Savoring Your Community

Hello everybody. Happy Thursday to you here in the Cadre sphere. I hope that the day is treating you well. If it is not, shame on it. Not shame on you. I am Ms. Shannon Paul. I am a variety of word related things. I'm a comedian and a corporate speaker and a voice actor, an event emcee and also the proud mother of an adorable 17 year old boy who happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum. Mel Myers. Hello, welcome to the Cadre here today. I hope that you are well. I always like to say that I hope that the day is treating you well.

If it is not, shame on it. Not shame on you. Thank you very much. Speak Wonder. Good to see you as well. Always love seeing you in the chat. Speak Wonder, let me know. Did you do your live stream earlier today? I was here at the fair and didn't have a chance to check in on all my Cadre sphere companions. So I'm not sure if you were there. So if you were, I will find you in the replay after I get out of the fair. Hello. Hello Melissa. You know I wanted to bring up as we continue our conversations about Savory as we wrap this up, at least I, I think I might squeeze in one more.

We'll see what I end up talking about Saturday. Honestly haven't thought that far in advance yet but I am joining you from the Minnesota State Fair and hello Anna. Hello. I do want to say apologies to anyone who was looking forward to joining me last Thursday for our comedy through the Chaos. I had the best of intentions but yes, Thursday was the opening of the Minnesota State Fair and I had these grand plans to join you here. I work for our local fox affiliate, so Fox 9. So that's what you see behind me and see on my shirt, Fox 9.

So I meant to join you from the Fox 9 State Fair book. Hello Andy. Hello. Hello. Hello. And then I looked up and all of Thursday had passed me by without me checking in with you. So I apologize for the impromptu missing of a Thursday comedy through the chaos. But as we are continuing having these conversations about savoring what has been on my mind lately, a lot is savoring our community and I think that this is a quality conversation to have here in the Cadre sphere. For those of you joining us, hi Andy.

For those of you joining us from the Twin Cities and the Minnesota region like I'm at the doctor's office, no earbuds, got you on low volume. You can check in later. So I hope that it is a very normal doctor's appointment. For you speak wonder. So if you've seen in the news, Minneapolis is going through a tragedy right now. And I, from a trigger warning, don't want to bombard you with anything, but I want to let you know that it's something that affects us on a variety of levels here in the Twin Cities.

And I think that it falls in line a lot of align a lot with what we do here in the Cadre sphere in building community and talking about how we support each other in different ways and especially, especially on these caregiver Thursdays. Because for me, because of the situation that happened at one of our local schools, I understand how difficult it is for our young people. I understand how difficult it is for our parents and our caregivers to go, am I putting my child, am I putting this person that I care for in an unsafe environment?

And why it's unknowingly anxiety driven for so many of us. And I am no exception to that. Last night was my son's open house at his school. Yeah. So last night I was at my son's open house. And one of the things that brings back things into this crystal clear light for me is how we do at this time need to surround ourselves with people who can bring light back through these dark times. And I am not one of those people that says we always need to have a distraction from it, but you do need people that can help you work through some of these things.

And how do we provide information and resources and support and community for people when we are going through these things that are going to impact us? Whether you're specifically there, I have a friend who went to the church here in the Twin Cities. You know, we have been discussing it here at the TV station that I work on and the radio station that I work on. And for us, one of the things that we did is, you know, I work on an entertainment driven show. We didn't broadcast this morning because it seemed tone deaf.

It didn't make sense for us. But some people may have been, oh, that would have been great. I would have liked to have that distraction. I think that's one of the things that we want to remind ourselves is that we can navigate these spaces in ways that work for us. That means a different variety of touch points and closeness regardless of how it is affecting you. And that understanding that even though you may not have been one of the people that was at this particular school, it still may impact you and affect you because it's something that's happening in your community and community.

We also have to remember that that is such a broad definition. It's something that we talk about here in the Cadre sphere, that we are a community, we are a family. There are ways that you have community that you are part of inherently and other communities that are built around you. And that is important as finding that support and finding people who can communicate with you the way that you need to be communicated with at the time when things are happening. So I encourage all of us to continue to take care of one another to build that community.

I mean, it was another difficult thing, as you know, especially since my son is special needs. Anytime something like this happens at a school, I am extra concerned about the people who may not understand what's going on, how to keep them safe, how to keep their instructors safe and their staff safe. Especially since this particular situation involves such young children, I can see why it would impact people even more greatly than some of the other things that have happened as well. So if I'm wrapping back into what do I consider ways that we can support one another, it's finding the right people to be able to go.

Here's what I need to do. How I would like to talk about it. It might be going, you know, for us. I had people today that were coming up to me again. I'm at the Minnesota State Fair. It is incredibly busy still because it's the kind of thing where people travel throughout. You know, they come in from other states, they travel from up north, they into town. They took the day off months ago to come here and come to the Minnesota Faith Fair. And there's businesses that are here that still need to continue their business.

So it's finding that, that, that balance, as much as that is one of my least favorite words, because how often do we actually find balance. But finding that balance in communicating what is going on, but also being able to go what seems most appropriate. So for us, you know, for our entertainment driven show, it seemed most appropriate to go. You know, we're not going to try and act like it's okay to only talk about prono pups and what's the new Minnesota State Fair food. We're going to give that a minute, you know, kind of thing.

We're going to honor our community by. For us, it was, we're going to be quiet. We're going to be quiet, we're going to rest. We're going to give an opportunity for people to recharge. We'll be in a position where we can have more intentional conversations for a moment. And that's what we chose to do with this. And I've had some people that were disappointed that we didn't do the show today, and I've had other people that really understood and appreciated the fact that we didn't do the show today and probably will be back tomorrow.

But again, we're going to call that audible today. It's, you know, and kind of just read the room and. And see how that goes. And, you know, I want to remind all of us here that again, you know, and especially, like, the reason why I named this comedy through the Chaos is that the expectation isn't going to be that things are funny and hilarious when they're midst of them. But as much as there are terrible things that are happening, I do think it's also appropriate to go. But here's how we're going to continue to address them and how we're going to continue to work towards them.

Because my general outlook on things are that's how things continue to move forward. That's how we continue to have change, is to sit there and go, as bad as this is, what can we continue to do to move forward so that hopefully there are better outcomes for not only our future selves, but for other people as we move forward. And in the meantime, there are resources for you and your mental wellness on your journey. There are community members you can talk to, there are friends, there are loved ones that can remind you that you're cared for and that there'll be those pockets that will go ahead and surround you and the other people that are in your community.

So don't always feel like community has to be this giant thing. It doesn't have to be. I'm part of this huge organization that does all these things. It might just be you and your family. For me, a lot of times, it's my sister that lives next door. It's my friends that I play Dungeons and Dragons with. It's the people that I work at the radio station with. It's small, might micro communities that I'm able to sit there and go, hey, we're going to rally behind these folks as much as possible. And the Minnesota State Fair is a great reminder of that for me.

I've had former interns come by. I've had friends that I used to work with that have come by. I have two friends that came by this morning that hung out with me and wanted to talk about things and to be able to gather with one another and continue to go. It just takes one conversation to go, all right. I feel that 1% better. I feel 1% heard. I feel that there's one more person that I could sit there and go, that's all I needed today. That's all I needed, was to be able to talk to one person that communicates in a way that I can receive right now.

So hopefully continue to find that person if you don't have it. That's where I think that a lot of us here in the Cadre sphere are openly trying to help step into that space for you and go, hey, you do have a community when you're here. You know what? Having that person in your circle that can go, hey, that was really hard. Or you're not the only one that's feeling like that. And it may not be 20,000 people that are telling you that you're not alone, but hey, you got one. And it might just be one lady with blue hair that's telling you you're not alone.

But hopefully I'm here for you and so are the rest of our contributors that are here. My grandiose plan is to be back with you on Saturday. If there's anything we could ever do to continue continue to help discuss these things with you, please let us know. You can always drop it in the chat if you're like, hey, we'd love to see you do more of this content. But you know, I just want to remind everybody, find your version of peace. Find your way to be safe right now. Find your way to refuel. Because we know that this is not going to be a corner that we're able to turn tomorrow.

We're going to be in a lot of these journeys for a while. So give yourself that time to rest and see what it is that you have to do and find people that can continue to support you. Because you know what? It's hard and it's sad and we use those words horrific all the time. And you're not the only one that's sitting here who's touched by it and worried that somebody that you care about will end up in one of these situations. All of us are. So deep breaths, everybody. Positive vibes to everybody as we continue on.

Love one another as best as you can. Figure out that way to wrap yourself in these ways and find the people that are here for you as well. And when in doubt, you know, blame it on the ragweed. The ragweed is terrible these days, isn't it? Just absolutely horrible. My allergies have been kicking, so we appreciate all of you. I will see you back here On Saturday morning, 10am Central as we continue having more conversations about all of the chaos that we have to navigate in our lives. If you're at the Minnesota State Fair, either today until 4pm or tomorrow, which will be Friday, come by and see us.

I told you, Anna, that ragweed was kicking. So I appreciate all of you. I hope the day is treating you well. And if it is not, shame on it. Not shame on you. See? See everybody soon.