Latest / I Choose Me with Jennie Garth / Amy Grant is Going to Live What She Believes

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Amy Grant is Going to Live What She Believes · I Choose Me with Jennie Garth

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to I Choose Me. Amy Grant's meteoric career
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: has brought so many awards and accolades and also heartbreak
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and challenges. Hearing her stories and adventures brings such hope
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  Speaker 1: and understanding. Here's the rest of our conversation. I'm curious too,
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  Speaker 1: you've always been really open and candid about having sort
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  Speaker 1: of doubts and questioning what other people have you to
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  Speaker 1: believe in rather than you choosing your beliefs for yourself.
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  Speaker 1: So I feel like also that is just such an
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  Speaker 1: incredible I choose me awareness. Coming to that place where
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  Speaker 1: you are brought up in a certain community with a
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  Speaker 1: certain faith and things start to change for you, but
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  Speaker 1: you didn't hide from it. You embraced it and shared it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I guess my approach to life has been
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  Speaker 2: that every one of us, we can't choose for each other.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I just thought about this. It's a
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  Speaker 2: quotation that my niece framed for me. Between the stimulus
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  Speaker 2: and the response, there's a space. And I love that picture.
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  Speaker 2: Between the stimulus, between what's coming at you, Jenny, and
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  Speaker 2: what comes from you, there's a space. And in that
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  Speaker 2: space lies your freedom and your power. And I love that.
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  Speaker 2: And what I have found when life, between what came
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  Speaker 2: at me and what came from me, you can call
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  Speaker 2: it deconstruct or you can call just trying to find
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  Speaker 2: something that truly resonates. But what is going to come
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  Speaker 2: from me? And I just thought I would always rather
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  Speaker 2: err on the side of just choosing love. always choosing
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  Speaker 2: love and whatever that means. I want to say, choose
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  Speaker 2: the life you want to live. And in spite of
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  Speaker 2: everything that comes at you, live that life.
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  Speaker 1: Live that life. You'll know.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And it's just like, if you go, I want to
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  Speaker 2: live a life of connectedness and being helpful and working
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  Speaker 2: with people, I think community matters more. And just all
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  Speaker 2: those things that bring us together, to me, those, it's
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  Speaker 2: just let your choices support that.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if that makes any sense.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know that I ever said I want to
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  Speaker 2: be a spokesperson for this cause or that cause. I just,
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  Speaker 2: as something came to my life, to me, I would say,
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  Speaker 2: what resonates in the deepest part of me?
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  Speaker 1: How do I respond?
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, and then to go Well, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: that there's another response, but just to say, come on in.
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  Speaker 1: There's a seat at the table. Come on in. Bring yourself.
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  Speaker 2: Come on in. Let's start the conversation. Can I fill
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  Speaker 2: your water glass? Do you need a place to sleep?
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what it is. And so, you know, I,
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  Speaker 2: I look at my own life and the other day
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  Speaker 2: I was hearing all, I would there was some scuttlebutt
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  Speaker 2: in a community because people were involved in the community,
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  Speaker 2: which means it's going to get messy. And all I
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  Speaker 2: could think of was, I've been a messy part too.
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  Speaker 1: I've caused the problems. I love that self-awareness.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And so to go, I think what I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to do here is, just not add my two cents
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  Speaker 2: because I know the experience of being that person.
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  Speaker 1: This is all striking a chord for me because we've
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  Speaker 1: started doing this thing on our podcast where we have
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  Speaker 1: a hotline and we invite people to call in and
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  Speaker 1: share their journey to loving themselves, their journey to choose
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  Speaker 1: themselves and where they are on that. I think I
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  Speaker 1: have the perfect caller that would really benefit from your
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  Speaker 1: sage advice. Would you mind helping me answer this caller's question?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, amazing. Let's do it.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, Jenny. My name is Michelle. I grew up in
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  Speaker 3: a close faith community and I spent much of my
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  Speaker 3: life with a really tight group of friends. Over the years, though,
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  Speaker 3: I have reinterpreted and let go of some of what
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  Speaker 3: I was taught and once accepted. Some of my longtime
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  Speaker 3: friends have not made the same journey, but I still
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  Speaker 3: love my old friends and their families. I just can
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  Speaker 3: no longer agree with and quietly overlook some of the
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  Speaker 3: views they hold or the practices they continue to support. Jenny,
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  Speaker 3: you've shared that you've experienced important friendships going in different directions, too.
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  Speaker 3: I understand that everybody's journey is different. And that leads
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  Speaker 3: to my question. How do I make room for friendship
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  Speaker 3: and difference without compromising who I have become? Thanks for
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  Speaker 3: any insight you can share.
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  Speaker 1: Ooh, that's such a good Michelle. Michelle, Michelle, I feel
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  Speaker 1: for you. This is a very painful transition that's happening
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  Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, this is one of those moments that
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  Speaker 1: you were just talking about, right, Amy?
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  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 2: I like how she said, how can I make room for,
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  Speaker 2: it's like, can I hold both?
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Can I hold both?
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  Speaker 2: And I think, I love that she's trying to find
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  Speaker 2: common ground because I think there's always common ground to
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  Speaker 2: be found because we have so much in common. As humans.
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  Speaker 1: Right. As humans.
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  Speaker 2: You know, and, and, that can happen in a myriad
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  Speaker 2: of ways. You know, the care of elderly parents, the hard.
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  Speaker 1: Physical labor of young kids.
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  Speaker 2: And so I always, I think a good thing is
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  Speaker 2: to say, what can we do that's enjoyable or helpful
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  Speaker 2: to each other that doesn't involve a lot of conversation? Right.
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  Speaker 1: Activities that you're not going to have to go too
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  Speaker 1: deep in. You're so right, though, because you can hold
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  Speaker 1: people love in your heart for someone, someone that you've
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  Speaker 1: grown up with in this case, without holding the space
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  Speaker 1: for their opinions to affect your spirit where you are now.
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  Speaker 1: It's a perfect I choose me opportunity for you, Michelle.
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  Speaker 1: This is the place where you get to choose yourself
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  Speaker 1: by allowing yourself to love people from your past while
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  Speaker 1: standing in your current life, your current values. That's growth.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And also, Michelle, I would say a good question would
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  Speaker 2: be if you were able to ask yourself, regardless of
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  Speaker 2: what's coming at you, regardless of what's coming at you,
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  Speaker 2: what kind of, how do you want to.
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  Speaker 1: Be present in the world? And so.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's easy to think about, you know, if somebody
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  Speaker 2: came up, I don't know, sometimes it's almost easier to
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  Speaker 2: think of a dire situation. If somebody came up and
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  Speaker 2: their clothing were lit on fire, I want to be
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  Speaker 2: somebody to find water and throw it on them. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it's easy, like, but then you go, I want to
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  Speaker 2: show up as a presence of love and compassion. And
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  Speaker 2: so showing up with somebody that disagrees ideologically with you
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  Speaker 2: or maybe something fundamentally about how you understand faith, you
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  Speaker 2: kind of have to show up with compassion for both
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  Speaker 2: of you, saying this is tender for both of us.
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  Speaker 1: We both want desperately to feel understood. I think that
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  Speaker 1: also reminds me of like, I'll wrap up our conversation
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  Speaker 1: with something that I've heard you say before. And that
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  Speaker 1: is the first action is to see, not to fix,
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  Speaker 1: to see. That's really powerful. Leave y'all with that. I
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  Speaker 1: hope that helped you, Michelle. Thank you for calling in.
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  Speaker 1: And I just have to say, what a pleasure. It
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  Speaker 1: has been talking with you today, getting to know you
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  Speaker 1: on just such a beautiful, deep honest level, you are,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if this applies, you feel like family,
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  Speaker 1: like salt of the earth people from where I come from.
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  Speaker 1: And it's just so nice to be able to have
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  Speaker 1: a conversation with you. You feel beautifully familiar to me. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I love that. It's true. It's true. I feel real
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  Speaker 1: comfortable talking to you. Everybody check out Amy Grant's latest album,
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  Speaker 1: The Me That Remains. You it's out now. You can
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: get it wherever you listen to your music and it's
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  Speaker 1: just really just moving and beautiful music. Uh, I would
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  Speaker 1: not expect anything less from you. Um, but I have
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  Speaker 1: a last question for you, Amy Grant. What was your last,
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  Speaker 1: I choose me moment? I knew you were going to
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  Speaker 1: ask me this.
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  Speaker 2: I was going, um, I, yeah, I, um, and I
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  Speaker 2: was talking to my friend here and they said, I
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  Speaker 2: think like doing the bucket list garden that you wanted
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  Speaker 2: to do. So I bought a book years ago that
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  Speaker 2: was published in 1971 by an older woman at the time.
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  Speaker 2: So she was old in 71. Her name was Ruth
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  Speaker 2: Stout and she lived when she was alive somewhere in
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  Speaker 2: the Northeastern United States. And she was a gardener and
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  Speaker 2: she wrote a book. It was a compilation of all
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  Speaker 2: of the letters that she had sent into an agricultural
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  Speaker 2: magazine and they were compiled and published. And like for
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  Speaker 2: a couple of decades, I wanted to do a garden
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  Speaker 2: based on her book. And it's called the no work garden.
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  Speaker 1: That sounds like my kind of garden.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. A total misnomer. But anyway, but honestly, this is
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  Speaker 2: something I've wanted to do for so long, and it's
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  Speaker 2: been quite a time commitment. And the land where I
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  Speaker 2: am doing this garden is 25 minutes from my driveway.
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  Speaker 2: And so, you know, when I first started in the
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  Speaker 2: spring prepping the beds, Vince said, you know, in 15 minutes,
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  Speaker 2: you could go to the produce section of the grocery
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  Speaker 2: store and purchase everything you could possibly grow. And I said,
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  Speaker 2: I know, but I don't, I, yeah, I said, I
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  Speaker 2: have wanted to do this. I've wanted to feel the
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  Speaker 2: rhythm of what growth is. I've wanted to eat something
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  Speaker 2: that came from a seed that I planted.
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  Speaker 3: Hmm.
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  Speaker 2: I want to understand what pruning means, like all of that.
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  Speaker 2: I want to fall in love with the process and
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  Speaker 2: experience something in real time.
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  Speaker 1: What have you harvested? Oh, my goodness. So many peppers.
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  Speaker 2: I've harvested peppers, so many tomatoes, okra, beans, a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of squash.
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  Speaker 1: Does it taste better than from the produce department?
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  Speaker 2: It tastes good, but the most fun is finding it.
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  Speaker 2: The most fun is the harvesting. And the craziest thing
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  Speaker 2: is your hands in the dirt does something. And it
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  Speaker 2: has been such a, I don't know, it's been like,
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  Speaker 2: if you could put this in a capsule and give
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  Speaker 2: it to people to take in a stressful situation.
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  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 2: But there have been times that I have been really
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  Speaker 2: frustrated or angry, situations beyond my control. And I've just
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  Speaker 2: gotten in the car and I've driven to that garden.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm working in silence. I've invited friends to come
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  Speaker 2: help me. I had a friend who, you know, he's
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  Speaker 2: quite a bit younger than I am. And he just
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  Speaker 2: was like done with it, just done with it. And
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  Speaker 2: he called me the next day and he said, I
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  Speaker 2: still feel the peace. from working in the garden until
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  Speaker 2: the sky got dark. And it's some kind of crazy
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  Speaker 2: medicinal thing. I didn't even know what I was getting into,
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  Speaker 2: but it is. If all you can do is go
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  Speaker 2: to a hardware store or a garden store, purchase the
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  Speaker 2: cheapest bag of potting soil that they have, go home,
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  Speaker 2: tear it open and stick your hands in it and
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  Speaker 2: just keep working that soil I don't care if you
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  Speaker 2: even plant anything, but the hands in the dirt, it's
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  Speaker 2: its own kind of therapy.
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  Speaker 1: On that, thank you so much. Beautiful. Loved our conversation.
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  Speaker 1: I'll remember it always. Thanks, Jenny.