Sunday Serenity: The Power of Relationships

Happy Monday, Cadre crew. I am grateful to be here with you. Jason Lennox. I'm your resident recovery champion, and as you can see, doing a little up close and personal again this week. I think I'm gonna do this all the way through Christmas just because I really think everybody should get a little piece of that tree there. Even have a couple presents under there after this last weekend. So anyhow, if you normally join on Sunday, I appreciate your patience. I had posted in the community that I had to move this due to awake yesterday, and that just ran into family time, and it got a little longer than anticipated, and I just was going to be there with family.

So appreciate the flexibility. Here we are. And as I was going through the funeral wake yesterday, funeral today, of a great aunt who was really foundational to our family, oldest of the family, and, you know, lived a really good life. But as I was going through the funeral today and just kind of thinking and reflecting thought, this is the fourth funeral in the last six months I've been to. And there was one side of my brain that wanted to think, that's a lot of sadness, that's a lot of death. That's just a lot in a short period of time.

And the other side immediately came in and. Good evening, Luke. Always good to see you, buddy. The other side of my brain, so one side saying, that's a lot. Four people and six months funerals, that's a lot of losing people, right? It's sad. The other side of my brain realizes the reality is I just have a lot of meaningful relationships and I have a very extended family that I've continued to grow with and to reach out to and to build relationship with. Very fortunate in that sense. And, you know, as.

As I was thinking more and more about these relationships, it took me back to this weekend. I was drafting up an article that I'm going to release, actually, this week. I was in honor of celebrating 13 years of recovery on Saturday. So I wrote, I have an article going about 13 things I've learned in 13 years, and inside a couple of them, relationships. And the first one was point number eleven or something was, at the end of the day, what matters most are relationships. And I said that the things that cause me, that bring me the greatest joy and cause me the greatest pain, they all live inside relationships.

And so I treat them as the most valuable assets in my life and I cherish them and do what I can to make sure they're in good standing. And the second point that I made that will come out related to relationships is love without expectations. And I had kind of quoted some interactions I've had in the past with people talking about family and how, gosh, they don't meet me halfway. I got to do this, and if it wasn't for me reaching out, I wouldn't hear from them. We wouldn't have the relationship. I'm not going to do it.

You know, we all can get down that path. That's a natural way of thinking. I should be met halfway. I'm gonna put in the effort. I'm not putting in more effort than someone else. So I hear all those things, and if that's you, you know, that's your life, you live that way. That's not the way that it goes for me. And I know over 13 years of my recovery, reestablishing relationships, building relationships, that if I didn't put in the extra effort and if I didn't go beyond to meet people on the other side, the majority of my relationships would not exist.

At minimum, they wouldn't exist in the way that they do. And if you ask me who wins in that, I think we all win, but I know I win the most the relationships I have because of the effort that I'm willing to put in, even if it feels like more then the other side, even if it feels like it's not working, I just keep slugging away. I do that because I know in the end, I win because of those efforts, and I get the relationships, and I get to experience all the joys that I do in my relationships. And so, again, the two things that stood out at the end of the day, relationships are what matter most.

And when we start to lose people, we realize that. Hopefully we realize it long before then. But days like today, it's easy to see that it's a relationship. Secondly, love without expectation. And I get caught up in the expectation and thinking that it should go both ways as well. But at the end of the day, what I continue to practice and what I continue to keep as an outlook is I'm just going to keep showing up. I'm going to keep loving. I'm going to try to minimize those expectations. And again, at the end of the day, I'm the big winner in that scenario.

Really, I have so many meaningful and full relationships with people in my life that I just never could have imagined it this way. And again, that's a direct result of putting in the effort. So I invite you. Yes, Luke. Bingo. Bingo it is. I invite you all to consider and ask yourselves, who are you? Who is it that you're holding back with? Who could you be reaching out to? Who is it that you're. We've had those thoughts. We all have those thoughts with my brother. You know, if he put in a little more effort, we'd have a better relationship.

Who are those people in your lives? And try it on like this is. We're just here to experiment in this world. We just keep trying things on. What works for us, what works for you? This works for me. It might not work for you, but give it a try. You won't know unless you try, right? And I think it's just, hey, Chris, thanks for joining. I think it's always worth giving it a shot. Give it a shot. So find the people in your lives. Think about them. Think about who you could be establishing relationship with.

Think about who you're having those resentful thoughts at, and, you know, go after them. Reach out. Reach out. Keep reaching out. I do this, I have a sibling, and I reach out over and over and over. And then the responses are short. But you know what? We show up. We have a great time. It's a meaningful relationship. I get to see the kids, my nieces, my nephews, and I just think there's so much power in that. So, again, invite you to consider who in your lives you could establish relationship with and who you could put that effort in with.

You might be amazed what's on the other side. So grateful you all are here. I am extremely tired from the last few days. Been a long three day weekend. Again, good with family. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna finish up here and get myself into my cozy bed. So I look forward to seeing you all and again, invite you to consider, who can you reach out to? Who can you make that relationship a little bit stronger with? Even if you feel like it's a little more one sided than you want. Never know what's on the other side.

So look forward to seeing you all on Sunday. Hope you have wonderful weeks. Luke, Chris, always great to catch up with you two and look forward to talking to y'all very, very soon. Have a blessed weekend.