Latest / Voices for Voices® / Why I'm Celebrating Lucy's Third Birthday | Episode 499

Transcript

Why I'm Celebrating Lucy's Third Birthday | Episode 499 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:01
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Hi everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices.
• 0:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 0:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Whether you're watching, whether you're listening, whether you're here in the United States or across the world, uh, we are sending our love and support to each and every one of you.
• 0:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um, it's just uh an amazing feat that we are coming up uh against uh with the amount of episodes that we're we're coming to.
• 0:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So the big number 500 is uh so close and it's uh just amazing.
• 0:40
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: It's amazing what an idea, a dream, uh perseverance through ups and downs, curveballs, everything to still be here sharing experiences and events of myself, our organization, and our guests.
• 1:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So thank you so much for making this a reality.
• 1:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh yeah.
• 1:16
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: If you can give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share, repost, uh, follow us on our social media accounts, predominantly Instagram and Facebook is where you can find us the uh the most active, uh, as well as you if you're watching this episode, just know that you have the option to listen to episodes.
• 1:43
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So all episodes uh can be found uh YouTube, Rumble, and wherever you um find your podcast, you can find voices for voices, you can use your smart device, uh smart speaker, say play voices for voices, TV show and podcast, and it's that that easy.
• 2:12
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We have a huge goal to uh not only reach but help at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, and because of you and so many groups and organizations, uh, we are headed that way.
• 2:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Very uh it's it's gonna happen, and I'm so excited uh for that uh to happen.
• 2:44
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Not for me, but for the individuals that we're helping, because as I mentioned a lot, I can't take anything with me when my time here on Earth is up, but individuals can take experiences, they can take um ideas, events that we've covered, uh guests that we've had on their stories, uh, their events, their uh their yeah, experiences, and that's what's gonna carry on one once I'm uh no longer here on Earth.
• 3:25
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um no long I'm not predicting anything here, but I I just know that we were born, we live, and then we pass away.
• 3:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So uh that's what I'm here for.
• 3:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh I've could I could have been um taken from this world, this earthly world, so many times, and yeah, God decided decided to keep me here, at least until now, uh, because we don't know how long we're gonna be here on earth.
• 4:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So I have I have a a good feeling that voices for voices is the reason why God has kept me here.
• 4:12
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh doesn't mean that it's always gonna keep me here.
• 4:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: It just means at the the current time where we're at, um I mean there could be time the time between us filming this and when it goes uh goes live and we drop it, that we might not make it.
• 4:39
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: This m this episode might not make it to um to our platforms, but we don't know.
• 4:47
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So let's try to be a little more positive on things.
• 4:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But I just wanted to share that because it's a big deal.
• 4:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um if you could reach out to 25 your contacts and your phone, let them know about the voices for voices, TV show and podcast, that would greatly help us.
• 5:10
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Word of mouth is how we have made a huge difference because when you if you hear something from a friend or family member, you're more likely to check it out, see what it's about.
• 5:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh and we've we've found again, we're on our way to helping three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, uh throughout 300 countries, 3,000 cities across the world.
• 5:48
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And again, we only have you to thank.
• 5:52
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so some people were like, You you take a long time at the beginning and and and talk and share a lot.
• 6:01
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Can you just get into the episodes?
• 6:06
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And my response to that is what we discussed up until this point is very the organization, what keeps the the TV show and podcast, uh, what keeps voices for voices running.
• 6:29
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so we have to share that.
• 6:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We don't have the luxury of having you know some huge organization behind us.
• 6:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um we we that we don't we we don't have we don't have that that luxury, so uh we have to share and we gotta let people know that they can find this itty bitty organization and all their episodes and where you can find our books and Amazon.
• 7:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You'll find them on voicesforvoices.org.
• 7:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You can purchase through there.
• 7:14
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You just go to voicesforvoices.org and then you start scrolling down.
• 7:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You'll see we're having a tour uh that's gonna be uh it's gonna be 2026 to 2028.
• 7:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh, and then you'll see books that you're able to purchase all of all of those uh donations because we are a 501c3 nonprofit charity, all of those here in the United States, you're able to write off on your taxes.
• 7:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh we are a again federally registered nonprofit charity organization.
• 7:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh, if you don't live in the United States, just check with your your tax preparer and they they'll let you know how how to uh how to handle that uh in in your uh home hometown, home city, home country.
• 8:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh because it varies from country to country, sometimes city to city.
• 8:20
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So just double check on that.
• 8:23
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um so today is a so today's a milestone in in the in our family.
• 8:37
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh as as uh those of you who have seen other episodes, uh you'll know the we've we've never been uh we've never had a pet outside of a beta fish, um who is coming up, I think, on being a year old, which is just we've never had a beta fish that's lived this long, so it's it's incredible.
• 9:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But our uh our uh our pet Lucy uh dog, we're pet owners now, and uh and and so I wanted to just show everybody here, let's see here.
• 9:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Let's go none.
• 9:44
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Okay, let's take that off.
• 9:48
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So you'll see her behind me kinda uh resting.
• 9:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh but she's three years old today, and and and so we're celebrating her third birthday.
• 10:04
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And some of you might wonder, like, oh big deal.
• 10:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Well, it's a big deal because right, you have to take care of the pet, you know, feed, have water, take them out to do their business, uh go going to the potty, I guess.
• 10:27
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I can share that.
• 10:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um also on the mental health side, I have I've noticed, even if just a little bit, having Lucy, our pet dog, with us as you know, they talk about pet therapy.
• 10:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You hear, you know, pet therapy where you know you can pet a horse, ride a pony, um have a dog, have a have a dog, have a have a cat, and it helps lower stress a little bit.
• 11:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Again, it's not the end all be all.
• 11:21
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But what I've noticed since we've we've had her is uh you know she's she's my pal, and so we do a lot of a lot of work here on the computer for our shows, for our voices for voices organization, and just having her around, even if she is you know sitting on my shoulders or um whatever she's she's up to.
• 11:59
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh and so I I'd I'd like to say that maybe you you've you've already known this.
• 12:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um I'm 44 and this is the first uh pet again outside of a fish, small fish, beta fish, goldfish that I've ever had.
• 12:24
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh and there's just something about having having the pet.
• 12:36
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I don't know what it is.
• 12:37
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I can't explain it.
• 12:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I can't explain how much stress or how much anxiety or uh or what that gets lowered.
• 12:46
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I don't know if it's a lot, I don't know if it's a little.
• 12:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: All I know is that it's something that Lucy is something to look forward to when I wake up.
• 13:04
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so then uh you know, one of the the things of you know taking our child to school, she likes when Lucy comes.
• 13:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so that's what so we have kind of that bond uh for that, those uh those moments.
• 13:27
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And it's just so neat as again, as somebody who has never had a a pet to have one.
• 13:35
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh yeah, she makes us laugh, she makes us upset a little bit sometimes when she's not listening when she eats grass, and we're trying to get her not to eat the grass, and we're trying to get her out of the flower beds, and you know, there's there's those things, but all in all, it's just so um it's just neat to have have a have a pet.
• 14:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh and I know it's helped my mental health, and I again I don't know how much, how little, but it's it's it's helped uh because instead of going for from maybe a bad a bad day, that bad day can be a little less bad.
• 14:33
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Because Lucy will combs will sit on my lap and she'll want her belly rubbed and and and and all that.
• 14:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um and you know, she plays around, and I always say that I gotta watch out because she'll like fake like she's eating my fingers.
• 14:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And this I'm no joke.
• 14:59
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Feels like she's eating my fingers, like uh a lot of times when we're trying to get the leash on to take her, take her outside to to go potty, to go, you know, do her business.
• 15:11
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'll I'll be trying to get her leash on, and and and she'll be uh have her mouth open and then she'll you know my finger will they go in her mouth and I'll feel her teeth, but she doesn't squeeze down, she doesn't chomp, at least not yet.
• 15:30
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh I'm like Lucy, like we we don't want to get in that habit because I don't I don't want one day for her to wake up and Lucy being the who um her yeah to uh wake up and like I'm gonna chomp this finger off or something.
• 15:56
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So it's anyways just little things that not having a pet I've noticed in me.
• 16:07
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um obviously I know the the rest of my family uh you know likes and loves having her around, and so she she has her birthday today, so she's turning three, or she turned three today, is turning three.
• 16:25
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um and so what do you do?
• 16:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You you to celebrate a birthday, and I guess I didn't understand before having a pet why people would celebrate a pet's birthday or that, but it's because I didn't know I didn't have a pet, so I didn't understand.
• 16:50
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I'm like, well, why are they you know celebrating?
• 16:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And you know, there's there's just a lot of stuff I just even to this day that I don't understand because I'm not perfect, nobody is.
• 17:03
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so I was thinking like, why are people celebrating their pet's birthday and buying them clothes and uh and and and different things?
• 17:15
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And now I have a better understanding of that, of uh having a pet and wanting to wanted that to be special, especially when you have you know children in the house, because they they also look look at it, it's kind of like they're stuffies, you know, they're stuffed animals, but this is a real animal, this isn't a stuffed animal.
• 17:50
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh so we we we try to say, hey, you gotta just be a little more gentle.
• 17:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You know, we can't, you know, we want to squeeze and to give a big uh big hug.
• 18:03
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We still can do that, but uh we just have to be a little more careful.
• 18:09
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um she's learning, we're all learning.
• 18:13
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh she'll follow us like so fast.
• 18:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We'll start up the steps, get halfway up, think we'll get to the top before her, and then ride up the steps right next to us, and and she blows right by us, and she's up there, and she's just waiting patiently most of the time.
• 18:36
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But like any pet, uh you know, she'll bark at usually it's other people, other other pets, uh, sometimes you know, people, people that ring the doorbell, or I mean, I I'm not I don't think I'm sharing too much that you might not already know.
• 19:00
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um but for me, for us, for my family, these are things that we're just learning.
• 19:08
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And it's uh it's neat, but when she barked, it's like so loud, and it's like Lucy, Lucy, Lucy.
• 19:19
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And you can probably see her, she can't see her because I have we have the virtual uh background, but she's just so neat to have uh around, and and so she is.
• 19:37
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: She's she's an extension, she's part of our family, and so that's why we're going to celebrate her birthday here a little bit later.
• 19:48
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh and so I I understand more now about pets than I did.
• 19:59
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Obviously, I I've I haven't had a cat, so I don't know what that experience is like.
• 20:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But again, bringing it back to the mental health, she takes my mind off things, even if it's just for a few minutes or a few seconds, here or there.
• 20:22
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And as I've talked about the pie of life, you know, if 100% of the time we're stressed, you take a couple percentage points and you reduce that and say, okay, now my life is 98% stress, but now it's 2% less stress, or whatever that number may be.
• 20:51
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And that's really where we're at, or where I'm at, I guess, when it when it comes to having having a dog, is I don't know how much the stress goes down, but it's going it's going down a little bit, even if it's just a teeny teeny teeny teeny tiny tiny amount it's still a little bit noticeable to me.
• 21:24
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so I'd recommend if having a pet is something that you've you've wanted, uh maybe maybe see if you can make that happen.
• 21:45
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I d I don't know, it's taken a long time for us to get to this point.
• 21:51
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And and now we're here.
• 21:54
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: There's a lot of people that they have pets growing up.
• 22:00
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I had one, an outside dog.
• 22:03
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I only remember for a basically like a nanosecond.
• 22:12
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But he got outside of his cage in doghouse.
• 22:20
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: He dug his way out.
• 22:23
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Ended up getting hit by a car.
• 22:27
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Um and so I I don't have a whole lot.
• 22:32
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I didn't have a whole lot of experience with with that pet.
• 22:38
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: A springer spaniel.
• 22:41
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And so now we have a Havanese dog.
• 22:49
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So if you're thinking about it, or thinking about getting a pet, go to the nearest shelter, Humane Society.
• 23:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Or if there's other other stores that other pet stores.
• 23:09
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: See if you're able to find one and have a chance to play.
• 23:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And I was worried about my allergies too.
• 23:19
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: That's the other part.
• 23:22
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I was worried about my allergies.
• 23:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And I'll say miraculously, I don't feel that I'm allergic to her.
• 23:43
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Like where you sneeze and then it get like real eyes are watering and all that.
• 23:53
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: That was one of my big biggest concerns.
• 23:57
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Because every every dog's unique.
• 24:02
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Just like every one of us human beings are unique.
• 24:12
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So we're gonna celebrate Lucy's third birthday today.
• 24:17
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: She's helping my mental health to some degree.
• 24:23
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: I can feel it.
• 24:28
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: But I'm away and I come come back.
• 24:31
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: She's you know hopping on my leg.
• 24:35
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You know, like so happy, wagging her tail.
• 24:42
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So I just want to share a little bit of that little personal family event, events.
• 24:51
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Uh and maybe again, maybe you can find one.
• 25:00
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: So until next time, this is Justin Allen Hayes, Voices for Voices.
• 25:05
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: If you can give us the big thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share, repost, reach out to 25 or 50 contacts in your phone.
• 25:15
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Let them know about the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 25:18
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: You can find us everywhere.
• 25:20
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We greatly appreciate that.
• 25:22
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: And follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 25:25
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: Till next time, let's celebrate the voices of everybody in the world and let's be a voice for ourselves and somebody else in need.
• 25:36
  Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: We'll see you later.