The Thin Space

Well, hey there, Cadre. Hello, friends. Happy, happy Sunday. And if it's not a happy Sunday, that's okay, too. Whatever you are celebrating today, or whatever you are mourning today, whatever you are raising up today, or whatever you're struggling with today, bring that to this space. If today's a happy day, that's cool. Today is a hard day, a struggling day. That is. That's okay. Cadre is a space, and you can be in it. You are in it. How divine is that? My name is JC. If we've never shared space and time together before, thank you for the opportunity to share space with you.

It is a gift to share space with you. And if that makes you uncomfortable, I am okay with that. You are a gift. On Sundays, we talk about self care here in the Cadre sphere. What is the Cadre sphere? The Cadre sphere is the space that includes you. It includes me. It includes all of these people who are joining right now. You affect this space. How does it feel right now to see other people joining? Feel free to say good morning. Feel free to say how you're doing. How does it feel to see other people here?

I'll tell you, it makes me feel good. I like playing games like candy crush. I like checking in on weather changing. I like watching things that go up and down. Why? Because it shows me that the world is a verb, not a noun. Right? We are an evolution. Progression is cool. Regression is cool. Stagnance is scary. The cadres sphere is a verb because you are in it. So, as I said, on Sundays. Hey. Hey, everybody. Nice to see you. By golly, look at all these hearts flying. Sundays is self care day. I always like saying to kick off Sundays because I'm the first contributor to enter some thoughts on self care day.

This idea. So think of the words selfish and selfless. I think culturally, selfless is supposed to be a good word, and selfish is supposed to be a bad word. But let's take self out of both of those words, okay? Do it in your head. Or if you have a scratch pad, write down both those words. Write down selfless, and write down selfish and scratch out self. In both, you're left with less and ish. Put those two things together. Less and ish. Lessish. Lessish. Lessish is my favorite icky, made up word.

If you take the self out of selfless and selfish, you're left with lessish. And I think so often, we're selfless all the time, and we're left feeling lessish, and we're supposed to hide ourselves when we're being selfish and doing things for ourselves and we're left feeling lessish. So, hey, let's do some self care today. Let's loudly, proudly do things that make us feel like we're actually on our own side. Cool. So throughout today, pretty much in the morning and in the evening, in the United States of America time zones in the morning and in the evening, you're gonna see some pretty awesome people.

So you got me this morning. Normally, you're gonna see Jean this morning as well. And then in the evening, you'll see Tiffany Norton, and then you'll see Jason. You'll see Evan Lieberman, who's actually coming to you from Monday from Sydney, Australia. And then you'll see Jason Lennox as well. Just really cool people willing to hold some space and time for each of us. So what I got for you today? Well, I'm gonna have some young people who are impacting my life recently provide some thought and idea for you.

So I'm a big believer that every single person over the age of 20 should have a mentor under the age of 20. Now, I'm not called to have children of my own, but if you ever have had children or currently have children, I think children are really great mentors for us. And luckily, I spend a lot of time as a theater educator or as someone who spends time, even though I may be seen as the mentor or the coach secretly, I'm really the one learning from these younger people. So currently, I am directing Matilda junior at Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins, Minnesota.

And by golly, I've been directing at stages since 2011. And this is a really special production. I think it's probably the one that's impacting me the most. If you don't know the story of Matilda, it's a Roald Dahl story, and Roald Dahl is kind of a. If I'm being kind of clinical in my observation, it's kind of a weird storyteller. Roald Dahl likes making adults really villainous, and kids, really, almost abused kids get really mistreated by really villainous adults in these stories. Well, the production team, including me, decided to not do it that way.

We humanized the adults, which almost makes them a little bit more scary. And we allowed the kids to be really thoughtful heroes. So Matilda goes, no, sometimes you have to go ahead and look at the world you're in and go, we're not going to allow bad things to happen to us. So Matilda goes, you know what? I'm gonna stand up for myself. I'm gonna use my wonderful mind. And I'm going to, when I see bad things happening, I'm going to make them right. m. Central standard time on Sunday mornings. If you've been here before, you know, we talk about the thin space.

The thin space is a concept derived from franciscan monks. The Franciscans would seek out the thin space between day and night at beginnings and ends, good and evil. You know, all of these moments that exist between how humans perceive where time exists. You know, Marisa, who I think is listening today, shared an image with me on Instagram today of this old dusty truck driving, driving down the road. And then there was a quote that said something about, you know, existing in this space in between where we've been and where going.

That's the thin space. These kids sing this song about when I grow up. And they say these things like, you know, when I grow up, I'll know the answers to the questions that you have to know the answers to that when you're growing up. You know, you need to know the answers to, to be a grownup, because, of course, grown ups, to be a grownup, you need to know the answers to certain questions. And, you know, when I grow up, I'm going to eat sweets every day because when you're grown up, you can eat sweets every day because when you're a kid, you can't eat sweets every day because kids can't eat sweets.

And when I'm a grown up, I'm going to watch cartoons until my eyes go square because when you're a kid, you can't watch cartoons because cartoons are going to make your eyes go square. These kids are saying, wow, these adults keep telling us these things in these very black and white ways to make the world look as if there is a very black and white existence to the world. And all of a sudden, their teacher, Miss Honey, who is living very scared and very small because there's this villain in this adult's life who she's afraid of, sings about the monster under the bed.

This adult is singing about this monster under the bed. And she sings, when I grow up. This adult, and of course, it's Matilda, who helps Miss honey. This child who helps this adult go, Miss Honey, sometimes you have to realize that there isn't a black and a white. Sometimes it's in the middle of the gray that you have to be because if you're waiting for that future moment, for everything to make sense. If you're waiting for something in the future, for the moment to be the moment that everything is right, it is within this thin space.

The thin space is a fancy way of saying being present. It's about being mindful that, you know, I often say this culturally, we are set up to spend 48% of our time unpacking the past, 48% of our time planning for the future, and 4% of our time in the only moment that we actually have any power. And that is right now. And that's not to say that we shouldn't learn from the past. That is not to say that we should not plan for the future. But I'm sorry, adults, you only have power right now. How much time are you actually spending in this moment?

Tasting the coffee, feeling the sun on your face, feeling the air enter your nose and exit your mouth. Hearing the bird out of the ear that you can hear out of. That's a question. Because I bet you could learn more from the kids in Matilda Junior at Stages theatre company at Hopkins, playing for one more week than you probably could from the voice in your head. And that's not to go ahead and say, the voice in your head is not wonderful, but it's existed in a world that has told you for quite too long that the space is here and not here.

My invitation for you today is to be here, to be now, in the thin space. Go get it. Go nuzzle in. Because when you grow up, you're going to realize that the time was right now. Have a good one.