Finding Your Strength In The Struggle

Hi, Cadre Sphere. Hi. Hi. Hi. I'm so happy to be here today. I was just sitting here thinking about you all and that it's Wednesday and then it's lunchtime and then we get to be together. And I am so thankful for that. Come in. Say hello. Welcome. I have been sitting here actually thinking about you all. I've been thinking about hello, our stigma. Welcome. Welcome. I've been thinking about Cadre and the theme of October is harvest. And the reason I was thinking about Cadre is because long ago, Luke Wendlandt had an idea and he planted the seed.

And the seed has grown into what it is today, which is amazing. With a team of amazing and awesome, awesome people. It has. It has grown to community and a welcoming, a supportive, inclusive community. And that is not easy to do. So I am grateful for that. I am grateful for the opportunity to be here. Greetings, speak, Wonder. Welcome, Pennsylvania. Love when you join me from Pennsylvania. Never been. Would love to go, but I've never been. But I'm so grateful. I'm grateful for you all. I'm grateful for the team at Cadre.

I'm grateful for the amazing contributors. If you have not had an opportunity to view or go into some of the live streams or watch some of the activity in the Cadresphere, I highly encourage you to do so. There's a lot of really, really awesome community support there and I am very, very grate it. So, like I said, October is harvest. And one thing that I has been on my mind a little bit more recently than maybe other times when things are going really well and you don't necessarily think about the hard things or the struggle of things is that is doing hard things and struggling, struggling with certain things.

And so I think about harvesting in terms of harvesting the courage to get through it, harvesting the strength to get through it, the willingness to get through it, right? Those are the things that sometimes when we're doing hard things, that's what we need. That's what we need. We need that support. We need that internal courage, that internal strength, but we also need it external. We need the people around us to be able to support us as well. Think of something that was really hard for you, something that you struggled with, right?

It's not easy. Sometimes I think we've all think of the things that it's like riding a bike or playing a sport or trying a new game, right? Those are hard things for some people. That's hard to pick up or it's hard to understand, right? Those are some Hard things. I think about hard things in that regard. But I also think about hard things like sharing my emotions, trusting people. Right. Being a good daughter or sister or friend or wife. Those are some things that I've struggled with. And with my mom in the hospital, this is kind of what had me thinking about struggling to be a good grown up daughter.

Some of you may also think about those things. Maybe you think about, did I reach out at the right time? Am I calling my parents enough? Do I get to go see them enough? Right. These are the things that with my mom in the hospital, I've been thinking a lot about. Did I do all the things I should have done in the small moments? Did I recognize that I should have done those small things before she got in the hospital? Did I go visit her enough? Did I make her happy? Right? Did I call her when she needed a phone call?

Those are the things I've been struggling with a lot. Now. My mom is doing really well and I've been incredibly blessed to be able to be part of this journey and support her. She has amazed me with the amount of hard things she has had to struggle through. She actually has a carotid artery in her brain, so they had to take a piece of another artery and sew it onto the other side. God bless those surgeons. And so it wasn't a light surgery, right? This is a surgery that you have to almost relearn some things and she's been doing that and that's hard, especially for a 78 year old woman.

Right. She's had to relearn how to get back up out of bed and walk herself to the bathroom. She's had to relearn. My mom is left handed. She's had to learn, due to IVs and things that have been in her arms, how to eat. Right handed. She's had to do some really hard things. And she's stronger and braver and has more courage every single day when I go see her. And I'm absolutely blown away at the fact that she every day wakes up and knows she can do hard things. And I want that for you. I know you can do hard things.

I know there are hard things every single day that we go through. Whether it's learning to be a better listener or. Or to not interrupt a conversation or to not accidentally slam a door when you're walking into a store, whatever that might be. Those are the things that I think we need to think about, right? The things that are important to not only us, but to the people around us. I have a dear, dear sister who lives in Colorado, and we often don't see eye to eye, and right now is one of those times, and that's hard for me.

Yeah. Speak wonder. I love that you get to visit once a week. 94 blessings on a good, long life. That's great. But, yeah, I have a dear sister. She lives in Colorado, and I'm in Minnesota, and my parents are here in Minnesota, Wisconsin, right across the border. And she was out for a little bit right when mom had her surgery, and she obviously had to go home and do some things for herself and her family as well. Well, but we. We don't always see eye to eye, and I often struggle with what can I do better, to be a better sister, to be better in her eyes?

And I know what the feeling of it is. I just can't get to the outcome of it. And I'm learning every single day with every single interaction what that feels like. But it's hard. It's hard when you have internal struggles with what you can do better, how you can do better, how you can be viewed as doing better. Right. And that's. That's one thing that's really tough for me. My mom, though, she can do hard things, and that's what I love about her. And. And that's why I feel very blessed to be in her presence when she's doing those hard things, because it teaches me that I know I can do hard things.

And the struggle is real. We all have struggles, whether they're internal or they're external, whether they're with relationships or whether they're with a physical sport you want to play. Right. There's all sorts of different things that. And I've talked about this many times, but that growth, mindset, that willingness to learn from something, to fail, to learn, to grow, to move on, that's hard. And if you can do that, you're going to find so much about yourself in terms of courage and strength and bravery that you didn't know.

And the next time, it's going to be just that much easier to go through that hard thing. I don't know. This is what I wanted to share with you today. I'm just. I'm. I'm. The thought of harvest, the thought of doing hard things, the thought of seeing my. My elderly mother doing hard things is. Is truly one of those things that I feel gratitude for. I also feel gratitude to be able to recognize that. So for now, I'm going to be my mom's cheerleader. I'm going to be your cheerleader. I will always cheer you on.

Remember that you can do hard things. You're stronger and braver than you ever knew. So take care. Cadre Spear. Be well and be extra kind to yourself today. Have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday. You all are amazing. Thank you for coming. I appreciate you.