A reflective talk about practicing presence in the thin space between past and future, with guided questions that prompt noticing first reactions to past memories and future expectations and holding whatever arises without judgment.
Cadre asks three questions about how we take care of ourselves. To be highly critical of the past and highly aspirational of the future puts us in a really icky storm. In reality, the past is made up of good and bad stuff. That when we learn from the past, we can plan for the bright future.
Cadre: Be in the moment that you're in. Experience in the way that you need to experience it with the energy that you got. If today the world is bright, dance in it. Yes, yesterday was a mess, but we're learning from it.
Well, hey there, Cadre. How are we doing today? I hope you're doing good. I do. Today I'm coming to you from a Taco Bell parking lot. It's a really peaceful morning outside. And sometimes when the world is peaceful and we're not, it feels like we're doing something wrong. Or sometimes when where peaceful and the world is chaotic, sometimes it feels like we're doing something wrong. And I'll always be that squeaky wheel reminder ball game Mafy speak Wonder Cafe Marisa. Hey crew, how are we doing today?
I'll always be that squeaky reminder smzobbs that if the way that you're doing doesn't match up with the world around you, that's probably more days than not. So it's a peaceful world where I'm sitting right now. If you're not experiencing peace right now, it's okay. May not feel like it. May not feel good, May not feel what you want to be feeling, but it's good. You always have the capacity to do something or to do nothing and have that be a nourishing nothing. I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad you're here.
I know what I know and I care about you. This past week I was in London learning some stuff and one of the highlights came that came from the school I was swimming in is that we don't like a team. Like right now, we're a team. We don't come together to figure out what our purpose is. There's a purpose that brings us together. The circle works that way. It's not we're a team, let's find our purpose. It's there's a purpose who comes together around that purpose. The purpose this morning is to talk a little bit about how we take care of ourselves.
That's what we do every Sunday morning. You can see the title says thinspace. By thinspace, I'm referencing a practice that's used by Franciscan monks to place themselves very purposefully in the moment in between, in between everything that has been, everything that will be, everything good, everything bad, everything light and dark in that thin space in between the polarization of stuff. I'm going to ask you three questions. I'm going to ask you two questions. Number one, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the past?
Go. Now. In that moment, you maybe went like, oh, well, I'm thinking all the bad stuff, but. And all of a sudden you turned it into a learning or a teaching. Now what is the first thing that that, that, that, that came to mind. The, the hard thing, the loss, the grief, the dissonance, the unresolved, the embarrassing moment, the frustrating moment, the p. Okay, so question number one. When I ask you, think of something from the past, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Here's the second question.
When you think of everything that hasn't happened yet, everything in the future, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Go. Cool. Maybe you started with, it's like, well, I have to get up out of bed. And then you're like, yes, but today's gonna be a beautiful day. And Right. Maybe you started from something that seemed less valuable, less important, less impactful, less indelible. And then perhaps you went to something a little bit more aspirational or a little bit more, the sun is rising or the glass is overflowing.
Maybe you didn't have the thought process that I just laid out in both of those examples. But in general, as humans, we are set up to think that way. To be highly critical of the past and highly aspirational of the future puts us in a really icky storm. Because there's always going to be things that we can unpack from the past and to find morsels of learnings and truths and hindsight being 20 20, all that stuff, we're always going to be able to look at the future. We're going to be able to sit down with our teams and our, and our families and the people we work with and our societies and go, here's our plan for the bright, brightest future ever, that it starts tomorrow.
And all of a sudden we all turn into preachers. In reality, the past is made up of good and bad stuff. In reality, the future will be made up of some really good and some really, really bad stuff. That when we go, okay, we learn from the past and we plan for the bright, bright future tomorrow. Majority of people in your lives, a majority of the people in your lives see that it's more complex than that. They miss the good stuff from, from yesterday, they're scared about tomorrow. And notice in this live stream, we're supposed to be talking about that thin space in between.
We spent five minutes talking about everything that has happened and everything that will happen. That's the slippery slope. I invite you to take a camera check, right? If you had a old fashioned camera where you can go click, and then you went down to the development store and you got your photos developed and you take them out and you get your little films, but then you also get those Pictures. And you go, in this picture, it captured one second of time. And maybe not everybody was smiling. Maybe you didn't catch the bird with its wings open.
Maybe all of a sudden that that thing you were attempting to capture because it was still just started moving again. In that moment, you're seeing the thin space. You're seeing maybe some things that are perfect, some things that are not. You're seeing some things the way that you remember them, and some things the way you don't. That's the moment that we are always in, right? I'm looking in front of me and I'm seeing beautiful Minnesota landscape with some. Some different kinds of trees and some nice flowers there.
And then all of a sudden, I look over and I see Lloyd's dumpster. 952-746-5833. There's a dumpster sitting in the middle of this very beautiful image. How dare they mess that up. I'm going to call somebody and have them fix it. So then tomorrow it'll be an even beautiful picture. See what I just did? I went aspirational. In the future, once we fix these things, then the world will be right. See what we did? Yes, yesterday was a mess, but we're learning from it. You see, you have an opportunity, Cadre, to be where you are with what you have and make the most out of that every single second of your life.
And you have the agency to choose to do that or not. And sometimes you're gonna be like, yeah, I want to make this moment bright, beautiful. There can be other moments where you go, I need to check out. I need to go to bed. I need to hide. I need to have a frustrating moment here. That's good, too. Be in the moment that you're in. Experience in the way that you need to experience it with the energy that you got. That's how we take care of ourselves. That's how we be truthful. That's how we consume what there is to consume, rather than consuming what we think we should be consuming.
So if today the world is bright, dance in it. And if you say to that person, how can you see that the world is bright right now? Then dance in your muckiness. That's the opportunity that we have. Y' all have a great one. I am back in Minnesota time, so I will be back to my regular seven thirties every single morning this week. If you ever need anything, let me know. I'm always here. Talk to you later. Bye.
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