What I Have!

Hey, Cadre family. Happy Friday. Hope that you're all doing really well going into the weekend. I have a fun weekend ahead. It's a little work, a little play, but every day is Monday for me today. I want to talk to you about a song that's been inspiring me. Singing is a huge part of my life. It's one. One of my releases and one of my outlets. I've been doing it forever, and it's just one of the ways that I like to decompress and just, you know, I think music can have such a powerful hold on all of us, and it's just a great way that we can all connect as humans.

And I love that artists create, and oftentimes lyrics just speak to your soul. And I'm a huge country music fan. I love all forms of music. But there is a song. Hey, Carrie, I love that you love to sing. I actually, fun fact. Have a rose gold microphone, a handheld that's like a karaoke mic that I use literally every night. If I need to calm down, I just bust out a song. So I am a huge country music fan amongst all other genres, but I just love this crossover between country and pop, and I'm just a pop girl at heart as well.

And there is a song right now by Kelsey Ballerini that just came out on her new album Heartfirst. It's called what I have. And I heard the lyrics to this, and I was like, gosh, this is so incredibly relevant to what's happening in the world right now and what social media creates, which is this, like, imposter syndrome and wanting a life that you feel like you don't have and looking around you and seeing that your neighbor's grass is greener than yours and, you know, wanting things that are material, but then once you get them, realizing that that isn't what really fills your soul.

And wanting shoes with red soled bottoms. But really, in all honesty, I mean, I'm a wardrobe stylist by trade, and Christian Louboutin shoes are really uncomfortable. So I think it's this whole idea of building up to we want what we don't have, and then when we get it, we realize that we should have been really happy with what we currently have. And so this idea that, you know, working for wanting things just really stuck with me because it reminds us that, first of all, we're not living in the present moment.

And without the gratitude for what we have, I firmly believe that we can't live a more abundant life. And, you know, this idea of, like, keeping up with people. It's like, for what? Why are we not focused on keeping up with ourselves and keeping ourselves satisfied in order to live a more fulfilled life? I think oftentimes we're just inundated with stuff. We're inundated on social media with what we look around and see people having, the vacations that they're on, the lives that they're living, the cars that they're driving.

And let me tell you a funny story about cars that people are driving. My car has been in the shop for three weeks. I drive a Ford Explorer sport, and I love it. And a friend of mine had an extra rental. They have too many cars right now because their kids are at college, and they had an extra rental. So I've been able to use their extra rental while they shuffle cars that they already own. And the rental that I'm driving is a Maserati. Now, in no regular life would I be driving a Maserati, nor did I ever think that I cared to.

And I got this Maserati, and I thought for a second, okay, this is cool. I'm driving this really, like, awesome car. And then I started to drive in it, and I realized the air conditioning pressure is terrible, the seatbelts are so low that it feels like I'm gonna bust a nail or break a finger every time I go to buckle in or out. It's really not that exciting of a car. I don't love the features, and I really miss my Ford Explorer sport. So bringing it back full circle to this song and this whole conversation about wanting things that you think that you want and not really sitting with what you have and living in this happy life, this anxiety driven, I need to go out and get this, or I'm working for this.

And not really living in this moment of gratitude and happiness, it just creates this downward spiral of emotions, depression, anxiety, and just kind of leads us into this dark hole, because we create this narrative that we aren't lucky with what we have. So my message to you today, as I am really processing in my own life, how to be grateful, how to sit in the moment, how to live in the present time with having a roof over my head. And she talks about this in the song. She's like, I've got a dog.

I've got a car. And it's like, I have those things. Well, I don't really have a car right now, but my own car that I miss dearly, but I have a dog. I have a roof over my head. I have everything I need. I have enough. And I think if we can just sit with that, it will cut so much of the noise out of our lives and just remind us to be happy with what we presently have. So I encourage you to sit with what you have. Journal your gratitude list and your future gratitude list. The things that you hope for.

Great health down the road, great health for your loved ones. If we don't have health, we have nothing. So really think about the things that you should want in your life as opposed to what society tells you that you need in order to be accepted. So I wish you the best weekend. I wish you a life full of gratitude every day, and I hope that you can take this practice and really be thankful for the things that we really, truly need in our lives, which is health and loved ones around us, a roof over our head, and just the things that we should really be grateful for.

So happy weekend and I will see you guys all on here the next time I go live. See you soon.