Latest / Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess / Christmas Joy! | Episode #373

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Christmas Joy! | Episode #373 · Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess

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Hello, and welcome to today's show, Legacy Living, Make your Life Count.
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I'm your host, Doctor Gloria. Gloria Burgess, international leadership expert and
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trusted advisor. Welcome to Legacy Living, Make your Life Count. I'm delighted
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that you join me today. I want to give a big thank you to
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those of you who are listening all around the world. I'm delighted and so
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grateful that you tuned in. I hope you're enjoying a fabulous day and that
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you're having a fantastic week, because you know what, in the grand song
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of the universe, life is so very short. It's short and sweet and
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very very precious. So I hope you're making a difference in your own life,
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because when you do, you also make a difference in someone else's life.
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Now, a lot of people want to make their life count for something,
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and they ask me, doctor Gloria, how do you do that.
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Well, it's simple, It's very very simple. You make your life count
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day by day, step by step, moment by moment, every single day
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three sixty five, twenty four to seven. That's what Legacy Living, Make
1:53
your Life Count is all about. You can learn more about Legacy Living make
2:00
your life count by visiting the Gloria Burgess website. That's right, that's g
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l O r I A b U r g E s S dot com.
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The Gloria Burgess website once again, g l O r I A b U
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r g E S S dot com. Or by visiting me on Facebook and
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that's www dot Facebook dot com. Forward slash doctor Gloria Burgess, p h
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D. And that doctor is d R Gloria Burgess, pH D. Forward
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Slash. Now, today, I want to talk with you about one of
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my favorite topics, daring to wear your soul on the outside, daring to
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live out loud. Specifically, I'm going to focus on a person who stepped
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up who said, you know what, I want more in my life.
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I want to be more, I want to know more, and I want
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to serve more. I hope that this story about this amazing person who has
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transformed her life will inspire you as it has inspired me. And if you
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are inspired, I will share more about how you too can make that same
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kind of shift in your own life. I'll share some resources with you later
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so you can do exactly that equip yourself to make the kind of difference in
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your own life that you're going to hear about in this inspiring story I'm going
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to share with you today. So once again, folks, today's focus is
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daring to wear your soul on the outside. It's all about daring to live
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out loud. So what time is it? Well, I'm so glad you
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asked. It's time to sit back, relax, make yourself a cup of
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tea or coffee, or get a nice tall glass of water, put your
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feet up, relax in your favorite chair, and don't forget your pen and
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notepad because you're going to want to take notes today. We're going to have
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a great time. If you're just joining us, I'm your host, Doctor
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Gloria, and this is Legacy Living Make your life count. I'd like to
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extend a very special welcome to those of you who are joining my podcast or
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if you're joining Talk Network Radio for the very first time, you are in
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for a real treat. I'm excited to have you listening today, and I'm
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deeply honored that you've allowed me to be part of your day so you can
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be inspired by the ideas and resources to make your life count. Today's episode
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is all about daring, daring to wear your soul on the outside, or
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as some people would say, daring to live out loud, a very important
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topic so you can enjoy the life you love, a life of joy and
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service. One of my favorite poets, Muriel Rickiser, reminds us that the
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world is not made up of atoms. That's right, the world is not
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made up of atoms. Well, if it's not made up of atoms,
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then what is it made of It's made up of stories. And I just
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love that, don't you. Now, let's think about that for just a
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moment. No matter where you live in the world, do you hear stories?
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Right? You hear stories from the time you are born. You hear
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stories as a little bitty babe in arms, Stories around the dinner table,
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around the fireplace. Stories when we go to school, stories in the lunch
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room and the hallways. Stories when we're ready to leave school, when we
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are ready to graduate so we can then move on, maybe to college or
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university. Then when we apply to that college of our dreams, they ask
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us to share stories about why we want to go there and what we hope
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to accomplish. Then once we arrive, we hear stories that are all about
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that college or university, and then more stories as we move through our studies
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and then into the workplace, and once we have a job, we hear
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story after story after story. You know what, Stories are a very big
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part of our lives. In fact, they are so much a part of
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our lives we don't even realize the presence, or potency or the power that
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they have in our lives. Did you know that stories are how we make
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meaning, how we make sense of our world. That's right. Stories can
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help us understand who we are. They help us chart and navigate the very
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different kinds of water in our lives. They actually help us as we move
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through the many moments, hours and days of our lives. You know what
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else, in many cultures all over the world, stories are actually revered as
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medicine. Stories are thought of and revered as medicine. Think about that.
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So what does that mean exactly? Well, let's take a look at it.
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Stories are referred to as medicine because they help to ground us and when
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we lose our way, as we often do in our fast paced world,
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stories help us. They enable us to come home, to come back to
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realign with who we are, and to come back into harmony with whose we
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are right with who we belong to. Now. That's so good, isn't
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it? And so important. So stories are medicine that help ground us and
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they help us come home, to come back, to come back into harmony
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with whose we are and who we are. Now. This is true whether
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we're talking about an individual, you know, whether we're talking about a person
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like you or me. And it's also true if we're talking about a family,
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a community, a team, or an organization. Just a couple of
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days ago, I was with one of my clients and our specific focus was
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on team building. And guess what the resources we used for team building,
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The resources we used to get from here to there were That's right, stories.
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In other words, what needed to be surfaced and made visible and discussed
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were the stories that lived inside each and every team member. We surfaced and
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talked about stories that the team could be aware of and then so that they
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could be intentional about becoming the best team possible, to put their best foot
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forward, so to speak, to do their best work in serving one another
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as well as serving their customers, vendors, and other stakeholders. Now,
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the team I was working with was a group of doctors and their stakeholders.
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Well, their stakeholders include patients and their families and other doctors and nurses and
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physician assistants and so many more people. And the same is true no matter
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what kind of professional group I'm working with. It could be a team of
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teachers, or a team of attorneys, marketers, administrators, stockbrokers, artists,
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civic leaders. It doesn't matter. Their common ground is always found and
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made visible through stories. So, as I said earlier, stories are powerful
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medicine. It's been said that stories are small doses of what matters, and
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it is in the telling, in the telling of stories that's so important.
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Why is that because the telling is what releases the medicine. It is the
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telling that soothes our pain and shares our joy. I'm going to repeat that,
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it is the telling that releases the medicine, and it is the telling
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that soothes our pain and shares our joy. In the Ki Swahili language,
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the words hibari gani mean what's the news or what's happening now. So in
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the next little wild I will share with you a small dose of what's happening
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now, of what matters in the lives of ordinary people. In fact,
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I want to share with you one particular story today, and this story that
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I will share breathes the timeless, universal truths of what I call the seven
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Sacred Promises. They are truths that mentor us, mentor us in ways of
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being that are older than time. Truths that just breathe, breathe beneath the
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surface of our ever busy lives. They are truths that, when we make
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them visible in our life, we can actually draw on them with conscious intention
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to shape our daily choices, actions, and decisions. So what are the
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sacred promises? They are gratitude, faith, love, vision, integrity,
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creative action, and legacy. You hear me talk about these promises every week
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right right here, and today you're going to hear more about these sacred promises
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through the inspiring story I'm going to share with you. This story begins with
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a small dose of what matters, and it's taken from some of the big
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themes in one of my poems, a poem called song to Myself. Now,
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you know that all of the stories I share with you are about people
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who are just like you and me. How is that? Well, it's
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because we are all people who care. We care about ourselves, we care
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about one another, and we all want to leave the world a little bit
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better off than the way we found it. As stewards of the future,
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we dare to wear our souls on the outside so that we can be in
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right relationship with our and write relationships with others. As instruments of soul,
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we sound the way for others. We sound the way for folks in our
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immediate circles and beyond. Did you know? Did you know that you?
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You are a magnificent story and as you live your life, you are actually
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painting, painting on the canvas of your soul and the canvas of eternity.
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I hope you will be moved by this story of hope, radiance, and
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celebration. And as you encounter the people you will meet today, I trust
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that you will feel the sweet shimmer of your own story and hear the rich
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residence and power powful medicine of your own true voice. I trust that you
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will bask in the joy and inspiration of the story, allowing it to illuminate
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your own life. I also trust that you will accept the gifts offered so
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that you can pass this story on and faithfully serve by lighting the path for
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someone else. By making a difference for someone else. So now I invite
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you to get cozy, sip on your cup of tea or your favorite coffee,
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and join me by the hearth, Join me at the fire to hear
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the good news. I will begin this story with a brief excerpt from my
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poem song to Myself. It doesn't matter to me how much bread you can
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afford to put on your own table. I want to know if you will
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need and wait and bake the bread and share your blessings at someone else's table.
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Now I want you to meet a very special person. Her name is
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Darlene. Her story offers lessons for all of us. This story about Darlene
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takes place right around Christmas, and it brings me great joy and inspiration,
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no matter what the season. Darlene lived in a small trailer home with her
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two young sons. She moved to the trailer home shortly after divorcing her husband.
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Christmas was fast approaching, but Darlene had no extra money. As she
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stared at the floor of her tiny living room, she thought, this will
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definitely be a year without presents for my boys. She could give them her
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love and that was all. Knowing that they were too young to understand that
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love is what Christmas should be all about. She also knew that her sons
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would have to learn. Darlene had no idea that her boys would learn about
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love and a whole lot more. In Darlene's own words, it was Christmas
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Eve we had a record snowfall. My boys went outside to shovel our walkway
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and drive way to keep up with the quickly falling snow. As evening came,
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they went next door and helped our elderly neighbor, Jim, shovel his
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driveway. When they came inside, I suggested we sing Christmas carols and then
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each of us would tell a story about our best ever Christmas. Darlene recalls
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how happy she and her sons were. We had a good time just being
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together. Neither of my sons asked me why we didn't have a tree this
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year. That night, when I was sure my sons were sound asleep,
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I sat on the couch in our tiny living room and I just wept.
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I cried for me, I cried for my son's I even cried for my
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ex husband. And sometimes I cried tears of sadness. Sometimes I wept for
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joy. I finally went to bed and cried myself to sleep. The next
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morning, on Christmas Day, Darlene got up bright and early. She peered
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outside and saw that the snow storm had passed. The sky was a bright,
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bright blue, and everywhere you looked snow white, sparkling new fallen snow.
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The boys would love to make snow angels, she thought. They both
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loved to be the first to make footprints in the fresh snow, and they
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loved making snow angels. Sometimes they lay down head to head in the snow
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and make a double angel. Darlene says, I don't know why, but
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I opened the door of our trailer to check our mailbox. No one,
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not even the mail truck, could have made it through all that snow,
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but I checked it anyway. To my surprise, there was a note inside.
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My boys had told our neighbor Jim, that Santa Claus wouldn't be visiting
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our house this year because we had no money. I turned the note over
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and taped to the back was a crisp, clean fifty dollar bill. Jim
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had given me enough money to buy the boys what they wanted, new baseball
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mits. In addition, there was enough left over to restock the basic groceries
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we needed. Jim's only request was that when I was able to do so,
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that I help others as he helped us well. That morning, when
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my sons got up, I told them about the fifty dollars Jim had given
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us for their Christmas gifts. They looked at each other with surprise and glee,
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then abruptly stopped their celebration as they realized the significance of Jim's gift.
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You see, Jim wasn't well off either. As a matter of fact,
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the utility company had shut off his power once already that winter because he couldn't
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pay his bill. The boys quickly put on their coats to go next door
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to thank Jim for his generous gift, but they stopped short when they opened
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the trailer door and saw a perfectly formed adult sized snow angel right in front
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of our steps. The snow angel surprised them, but there were absolutely no
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footprints in the snow, just the angel. We never did find out who
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made the snow angel. Jim said there was no way that he could or
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would get down in the snow and flap his arms and legs like that,
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But we know an angel brought us quite a blessing that Christmas. Jim passed
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away the following spring. My boys and I still think about that special Christmas
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and how Jim gave without asking for anything in return, just that we help
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others as he helped us. We've made a point of doing just that,
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and we have faith that we're touching other people's lives just like Jim touched ours.
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I just loved Darlene and her story, and I know if I were
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to ask her habari Gani, she would tell me. I'm so glad my
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sons learned the true meaning of Christmas all those years ago. I'm glad that
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I know the blessing and what it really means to pass it on. Not
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everybody does. Darlene and her sons are creating a ripple effect in their family,
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community and beyond, simply by saying yes to God's legacy, for saying
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yes to daring to wear their souls on the outside. For Darlene and her
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sons, wearing their souls on the outside is something they get to do every
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day, no matter where they are or who they're with. Now, if
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you remember, I began Darlene's story with these lines from my poem song to
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myself. It doesn't matter to me how much bread you can afford to put
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on your own table. I want to know if you will need and wait
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and bake the bread and share your blessings at someone else's table. You know
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what, when we live out loud, it makes all the difference, doesn't
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it. Now? Sometimes people ask me, Doctor Gloria, doesn't it hurt
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to live out loud? Doesn't it hurt to wear your soul on the outside?
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Well, can I just tell you something. The alternative hurts a whole
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lot more. The alternative is not living out loud. Not living out loud
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is what keeps you stuck. That's what keeps you living in fear. That's
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what keeps you from stepping into the life that God has planned just for you.
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And as I've said before, don't let fear steal your joy. Don't
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let fear suck the life right out of you. You were made for joy,
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you were made for service. You were made to stand in the amazing
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power of your own true voice. That's what daring to wear your soul on
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the outside, daring to live out loud, is all about. Well.
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I certainly hope that this story about Darlene and her family being given a very
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special gift and the blessing for her sons to learn what it means to pass
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it on and give back to others. I hope her story has inspired you
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today. I know it has inspired me. Now I'm going to share my
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entire poem with you so that you can hear how Darlene's story fits in into
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the overall context of this poem. You know that I coach and consult with
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leaders all the time, and I also write and speak about leadership, focusing
26:51
specifically on values based leadership, and my clients love it because I'm one of
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the few leadership coaches and consultants focuses on values. And my clients will often
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ask me to tell tell them more, tell them more about my life,
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to share more of my own story with them, and I do. I
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often share this poem with them because my story lives and breathes inside of this
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poem. I simply tell them, if you really want to know more about
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me, just just reader or listen to this poem. Okay, let me
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share it with you now. Song to myself, it doesn't matter to me
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what you do or where you work. I want to know who you are
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when the sun goes down, and if you are willing to put everything on
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the line to fulfill your soul's desire. It doesn't matter to me how much
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bread you can afford to put on your own table. I want to know
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if you will need and wait and bake the bread and share your blessings at
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someone else's table. I want to know if you can look into the eyes
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of the young woman who sleeps with fear each night, the one who dared
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to walk away from the hands that pummeled her. I want to know if
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you can share her pain. It doesn't matter to me what neighborhood you live
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in or what kind of car you drive. I want to know what drives
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you, what compels you to follow your soul's longing. I want to know,
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oh what pierces your heart, awakens you at night, and inspires you
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to devote yourself to whomever or whatever moves you. I want to know how
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many times you've opened your heart and extended a hand to your homeless sister or
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brother. I want to know if you will sit in the quiet, dark
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hours between midnight and dawn listening, listening to another's heart song. It doesn't
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matter to me how many unspeakable secrets you have. I want to know if
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you will share your secrets to liberate your demons so they don't devour you or
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those you love. I want to know if you will risk looking foolish to
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embrace your bliss. I want to know if you will grasp the sleeve of
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a nameless elder stumbling on his way and lead him in from the cold.
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I want to know if you will throw away your cloak and show your heart,
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if you will dare to wear your soul on the outside. It doesn't
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matter to me how many mountains you've climbed or will climb. I want to
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know if you've fallen down in the valley of despair. I want to know
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if you've scarred your knees on the stones of self abandonment. I want to
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know how long you've been hidden in the shadows of hypocrisy, prejudice, addiction,
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abuse. I want to know if you will stop to light a candle
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and pray with others who will surely wander there. It doesn't matter to me
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what you say you will do for others. I want to know if you
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will act with courage and conviction, if you will daily cradle the frail hand
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of your mother when she no longer knows your name. I want to know
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if you will look into the hazel, gray or ebony eyes of a strained
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and say yes, yes, to affirm your sister, your brother, yourself.
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I want to know if you will take the time to be still,
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call the names and pass the cup to honor the ancestors who cleared a path
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and broke new ground for you and your children. It doesn't matter to me
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that you have a past. I want to know if you will celebrate your
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present, if you will take a stand, declare yourself, sing I am,
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I AM, boldly and with rejoicing, not only to the stars at
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night, but to anyone anywhere, without apologies or regrets. Yes, wouldn't
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it be wonderful? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all take a stand
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and declare ourselves, declare ourselves and sing I AM boldly and with rejoicing,
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declare ourselves by lifting up and celebrating the awesome, incredible power of our own
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gifts, our own true voice. Because you know what, that's how God
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made us. That's how God made us. We were not made to play
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small or to hide out, or to believe what the world would have us,
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believe that we are missing something, that we are insufficient, that we
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are not enough. Oh no, we are children of the most High.
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God made us to stand up and to be counted. And when you can
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stand up and declare yourself, you can help somebody else do the same.
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You actually give them permission. When you make that kind of difference in your
34:34
own life. You can make that kind of difference not only in your own
34:40
life, but also in somebody else's life. That's how you do it.
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That's how you do it, day by day, step by step, moment
34:52
by moment, smile by smile, every single day, three sixty five,
34:58
twenty four to seven. You can learn more about the ideas and resources I
35:07
shared with you today, and in particular, you can learn more about the
35:10
story I just shared with you today. You can also find resources to equip
35:16
and inspire you to make your life count by visiting the Gloria Burgess website.
35:23
That's www dot Gloria Burgess dot com. Www dot Gloria Burgess dot com.
35:36
And as I've mentioned before, if you love to be inspired, you can
35:39
actually subscribe to my inspirations right on my website. Just scroll down a little
35:45
bit look on the right sidebar until you see the place to add your email
35:51
address to subscribe to my weekly inspirations. It's that simple. Each week you
35:58
get a lovely photograph and a short quotation that inspires you. If you missed
36:05
any part of this week's podcast, or last weeks, or any podcasts for
36:10
that matter, you can listen to this episode at your convenience. You can
36:16
even listen to it on the go. You can find all of my podcasts
36:22
right here at www dot talknetwork Radio dot com, Forward Slash Hosts, Forward
36:31
Slash Legacy Living. That's Talknetwork Radio dot com. Forward Slash Hosts, Forward
36:39
Slash, Legacy Living. You can also check me out on iTunes, Audible,
36:45
Alexa, SoundCloud, iHeart, tune In, spreager, dot Com,
36:52
Talk Network Radio, and so many other places. Or you can also find
37:00
me on the TEDx site and listen to one of my ted Talks. Just
37:04
type in my name to find me there. Before I close today, I
37:09
want to thank each one of you for tuning in for allowing me to share
37:15
a bit about my journey with what Legacy Living is all about, not just
37:20
living and learning, but living and learning and serving so that you make a
37:25
difference in your own life and in the lives of other people. It's about
37:30
being on purpose every single day. Three sixty five twenty four seven. Legacy
37:37
Living is a powerful way to make your life count. Once again, I
37:45
want to thank you for joining me today. I'm your host, doctor Gloria
37:50
Gloria Burgess, and this has been Legacy Living. Make your life count.
37:57
Please join me again next time right here for another episode of Legacy Living.
38:04
Make your life count. Don't just count the days in your life. Make
38:12
the days in your life count. That's what Legacy living is all about.
38:19
Have a fantastic day and remember make the days in your life count. God
38:28
bless that's our show today. I'm your host, doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess.
38:47
I hope you'll join me again next time. Until then, don't just count
38:52
the days in your life, Make the days in your life count. That's
38:59
what Legacy see living is all about. Here's to you. Have a fantastic
39:04
day and be sure to make it a yes kind of day. Remember to
39:09
celebrate the music of your life. Make the days in your life count.