Harbor Pilots

Hi, Cadbury. Just took a sip of something lovely. It's a Lemon Zinger. It's a cold iced tea on a hot day in Pennsylvania. And it says, have a brutiful day. I am Speak Wonder coming to you live from the shores of Lake Erie in Erie, Pennsylvania. And it is one of our first really warm days. I think we're slated to be around 88 degrees today. If you could push the heart emoji or send me something. And Amma Amar is here. Hi. I was reading your post in the community chat about Alex's financial guruness.

Is that a word? Guruness? And now my stream has gone a little bit amber. I hope I'm still live. Can you send me anything to verify that I'm still on? Okay, it looks like I'm still getting some traction here. Jules. Good morning. Hi. It is 11 o' clock Eastern Standard Time. It could be 10 o' clock where you are, might be 9 o' clock where you are. Who knows what o' clock it is? But it's brew o' clock here because I'm having a wonderful iced tea tea at a new coffee shop. This coffee shop is very near to where I live.

I could walk. I didn't. Because this time of day, the traffic is a little heavy on the road that separates my home from the coffee shop. And so I drove. I also brought my dog, Gracie. I thought I could flip the camera. You guys, as savvy as I think I am, I'm never quite quite up to speed. All right, I don't know if you can see Ms. Gracie. This is very low tech, you guys. I need to. I need to go inside. I'm gonna go inside real quick. Please stay with me. It says the connection was lost, so we're gonna see what we can do to pivot.

Okay, I've got my dog. Come here. Thank you for your patience, everybody. This is my. What we call live radio. Hello. We're going in. I think the WI fi is better indoors. Okay. I think this is going to stick. Oh, good. Andy, Joyful says that the streaming is coming through where you are. Thank you. Good Thursday morning from Junk Food Junkie. It's good to see everybody. Just because I'm insecure, can you send me some hearts that the WI fi is strong? It looks like it on my screen. This is my first time coming to you live from the buzz at Harbor Leaf.

And I stepped inside the restaurant where it's not real busy right now. And I'm gonna finish my life. One of the things I learned by Listening to the podcast where they interviewed a harbor pilot is that with all of the fancy bells and whistles, the one thing that remains constant is something called the Jacob's ladder. And it goes up the side of the boat. And it is a rope ladder, you guys. It has remained unchanged for about 200 years. Unchanged, meaning it is the best technology for the job. Sometimes low tech is the best.

And that was a really cool lesson learned, that if something works, you don't need to fix it. This seasoned harbor pilot who was on the show that I listened to said that the rope ladder is honestly the best grip, the best way to shimmy up. And sometimes we're talking four stories. You know, it would be like going up half of a tall building in the city on a rope in the water with the waves. And yes, he did fall more than once in his career. One of his falls was pretty bad. It required a hospitalization.

He returned right back to the job because he loved it. Falling off of the ladder is only one of the hazards. I won't go into detail, but this gentleman also described a harrowing event in which it ended up okay, where he almost went full on with the boat he was piloting into the side of another ship. The anchors weren't working, something was wrong with the rudder. And he said he turned around, took a deep breath, did the quickest meditation he ever knew, and then he faced the problem and he saw the solution.

So much wisdom from harbor pilots. And so that situation was saved. I have a harbor pilot's checklist I'd like to read to you. And as you hear it, I would like you to consider how you can apply this to caregiving. Here is a navigation equipment checklist for the harbor pilot. The guy or the gal who actually goes out to the larger vessel in a small harbor boat, climbs up the rope ladder and takes over the helm because they alone know the harbor. That is my core theology for harbor pilots and the Cadre on Thursday is that we have helpers come in and help us navigate into the safety of the port, into the rest of a respite when we've been hard at sea as caregivers.

Here is the equipment checklist. A compass. Ensure that the compass is functioning well and it's calibrated. All the charts that you need. Charts and maps, they need to be up to date. Gps, check the system for accuracy. I'm just picking the highlights. You guys navigate. Oh, I said that. Knowledge of ships and sea excellence, precision, dedication to safety. We can apply that to the loved ones whom we Care give a human with a soul and a spirit and an intellect and emotions is much different from a vessel in the sea.

Still, as caregivers, let's apply excellence, precision, dedication to safety as we give the care that we can give. Know your environment. I might spend a minute on this one. It says have an in depth knowledge of the given port and surrounding waterways. Know your environment. Be well acquainted with it. Read the room, check the emotional climate. When I go to see my mom at the nursing home, I kind of check the air. What's the emotional climate today? It will always be different. There might be anxiety.

There might be an unresolved problem. Maybe her dentures aren't fitting well. Maybe she had a misunderstanding as to what she wanted for lunch and she's trying to navigate that. So read the room, check the emotional climate and adapt binoculars. Have a pair of binoculars readily available so that you can see well what is in the distance. As best you can as a caregiver, see what's on the horizon. Check the other caregivers. Check in often and have good communication. Finally, we have a pilot book, which to me translates into a journal.

Have a pilot book with relevant information about your given harbor. You may be landlocked, my friend. Maybe there's no waterway near you, or at best a little creek or a trickle or a pond or maybe a lake. If you're really blessed, you're near a massive lake, one of the Great Lakes, as I am privileged to be Lake Erie in northwest Pennsylvania. I've also been to Mackinac island in Michigan, and I've seen Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie. In that tour that we did as a family, looking at lighthouses, harbor pilots will always be captivating to me and I love that.

I found a pilot's checklist for you so that we could compare it to what we do as caregivers. And if you're not officially caregiving somebody, you are in that you are walking out into the world showing compassion to your friends, your family, your workmates and strangers. Go into their harbor with deference to who they are, with knowledge of the ship they're on and if you can, and guide them gently into safer waters if they need it. Y' all are great. Thank you for bearing with me. I don't know if you got to see Gracie's face or my feet.

I'm not even sure. The Buzz Cafe. I told them I give them a plug. They're on Edinburgh Road in Erie, Pennsylvania. Should you be traveling through here someday? I know most of our Cadre people are Midwesterners far away from here. You never know, though. If nothing else, teleport yourself through your imagination and come sip with me a lemon Zinger refresher with lots of ice. Sit with me in the summer breeze. We've done so as we've leaned in together. I like to end my Cadre with a haiku. But I left the unfinished haiku out there on the table.

Can you see that? There's my drink and my blueberry muffin. So I will put the entire haiku on the talk stream. I call it the conversation piece. That is another centerpiece of the Cadre. Thank you, everybody, for being here. You are lovely. If you need to hear this today, you are enough. You're doing enough. And if you're the one who needs a Harbor pilot, send out the SOS Toot the horn, Let somebody know that you could use a little tlc. And always come visit the Cadresphere because I find that I have difficulties I don't even have words for.

And the Cadre addresses those. Be well. Be you, be safe. And I'll see you next week on Harbor Pilot's caregiver day. That's.