Cadre Today

Well, hey there Cadre. How are we doing? I got cut off yesterday because the WI fi in London for some reason wasn't liking my phone. But I'm back with you today. As I look at the time, it looks like it is 11:15 Central Standard Time. So if you're in the in the Midwest or down South, I hope you're having a good midday. If you're a little earlier, a little later than that, I. I hope you're doing well too. Wearing my polka dots today, I'm matching this record on the wall of my Hilton and I hope you're doing good.

I'm glad that I'm here. I'm glad you're here. Speak Wonder I know what I know and I care about you. Beezle bits. Nice to see you too, my friend. So I know that it's about time for me to come back home to Minnesota because I finally have gotten good at figuring out what time it is there versus what time it is here. It is about time for me to wrap up my day here. Still got a meeting at 7pm and 10pm tonight, but I am officially done with my training, which is pretty cool. Let me tell you about it. So it was a training for maybe a lot of supporting other people work and this was a training on how to coach the interconnections of teams.

So rather than coaching that person and that person and that person, coaching how these two people respond and connect and relate and these two and these two and these three together and these three in this larger system. So in essence it's coaching the relationships and the interconnectedness rather than the things that are interconnected. Just finished the last day of was pretty cool. I won't. I don't think I'll actually see Big Ben this time. Speak Wonder I did see the monument though, which funny enough, so the monument, that's what they call it, is this huge, huge obelisk that is remembering the big fire that burned down London, however long ago.

Here's the funny part of that because you're like, why is that funny? Here's what's funny. The building I was in for this training, if there is a fire in the building, the, the meeting space for everybody in the building to go to is next to the monument. So if there's a fire in the building I was in these last three days, I was supposed to go to the monument for the fire that burned down the whole city. London's got a great sense of humor. So the fun thing about this training was I was the one American in this group of 26 people.

I thought it was 11 countries. It's actually 13 countries represented in this group of 26 people. And I always love being, as I say, parts of groups of people that I don't know yet. That's what I call strangers. But even more so if I can be the only X and Y and Z, yada yada yada. I was the only millennial, as I shared. I was the only American. I was the only member of the, of the queer population. And something I'll talk about today. So on Thursdays, how often do we speak about the, the role of caregiving, the role of, of being in partial or full responsibility for someone else's livelihood and well being?

Quite often. Check out the rest of the live streams today you'll hear people talking all about it. And yes, this month we were talking about the idea of being free or being liberated. And I think of kind of the, the topics in as broad of a sense as possible. So I think about the things that we are often influenced by that end up having power over us. That, that we can maybe take some power back. And I'll tell you, it happened like three times today. But it happened so often in my life and I've never vocalized it before, but three times today someone came up to me like do you have children?

Because they're about to go ahead and use a parenting analogy and which, which is fine neither here nor there. But it's interesting how much of our worldly context is set up in the pathway, the shared pathway, maybe assumed shared pathway of people who are parents. And I go like this because I venture the question today, are there experiences that are shared by parents and non parents and if the ones that are being raised up when I'm being asked a question like that before people share what they want to share, is there a different way that they can frame that or to frame the knowledge they're about to share or the, or the shared experience that they're about to share with people who maybe don't fit in that group?

I am a proud non biological parent to any offspring and yet I have been in the seat of parent quite a few times in my life. Not to go ahead and say that I understand anybody else's experience because I don't, nor will I try to. I refrain from saying things like I know how you feel because I don't. I haven't walked in your shoes. And even if I can maybe want to or I can empathize with, I don't know what it's like to be in your shoes and sometimes, actually probably all the time. When someone goes, are you a parent?

I go, no. Sorry. I feel bad. I feel like I'm. I'm not fitting in the space I'm supposed to sit in. I've been a church musician for 30 plus years, and guess what? It's really hard to sit in a space that is all designed around having a traditional family. So I'm liberating myself today. I'm choosing to liberate myself from feeling as if I don't belong in. In certain conversations because I haven't had what is perceived as similar experiences. I spend a lot of time considering what I'm not. And I think we all do that, right?

I'm the guy who talks about enoughness every Saturday, right? There are things that we are that very much invite people to go, oh, so you're going to understand this same thought. There are things that we aren't that people go, oh, so you won't understand or you won't be able to have a conversation about. I think you have the opportunity, Cadre, to engage with a lot more people and people who you may really want to engage with, but you think you may be on the outside of being able to offer something to a conversation.

So are you a parent? Do you have kids? If you do, wonderful. If you don't, wonderful. No matter where you are, no matter what you are, no matter where you are, no matter what's going on, no matter where you are, we always come back to the where. Where are you, who are you with, and what is the opportunity at hand? Where are you, who are you with, and what is the opportunity at hand? Because I bet if you allow the questions to be that simple, simple meaning a few moving parts, not simple meaning necessarily easy to answer.

I bet you're gonna be able to find something to connect with those people with. And if you're caregiving today, someone who you go, I don't get you. I don't understand you. We don't walk in the same shoes. We don't believe the same thoughts. I invite you to ask those same three questions. Where are you? Who are you with? What's the opportunity that's presenting right now? Squeeze all the juice you can out of that, y'. All. All right. I will be heading back to the States tomorrow, but I will try to hop on to Cadre today before my flight takes off.

So if you need your Friday Cadre, it'll be waiting for you when you wake up. Have a good one. Peace.