Sunday Serenity: Holiday Gifts

Good Sunday morning, Cadre crew coming to you on Christmas Eve. I told you I would finish off the year with these lives, which, by the way, I had to change this one because I have a family event, but I told you I would finish them here by the Christmas tree. Once again, here we are, actually, all the presents underneath. Underneath the tree is full. So is my heart. And, and by the way, here's my newest Christmas shirt, the battle plan. If you've seen it, you know, that's home alone. And I actually just watched that movie this morning, so fun times for traditions.

I'm happy to be here. Jason Lennox. And I'm your resident recovery champion here to talk about all things recovery. And frankly, though my niche in work happens in the substance use recovery space, I believe we're all in some sort of recovery, whether that's from substances, from food, from experiences, from traumas, health. We're all on a spectrum there. And so I think the principles across all different forms of recovery are very similar. And so I'm happy to be bringing some. We got some volume.

I think I have my volume up. Can you hear me, Teresa? Theresa is questioning the volume. I hope that it's working. Anyone who is watching and can hear me, please comment and let me know that we are good with the sound. But again, Jason, and, you know, I spend a lot of time and space in substance use recovery, and last week, we were talking about this idea of who could you be and who you could be and how you could get there and someone can hear me. Thank you. So the. The idea of who you could be, and I talked about this gap and the difference between the trajectory we want to be on and we're actually on and how that can create a lot of pain.

And so I asked to think about how we start solving that and who it is that we actually want to be, because that's how we can get to being the person. You can't hear me. Did the other person say you can hear me, though? I just want to clarify. It looks like. Can Landy, can you please confirm that you can hear me? I don't want to continue on if you can't hear me because you'd have to be really, really good at lip reading, and I talk really fast, so I don't know that you could read everything I'm saying.

So anyone out there in the universe that's watching, please confirm with a yes, you can hear me, and I will continue on, and hopefully theresa can come back and check things out. Yeah. Thank you. All right, so, Teresa, hopefully you can get some volume figured out. Thank you, landy, el, Andy, whatever your name is. Thank you for being here. So as I mentioned, who could you be? Now we're going to get going. And the thing I want to talk about this week is what are the things I can do? I think the thing I said that I, I knew I could be in this world was, merry Christmas to you, Sherry.

Great to see you. The thing I could be in this world is somebody who leaves a legacy of generosity, love and compassion. I believe something like that. And, you know, I was writing some Christmas cards this morning, wrapping a lot of presents the last couple days, as you can see there. But I saved four cards for the end. And these are my favorite cards to write because these are cards that I get to write to very special people in my life, but also that include experiences. So the whole idea of the title here of this video, experiences versus gifts, what do we do?

And you can see that I give a lot of gifts because I have a lot of kiddos and nieces and nephews in my life. And I know that that's what they like. So one gift to each of them, hopefully they're all happy and, you know, can take that with them. But these other ones, as they get a little bit older, I like to gift experiences. And, you know, the, the thing that Denzel Washington actually says this very well in a speech, a commencement speech he gave, I saw it on YouTube several years ago. He said, you can't take a U Haul.

You'll never see a U Haul behind a hearse. You can't take it with you. He said, so no matter how much stuff we get in this world, it's not coming with us when it's all over. But as we leave this world, the experiences that are there, those are the things that are memorable. And I was reminded at my cousin's bathroom game, I showed up and, you know, her mom said, I'm really thinking about experiences more than presents as I move forward. My daughters are getting older. And she said, these are two that I get to gift experiences to.

I'm very fortunate. And she said, they talk about that all the time. That's what they remember. They remember these trips. They remember all these things that you get to do together. And it's less about the gifts. And so, you know, that's what I want this session, I want you to think about. And perhaps it's a little too late this year and you've gotten gifts. And by the way, again, I love gifts. I love giving them I don't like receiving them as much just because I don't like a lot of material stuff, but I love to give gifts, especially to the little ones.

And, you know, some sentimental gifts, too. I do like receiving those, but the experience is as simple as writing in a card. Hey, this is the experience. And mapping it out there is for me so much more meaningful and so much more memorable. And so I know that that sometimes takes resources. We don't all have those. I've been blessed and frankly, worked my hind end off to come from an upbringing of nothing and no money and poverty and homelessness and all the things to be in a position I'm in today, to be able to gift people and to be able to take people and just to be able to share those resources.

And I've always said I'm not in this world to make a bunch of money, to take it with me or to buy all the things for myself. I'm here to do all that. And I do, you know, have an interest in making money and making a good living. Because to me, that equals sharing. That allows me to be generous, that allows me to give to causes, that allows me to gift experience, experiences versus presence, and, you know, really continue to share with the world in the way that I know best to do. And that's, you know, through taking people along with some of the beautiful rides that I have in life.

So want you to consider that as you move into your own worlds and they don't have to be lavish, expensive experiences. We're talking just a local one night a day to get away. Just things that will create memories with family. I absolutely love doing that. I hope you consider how that might make a difference and that those words resonate. That the thing that my cousin told me, you know, that's what they talk about. They don't talk about any of the material things that people are getting. They talk about the experiences, and that's what makes a difference.

Especially for, you know, those older teenagers, younger adults and, you know, all of us. I love it. Some of my favorite gifts, concert tickets, things like that that are not that expensive, not that crazy, but create memories and things that I don't forget. So, looking forward to the next couple days here. I celebrate these holidays. They're one of my favorite of the year. And I hope you all have some time with family. If it's hard, if it's troubling, know that you can reach out here. You have a whole crew at Cadre willing to make a difference for you and willing to be here to support you during this, you know, sometimes tough time of year.

I get that. It's been that way for me. It took a lot for me to reassociate with my new life this time of year to something good, because it was always something that was very hard. And so I get to spend some time with the most important people. I hope you do, too. And again, if you need anything, you know where to find us. Here we are. Happy to reach out and be a support. Happy to share the experiences I get to experience. You want to come along to my family? Great. You might be in for a ride you weren't expecting, but please do reach out.

Hope you all have a wonderful week and start to wrap up this year in a meaningful way and get prepped for, you know, what's to come in 2024. Look forward to seeing.