Jason Lennox is your resident recovery champion. He walked 520 some miles across six states for a campaign for recovery from substance use and mental health. He says mental health is actually what ends up killing people.
Jason Lennox is your resident recovery champion. He walked 520 some miles across six states for a campaign for recovery from substance use and mental health. He says mental health is actually what ends up killing people. The lesson here is that we just. act and we support and we do what we can.
Lebanon mayor: Tragedy is going to happen to all of us. He says we need to show a little more compassion and show up for each other. We need to keep having conversations about mental health and substance use, he says.
All right, we're going to try this again. Jason Lennox here. Coming to you everybody in the Cadre sphere with Sunday Serenity again, I'm Jason Lennox, your resident recovery champion, which just means I'm here to talk about all things recovery from substance use, from mental health, from well being, and coming to you as Sunday Serenity. I don't know what was going on with the video before, so apologies for that, but here and looking forward to chat with you all in the Cadre sphere someday. Serenity is my series and I really believe that serenity is what drives our level of satisfaction in life, which ultimately prevents us from going back to the old lives that we lived or drugs, alcohol, money, food, all those things are ways that we escape.
And I know for me, I had a real lack of serenity for a long time in my life and that's what contributed so much to my alcohol use, my substance use, and just downfalls in the world of mental health. And I'm coming to you today, Sunday from Minnesota. It's dark out now. It's getting dark earlier. We had daylight savings time end today. So we're going into a season where mental health, substance use, everything just gets a little more prevalent. So it's important that we check in here. And I'm coming to you today.
You know, just a little bit down. I've had a weekend, I guess you could say, and maybe some of you know, if you don't. I walked 520 some miles across six states for a campaign for, for exactly this, for recovery from substance use and mental health, to represent and honor the 307,000 people we lost last year to drugs, alcohol and mental health. I've been saying suicide and I've just been thinking about that word a lot. And I just think mental health is actually what ends up killing people. Suicide is the act.
And I think we have such a problem in a world with looking at mental health and suicide and overdoses in such a different light than we do, you know, diseases of the physical nature, like cancer, like heart disease and all the other things that regularly kill people. So mental health, I think is sometimes more appropriate word. But I got back on Sunday of last week and the very next day I was at the beginning of a conference, a three day conference here in Minnesota. And I got a call from a couple people, actually I got text messages saying, can you please call me when you have a minute?
I called one of them, which was a good friend of mine from school, actually dated a long, long time ago, and she was the first one I called and she told me that her cousin was one of three sisters that I grew up in and around their household quite a bit and graduated with the youngest of those three, that the oldest had a daughter that she lost due to mental health. And it was pretty heart wrenching, to say the least. She was 11 years old, and it didn't really sink in. So I did a couple things throughout the week.
I knew when tragedy strikes, this happens a lot, and it is an opportunity for us to step up and to do something. And I know because I came off the heels of this long walk and had a lot of people supporting that there could be a way to really support. And so anyway, a couple things happen, to share some things and, you know, share with my people, and we do all that on social media. But I went to a funeral yesterday, and I gotta tell you, it was. It left me in a really, really tough spot, sitting through, first of all, going, when tragedy strikes.
The lesson here is that we just. We act and we support and we do what we can. So I went. I didn't really know the mom that well. I didn't know dad at all. I didn't know the girl. But I knew the family and the cousins and the sisters, certainly. And I graduated with and knew them from a distance. And we've been connected. So I go and I show up and do the thing and do what I can to just be there and offer some words and had some really intimate moments with all three of the sisters. It just, you know, coming off a campaign like this where this is exactly what we're doing is we're trying to talk about this more.
We're trying to have more of a conversation. We're trying to lift people up, support people, honor people that we've lost. Of course, this is very, very fresh and it's raw for them. So had those moments and I really wanted to just kind of sneak to the back of the church and be outside of kind of the main area. A lot of people wanted to ask questions about walking miles. And I just. I didn't feel it was appropriate. And so I snuck down and I snuck around the backside and actually got pushed down to a lower level.
As I sat in the lower level, they brought the casket back and then the family, they closed the doors to the main area of church. And that's where they said some goodbyes and things like that. And I had never experienced that. I'm downstairs, I'm there, I'm listening. It's really heartbreaking to listen to this family sleep Slowly, one by one, two by two, three by three, pull away and walk down the stairs. After saying some final goodbyes, especially mom and dad, just absolutely heartbreaking. So I'm down there, all of that happens.
They come down, I can hear the casket close. I can hear things that I just, I don't think I'll ever be able to unhear. In the middle of all this, I'm down here again kind of out back by myself and you know, the family goes in and I walk back up and I follow and I'm sitting, sitting in the very back and I'm listening to the music and the poems and the readings and the prayers. It really was a touching ceremony and a lot of people had a lot of good things to say really about this bubbly, happy 11 year old girl.
And all I heard was again playing in my head was just this tragic time where these family members are in the back and they're saying their final goodbyes. And so all this is just making me go, did I even make the right choice in coming here? The thing with working in this industry and with doing the work that some of us do is we live, breathe and eat this stuff. And so we're pulled and we're called to be there and to show up in the most tragic of times. That's what I did. And as I was there, that's good.
But at the same time it can be very heavy and hard and carries. It comes with just a lot of weight and a lot of feelings and we just, we just absorb all of this energy that comes through. So I'm questioning all these things. The funeral goes on. It's again as sad as it gets with an 11 year old who's got this whole life ahead of her. And I'm standing in the back and they start the recession and again I'm wondering, should I sneak out of here? Should I be here? All the questions are going in my head and I stand there and as they let the family come out, the recession happens, the casket and the family members, one by one.
And it was actually the middle sister, the younger sister of the mom, someone who I know well enough and had had some conversation with before she bolted out of the recession line. And she was sobbing and she was crying and it was really hard as you can imagine. She just comes up to me and gives me this massive hug and she's pleading, she's saying, please, please don't stop the work you are doing, please. And she just begged until I gave her comfort in knowing that of course, of Course that's what I would do.
It was in that moment that I just went, okay, tragedy struck once when this little girl left. And we take action when that happens. That's all I know is all I know. I've lived a life full of tragedy and I just know that it's time to put one foot in front of the other and show up. So I did that. And it almost struck again as I sat there and just listened to all the, again those final moments and all the things that I'd never really heard before and it made me want to run again. But that moment when the sister, when she came up to me, I'll just never forget it.
And she begged and pleaded that we continue this work, that I continue on this path and continue to make a difference for her little niece. And so I just want to say again that tragedy is going to happen to all of us. It really, really it does. There's no avoiding it. And in fact, I think it's, I think it's on us to lean into that a little. And even when it doesn't feel like it, I, you know, I just got my car back. I didn't have a lot in me and you know, I made the hour and a half drive because that's what, that's, that's what we do.
We show up for people and we need to start doing more of the walking. I said this throughout the week last week. We have a lot going on. We have elected officials at the federal level that are jockeying for position and using human lives as ammunition, which is really sad. We had the Minnesota state legislature and our governor kind of create some chaos in the human services industry again this week and just impulsive decisions that we see. And we've got all the people still fighting behind screens, throwing words, attacking the heck out of each other.
Meanwhile, people out here dying, literally. We have little girls succumbing to exactly what we're talking about here. We have people who are not eating now. We have people who are just really out there suffering and wondering if they should stick around for one more day. And I think it's on us to do something about that and to start walking a little more, a lot more and talking a lot less. We have enough talkers in this world. And this goes for me as well as anyone watching this. We don't have enough walkers.
And after walking 520 some miles, you'd think I would say that. I consider myself a walker, but I have a lot more walking to do. Someone asked me how many Miles, did you walk at the funeral again, people? I didn't want to really have this part of the conversation, which is why I removed myself from the main area. But someone asked how many miles I walked and all I said was not enough because I would do it again in a heartbeat if it brought that little girl back. That's the kind of thing we need in this world.
We just need to be showing up more, supporting each other more, talking about this more and really being compassionate. A lot of kids, we've got social media, we've got this whole world of technology that has done a lot of good, but it also gives us a picture of everything that's happening out there. We see everything. We see how divided our world is, we see how evil it can be. We also see regularly people who are losing their lives to mental health and substance use. And so somehow I think it has become a little more acceptable because everything is just so much more visible now.
And what we need to do is just show a little more compassion and show up for each other and do what we can and be a little more generous and do a little more walking and stop contributing to the divisive social media posts and the bullying and all the things. And we need to talk to our kids about these. And most of all, we need to keep having conversations about mental health and substance use. The more we can talk about these things, the more people are willing to share. And it's unfortunate, it's very unfortunate that most of the time when people are ready to have this conversation, it's too late.
They're ready to have it because it's directly impacted them. It doesn't have to be that way. We can open this space and we can create it and we can do everything we can to keep our little ones safe and sound and growing up and living a life that they dreamed of not being buried at Lebanon. It doesn't have to be that way and I think we just need to create more space to talk about these things. So we got a lot of work to do, but I'm confident that we can do it and I hope you can grab something from this, whether any of those little tidbits and just act.
If it's when tragedy strikes, showing up, please just do it. It's being a little more proactively compassionate and loving, generous. Do it. If you've got kids, go hug them tonight. Keep hugging them. Tell them it's okay to talk about when things aren't going alright. It really is important and it's on us to make some of these changes, and I think we can. I am hopeful, even though I've been rocked for the last 36 hours, I'm incredibly hopeful that we have a world where we can make a difference and where we can create moments like that, because we create the space because of these campaigns, because of the things that I know I've been willing to participate in.
People come and they gravitate to that and they talk about it. They want to give the extra hugs. They want to continue to cheer for this thing to go the right direction. And I think it can again. So I hope you all have wonderful weeks. I'm gonna kick back. I'm gonna get some dinner, put a movie on. I'm gonna. Maybe I'll find a little Christmas movie. It's early, I know, but at this point, I just need a little something to lighten the mood a little. So I'm grateful for all of you for stopping in.
And again, if you've got those little ones, just go grab them tonight. Hold them tightly, because we just never know and remember what we do. People see the actions we take and the things we're willing to do and show up and be there for. People are watching. People are watching. And when it's for the good and the time comes, they really, really appreciate that, and it means the world. And I can tell you that from experience, over and over again. So I know I'll keep showing up. I hope you do, too, until.
Till next week. Hope you all have wonderful weeks. We'll talk soon. Bye. Bye.
