Sunday Serenity (Monday Version)

Happy Monday, Not Sunday, this is Monday Cadre Sphere. I've got a little tune playing in the background here. It's a song by Jelly Roll and it's called I Am not okay. And really just a very meaningful song. And it's a song that I heard yesterday at funeral I was at. And just going to turn it up a little so hopefully you can hear. Anyhow, the song is I Am not okay. And again, I listened to it at a funeral of an old good friend of mine yesterday and just a very, very difficult situation. It was. A guy was 39 and struggled for a long time with substances, things like that, and had started to turn that around and just had some real mental health demons that just couldn't get past and had a couple kids and so just heartbreaking.

And I was down there for services this weekend. He was a best friend at one point. We lived together and had a lot of fun, got in a lot of trouble, all the things, but he just wasn't okay, I guess. And, you know, he had fallen apart over the last several years. I got into recovery and treatment and so, yeah, we just, you know, there was some distance between us, but nonetheless, he was a good friend. And so I wanted to be there. I did some speaking with my own thoughts and then on behalf of his sister who just couldn't.

She didn't have it in her to read a letter. So I saw a lot of people. Of course, funerals are never places we want to see people, but this kind of thing always hits a little bit harder. You know, I've been there. I've been to the state of mind where I have to ask myself the question, is this life worth living? I've done that in addiction. I've done that in recovery, actually, early recovery, that tends to happen. And, you know, we take away what we use as solutions and substances that mask all the pain.

We take that away and it feels good for a little bit because it's something new. And then we're dealing with life and kind of the high, if you will, wears off and we're left with all the things that we never addressed. And sometimes we address those and in other cases we don't. And that's what happened here. So very unfortunate. But the reason I'm telling you that is because of all the conversations and all the things that happened throughout the weekend. There was one that I had while I was waiting in line for the wake on Saturday with an old friend of ours, mutual friend, and we just started talking and he just had some really good Memories.

So he was sharing them. And it was strange that night, it must have been about 11 o'clock, and I got onto Facebook and Messenger because I was on Facebook. So I opened up messenger and I was going to send him a message, typing out the message, and quite literally start to see his three dots typing, which is really strange. So here we are both messaging at the same time, just saying it's really good to see each other and kind of catch up and see that we're doing well. And he said a very simple, very poignant line that stuck with me and is the reason that I'm here on Monday.

I was considering just skipping traveling last night, but here we are, the four words that he said in his messaging. He said, you know, I want to do better at reaching out proactively and asking how people are. He said, you never know how. Hey, how you doing? You know, you never know what that can do. So, hey, how you doing? Those four words. And it just hit me, yeah, that's such a simple thing to ask, isn't it? And, you know, it just got me thinking. And so actually, the next day or last. Last night.

Yeah, the next day on the flight, I started compiling a list of hey, how you doing? List. Who are my people? Who are the people I know I can reach out to? Are the people I want to reach out to that haven't reached out to, that I know might be struggling, Any combination of those. But who are those people that I could drop a quick line to and just check in, say, hey, how you doing? Because really, my friend Adam, he was spot on there. We just don't know what that can do. We don't know what that means, what the timing is, and, you know, just something I want to really live into.

So I wanted to bring that up here because I wanted to, you know, encourage everybody here to make a little list. And I'm actually going to maybe do a little something with it here. My friend Brandon, his birthday is a month from today, and I might try to do something there for his kiddos. But in the meantime, point here is that simple question. Hey, how you doing? I urge you to think about creating a list of your own, even if it's a few people, and saying, over the next three days, I'm going to reach out to this person one day, this person one day, and this person one day, and just drop that quick line in there.

We just never know where that will land with people. So I'm going to keep it short. Six minutes maybe doesn't sound short, but Usually these go a little longer, but I just wanted to jump on and share that and kind of put that question out there. Maybe people can pick up on that. Maybe we can do something with that and make a difference. You know, who knows if, you know, Brandon had gotten a hey, how you doing that day, the day before, whatever the case might be. I might not even be sharing this here today.

We just don't know. Oh, we know what happens if we don't do anything, and that's nothing. Or worse, what I just witnessed in the weekend that I attended. So, yeah, take it. Hey, how you doing? Hey, how are you all doing? You're watching here now drop it in. And I think the strategic, sometimes tricky part about that is it's easy to get the canned responses. But how do we. How do we truly know? Hey, how you doing? And I don't know. It's interesting, but posing the question, I think it's a great start.

I would encourage all of you to do that. Commit to that, please, for me, in the name of my buddy Brandon, his kids. Three people this week. Pick three. Three people that you can reach out to and just check in on, say, hey, how you doing? So that'll let you go and look forward to catching you here this next weekend. Maybe hearing a little bit about how that went or maybe expanding on that a little bit on my end. But I hope you all are doing well and if you're not, you know, reach out. I'm here. And I know it's not always easy to reach out when we're not feeling good.

That's why I'm saying, and my buddy Adam said we need to proactively do this. So I'm going to take it. I'm going to do it. I can commit to it. I hope you can. I look forward to hearing about it, and we'll talk to you all very soon.