Comedy Through The Chaos: Parenting Edition

Everybody. If you are watching me in the morning, I feel that's appropriate. Hello, Mary. Good to see you in the chat. Uh, I am Ms. Shannon, Paul by trade. I'm a variety of word related things. I'm a comedian and a corporate speaker and a voice actor and event MC and a benefit auctioneer. So I do a variety. Of storytelling and story adjacent, uh, things that I do, uh, by heart. I'm the. Proud parent. I'm an adorable 18 year old kiddo who happens to be. High supports on the autism spectrum. He is, uh, starting his, uh, morning routine of bumping around slightly.

So, uh, good to see you, Andy Maxey in there as well. Hello? Hello. Hello everybody. So happy Saturday to you. Uh, it, uh, is a sunny day here. In Minneapolis, adjacent Minnesota (laugh), which is where I live. And I thought today, uh, we, um, uh, talk a lot about chaos here. Hence the name comedy through the chaos. And boy has the universe been providing us chaos lately? And it seems like there's something every day that makes you think. Is that happening to me? For me about me, just things happening constantly all the time.

And I know it's very. Difficult sometimes. To go from, I am thinking. Globally to, I am thinking. Just for, uh, me and my family and my particular friend group. And I find that to be. Very difficult. Especially when we have so many. Incredibly complex things that are going on out in the universe. Uh, that do affect us that cannot not only affect us today, but can affect us. Somewhere down the road and it's difficult to try and figure out, well, what am I gonna do today? Just to get through. And, uh, I want to, uh, just.

Acknowledge that on behalf of all of us. Morning. Good morning. So I just want to acknowledge the complexities. Of, uh, what's going on because I think sometimes we look at that, oh, you did decide to take. A shower. Good for him. So (laugh). To give you the backstory of what's going on in my house. I take aside, if you haven't joined me in the chat before. I take aside. So a few minutes ago I made the, uh, suggestion to my kiddo that he should get up and go. Take a shower and in a very 18 year old type voice, he said no shower.

And now he has. Changed his mind. Good for him. Good choices are being made so far. Uh, but that does uh, circle back to what I was saying, as far as. Universally, it feels like you can't make a difference. Um, and then because you. Start to feel like that. I feel like we start to shut down and that starts. Incrementally, and then it just creeps up on you because chaos. By nature is overwhelming. So I encourage us all to take a moment to acknowledge all of the chaos things that are going. On, uh, a joke that I make in, uh, one of my friend groups is that we live in the.

Silliest timeline, because I think we do, I mean, there's days that I'm like, oh my gosh, this headline is. A real thing. And then there's other ones that are highly disappointing, highly. Uh, highly, um, uh, frightening, maddening, all the different things that happened. So all of the things are happening. We do live in a quite silly timeline, but. That doesn't mean that you can't figure out a way to vibrate in a manner that you still do the best that you can with the. Information and the time that you have, and that's what I encourage us all to do.

Exactly. And, you know, I think some people are good at. Acknowledging the things you're beyond your control. And I think some of us, it takes more effort. To go those things that are beyond my control. Will be whatever they are going to be, but that does not mean that I can't continue to work. On the little things that I can do. So what can you do? And what can choices can you make. And those things do have a ripple effect. If nothing else, they'll make sure that your life and the people that are around.

You and the circle that you have, uh, that have some control over. Actually can have more peace and more joy and more comedy throughout it. And you can. Have a happy kiddo that takes, uh, some good advice every once in a while and makes a good choice. Kind of thing, teenagers. He's good. He's good. I'm very proud of him. He's been doing pretty good lately. So that's what I encourage us to do this week. Uh, it is inevitable. Yeah, we are inevitable. Uh, it is inevitable that we are going to have complexities.

That continue to pop up in our day-to-day. And even if it's a small thing that you can do. That helps you move forward. What I've been doing? Um, my little, uh, passion project here. Is that I've been, um, doing more indoor gardening. It's about to get cold here in Minnesota. And so, um, about a year ago, I said, you know what, I'm gonna start planting some seeds in the house. And the first few times. I did it just dead seedlings just did like they would grow. They would fall. Apart nothing. And so what I did do.

Is go well, you could still try again, that one seed didn't really take off, but do it again. And this is something. That when I have those moments, when I feel myself start to doom scroll, when I feel like, oh, there's. There's all these big things that need to get. Addressed, but I don't have any control over them. So instead of feeling like I can do nothing. It's like, well, here's something I can do. So I'm gonna show you guys my kitchen. Everybody deep breath. Hope you don't get vertigo and you don't get, uh, motion sick.

So last year I said, okay, I'm gonna start a few seeds. Seeds and some of them took off and some of them didn't. Didn't and then I just kind of said, you know, I'm gonna start seeing my house full of plants. Uh, and then see how that works out. And then I just, you know, if I caught myself. Doom scrolling, focusing on something that was such a big thing that I couldn't do anything about it. I was like, go plant a seed, go double check on your plants, do something. And so now I'm to the point. That this my kitchen window.

Has a variety. Of plants I, uh, chose, instead of, I know there's a lot of people that have. Hundreds of plants in their house. I chose to start with. Herbs and my pathos, which is very difficult to kill. But just going okay. Well, what would it look like if. When I really felt like I couldn't do anything, I went and planted a seed or tended to something or. Weeded something in my backyard and that little mindset. Shift was enough to get me started. Um, and make me feel like, you know, what, there are things that you can do.

There are things that you can, um, affect and address. And there are things. Thank you very much. I'm very proud of them and they're all edible. So that's a Rosemary. A time, um, a Sage and a basil, a Rosemary time, a Sage and a basil. And so it's giving yourself time to go. Did I make sure. That they had enough light today, giving myself time to go. Is this a time? In their process where I need to water them, or if I mess with them too much. Am I overwatering, 'em just giving yourself that little thing that you can go, I'm gonna.

Learn about this. I'm gonna focus about this. I'm gonna see how this growth can happen. Find something in your life that's like that it doesn't have to be an indoor herb garden. You may not have. The space I choose to use that space. There that's normally the table. Um, that when I first got it, when we moved in here years and years and years ago, I'm like, oh my son. And I will sit. Down and we will dine at a table and then it turned into a table that, uh, is the collection of his. Beverages. Um, and so since it wasn't just a, a, a, I didn't want it just to be a shelf for.

His stuff. I said, you know what? When I look in that corner, I want there to be something that fuels me and it turned. Out that I needed some plants over there and it's very. Very soothing. So do that. Especially as we continue to move into these incredibly tumultuous times. Uh, where we know that there will be chaos. We know that things will continue to happen. There is something that you can do. There is something that you can, uh, address and there is something that you can help. Grow. So we will continue to have these conversations.

The plan is to join you. Next Thursday here, uh, in the cadre sphere again for another additional. Edition of comedy through the chaos. Uh, I'm deciding what I'm gonna talk about on Thursday. I, uh, I'll be a full dis. Disclosure, uh, for a while I was one of the live streamers because we had some, uh, technical updates here in the cadre sphere. And so I kind of got, I was li I had been live streaming for like a year. Or something like that and everything was just locked in. And then I got outta practice because since I have, um, the kind of phone that you couldn't livestream.

I kind of got out practice. So now I've had to get back in the rhythm of. Preparing your words and your messages so that I can hopefully be a quality resource. For all of you here, cuz that is really the goal of what we do here in the cadre sphere to be community. Um, to be, uh, a viewpoint and to give you. Some, uh, just different ideas on how you can navigate different things in. Your life. And that's why we have a variety. Of content that's here. We have people that do live streams, people that record videos and post.

On people that do, uh, written posts that you can read and trying to make sure that there's a way. That you can easily navigate through the cadre fear and find a variety of different. Um, contributors that did different content so that no matter where you are in your journey and what you might. Need that's what we have for you, that you can go, you know what, today? I needed a little pat on the back. There's somebody here for you or tomorrow. You might need somebody that can walk you through a healing journey or talk to you about grief.

And hopefully there's a little bit. Of each of those things in here. So, uh, you can go ahead and regardless of where you are in your particular pinwheel, you could do that. So. Thank you. Thank you. Because I don't have the energy to do anything else, Mary. So, thank you very much for that. I appreciate you. So I appreciate all of the feedback. So thank you so much, Mary. Uh, we. Are going to, uh, now after I wrap up with you, I'm going to slightly assist him. In the shower because of where he's on the spectrum, he will have a great time and come out.

Very wet, but there may not be. Uh, soap involved if I don't encourage it. So I'm gonna do that. (laugh) and then please, I hope that. The day treats you. Well, thank you for letting us be a part of your community. Thank you for being here. Uh, for all of us, it means the world to us. And, uh, we will hopefully we'll see you again next. Thursday. So I hope that the day treats you well. If not shame on it, not shame on you.