to see that they 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.839 still had their imagination and their freedom of expression. And 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:26.440 I sat there and wondered, I'm like, are they closer 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:31.440 to God than we are? Yes? Yeah, yes, I've seen 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.120 God more than any other place. I felt like being 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.120 in the street that what that is church for me? 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.800 So I didn't see God in church, but I did 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.400 see it there. Yeah. Oh my god. That's one of 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.840 my favorite things that you said, um in your book 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.360 was that used that that giving to people is your church. 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.000 And because we we've we've come to I mean I 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.480 grew up, you know, Southern Baptist, and the church was 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.040 somewhere you went on Sunday. It wasn't life like we 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.400 have we we've we grew up thinking or being taught 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:03.679 that it was in a building, or it was in 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:07.439 it for a specific moment, reserved for that. It wasn't life. 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:11.280 And when you start, I mean, I think the biggest 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:13.280 changes that we're going to see is when people start 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.880 taking church to the streets, church into everyday life where 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:23.559 you that's your worshiping. Yes, that's what I would say, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.640 is like what I do and what I'm giving that 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.679 is my tithing, Like that is how I tie you know, 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.480 I am not just doing in church, but of course, 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.120 like I love, I was the church for the music. 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:41.600 So but I definitely found the experiences I read biblically, 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:45.360 like the things that felt unearthly angelic I've seen in 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.199 the streets, and that's when I started to connect the 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.200 dots for me. Wow, talk to me about a little 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.839 bit about your documentary and what that experience was like. 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.000 Because you were you were really close to your grandmother 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.520 after she passed away. This was some Then you threw 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.560 your broken heart into was your documentary, and most people 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.959 wouldn't even think to go down to skid Row to 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.880 even walk around in that area. And here you are, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.280 you know, going to live amongst the people that you serve, 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.640 which I think is so beautiful to really truly understand 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.720 what their life is like. How did that shift? First 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:23.559 of all, how did that shift your broken heart? And 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:27.040 how did that shift the way that you see life? Well, 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:31.800 I I went to skid Row because when my grandmother 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.199 I passed um. I mean I always knew that that 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.319 would be the hardest moment of my life for sure, 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.439 Like I always knew that like being with her. I 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:43.199 missed her when I was next to her, you know, 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.840 I knew that, and so I prayed and I heard 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:48.760 her voice. I heard her. I heard her say go 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.480 to skid Row, and I was like, you know what, 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:54.800 what else do I have to lose? You know, I 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:56.720 would do this. And then I was like I had 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:58.520 already wanted to, Like there were a lot of super 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.040 natural things that her that just pointed me to that space. 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.520 And I was like, you know, what better time my heart? 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.040 It was like I've always worked and been so goal 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.640 oriented and working that my heart was so broken. I 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:12.839 didn't want to do anything else. Like I was just 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.000 like I knew I had time. You know. It was 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.920 the first time I felt that where my heart was into. 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:20.640 So I was like, you know, this is the time 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:22.320 to go down there. And when I went there, I 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.440 thought like, UM, make use of myself. The day my 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:28.720 grandmother passed away, I was throwing a party on skit 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.120 Row and so and so I was already you know, 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:36.480 that had happened right shortly before UM. I heard her 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.720 take her last breath and then my party started. So 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.160 it was already I was already in that space when 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.760 she transitioned, and UM so I was like, Okay, I'm 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.360 gonna go there and I'm gonna be of service. Like 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:49.280 I can't. I'm not the type of person I can 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.000 sit in my room and be depressed. There's life, you know, 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:53.400 life goes on. So I was like, you know what, 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.360 I can go help people and and we'll see. And 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.200 so I decided to do it then. And I literally 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:01.280 thought I was go in there to just be of 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:03.760 service and to help everyone else, but they helped me. 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:05.640 So I think it was the first time I realized 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:07.520 like that was the only place that I could that 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.440 could have cured um my heart, because I think that 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.120 the message my grandmother was sinding me is nothing's ever lost. 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:18.560 It's just redirected and replaced. And the love that you 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.520 seek here is also all around you. And so I 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.440 learned that. Um, I learned that in that moment, that 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:27.920 like love is never lost. So I thought it was 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.800 a lost but it was a redirection of energy. Yeah, absolutely, 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.760 Oh wow. Um I don't find it. I mean I 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.120 don't find it ironic. I think it's beautiful that you 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.720 were throwing a party on skid row at the moment 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.400 you know, your grandmother passed away. I mean, you know 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.600 you have said I see your heart so deeply, and 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.960 so it's such a beautiful heart. You know, you said 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.720 how much your grandmother like taught you about love, and 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:58.360 then here you are, here, you are just basically living 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:00.600 out everything that she taught you. That my that she passed, 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.000 and that's just like, yeah, I definitely it was weird 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.800 because I like lost sound like I just remember hearing 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.320 her last breath and I just couldn't hear anything and 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:14.280 I just see like hundreds of flowers and balloons like 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:16.720 going and I was just like God hooked in the 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.160 space to not be sad. You know, this is like 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.160 a celebration, and it was one of those like I 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.000 was like, oh, I thought this was the time you 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.280 go into the dark place. In my mind, it was 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.640 this idea of like, for the first time in my life, 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:29.840 maybe I can be in a dark place, and I couldn't. 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:35.480 I couldn't because it's just so beautiful. Bless bless her 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.280 like that is just yeah, bless her first for showing 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.080 you what love is, because she is truly an angel 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.480 who is you know, paved the way for everything that 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.880 you're doing in every life that you're touching. Yeah, you know, 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:54.120 in your documentary there was there was this this man 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.960 who said something so profound and I kept rewinding it 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.320 back to watch it, and it is, Um, I am 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.640 not what you think of me. Seek for me, and indecency, 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.320 find me there in my dignity. Speak to me peacefully. Oh, 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:14.880 my soul is involved. And it just breaks my heart 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:21.000 because our souls are involved, like no matter what, no 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.280 matter where we are in this world, no matter what 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.600 hardship has come to us. Um, we we are. We 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:34.320 might be homeless, but we're not soulless. And God, that 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:40.359 just killed me. And it just reminded me, like you know, 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:42.639 it just reminds me that that could be any of us. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:49.840 That could be any of us. Gabe, I love. Yeah, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.840 his name is Gabe. Oh my god, I love that 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:54.960 his name is Gabe. My Um. I had a friend 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.720 who passed last year from diabetes, very young, and he 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.600 didn't know he had it and so he was sick 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.200 and all of a sudden passed away. Um. And his 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.520 name was Gabe, and so you just reminded me of him. 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.520 He's like my little angel and schedrole for sure. I 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.160 love him. You have no idea. He's like the most 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:20.120 gifted lyricist I've ever seen, Yeah, I mean, that's what's 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.159 so beautiful. I mean, I know I've seen. You know, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:25.560 I started singing. My dad has tapes me singing when 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:27.400 I was eighteen months old. Like I mean, I could 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.359 you couldn't understand the word I was saying, but I was. 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.040 When I sang, it was so it was so real 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.080 and um, even from that young of an age, and 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:42.000 I as I've grown older, I've recognized how much art was. Um, 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.520 it was my my soul's way of you know, of 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.520 speaking in this world and places and expressing in places 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.520 where I didn't feel like I could express other places 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:55.840 in my life. Like I always joke, you know, if 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:57.920 I could sing my life, everything would be perfect because 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.120 that she feels like the most honest expression. Um. Sometimes 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.840 when you know you speak, like sometimes it just doesn't 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.920 come through. And when I saw the documentary trailer, I 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.639 was just blown away because it's it just makes you 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.840 realize how much art is used to soothe. It's a 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:22.040 it's a soothing save to life's pain. And and in 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.920 the imagination, you know, being so close to God when 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:29.399 we are in that form of creation and imagination and 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:34.040 the fact that that has not the fact that they 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:38.239 go to that so often they're to express is um, 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:43.520 it's just powerful, it is. I definitely think yeah, it's. 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.840 I mean, it's it's unearthly like the things I've seen 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.920 and experience with them, like just so many street angels, 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:55.040 like it's insane and we call them, let me call 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:58.119 them street angels. It's so good they did come street angels. 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:03.560 Street definitely, Um, yeah, you see that. And I think that, 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:06.600 I mean, even just the most profound lessons. I always 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:10.000 say that God sends us profits to skit role for training, 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.200 and I see it, you know, I see it like 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:19.919 the messages, the wisdom, the deep understanding like their understanding 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.840 of like life and humanity and how we fall short, 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.400 and the grace that they have, like how they're treated 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.320 it's and how they still rise above. It's beyond me, 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:34.359 Like it's crazy. It's it's it's something I've seen nowhere else. 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.000 And on that powerful note, we're going to take a 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.440 very quick pause, but we'll be right back with more 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:54.800 wisdom and insight from Laray Gaston. Welcome back, Loves, and 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.840 we were just discussing the incredibly profound intersection between scarcity 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.879 and the sacred. It's amazing. I think when we have 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:04.600 things as you look when things are too completely taken 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.560 away from you, like where where the soul goes and 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.760 where the the freedom that it starts to find? And 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:13.680 it's you know, I always look around all the things 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:15.480 that we have and here we are. You know, all 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:19.120 we're focused on is you know, continuing to have those things, 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.120 you know, and make to make sure we don't lose 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:23.320 that because now we have this sense of like you know, 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:30.280 this this sense of safety that um that we continue 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:34.760 to try to to uh to keep that up, and 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:40.919 that's that becomes our that becomes our drive and our hustle. 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.439 You know. Yeah, it's liberating. Like I stayed in It's 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:46.560 for forty three days with nothing in it. You know, 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.159 there's a yoga mat and a sheet and I'm not 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.000 gonna liry Like the simplicity of just having like my 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:57.159 little backpack and nothing else. Now money, nothing, and and 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.920 just even the resources I had were dependent on there's generosity. 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:03.520 So even to see that like oh I don't have 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:06.320 water today, but you know in an hour someone will 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:09.000 come from a church or a nonprofit or whatever and 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.440 show up to help. You know, it was. That part 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.400 was very liberating, Like I'm not gonna lie. The simplicity 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:20.080 of like not having stuff, not accumulating things, not hoarding 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.920 like it was, it was, that was my favorite part 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:26.639 for sure. I mean talk about trusting the universe, I 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.600 mean you have to. You're talking like moment to moment, 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.920 being in the moment and trusting that what is your 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.240 needs will be provided for. I mean we we hear 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:38.560 that all the time, you know, like, oh, you know 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:41.720 the universe will provide for you, Like sure, okay, yeah, 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:44.879 sometimes it's hard to wrap your mind around that. But 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:48.040 when you're in that kind of situation, like your basic needs, 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.399 you are moment to moment trusting that those will be 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:55.440 provided for. Yeah. You I think you definitely in those 0:22:55.520 --> 0:23:01.040 spaces you kind of have to master faith, right because 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:04.359 there's nothing to grab onto, so you don't have a choice. 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:06.440