We recently connected with Ahman Thurston and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ahman, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I found my passion in solitude and through exploration. I was going through a very chaotic point in my life; as a way of coping I decided to spend a lot of my time in my room, thinking and researching. This state of solitude turned into self reflection and then into evolution.
My favorite word at that point in life was ‘Vegetate’, which means “To grow as the plants do.” To me ‘Vegetate’ means, you have to be able to endure hard times to grow stronger, similarly to how plants become stronger and more vigorous after enduring a storm.
During the same point in life, my dear cousin told me about foraging and shared with me a plant identification app. Almost instantly I fell in love with it. I found great joy in exploring the forests and the plants and all of their awe bringing attributes. This hobby quickly turned into an obsession, then into a passion and now it has shifted into my way of life. To me sourcing my own food through foraging and growing is a life skill. Having a personal connection to the land and to our vital resources is our inalienable birthright and it is our path to liberation.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
The Nomadic Sol was birthed out of illness, disease and absence. In the modern western society we are raised up with this dog eat dog, crabs in a barrel mentality. We are prompted to bicker, to eat poorly, to neglect our resources and to segregate our selves.
Our trend of rugged individualism and over dependency on third parties (e.g the state, the bank, governing authorities) is unnatural. We no longer know our neighbors, we no longer know the land, we no longer know the source of our food & water and the (top)soil is merely alive. The convenience fee for a modern life, is life itself.
The solution to our problem is community. The saying “It takes a village” does not apply just to children, but to adults, and to nearly all forms of life on this planet.
My vision, and our mission at The Nomadic Sol is simply…liberation. We will achieve this by reviving the community that I so often speak of, by decolonizing our selves & the spaces that we will build our communities on top off, by forming food security in our communities, by forming local economies & supply chains within our communities, by building our communities to function “off grid”, by building our communities to be physically & socially sustainable, and by guarding the land & the (top)soil.
One way that ‘The Nomadic Sol’ is achieving this goal is through our ‘Free Community Garden’ program. Through this program we install community gardens FREE OF CHARGE. These gardens will be a space for the community members to learn about growing their own food, it will provide them with the space to grow their own food, and it will function as a safe haven. A place for the community to gather, for the community to celebrate and for community members to get a break from the outside world.
This vision, this mission, it will all start with you…in your mind and then in your own neighborhood.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Some of the most important things that I have learned on my journey so far are: networking, resource management and troubleshooting.
1. Networking: You have to go out into the world and build bridges and bonds. To summarize my experience with networking I would say. Get out the house, go to that event, talk to anybody and everybody, be prepared to strike when an opportunity shows itself and know how & when to apply pressure.
Never be scared to talk to someone, you literally never know what they have to say or to offer. Just say “Hey, how are you today”, ask a few promoting questions and typically the other person will take it from there. Be honest, straight forward and intentional when talking to people. Your words are tools.
2. Resource management: This means to plan, delegate, record and analyze all of your resources regularly. A few important resources include: time, energy, money, fuel and health.
A perfect example of this is budgeting. Creating a budget for money or time is very useful because you are making a plan for how much of your resource is supposed to go where, in the moment it will help you decide if you can afford to spend that resource on a certain thing, you write down all your purchases and keep your receipts, then at the end of the week or month you look at your records and you will see where you overspent, where you dont need to spend at all, where you can adjust & optimize to save more and etc.
The most important part of resource management is your why? Resource management takes a great deal of self discipline. Your reason why, your end goal has to mean more to you than your desires, impatience or laziness in all of the everyday moments.
3. Troubleshooting: Something I learned when I was young, something I believe firmly is that sometimes you have to take a step back in order to properly move forward. This could mean renegotiating with a client, remodeling your business, redoing your business plan or just taking a break all together. Sometimes you have to get out of that space to see things clearly, differently or better, and sometimes you just need to rest. Sleep in for a few days, go to the park, really clear your mind and recharge.
Some of the most pivotal changes in my life occurred during a rest period; I did not directly cause or pursue these changes, life just happened and I did not fight it.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am looking for growers (farmers, gardeners, permaculturalist), carpenters (home builders and renovators), off grid experts, sustainability managers and ecologist. More importantly I am looking for community builders and change makers. I do not wish to start another movement, I am working to address the root causes of our problems. I need people that see the bigger picture, that known the true enemy and that have the courage to face it. I need revolutionaries!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thenomadicsol.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nomadic.sol?igsh=emU0MW5rY3VuemF1&utm_source=qr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahman-thurston-12632a255?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@TheNomadicSol?si=zHKnAXILcVb_Qzh0
- SoundCloud: https://open.spotify.com/user/countrylife204?si=yCAuVOKOSdSt50qqs33gdg
- Other: https://hihello.me/p/d29b0ee3-663c-4f42-a7ba-bd1e091c757f
Image Credits
@kaliaawarren @graditudebotanicalfarm
