Latest / We Are More: Sisters Talk Faith & Feminism / Ep. 33: Billy Bob Saves Thanksgiving

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Ep. 33: Billy Bob Saves Thanksgiving · We Are More: Sisters Talk Faith & Feminism

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the We Are More podcast. My name is Alyssa.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: And my name is Bree. We're 2 sisters passionate about all things faith and feminism. We believe that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: women to teach and preach his word. And apparently, that's controversial. Get comfy.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Happy Thanksgiving. Wow.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It'll make them cheery. Yeah. This is
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the second time we're recording this part because the computer's been an absolute butt wipe.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: And happy Thanksgiving to you.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Aren't you so thankful for technology? Yep. Yep. Hooray.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We usually record on Breeze desktop Mhmm. But it just doesn't have the memory capabilities, which I don't know why.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: That thing should be a beast. Right?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: You'd think, but Apple likes to destroy everything you've ever loved.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: And, also, I think it's so young, but it's not. I got in 20 2020. 20.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So we are now recording on my laptop. Yeah. So hopefully, this will be a little bit better.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Huzzah. Huzzah, Taree.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Now you guys are hearing this the day before Thanksgiving.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I want to say that I'm very proud of the fact that somehow, our schedule managed to hit Halloween and Thanksgiving right on the money. Thursdays, they're a great day. Apparently. But also, we kind of thought, maybe you don't wanna listen to us while you're also preparing a turkey and also 50 of your family members are directly in your face.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We want you to focus on the words that we say.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Because we are meaningful and important.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Very meaningful. Aren't you thankful for us? Aren't you?
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So we are posting this one day early.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So perhaps you'll listen to this while you're While
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: you're making your side dishes.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Or while you're thawing a turkey. Oh, while you're panicking because you didn't thaw the turkey.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: And then you decided instead of turkey, you're gonna have spaghetti. And where's the wine, gosh.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Dang it. Funny story. So Brie and I both used to do grocery delivery shopping
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: For a hot minute there. Yeah. And there was I was doing it right before the holidays, and this woman ordered it was it was probably, like, 2 days before Thanksgiving. Right? And this woman ordered a fully frozen turkey, like like a 20 pound fully frozen turkey.
• 2:35
  And so I messaged her, and I was like, hey. So, you know, I don't know if you need this for later or what, but I just wanted to let you know that turkeys do take a really, really long time to thaw.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: There's all kinds of stuff all over Facebook, Instagram. Like, here's when you pull your turkeys out if they're this weight.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Right. And she was like, oh my gosh. I had no idea. And they do have fresh turkeys that are not frozen.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: So I
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: was like, I can totally get you one of those. It's a little more expensive
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Mhmm. But no big deal. But you'll have it. But you'll have it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: And I was just so proud of myself. I was like, I have saved their Thanksgiving.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I literally would not have done that even, like, keep getting a frozen turkey Good luck. Because it's more convenient for me. Goodbye.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: She tipped me really well. So anyway. So Thanksgiving is totally my favorite holiday, though. Mhmm. Because It's a good one.
• 3:21
  It is. Potatoes. Potatoes are great. The turkey is good. I love turkey.
• 3:25
  I know not everybody does.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's not my favorite, but I like to mess with my uncle about it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Bria, I think you need to tell the story because it's actually a a fantastic story.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I think I there's a good possibility that we've told this before, but almost every Thanksgiving, we always go over to my aunt and uncle's house, our aunt and uncle's house. We share the same aunt and uncle. And my aunt is slaving away in the kitchen. You know? She's doing the work.
• 3:55
  She's making the potatoes. She's checking on the turkey. She's doing all the things. And my uncle, when it comes time for the turkey to be cut, he will cut the turkey, and everyone will say oh. I won't say his name.
• 4:07
  Let's call him Billy Bob Thornton.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Billy Bob. What a wonderful turkey.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: What a wonderful turkey. And so I messed with him
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a few years ago. I'm like It's like a running joke now.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Billy Bob. You did a great job on this turkey.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: It's a good running gig.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Good. A wholesome gig. Yeah. That's the same uncle that I yelled at from lack of sleep. We always go Black Friday shopping.
• 4:30
  And if you don't know what Black Friday shopping is, it's the day after Thanksgiving, and everything's on sale. And it used to be that the stores would open really early, and you would get special little things that you just send money. You just give away snow globes or
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: They might still.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I don't think they do. Well Now it's kind of like there's deals going on all the time. But we go every Friday after Thanksgiving, and it's just a good time of, like, togetherness usually. The cousins will go. It used to be our aunts and mother Cough.
• 4:59
  Cough. Cough. Cough. Would go, but they no longer do because they say, we're so old and our knees don't work and our joints.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: But it's just a good time
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: to be together. And 1 year, we decided to stay up all night long rather than go to sleep because we're a bunch of idiots.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That was a bad time.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: And I don't think I was old enough to be able to mentally handle that. You know? Are you now? No. We stayed up all night long.
• 5:25
  We went shopping for hours and hours in the cold because we live in Michigan. Mhmm. And, then I, out of sleep deprivation, yelled at my uncle
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: When he was just trying to tell you, like, hey. We got dinner ready
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: for you.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: He was like, Brianna, dinner is ready. I'm like, I wanna kill you.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Sorry, uncle Billy Bob Thornton.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you're listening. I think
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I got sick that year due. I it was just there's a very short period in your life where staying up all night is okay on your body, and it's about 18 to 19a half, and that's it.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: And that's it. It might be 18a half because now if I don't get enough sleep, I feel completely hungover. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. My mind doesn't work. My body doesn't work.
• 6:14
  My soul is dead.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And we're not talking 8 hours. I'm talking, like, a solid 9a half to 10 hours.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I need lots and lots
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: of sleep. I'm people laugh at me because I'm of certain age, and I, in an ideal world, would be in bed at 7:30. Yeah. That doesn't mean I'm asleep. No.
• 6:32
  You do stuff. Wind down. Yeah. You know? I'm reading a book right now Right now.
• 6:37
  Or I'm, you know, scrolling the interweb.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: You're really scrolling through TikTok. 99% of the TikTok.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: But we do the same thing because our kids and I feel like we've talked about this, but our kids my kids. Not not Breeze and my kids. No. We do not share children. We do not share children.
• 6:51
  Although, I think the people, the cheese lady, maybe thought we did. Yeah. They were concerned. But my kids go to bed. My son goes to bed at 7.
• 7:00
  My daughter goes to bed at 8, and we just Nathan and I just stay in bed. Like, we just we would turn on the TV. Yeah. We play on our phones. We talk.
• 7:09
  We hang out. Whatever. Mhmm. And it's just it's so much more pleasant than being downstairs in the living room. It's just
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Like I love my bed.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I love my bed also.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Really wanna ever leave it. But anyways, speaking of loving your bed, what else are you thankful for? Because that's what we're talking about today. Thankfulness and gratitude. We are thankful for our beds.
• 7:29
  We're thankful. We're really thankful for our beds, for pillows, for blankets, for warmth.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I am thankful that I can get through an episode without coughing up a lung. Well, hallelujah for that. I know we've I've cut out a lot of coughing, but I'm sure you guys have heard a couple of them that I couldn't get out. But I there have been a couple episodes I barely made it through because I had the plague.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's annoying, honestly. I wish your lungs would just work.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Me too.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So I'm thankful for that, but I'm also praying for wellness because my daughter is not feeling great right now and my son is coughing. So I'm hoping for not also getting whatever they have.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I might just come home with face masks tomorrow.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: That might be wise. Yeah.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not messing around. No. I don't wanna be sick ever. Not for the holidays. It's a bad time.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And never again in your life?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That's so bold. And then when it comes time for me to die, I hope I just go to sleep and wake up in heaven. Isn't that what everybody hopes for?
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: I don't know. It depends.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's a lot of people out there. You know, I'm hoping for a violent death.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Maybe they are. But thankfulness. Thankfulness and gratitude. I'm thankful that we live in a world where there is a heaven.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I'll be fully honest with you. I'm I'm struggling a little bit with the thankfulness and gratitude in this season of my life.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, get this. So I was at work was it the week before, election week? So it was the day after the election, and every morning at work, we have a morning meeting. And rather than having our morning me regular morning meeting where we go over the schedule for the day and what needs to be done, yada yada yada, my boss was like, let's talk about gratitude. Because when I'm feeling, you know, a certain way, I like to really lean into what I'm thankful for.
• 9:13
  So we had to all go up to a whiteboard and write down what we were thankful for. Also, I couldn't think of anything.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: I couldn't think I couldn't think of
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: a single thing. I was like, I'm not thankful. I'm mad. I'm upset.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I think it's really tough because emotions are really big. And we in the last episode, we discussed, you know, that this this year in particular
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: This season in particular is really difficult because you're getting together with family. There's so much going on in the world, and tension is high. Yeah. And so it definitely can be difficult to focus on that. And, I mean, I I wanna validate that that's that's normal and fine.
• 9:51
  Yeah. But, also, I think there is yeah. It's a little bit maybe misguided when everyone is ragey to be like, let's be thankful together. But, also, I do think it's it can be a positive to learn to be negative gratitude.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: It is. Speaking of which, I did some research, and gratitude and thankfulness, constantly having that in your life is actually really good for you. I know that's a wild statement. Wild. But spending time each day, like, meditating on thankfulness and gratitude on what's going right, actually, scientifically, is better for your overall health, and we can get into that in a minute.
• 10:28
  But it reminds me of that song from White Christmas, count your blessings. Oh, boy. You want me to break out into song?
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I would love if you did.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: I you know what? I don't want to right now. But if you wanna look it up, it's Bill Bing nope. Not It's Bing.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: It's Bing.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Who names their kid Bing? And I'm not even talking about Friends. Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. Mhmm.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: One of my probably all time favorite movies. It's so good. My husband hates it. Passionately hates that movie.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: When I was in college, our rooms were suited, so we had, like, 2 girls in a room and then a bathroom in between us and then me and another girl in a room. And me and one of my suitemates loved White Christmas. We forced all of our friends to sit down and watch White Christmas. We were all sitting on my bunk bed. And 2 of us stayed up and watched the whole thing and loved it, and the other 2 fell asleep.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: That's really upsetting. Really rude.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Quite. I sang the whole thing. Obviously. And then I cried.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: No one is surprised by any of that.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I love white Christmas. I'm thankful for white Christmas.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Good to know.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, going into the holiday season, I think it's important to recognize that not everybody is going into, like, a time of happiness and joy. Right. There are people who are struggling with their family members right now, or maybe they don't feel like they have a close relationship with their family. Maybe they don't have family. And in our last episode, we did talk about what family means and setting healthy boundaries and how family doesn't always mean people that, you know, you're genetically related to.
• 12:03
  Right. But it's important also to be able to sit down and say, I'm thankful. And even if you can just pull out, like, I'm thankful that we have a God that loves us.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: I'm thankful that we had Jesus that died on the cross. Mhmm. I'm thankful that when I die, I'm going to heaven. Right. I'm thankful that I'm not in hell.
• 12:26
  Yeah. That's
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: that's one of them. Yeah.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Even if you can just grasp at those things Mhmm. I think just meditate on those things and spend some time each day. Like, you have your yoga class.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I love my yoga class.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Like, how they focus on breathing in yoga, you can also focus on thankfulness
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and gratitude in your life. Yeah. I think particularly between the November, December time, we're so busy. It's just absolute chaos.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Uh-huh.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Because you've gotta go here and there and do this shopping, but you're also working. But you also have to pick the kids up from school, and you also have to do this. And there's there's a 1000
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: different like, parties, and there's different recitals. Yeah.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: The house has to get clean because 40 people are coming over and whatever. And it is really difficult to stay mindful
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: In those seasons. It's really difficult to stop and have a moment because you've got a list of 75 things
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: That have
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: to get done today. Yeah. But what I've noticed with myself is that it's not that I don't have any time. Now I'm a very busy person. Okay?
• 13:34
  Like, I my life is chaos. You should see my Google Calendar. But even within that, it's not that I don't have any moments.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I absolutely do. I have 20 minutes here. I have 5 minutes there. I have 10 minutes between this and this. But I choose to spend them on my phone.
• 13:56
  I choose to spend them shopping. I choose to spend them whatever, in whatever way that may be silly. And, you know, some of these things are important, but some of them are not the most important things. And I could take one of those segments, just one of them, and sit and think, okay. Well, we're all we're all healthy.
• 14:17
  Yeah. I have enough this season. You know? I can be thankful that god loves me this whatever it is, just to take that time and be intentional with it instead of time killing, I guess.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: I found that I am kind of a selfish person. I know this is shocking.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. I must have it.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Shut up. Shut up. But, like, I I don't work from home. I drive. It's not far.
• 14:46
  It's, like, 20 minutes. Yeah. It's not too bad. So I have 40 minutes in my day, 20 minutes there, 20 minutes back, that I could probably be productive with something. I could be researching for the podcast by listening to another podcast, or I could be spending 20 minutes in prayer or listening to some worship music or spending time being thankful, but I'm selfish.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: And I
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: don't like to give up that time. And sometimes, especially if I'm, like, on my way to work, I don't wanna spend more time doing
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: work. Right. I think part of that is the mindset that we see these things in, because I there was a time in my life, maybe about a year ago, where I was listening to tons of sermons. Mhmm. And it wasn't necessarily for research for the podcast because it was a little before that.
• 15:38
  Mhmm.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: It
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: was just I I had a therapist at the time that would say, like, oh, I listened to this one this week, and I thought about you. I thought you might really like it, and so I'd listened to that one or whatever. And when I first started, it was difficult to make myself do it because it does feel like work. It feels like I'm giving up my time.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Selfish.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: But I think once you give yourself license to just say, alright. Today, this is what we're doing.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Alyssa, this is what we're doing.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't care what you think. And keeping promises to yourself, I think, is really important. I do struggle with that. I think my nature is to if I tell someone else that I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna follow through with it, because now there's someone else holding me accountable.
• 16:18
  But also if it's for someone else Mhmm. I will follow through with it. But if it's just me making to a promise to myself, I suck.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, me too. I suck at that. Yeah. But I think part of it is, if you can get started it's not actually work, and
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: you feel so much better after you do. You follow through with, yes. I'm going to spend 20 minutes being grateful.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Even if I was like, I'm gonna spend 10 of those minutes being grateful Mhmm. And spending some time in gratitude or prayer or whatever it is, I would feel so much better.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: And it it is at the end of the day, we don't think about it as this is for you. Mhmm. But it is. Really, I mean, you've you've looked at some of the research, and it would benefit you. It would be something great for you.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Something that I wanted to talk about, one of my talking points was, god doesn't need our gratitude.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: He doesn't need our thanks. He does not need our gratitude. But he tells us to be thankful. He tells us to be grateful. In Psalms 136, he tells us 12 times, Just in that one chapter.
• 17:23
  Give thanks. Give thanks. Does he need it? No. He's god.
• 17:27
  He's got this. He knows he can look in the mirror and say, I'm great. But it's for us. Right. Because scientifically, spending time in gratitude and thankfulness, is better for your overall health.
• 17:42
  Let me get into that for you. Oh, I
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: would love that.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Would you like me to dig into my little research?
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I'm so prepared.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: The University of Minnesota. Oh, Minnesota. My favorite place. Actually, it's not my favorite place because the car in front of me today was from Minnesota in Starbucks, and he absolutely took forever. So, Minnesota, I got beef with you.
• 18:01
  But if you know anybody from Minnesota that wants to listen to this podcast, please share it with them. Sorry. I don't hate all Minnesotans. Just that one. The one guy.
• 18:10
  But the University of Minnesota said, prayer inhibits the release of cortisol and other hormones, reducing the negative impact of stress on the immune system and promoting overall healing. Mhmm. Which, I'm telling you what, I'm stressed. Yeah. I don't know if anybody else deals well, that that's a really stupid statement.
• 18:34
  Everybody deals with stress. But how your body reacts to stress Yeah. Holy cow.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Do you
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: guys know how many gray hairs are on my head? There are so many gray hairs on my head.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's yeah. In in the world we live in today, I think of there's a Rascal Flatts song, and I
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Is it miss Mayberry? It is. It is. Because she
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: made me listen to it the other day. Oh, you're welcome. And, okay, now I'm not, in any small way, advocating for a return to the 19 fifties. I just wanna put that right out there. However Yeah.
• 19:09
  This song, it talks about it's referencing Andy Griffith, which is like a old
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: I'm done. Thank you.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Which is an older show. I don't know what era that's from, actually. We watched it as kids. Probably fifties, sixties. So I'm not advocating for a return to that.
• 19:25
  But this Rascal Flatts song is talking about that era, and it says something about, naturally, we have more natural disasters from the strain of a fast pace.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: And I don't necessarily think of that as the world has more natural disasters
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: But I, as a human being, have more natural disasters
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Because of the strain of going so fast, of having to accomplish so much
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Of never taking a moment Yeah. To sit and be thankful, to sit and realize what I have in my life.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: He says, sitting on the porch swing. People pass by and you call them back. I'm done. But, yeah, just a slower paced life. And I think that not all countries and cultures are like ours and that we really, really celebrate progress.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I would say we really celebrate stress.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: We celebrate stress, and if you're not multitasking, you're not living. Right. Even though you can't multitask.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I think about being a mom, for instance. The competition amongst moms, who is the most stressed out? Mhmm. It's absolutely absurd. Mhmm.
• 20:36
  It's like, you'll stand there and talk to a mom, and you're like, well, yeah. I work and I have kids, and also they're in 45 sports, and also they're doing this, and also I have to drive them to this and blah blah blah. And then the next mom gives you her list of this is what I have to do. And it's like a competition between the 2 of you, like who's more busy, who's more stressed.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: And I think for me at work, it's almost nicer to let everybody know all the things that you have going on
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Because then someone's not gonna put another thing on your plate. Yeah. That's very true. So it's kind of like a game of avoidance. Don't mess with me because I'm so so so so so so busy Mhmm.
• 21:11
  That I can't and it's also an excuse not to get things done as well. Like, I had 75,000 things on my plate. I just forgot about this one.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah. I I guess until we've sat here and talked about this, I never really thought about the fact that here in the United States, and obviously not all of you are here, but maybe this is applicable to your cultures as well. Here in the United States, we worship stress. Yeah.
• 21:35
  We really do. It's like a tired of it. A pride issue, and and that leads to I mean, Brie has many gray hairs.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Literally so many. So many. And I'm only years old.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: And on a serious personal note, like, I deal with panic attacks.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I deal with a lot of anxiety, and everybody reacts to those things differently. Yeah. But what would it look like? How would it change things? And I'm not saying that if you don't or if you suffer from panic attacks and things like that, you shouldn't also see a therapist, shouldn't also see your doctor.
• 22:08
  But how could it improve things if alongside of those other tools and resources, we also took a moment to be thankful.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Well, you were saying just I don't know if it was today or yesterday, but spending time reading because Alyssa and I have both been reading lately.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Yay for us.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: For me, it's just to spend some time away from my phone because, honestly, social media and all of the stress Right. That's going on right now from that is just too much, so spending time reading a book has reduced your stress a little bit.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: It's huge, actually. I I was thinking about this, and I did not deal with the same anxiety levels when I was younger as I do now. And part of that is just not having when you're a kid, you don't have the same kinds of stress.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Paying bills or having other lives to worry about.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Not to say that kids aren't dealing with a lot of that now, but it just was not the same for me. It but when I was a kid, I read like, you would not believe.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: It was obnoxious because we shared a room. Like, I would
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I would come home from school, and if I didn't have any homework or once I finished my homework or whatever, I had a pink bean bag. And I would plop my butt in the pink bean bag, and I would read, and I would not stop reading.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: I was not a reader. I was turning on the CD player, and I was dancing in front of the mirror, pretending that I was the main
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: event, which was very annoying for me sitting in the corner reading out of
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: my pink beanbag. So it turns
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: out we were not the best of the roommates as children.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Pretty good now, though. Yeah.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: That's why we have separate rooms. We
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: do. But we're in the same house. Yeah. But it's been, yeah, it's been very helpful. And I do wonder if maybe when I was younger, part of why I didn't deal with the same levels of anxiety is because I read as much as I did.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: And now I probably haven't read a whole book other than research based books
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: In the last probably 5 or 6 years.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: A book just to read a book, just because you enjoy it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I've I've definitely read you know, we've talked through books by Beth Alison Barr, things like that, and I've read those, but and they're great. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But they're not stress reducing books.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: They're books that are making you think, and they're gonna help with a podcast or research or whatever it is. It's not just to escape. Right. And sometimes girl, you just need to escape. Sometimes you do.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: And to put down the phone, that's a huge thing for me as as we're going into seasons of stress and dealing with all of that. I cannot, right now, open TikTok Yeah. Because my algorithm's kinda funky, and it is the most depressing place I've ever seen.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: It's depressing. It's full of these, like, conspiracy theories for me, and I just my heart just can't take it right now. I can't do anything to change it. Right. Like, the most that we're doing to change things is right here talking right now on a podcast, but I can't handle it right now.
• 25:01
  So, yeah, just take a step back, throw that phone across the room. Like, get it out.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Well, we talked about in our last episode about protecting your peace.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And I think that's a it's hard to be thankful or grateful if you don't have any level of peace.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: Now, I'm
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: not saying you're gonna be the most peaceful person in the world. I, most assuredly, am not. But if you don't if you're allowing the stress of things that don't necessarily impact your moment right now, like watching TikTok. And I'm not saying that some of those things are not impactful, but just watching the TikTok over and over and immersing yourself in all of that stress, it's really hard to dig yourself back out of that to be grateful in your life. Mhmm.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I was talking to a friend, a couple of days ago who is dealing with a little bit of anxiety with her family and, you know, not even directly her related, her brother related. Mhmm.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: And I
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: was like, is there anything that you can do personally right now that will change the situation? Yeah. No. Can you control any of it? No.
• 26:06
  So as hard as it is, practice a little bit of just letting go.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Because there's nothing you can do. Mhmm. Even if you care so much about that person, there's nothing that you can do. Right.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: So I dealt with a lot of stress right after I had both of my kids, actually. But this was particularly after I had my daughter, and I remember sitting in my therapist's office and absolutely sobbing because I I said, my brother and sister have all these student loans, and I feel responsible for paying them off. Like, I feel responsible for taking care of that. And she looked at me like I had grown 4 heads. Not 2.
• 26:44
  4. Okay? And she goes, why do you feel responsible for that? And it's so silly. Mhmm.
• 26:52
  But in my brain, I'm the oldest, and I'm supposed to take care of the 2 of you, and I think a lot of us feel that way about someone in our lives. Yeah. I'm supposed to take care of my daughter, my sibling, my son, my husband, my wife, my friend, whoever. You know?
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Tell me you have a wife. I I have 12. Oh, good. Yeah. You should move to Utah.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Whoever it is, fill in the blank. We all feel that need to take care of someone as your friend did with her brother. And when those someones are going through stress and struggle and whatever, when you feel responsible for someone, it it just seeps in. It seeps into your bones when they're stressed out. Suddenly you're also stressed out.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Especially if you're I know the world talks about empaths a lot these days. An empath truly narrows in on the person dealing with the most stress or the most anxiety in the room Mhmm. And feels what they're feeling Yes. And wants to make it better. Yep.
• 27:52
  And I think, especially women Mhmm.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Deal with that. Yep.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Especially. Yeah.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: And and, again, last week, we also talked about boundaries and what you have to put up to protect yourself. Mhmm. And sometimes that means putting up healthy boundaries even with people that are not unhealthy people in your life, people that are positive in your life. But if you feel yourself feeding off of their stress and anxiety
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: It's okay to put a boundary up, not to say, I don't love you. I don't care about you. I don't wanna hear about what's going on in your life, but I'm not going to feel what you're feeling.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: They say that you become a product of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Mhmm.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: So be careful who
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: you spend the most time with. Yeah. If you find that you're spending the most time with really negative people, you're gonna be a negative person. Yeah. So if you would like to change that, find the people that are positive or that talk about goals or peacefulness or whatever that is for you that you wanna become
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: More of. Find the people that do that. Mhmm.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: And that's not to say that you can't walk with someone through their struggles.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. And you should.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: And you absolutely should. But if you've got if your 5 people are constantly negative, are constantly stressed without working towards betterment, you know, you have to, at at the very least, put up those boundaries. Mhmm. To say I love you, I wanna support you, but I have to support you from a little bit of a distance.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Or if you wanna become a reader, surround yourself with readers. If you wanna become a runner
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: What if I wanna become a billionaire?
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Bad for your knees. Find some billionaires. But they all are terrible. Yeah. Generally.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Except for, I think, Taylor Swift is a billionaire. We could surround ourself with her.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: She's know that she'll talk
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: to us.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Probably not. But, you know, maybe. But maybe. But maybe.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: But maybe.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: We could definitely reach out.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. I'm sure that would work.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: We could tag her in the comments. Sure.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: That I'm sure she doesn't get tagged very often. No.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Not her. She's not that popular. No. We haven't actually mentioned Taylor Swift
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: in a while. That's for your bingo board.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: That's for your bingo board, ladies and germs. I don't believe in germs. I'm such a brat. Spending time in gratitude and prayer also releases oxytocin, which enables social trust and attachment. So if you're not spending time in a lot of gratitude or thankfulness, you might not have as close That makes total sense.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: If you think about when you're particularly anxious, you do tend to withdraw. Yeah. Isolate yourself. Yep. For sure.
• 30:27
  And, I mean, if oxytocin is helping helping you create that feeling of bonding Closeness. Yeah. It follows that you would then be able to trust more people, that you would then seek out more close relationships.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I also think the more you practice being thankful in your life, the easier it gets to recognize things that you're thankful for.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: So for me, like, when we were gonna write on a whiteboard what we were thankful for Mhmm. And I couldn't think of a single freaking thing. I think we all wrote the same things. We were like family, faith. I wrote laughter.
• 31:12
  Pixie Dust?
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: I should've written that.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I made that joke, like, 2 episodes ago.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Faith, trust, pixie Dust, and Disney. I should've wrote that. You should've. See, now I can, like, I'm thankful for so many things now. Disney in particular.
• 31:26
  Yeah. Just exclusively Disney, honestly. Spending time in gratitude, meditating on your thankfulness also helps with better sleep. Oh. Mhmm.
• 31:39
  Oh. Get that it lowers your blood pressure. Mhmm. Mhmm. It increases your energy.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I think we just don't realize that our mental health you know, because in generations past, mental health has not been as focused on or given as much credit as it should've been given.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: We don't realize how much of our physical bodies are impacted based on what we focus our lives on. Mhmm.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: So if you're really stressed out like, my reactions to stress are not good. It's not just gray hairs, but I can't sleep through the night. Mhmm. I have really terrible dreams. I have stomach issues.
• 32:17
  It affects every part of me when I'm stressed out, and I can really identify those times in my life where I've really, really struggled with it. I get nosebleeds. I get migraines sometimes, and I I don't get either of those things very often.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: So I think part of it too is being able to identify those things
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: And say to yourself, okay. I see myself doing x y z. I see my body Mhmm. Doing this, and I know that that's a stress response. Yep.
• 32:50
  So when I see my body doing that, what else can I do?
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Can I stop? Can I take a breath? Yep. Can I list 10 things I'm thankful for? Mhmm.
• 33:04
  Can I watch White Christmas and listen to the song about thankfulness and ask if I'm also thankful for those things too?
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: And give yourself permission for them to be silly things. Mhmm. It doesn't have to be this huge, like, world peace.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: We don't have that, so we can't be thankful for it.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: But you can be thankful for the cold bottle of wine in your fridge. You can be thankful for good cheese.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: You can also be thankful for, you know, family. That's a bigger one. But you can also be thankful for brand new pillows on your bed.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. All of those things you're right. We when we think of gratitude and thankfulness, there's there's things you're supposed to say.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Faith, family, trust, pixie dust. Yes.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: And it's not that those aren't all valid. Mhmm. They absolutely are. But maybe maybe it's just little things.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Little things add up to big things.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: And maybe the little things are what keep you going. Yep. Iced coffee. Iced coffee. Iced coffee.
• 34:06
  Iced coffee. I will tell you, and it I get made fun of so bad for my coffee. Okay? Because, a, I go to Starbucks every morning in my life. The Starbucks baristas, they know who I am.
• 34:16
  If you have not been listening prior to this episode, they know my name. The I don't even have to tell them it's me. They look at me on the camera. They're like, hey, Alyssa. Here's your coffee.
• 34:26
  I'm not
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: gonna judge you for that. I'm not gonna judge you for that. I'm not gonna judge you for that.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Are you good?
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Judging a little.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: A little bit. And, also, I really don't drink like, I get a venti iced coffee, and I don't drink that much of it. But I still get a venti because I like The proportions.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: The proportions
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: in the coffee.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: And I get made fun of a lot for it. But, sincerely, it's a little thing, and it gets me up in the morning. Like, it makes me feel like, oh, okay. I can handle today.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm thankful for this one thing. Hey. Gratitude can also aid to neuroplasticity, which that's a big word for me, even though I'm in the medical field, which alters your brain's ability to adapt and change its response to circumstances. So adapt to change. That's why you need your coffee.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: That's why I need my Neuroplasticity.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Whoever judges her for going to Starbucks, just know. You judge me.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: You just said you judge me.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: I didn't say that. I don't recall that. Rewind the tapes. Show me where.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I will do it. I I will. I think, yeah, if we could look at the tiniest of things.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: The tiniest, silliest of things. What's keeping you going throughout the day?
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: Like, for me, at the end of the day, it's my glass of cheap wine, and it's reading through my 8 books Mhmm. That I recently bought.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Well, it can't just be the big things because if it's just the big things and there's only 2 or 3 of them
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: My house, my family, my faith, my whatever, it it feels like if you spend your whole life just to get to your vacations. Right? Yes. If you spend your whole life just to get to to for us, it's Disney. So many Disney trips.
• 36:14
  But we only go maybe every other year
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Unless my husband gets involved, and that's a whole different story. But I can't spend my whole life
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: waiting for that. 90% of your life is spent waiting. Yeah. So don't let 90% of your life be spent not being thankful for what's going on around you.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Or what happens when one of those things falls apart? Let's say you get into a fight with your husband or
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Your kids are doing terrible in school or whatever.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: I'm picturing that if any of you have seen Inside Out where they have the different islands. Mhmm. So they have family island, and they have funny island, or whatever they are. Mhmm. And when she's going through what?
• 36:57
  No. She's not going through puberty. What is she doing? Oh, in the first one, she moved. So her family island gets fractured, and then she forgets who she is.
• 37:06
  Right. Like, you need to have more that you're thankful about in life Mhmm. Than exclusively family. Yeah. You can definitely be grateful for family, but you're right.
• 37:15
  What if you get in a fight? Right. What if, someone dies? Right. People everybody dies.
• 37:21
  There's only one way out of this world, unless you're that one guy who went up in a chariot.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Elisha, I believe. Our pastor talked about that this morning.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Am I? Maybe because I didn't
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: go, psychic. Maybe. He talked about it. He said, we're all going the same like, we're all getting out of here the same way.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: And then he was a little depressing from there for a little while, but that's not the point. And I think I've it it's hard because I I recognize that we are in a privileged position that like, I can go to Starbucks, and not everyone can but there have been massive times in my life, like, huge portions of my adult life where that has certainly not been an option, where we have not just struggled financially, but I I don't know how to describe it other than been way under the poverty line. Like, just really not okay. And so I I remember people being like, well, we'll be thankful for what you have. You know, you have a roof over your head, whatever.
• 38:17
  It's a little hard to be thankful for the roof over your head when there's it's a terrible apartment infested with bugs, and your neighbors are doing real sketchy stuff. Yeah. The one thing that I could hold on to, and this is the silliest thing, was taking a shower.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: My apartment complex paid for the, think, electricity and gas in that apartment. It was a long time ago. And so I had unlimited hot water, and I didn't have to worry about the cost of it. And I didn't have to worry about it running out because it's massive hot water tank for the whole building. Right?
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: And I could take an hour long hot shower, and that was it. That was what I was thinking before. That was what I could hold on to. So even if it's the silliest, weirdest little thing
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Whatever maybe maybe you get a pair of fuzzy socks for Christmas or something like that, and that is very comforting to you. Maybe you found a new show that you love. Whatever. Like, the silliest, goofiest things.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: If that can be what you hold on to to get you through Mhmm. One day to the next day to the next day, and then maybe the next day is a little bit of a bigger thing.
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Hold on to those.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Find the little bits of joy Mhmm. In your life and focus on those because there's so much in the world that is negative and that you could spend your entire life focusing on. But what are the good little bits?
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: Right. And I
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: think, you know, as Christians, as as people who grew up in the Baptist church Mhmm. There's a lot of negativity often thrown at you.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Well, they say from the pulpit, like, if you're a Christian, you were born to suffer.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: And be grateful for it because Jesus suffered and so will you, but you'll end up in heaven So good.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: There is a song we sang in church today, and I I think this song is absolutely hilarious because it says something about Jesus hanging on the cross.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: If the cross brings transformation, you can hang you
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: in your there with you. Mhmm. And something about, like, if I join you in your suffering, then I'll join you when you rise.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, Christ be magnified. Yeah. I really like that song.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: It's a great song, but I think it's funny because we sing it, and we're like, oh, you can hang me on the cross.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: You oh, yeah.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, Pete.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: Hang on.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: All you Christians out there, let's take 25 steps back. You would not jump on the cross with Jesus. You wouldn't do it. But that my point is we, as Christians, we expect all this suffering and whatever. And I'm not saying that there's not an aspect of that Mhmm.
• 40:49
  For Christian. There's an aspect of that for everyone.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: I think just life in general, humanity Mhmm. It's not just Christians.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Life is hard.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: Life is hard and then you die. Wow. That's the truth.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Happy Thanksgiving.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Happy Thanksgiving.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: Thankful for that.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: But what's keeping you going?
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Right. And just because you're someone of faith, just because you're a Christian does not mean that god called you to perpetual suffering.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Let's remember that you look at these people's lives. I think of, like, Ruth, for instance
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: And her story in the Bible. She suffered. Okay? She she had a rough time. Her husband died.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Changed her name to No. That was her mother-in-law. Oh, yeah. Her mother-in-law changed her name to, like, having a bad time.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: I don't think that was quite it, but it it was her mother-in-law. Yes. Uh-huh. So Ruth had a rough time. Her husband died.
• 41:49
  I believe her brother-in-law died. Her mother-in-law was gonna move back to her hometown, and Ruth was like, no. Come with you. Mhmm. Whatever.
• 42:00
  They're suffering. Right? They are impoverished. They have no hope. This is life.
• 42:06
  Life sucks.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: But god doesn't leave her there. Yeah. God didn't leave her there. He gave her a way out. Now this story is a little weird.
• 42:17
  Okay? If you ever read the book of Ruth, it's a little weird. But, essentially, she ends up marrying Boaz, a very wealthy land owner. He's he ends up kind of being, like, her kinsman redeemer, which is a whole separate thing. Very I know that sounds very, like, Christianese, but I would recommend reading the book.
• 42:35
  It's very short, and it's a good story. But the point is, as Christians, we're taught to expect suffering. We're taught to be thankful for everything God gave you, but also your life is gonna suck. Mhmm. But be really thankful, but it's the worst.
• 42:51
  But, you know, whatever. God doesn't leave you in your suffering. He didn't and, actually, we talked about this in church today as well. He didn't bring you to where you are to ditch you.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Wherever you are, if you if it's poverty, if it's relationship issues, if it's current cultural issues, if it's whatever it is
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: And I I think of our podcast too. He didn't bring us here to say, see you, bye.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: Mhmm. You might be climbing up a mountain right now. Yeah. And I'm not gonna discredit your mountain. I don't know what that mountain is, but I bet you're climbing it, and I bet it's not easy because hiking sucks.
• 43:40
  But, eventually, it's gonna plateau. Mhmm. And there there might be another mountain down the road, but God got you through the first one. Mhmm. He's gonna get you through the second one.
• 43:50
  Right. And then pretty soon, you're gonna look down and see how far you came. Right. And it's gonna be incredible.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: But while you're on your way up, on the way up, don't just live for getting to the top. Mhmm.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Look at the trees. Look at the birds and the bees. Look at the poison ivy that might be creeping up your leg.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe don't look at the birds and the bees. Maybe leave that one be. As you're going on your whatever the journey is, be thankful for everything that you can. Mhmm. And I I do I really sincerely, deeply I wish I could explain to you how deeply I know how hard it is Mhmm.
• 44:25
  To hear that. To you how deeply I know how hard it is Mhmm. To hear that and how much it sounds like
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: crap Yep.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: When somebody else is doing better than you're doing. Mhmm. I it sounds
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: so hypocritical. And I think especially in the churches that I grew up in,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: it was all about looks. Yeah.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: It didn't actually matter how well you were actually doing, like, your heart, your soul. That didn't matter. But what car were you driving? Right. Right.
• 44:55
  Right. What house did you live in? What vacation did you go on? Like, it was all outward appearances. Mhmm.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: And when those people tell you to be thankful
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: When you're struggling just to buy groceries Yeah. When you can't go to the doctor because you don't know what that cost is gonna be and you can't handle it.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I know that it doesn't it sounds hypocritical because you guys don't know me, really. You don't know Brie, really. Mhmm. So it doesn't sound easy to take from us. But if you can find the tiniest thing Mhmm.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: What's your hot shower?
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I got a new I I used to be thankful for this. I could afford a new jar of peanut butter, and I didn't have to scrape the tiniest bits out of the last one.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Or, hey. At least the rent is paid for the month. Mhmm. Whatever it is. Whatever the tiny thing is, it doesn't have to be the biggest thing in the world.
• 45:56
  Mm-mm. And you don't have to wait to be thankful until you can take 45 vacations and buy the fanciest car and live in the 40,000 square foot house. That seems like a too large of a house. What's a that
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: is a, that that's a warehouse, Elizabeth.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: What's a reasonable sized mansion?
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: 7,000 square foot house. Okay.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: Think of
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: a mansion. Whatever square footage comes to mind. You don't have to wait until you hit those points is what I'm saying.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: For me, one of the things that I just, like, could breathe for a second is when after, like, 5 years, I didn't feel like I had to be looking for another job. Now I've been at the same job for 8 years. I just kept refusing to leave. That's true. Just to be able to be like, I can just sit still for a minute and not have to worry.
• 46:51
  Yep. Like, security
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: Mhmm.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: In any way, shape, or form. Yes. That's a good thing to be thankful for. I'm also thankful for my Aerie shirt.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Hey. It's a good shirt. I have a few. I need to stop.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: I'm thankful for this sweatshirt I got today. Yeah.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: We went to a craft show today, and Brie got a pretty spectacular sweatshirt.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It says what did it say?
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: First of
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: all, I'm a delight. First of all, I'm a delight.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: I think you guys probably heard about it in the last episode also, but now you'd hear about it again because it's the same day
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: for us.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Big, angry possum on it. It is quite angry. It is. Here's the thing, though, about possums. This is very off topic, boys and girls.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: They're great.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Possums are really nice. They hiss at you because they're scared, but that's But
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: that's all they do.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Usually all they're gonna do. They're not gonna bite you. Now I'm okay.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: They might play dead.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not advocating going and grabbing the possum.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: But I do watch a guy on TikTok that does.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Don't sue me. But they probably will just play dead. And, also, they eat ticks. They eat, like, an insane amount of ticks.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: And they don't carry diseases.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: They don't carry diseases. So next time you see a possum, thank it and then maybe run away because you're still a little spooky.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: They're still a little spooky, and usually, they're dead in the road. So why are you in the road?
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Get out. It's that time of year, isn't it?
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: It's that time of year when the possums are out.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: We gotta go. We do. Alright. We're gonna end this one a little bit early. I hope this can help you find a little bit a a couple of moments of gratefulness.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Especially, you know, maybe I could think of 7 right now. Get ready. I'm ready. Buckle up.
• 48:30
  Potatoes, stuffing,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: corn, turkey,
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: cheese. That's fine. Pie. And, also, the wine and a yeti that I might be bringing. If any of our family's listening, stop.
• 48:44
  I'm gonna trick them. I'm gonna get Stanley instead.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: I just I I hope that the next few days can be a little bit peaceful for you. I hope that we have been able to help you out a little bit in that. So next week, we're gonna kind of start our December getting ready for Christmas.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna call it a series, but set of episodes. Yeah. Christmassy themed Yeah. Episodes. And this next one will be
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: on joy. Yeah. So we're gonna kind of talk about what that looks like. Here, we've talked about thankfulness. Mhmm.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: And I
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: think that leads really beautifully into joy and happiness and what that looks like for us as Christian women.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Mhmm. For For anybody that's going into the holiday season, like we just said, a little bit stressed, a little bit not happy. Because I'll be honest with you, Christmas is kinda melancholy for me.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: It can be, for sure. It's I love the Christmas season. Mhmm. But it is it's difficult. It's stressful.
• 49:49
  And so how do you how do you hold your peace? How do you hold your thankfulness? And how do you hold your joy?
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, you need another hand.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: And then after that, we're gonna start a miniseries on Mary, the mother of Jesus
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: Who I think in, you know, in the Catholic faith, she gets focused on a lot. But in I heard in
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: the Catholic faith, they call her big m.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that they do as they count the rosary beats. But I think in Christianity, she doesn't we hear about her maybe right around this time of year
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Once. And that's it. And it's just her her birth story, and that's about it. So we'd love to talk a little bit more about her, make her into a real person like we've done with a few other of the female characters in the bible. So join us for those.
• 50:36
  We would love to see you, hear you. We, actually, we can't do either of those things. We'd love for you to see and hear us. Nope. Hear us.
• 50:43
  Hear us.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Just hear us. It's a podcast, guys. And follow us on our social medias because then you may be able to see us. That's true. We love them.
• 50:53
  Also, if you know anybody from Minnesota, tell them I said sorry. And, also, they should listen to the podcast. Yeah.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Alright. Have a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. Let us know on our Instagram or TikTok what you had to eat, if you were able to stay thankful,
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: and
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: if you were thankful. Yeah. Any stories that you would love to share with us? What's your hot shower? That sounded dirty.
• 51:18
  Okay. Happy Thanksgiving. Love you.