Comedy Through The Chaos: Harvesting Progress. One Small Win at a Time

Hello, Cadre sphere and Happy Thursday to you. This is going to be a day of adventure. So I'm gonna put my seatbelt on because I'm in my car and then I'm gonna drive away in a minute. But first I thought I would check in here first because it is Thursday, which means it's Caregiver Thursday. We're talking about a variety of that, but in my neighborhood it is. My neighbor needs to get their giant tree taken out of their yard. So there is a variety of giant trucks. I'm in the way. I'm gonna show y' all the trucks just because it's exciting.

So there's that giant truck over there. There's a giant truck behind me over there. It's gonna be a busy day in the neighborhood. There's a lot going on. I feel bad though is it was a very pretty tree for a number of years. For a number of years. And now unfortunately, I believe though. Hello, ball game. Hello. Hello everybody. Happy Thursday again. I am back. I left for a second because I was driving away from my home because they're in the process of removing a giant tree from across the street at my house.

So I am not surprised that my reception was going in and out as I was driving away from the neighborhood. And I was talking about how. And I'll put up some photos of the tree later because I think I have some because it's my neighbor's tree in their backyard and it was one of those. Now it looks like a festive Halloween tree because it's been deceased for a while. But the giant crane and the other things that they're gonna need to be able to use in order to remove the crane. I mean, sorry. To be able to remove the tree is an ordeal and it's going to take a lot.

So there's a crew over there that is taking that out. So I figured I would talk to you from the car and then go run some errands because tonight I have to be at an event and my hair is doing a lot of things today. But I'll figure it out before this evening. But hello to all of you. I hope that the day is treating you well. If it is not, shame on it. Not shame on you. I am Ms. Shannon. I'm a variety of word related things like a comedian and a corporate speaker and a voice actor and a vet emcee and a benefit auctioneer.

And I am also the proud parent of an adorable 17 year old son who happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum. Hence My joining you on a day where we talk about being caregivers and supporting one another in that realm and talking about comedy through the chaos. So talk about chaos. Having a crew of people that are taking out a neighbor's tree is adding a wee dash of chaos into our neighborhood today. But I told them as I was driving away, I hope that they are safe in what they are doing because it seems like very daunting task and much more involved in what I have to do, which includes going to pick my son's meds up at the pharmacy right now.

But as far as it goes, as far as anyone who is joining me and what I thought we'd talk about today is the concept of harvesting those small winds as we are continuing the concept of harvest over the month of October and the concept of how we have a tendency to minimize those mini wins and allow worry to sink in and then just diffuse all of the things that could be helping us thrive and helping us go, you know what that counts as a success and not allowing those things to have presence and power in our life.

And I encourage us to look at some of those things because especially, um, maybe you go through these different seasons in your life. For me, right now, the month of October is an incredibly busy month. It's full of events and big emotions and lots of things that I have to get done on my side. Also working around whatever my son's schedule is. And that is a lot. And so there's so many times where I find myself falling into the practice of thinking about something that doesn't come up for two weeks, three weeks, and allowing it to take up emotional real estate right now, because I'm already just prophetizing how it's going to go poorly or how it may have gone poorly in the past.

And now I'm allowing worry to sink in and make me go, well, here's how it might go. And it might be a negative thing because it has been in the past. And so it makes me, instead of focusing on what the positive milestones have been, it helps me snap back into what are all those negative milestones, because that part is also true. There are times where I can sit there and I can from year over year go, well, this is the time last year when this was happening, that was a negative thing. Here's the, the, the.

The time that you went to try and do this other event and he had a meltdown. Here's this time six years ago when you were no longer able to have this particular person be his caregiver. Because they no longer were able to care for him appropriately because of age restrictions and things like that. And so, yeah, all those negative things are coming into play anytime you think about these things. But you also have to remember the milestones that go, hey, we are a little bit better. He is calmer. I was able to leave this one.

There was a time when he had a good time with his caregivers and mom didn't have to step in and intervene. And we're moving toward those things, too. So reminding myself that these mini milestones are just as important as the major, major meltdowns that we had in the past and allowing those things to have a similar impact is something that I have had to learn to practice and to give myself grace and to give myself roses for. And so that is what I encourage us to do right now. Harvest those moments of progress, allow yourself to sit there and go, hey, there's a good thing that can happen as well.

It doesn't have to be the same as that negative thing. And then allow those moments to take up space in your brain and in your life, in your memories, so you can look back on them and go, hey, here's the time when I buy the person I care for was laughing and happy, and I can focus on that as much as I can focus on when they're sad. So I encourage you to do that. I encourage you just in general, because right now, I feel like we live in a world where we can all use some encouragement right now. So I'm gonna go run my errands, including getting my son's meds.

I am this evening going to be at a live event, so I'm going to do, I don't know, a big makeup transformation when I get back. And I will check in with all of you this Saturday for the updated parenting edition of Comedy through the Chaos. In the meantime, let us know what we can do to continue to support you here in the Cadre sphere. That's what we're trying to do, is continue to build community and make sure that we are taking care of each other and giving you the kind of information that most supports you when you need it.

So feel free to let us know in the comments anytime, whatever it is that you need, and we'll continue to build it towards you, build it for you. So thanks for checking in, and I will check in with all of you on Saturday.