The Safety Link Podcast by Kenyon Manley

Fostering Community Resilience from Soil to Soul with Sheena Schuler

• Kenyon • Season 2 • Episode 1

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Have you ever considered how a seed, carefully nurtured, can blossom not just into a plant but also into a cornerstone of community strength? That's precisely the journey my cousin Sheena Schuler, a dedicated community care practitioner, and I embarked upon in our latest conversation. Sheena's tapestry of life experiences weaves together a powerful narrative of fostering safety, self-sufficiency, and overcoming the deep-seated issues of medical apartheid and food insecurity through compassionate local action.

In the pockets of every neighborhood lies the potential for growth and healing. Sheena and I uncover the therapeutic joys of gardening, a simple yet profound act that can teach us about patience, care, and the rewards of reaping what we sow. The significance of tuning in to our inner wisdom unfolds as we discuss the importance of aligning our lifestyle choices with our innate connection to nature. Sheena's insights into the natural childbirth process, supported by midwives and doulas, remind us of the transformative power of embracing our biological heritage and trusting our bodies.

Our heartfelt exchange culminates in the shared belief that grace and transformative support are the cornerstones of not only surviving but thriving through life's most pivotal moments. The stories Sheena shares are a testament to the impact a single person's compassion can have, extending far beyond their immediate presence. Wrapping up with mutual appreciation, we underscore the necessity of these dialogues for sustaining our collective journey toward enriched community living, promising to keep the conversations, our gardens and communities—growing.

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Kenyon Manley:

There we go. Well, welcome, welcome, welcome. We got Miss Sheena Schuller, who is a community care practitioner. I'll just give you a little bit on my end of who she is. She's my cousin, she's a family member. You know I should have brought down this thing. I was looking through some stuff, Sheena, and I still got that calendar you built with them shoes on it.

Sheena Schuler:

Oh yeah.

Kenyon Manley:

Yeah, yeah yeah, I might throw something in this thing to highlight it, but I'm going to let her introduce herself and just truly understand the need for this practice for people in our communities. And I really do connect it with safety because, again, it's a personal touch. It's something a little different, but it's a personal touch on the community. So I'll let Sheena explain. You know who she is, what she do and what she's providing. Go ahead, sheena.

Sheena Schuler:

Hi. So yes, I am a community care practitioner and what that really means is I've found myself moving through life in a lot of different spaces, doing a lot of different things, and at the core of it was always taking care of people. Right, when I was a chef, when I was, you know, going into law school, when I was doing all of these you know self-sufficiency and teaching and all of these things at the core of it was like, well, how do I take care of the people around me? And linking that to safety is really easy, because when you don't have to look outside of your community or outside of yourself to provide for yourself, that's safety.

Sheena Schuler:

To be able to feed yourself, to be able to have somebody that knows how do you know, birth the babies and cook the food and do the things and can help you if you need medicine and all of these different things. You create a safety net. Because now we're not dealing with medical apartheid, you know. We're not dealing with things like food insecurity, because we're growing our own. We're not dealing with things like brutality and other things from people outside of our communities that aren't directly interacting with us, until it's a violent nature or until it's a political nature. That's what community care is to me it's being able to take care of ourselves, not in a completely separatist way, but being able to provide what we need in any number of things, and that, I feel, is how you can best keep ourselves safe.

Kenyon Manley:

Wow, Wow, wow, wow, wow. Boy, you spit a lot out there right there for me, you know, when, I guess you know it goes back to, you know, part of our family on the manly side. That's the only one I can talk about, but at the same time I can even talk about even the Shuler's, the manly's in a sense, because we all lived in a community where there was again I head back to the village right and we sort of was brought up in a village mentality where we didn't, like you said, we didn't have to really go too far to get something for the house, to get something, a ride somewhere to you know, look for some encouragement, for a couple dollars or whatever. Somebody next door around the corner or in our family really provided a village mentality.

Kenyon Manley:

So when I see what you're doing, it's really getting in tune again with your village and not having to go too far either from yourself to them or not too far from the community outside of that, and you're keeping that, like you said, a safe net there. So that is a very, very, very powerful explanation of what you do and why you do that. My next question what is, I guess, what is the challenges that somebody like you or just the community is having with maybe doing, getting that care in a sense, Because it's not like to me. I really didn't know about it until I started really reading about what you do and I've seen some things out there. So I guess maybe explain, like maybe the community and I would like to hear about some of the challenges that you, that maybe you see out there, that people in their community can help, maybe bring light to it or get involved with it.

Sheena Schuler:

Okay. So again, I've been doing this in different facets for a really, really long time, but it's just these last couple of years where it all kind of clicked as to how to pull it all together. So when I started the People's Pride Project, which is my self-sufficiency project, right that came out of watching and it had always been a joke, like if there's ever an apocalypse or anything happens, get to Sheena's house and you'll be good, right. So watching people argue in the grocery store or seeing shelves empty, right, like there's no bread but there's sugar and there's flour and there's salt, but nobody has the knowledge to say I don't need to fight the person next to me, let me go buy the ingredients and make my own, and while I'm making my own, make enough to give away.

Sheena Schuler:

So there's been a disconnect and part of it is generational, right. Because we used to come from these generational families where, even if mom and dad were working, grandma was there, granddad was there, so while parents were bringing in income, you had this generation that taught and cared for and passed on. So now, because of you know economics, social issues we've lost a lot of that. It makes it different, or difficult, rather, to connect the dots sometimes. So one of the biggest hurdles that I find is just a general lack of knowledge.

Sheena Schuler:

And even we're in a space where everything's on the Internet. You just Google it, you know the information's right there, it's not. It's really not a lot of misinformation. Anybody with no training and no anything can jump up and suddenly be an expert, you know. So sometimes it really takes some weeding out to find it or find your niche or recognize you know where can I help. Another problem I find people don't realize that how small your help needs to be. You know, if I'm out giving food, giving things for the homeless, which is another one of the initiatives that we do it's added to cans or something, or an extra box of mac and cheese or something to your groceries and pass that out.

Sheena Schuler:

You know, a bag of rice, it doesn't have to be. I fed everybody, but that bag of rice can turn into a pot of meals that can then feed everybody. So it doesn't have to be this giant thing for us all to help each other. You know, I do birth work, so part of my thing is I tell you I'm walking with you from birth to earth, breath to death. Right, I can marry you. I can marry you. I could do everything in between and I got papers for all of it. So I'm not talking out my behind.

Sheena Schuler:

But the rates of mortality or the death rates for black and brown women are the highest in this country and some of the highest in the world. Part of that is because we don't have people that look like us in the places that keep us healthy, right? So if we don't have people, we're not passing down midwife skills, we're not passing down birth or death douless skills or how to do these things. We're at the mercy of other people. So a lot of it is lack of knowledge, being too comfortable in convenience. I want it now, I want it fast and just not putting the pieces together and part of it we have gotten a little lazy.

Kenyon Manley:

Well, you know, I want to hit on something you know, because there you did say something that the brown folks you know they're such higher. I think that's super important to really look into because you know everything doesn't fit the mold for everybody. And I'm wondering, just on my end, and you might know, because I've know you, I know you, you've done some deep research, deep reading on what you're doing. I know you, for I know you Do you think that that, the very thing that you're talking about, some people have shied away from that because that was something that we did when we were slaves 100%.

Kenyon Manley:

But in all actuality, we had let society make us think that the very thing that was nurturing, the very thing that that were relational and transformational, not transactional. Transformational they made us believe, in a sense, that they connected that to slavery when, when, when, really, we were the ones with the tools, that that you and the right now.

Sheena Schuler:

Absolutely. You're 100% correct. That's propaganda and rebranding, that's all it is. I have studied under the granny midwife tradition of birthwork and even in that there was an actual push to remove. You know, there was always a big mama, there was always an auntie, there was always somebody I birthed babies. You know what I mean. So there was an actual in the 40s and 50s because the majority of people that practiced or attended births were black women, especially elderly black women.

Sheena Schuler:

You can go back and look in some of the counties in the south there was one woman birthing everybody in the county for decades and eventually it was like no, we need to make money off of this, we need to regulate this. We're not going to tell these old women. They know what's going on. We, not, they've only been birthing legions of people, whole generations. So if they started to medicalize because originally birth was not done in hospitals, it was a very communal thing and that goes all the way back ancestrally and now we're telling these women that have birth generations you want to talk about slavery? It was somebody's granny on the plantation that was birthing everybody, big house and outside Right. And now we're looking at oh no, it's not safe to be birthed at home. You have to go to a hospital. And who's in a hospital? A man, because they're not emotional. And it turns into this whole thing. The Red Cross actually stepped in and said no, you have to have spurs or certifications, because now we're trying to regulate these, how these births are given, to get people away from these communal situations and into hospitals. So it's an actual orchestrated push to pull us away from these things.

Sheena Schuler:

So what you're saying about the oh, we did that during slavery. Oh, we were sharecroppers. We don't wanna go back to that. Oh, we had to do it out of necessity. But if you go back, our history didn't begin just with slavery. We were doing this from the beginning of time. All of these things we took care of each other, we took care of ourselves from the beginning of time. But in this country specifically, they tell us we don't know what we're talking about unless we have a degree in it, or we don't know what we're doing. Are we man? Listen? It's intentional, it's very intentional.

Kenyon Manley:

Wow, what advice would you give somebody who was maybe thinking about this whole practice, natural birth and all that? So if somebody was just thinking about this, what kind of advice would you give them?

Sheena Schuler:

Which side first, which side works best for you? Cause really it's a. It isn't a one size fits all thing. What works for you? Maybe, if you're a busy person, you might not have time to grow your own food or have a garden or anything like that, but there are changes that you can make. There are places where you can start to tweak things. You can't grow a garden. You can repot some celery that you bought from the store and let it grow on your windowsill. You can buy little herbs here and there and as you grow, believe me, once the bug hits your cart, you go from growing like mint in the window to making oregano oil, because you've researched and you found out that it'll cure you from everything. So now you got a jar sitting in your closet Like it just blossoms, and now you're finding these circles and like-minded people. It's just. It's a really beautiful thing, but all it takes is just a little baby step. You don't have to do it all at once.

Kenyon Manley:

Right, I know at our house we've for the last since Janice, but she's 14 now. We've always had a raised garden. And you know just one of the simple things and getting them in with the. You know the bugs and everything, but really showing them that, like trying to help relate, you know the life part of it and showing them that the seed that you plant you know if you nurture it it's going to be fruitful.

Sheena Schuler:

Yes.

Kenyon Manley:

And it's going to be fruitful in a way that it's in your controlled environment, right, and you're dictating how good and how pleasant that piece of fruit vegetable is going into your body. So we've always did that and I think that we've sort of gotten out of that, because I also personally think that farming is the like part of the American way of life, right, but they have been pushed into this productivity where maybe we've gotten out of the just growing stuff, naturally, where people ain't deceived or whatever it may be, but it has to do with that. So that's why I really, I really really love again what you're doing. Let's get on. You got a little book journal that's out. Let's talk about that. And what sparked the desire to put a journal out there?

Sheena Schuler:

So it's actually the first of a series of books there's going to be four in total. This one was not one of the original plans. It's called Vibes, Messages and Spiritual Conversations, and I was kind of. You know how, especially in our family, we always hear in something, we always. Ok, Laura, I hear you, I got it.

Kenyon Manley:

Yeah.

Sheena Schuler:

So I found myself in these moments of kind of trying to figure it out and writing it down, and I'm like I'm always just grabbing whatever notebook is nearby and I realize, I realize, you know, I need one place where I can sit and center myself and write this down. And then I'm watching it unfold, you know, day by day, week by week, and it became a labor of love in that. Learning to listen, learning to sit with yourself even if you don't call it meditation, even if you don't call it any of these, you know woo-woo titles learning to just hear, even if it's just your own inner voice, is so important. You know, a lot of times that's, that's your true north, that's your guidance. So the the point of the book was to find out how to Receive what is meant for you, how to hear it clearly, how to tell you know what's really going on you know how, Approach by who's who's thinking about this and and what your advice for them Of, I guess, lean towards.

Kenyon Manley:

You know, giving them their thought process, but but why they should go this way of you know maybe having a child in mid-life?

Sheena Schuler:

Well, number one, you actually have a little higher rate of success if you are a woman. That is not a high-risk pregnancy. You actually have a higher rate of success at either a birthing center or a home birth with a midwife or and or a doula. Then you do at the hospital. Hospitals are and it's kind of that's the propaganda oh, you're better off at the hospital. But hospitals are very much have higher numbers of interventions, you know, unnecessary C sections, women hemorrhaging, all of these things.

Sheena Schuler:

So even if you know you might lean toward they lead, they tend to lean toward things that are not always medically necessary. So I would definitely, you know, take some time, do your research, find someone that you trust, you know, recognize that there is a difference between a midwife and a doula, doula or not medical Professionals, they are emotional professionals, right? So we provide this, the support and we advocate for you, whether you're in a hospital setting or elsewhere. You know this is your body, this is your birth, this is your child and you deserve to have that in the way that you want. If there is no medical need for the staff of a hospital to intervene, whether it be through medication procedures, anything like that, let your body do what it does.

Sheena Schuler:

Humans have been working humans. Humans have been working humans for beyonds, so we'll just let it happen. But if you want to lean more into a more self-sufficient sort of community-centered life in general, find what works for you. If you're not Sally homemaker, there's so many other ways that you can take back control Of you. Know what you do, how you live, what you put into your body, what you allow around yourself. It's all part of it and it's all necessary.

Sheena Schuler:

Like the life that I live for living Is not in tune with nature. It is not natural, and that's why a lot of us have a lot of the problems that we have, because we're fighting against. You know what our natural inclinations are.

Kenyon Manley:

Awesome. So now I'm gonna sort of get away from Um, uh, sheena, the community care practitioner. I sort of want to go into Sheena and you know how she did doing, because you know she has had a lot, you know, you know, for in the last few years before. But you know, the reason why I'm asking you is because you know Me as well as you were servant leaders and and that's leaders always have that question, sheena, it's like who's taking care of us? Right, right, um, but I know through what you're doing, you're probably learning from the people you're talking to, um in a way that sort of keeps you up on your game. Um, but I want to know how you're going.

Sheena Schuler:

Um, I'm doing Every day. It's about just doing and being, because it it really did take a moment To reflect, because we all. But why is this happening? What? What did I do to deserve? And it's really like Me and my dad were having a conversation, right, and he's like you know, you've done all of these things and you've kind of bopped around in all of these different areas and he was like it never really made sense to me because I was like lord, when is she ever going to settle down Right?

Sheena Schuler:

When is she gonna pick one thing and just rock? And it was like he's like. And then I had to think well, moses was wandering in the desert for 40 years. He's like your 40 years is just about up. So, like I was. So you know, when a job is big, you need extra training, right. And he was like when all in is huge, you know it's gonna take you a little bit longer to get there, but you'll get there.

Sheena Schuler:

So, reframing the perspective of why it's always feeling like I'm getting hit with something extra, why nobody else has to deal with this nonsense To be who I am and stand where I have to stand, I have to know what certain things feel like you know I have to go through it. I have Be so deep in it I can't help you. If I don't know, just give you theory. Otherwise I can honestly say there's done like a whole lot. You can throw at me that I haven't already lived through, whether it's the cancer, whether it's the death, whether it's Any number of things. It's like I've been fighting for my life, my whole life. You can't tell. I'm sorry if y'all don't cuss. You can tell me shit right now. He got Bennett. I've been there. Anything I really don't know. Not only does it give you compassion and empathy.

Sheena Schuler:

But you understand, and it's not like, well, you know, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I've sat there. There was no bootstraps, I was just trying to stay alive. You know, and a lot of people, if you haven't been, you haven't seen, it doesn't always click like that, so you just give it some advice. Yeah, so I've learned while I, you know y'all, you can stop handing me tests and struggles. I think I've learned enough at this point.

Kenyon Manley:

The good thing is you weren't trying to survive, you were survived, and and you, you sometimes you don't think it's enough, but everything that you're doing is is what you need to be doing, and and that's.

Kenyon Manley:

It's just good to hear that Because, like you said, you done, you have been through a lot of things and now a lot to lend to, because you said you know, this whole community care practitioner thing is, it's a personal thing and there's going to be times where they're, like you said, the trust is going to come in, with you having the right answer at the right time, nurturing and caring for, for somebody in such, a really in a vulnerable state. You know, giving birth, birthing a child is so, it's so divine and so is special. Some people think it's just like something that just yeah, that's that's, that's, that's powerful. How is, what are, what are the things that you're doing that is empowering your community? I know you, I know you got some events, you got some things going on, but let the, let the folks know how you, how you are helping to empower the very community that you're serving.

Sheena Schuler:

So, um, so that authenticity, autonomy and community are the three words that I live off of right. So it's a variety of things Launching a rights of womanhood course coming up in March to help women reclaim themselves as women, not just moms, just not just as objects. But what does it mean to really sit with yourself in the space of womanhood and we're talking about all womanhood. You know the trauma, the joy, the all of it. You know to be better women. We're still out. You know, in Newark, we're still out feeding the homeless, passing out clothes and supplies. I'm still. You know, I still got my chef hat on. So we do and cooking lessons, and you know, whatever you need, my thing is I really want to. What? What do you need at that point in your life? Because I got the skills I can. I can help you where you are. I like you have to get to me, where are you, and I'll.

Sheena Schuler:

I'll help you, you know so, whether it's giving birth, whether it's helping people transition out of life as far as death, work being for the person transitioning as well as for the family left behind, if we're talking about just doing healing and life coaching and energetic work, I'm doing all of these things. It's not just one, it's really sometimes you just got to have that person. That can. I got you baby. You know, lean on me, talk to me, let's get through it, and I just, I just get you to the next step. That's it Right. We don't have to be lifelong. I'm just here to get to the next step.

Kenyon Manley:

Wow, man, man, okay, okay, that might be a mic shut down right there. Really, like, wow, like, yeah, I like what you said, like you ain't got to come to me, I come right to you, I'll meet you where you at. And that's what people need, not just on the doula or whatever else, but like that's what some people need is just for you to just just come down and just listen and and and and find out what it is you yourself can do to provide something. And, like you said earlier, it doesn't have to be this big grandios thing, because I think sometimes you try to think so deep and and it's like it's the simple things that people want. But if you ain't understanding the truth, you know, you know you're not going to be able to do anything, like it's the simple things that people want. But if you ain't understanding the cry, if you ain't understanding you know the, the, the, which, because, because you're not, I guess, letting yourself into where they're at- there's gonna be a disconnect.

Kenyon Manley:

There's gonna be a big, big disconnect Between you and that person. Yeah, man, meeting people where they're at, and that's all servant leaders, when, when I think about that, it's like you, you got to have that type of heart. When we're serving and it's just meeting people, we're adding, find out, you know, how best we can serve man. So, man, cause, I love it, I love it, I love it. So, you know, with my podcast, my biggest thing is, like, you know, it's really about those, those things you're talking about, the like, focusing, like you know, when you're driving, focusing when, when, when it's time for you to be at a coaching session, or, or, or a mother who's who's dealing with their child, there has to be a focus and and I I always fear that what we do, we have to be at the best at art because, again, when you're dealing with, you know, maybe somebody that's needed to help them deal with death or to bring in life, there's a crucial moment in there.

Kenyon Manley:

And if you're worried about your my answers, or you're worried about your relationship, or you know something outside of what you're doing is wrong. We're not being. We're not being the best professional that we can be and and that's why how she know was doing because I want people to know that, like she knows a A, a community care practitioner, but she know also is somebody like you that that that carries not only Well what she does, but she also carries herself that has to deal with what somebody out there who's watching is dealing with, somebody who may be In a corner, somebody who, who, who may need to to reach out, because it's cool to have a big, grandiose solution to, to trying to get people fixed, but how do you get there, um, with something so grandeur, when, when somebody, we got to first make that connection, that relationship, to even understand what we need to give them. So that's why I want to bring you on cuz, because what you're doing is is trans, is some transformational stuff. Um, when you talk about, when you're not here, what you're teaching, what you're talking about and what you're doing, it's going to transcend way beyond On, uh, you know what you're going to do and what you even could do on this earth. Um, so I'm so proud of you.

Kenyon Manley:

Um, I've been watching you from afar For a minute, laughing at you, because you know, you got this, you know this tough girl persona. You know what I'm saying and uh, uh, and, at the same time, listening to you when, uh, you're, uh, you're talks with the cats and uh, uh. So when your dad talks about moses, like he's right on with that man, you, you really got a big tool belt To really be able to serve in the space that you're in, and, um, I wanted to get you out there, um, and and and really explain this because, again, like I had to really look at this and I was like, man, this is deep right here, like this is something that I seen, but I never really Took time to understand it. And, and just seeing what it really is about, it's definitely needed and it's definitely, um, a fruitful business for, for somebody who's, you know, willing to To do things the way they used to be.

Kenyon Manley:

I mean, we've, we've changed a lot over time, you know, with this technology, um, but, uh, yes, yes, the the natural way. I like it, I love it, I really love it, I really love because, um, so I guess I'ma hit you with a question Is there anything that that you would have wished I would have asked? And if that would, and if there is something, what would that be that you would want somebody to know?

Sheena Schuler:

Not so much. Um, what I wish you would have asked. But if I wanted somebody to know something, give yourself grace, because we're all doing this day by day, you know, and just because it might look one way to somebody else, nobody knows what's really going on with you.

Sheena Schuler:

And Allow yourself, because we're living in a society where everybody's got to be perfect and everybody's got to do this and we've always got to be social media ready and it's all facade Right. That's why we need to go back to these practices, because it pulls away the facade and it's like this is just life Right. So be easy on yourself, like and that's not to say don't aspire to the greatest version of yourself, but recognize you're still here to have a human experience, and part of the experience is sometime messing up right this sometimes learning it's forgiving your parents because they were doing the best that they could, instead of just, oh I hate everybody and now my life is.

Sheena Schuler:

Extend not just yourself grace, but the same grace you want extended to you. Extend to everybody around you, and I think we would help each other a lot better that way and we'd get a lot farther if we saw each other with the same humanity that we want to be seen with.

Kenyon Manley:

Yes, yes, wow, okay, okay, I love it. I love it because I love it Well, cuz I'm a, I want you to know I love you deeply. Keep doing what you're doing. You're much needed out there, you're valued and and I just keep doing your thing. Let's stay in touch and I'll get with. I'll be talking to you later, thank you Love you too.

Sheena Schuler:

Give the family love for me.

Kenyon Manley:

All right, I sure will, I'll talk. Talk to you later.

Sheena Schuler:

Bye, bye.