Speaker 1: Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah, my podcast series that
Speaker 1: I am so proud of and I'm so glad that
Speaker 1: you have found it. I hope you tell your friends,
Speaker 1: your family, tell the people in your life that you
Speaker 1: love to download the whole series, all of our podcasts
Speaker 1: because they are all so good, so many great conversations
Speaker 1: with really interesting, fascinating people. And the focus on this
Speaker 1: podcast has been and will continue to be talking to
Speaker 1: people who want to impact the world in a positive way,
Speaker 1: and with all the negativity going on around us, we
Speaker 1: can use that. We can use people reaching out in
Speaker 1: love and making a difference. If we all did that,
Speaker 1: if we all made a difference in our corner of
Speaker 1: the world, if everybody focused on their immediate family first,
Speaker 1: loving them, healing them, for giving them, helping them, encouraging them,
Speaker 1: being kind, and then their inner circle, and then you know,
Speaker 1: the next broader band of circle. If we all did
Speaker 1: our part to make those relationships as beautiful as we can,
Speaker 1: to empower other people to be the very best person
Speaker 1: they can be. If we all volunteered at a local
Speaker 1: public school or a local public library, if every person
Speaker 1: did something in their corner of the world. Think how
Speaker 1: we could transform the world around us. If we all
Speaker 1: planted seeds flower seeds in the spring, think how beautiful
Speaker 1: our communities would be in the summer. And if we
Speaker 1: all plant seeds of kindness, think how beautiful our communities
Speaker 1: will be. That's what this podcast is all about. And
Speaker 1: right now this podcast, we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: power of gratitude, the power of a grateful heart. We're
Speaker 1: going to take a moment here to thank our sponsor
Speaker 1: who makes this podcast possible, the good folks at the
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Speaker 1: If you're out raking leaves this time of year, good
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Speaker 1: You want that yard looking beautiful next spring, and one
Speaker 1: sure way to do that is to feed it this fall.
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Speaker 1: be that much closer to a beautiful green yard when
Speaker 1: spring comes around the Home Depot, more saving, more doing.
Speaker 1: When you start being grateful, miracles happen. It's amazing how
Speaker 1: it works, but it works. It really does when you
Speaker 1: can lay in bed at night. I lay in bed
Speaker 1: at night and I go through a gratitude list. I
Speaker 1: just start thanking God for so many things in my life,
Speaker 1: my kids, my pets, my home, my health. There was
Speaker 1: a time I could barely walk. I needed a new hip.
Speaker 1: I had a hip replacement, And boy, every day I'm like,
Speaker 1: thank you God that I'm no longer in pain, that
Speaker 1: I no longer have hip pain.
Speaker 2: Yay.
Speaker 1: What are you grateful for? What are you thankful for?
Speaker 1: Sometimes it helps to make a list where every day
Speaker 1: of the week you make a list of things you're
Speaker 1: going grateful for, eight or ten things you're grateful for.
Speaker 1: Then the next day you make a list and you
Speaker 1: can include the things that were on your first list.
Speaker 1: By day three or four. It really makes you stop
Speaker 1: and take notice of things in your life. To stop
Speaker 1: and take notice of the little things, the little blessings,
Speaker 1: the little miracles. Joy and happiness are similar, but they're different.
Speaker 1: Happiness comes from having fun or being in a good situation.
Speaker 1: Fun music, great concerts, delicious food. Those things make us happy.
Speaker 1: But joy is a deep well of gratitude that bubbles
Speaker 1: up even when times are not so good. Even when
Speaker 1: you're hurting, even when you're grieving, you can still have joy,
Speaker 1: and you can still have gratitude. Recently, I came across
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Speaker 1: click onto the side of a pair of glasses and
Speaker 1: then hear the words they're trying to read, or be
Speaker 1: told who's in front of them, and so much more.
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Speaker 1: with you talking about the power of gratitude, the power
Speaker 1: of being grateful, the power of a thankful heart, and
Speaker 1: how that can transform your life. I really do. I
Speaker 1: think it will impact your health. I know it will
Speaker 1: impact your relationships, but I also think it will impact
Speaker 1: your health and your well being and it will lower
Speaker 1: your stress level. We're going to take a moment here
Speaker 1: to talk to some folks who have some wonderful stories
Speaker 1: of gratitude to share with us. I'm going to talk
Speaker 1: with the man right now who was in a terrible,
Speaker 1: terrible truck accident, and we're going to hear him share
Speaker 1: his words of gratitude for a second chance at life. Rick,
Speaker 1: welcome aboard. Tell me in this season of gratitude, what
Speaker 1: are you grateful for?
Speaker 2: I used to be a long haul track and trailer driver.
Speaker 2: I got rearined it by another track and trailer and
Speaker 2: took me five years to get back to being able
Speaker 2: one to walk or just to function.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I was pretty disheartening. Some I had some
Speaker 2: of the rehab that I went through and saw how
Speaker 2: close I could have been a vegetable because I had
Speaker 2: brain injury. So it was it was a pretty tough time.
Speaker 1: How did you go from it sounds like total devastation
Speaker 1: to where you are now?
Speaker 2: Well, it was a lot of therapy, a lot of
Speaker 2: in and out of the hospital. I had a brain injury.
Speaker 2: The therapists that work with me were very patient. I
Speaker 2: mean a couple of times there I got pretty bleak.
Speaker 2: You don't appreciate what the brain and the body can
Speaker 2: do because we go through our lives just doing things
Speaker 2: and we don't think about what the brain does to
Speaker 2: make your body do to things that your body does
Speaker 2: until you have a brain injury, and then all the
Speaker 2: little small things stick out. You know, as far as
Speaker 2: I had a problem literally walking through a doorway because
Speaker 2: my body couldn't tell where it was in space. I
Speaker 2: know that sounds funny, but your body actually knows where
Speaker 2: it is in space. As far as in a room,
Speaker 2: walking through a doorway, anything, I would be running in
Speaker 2: the doorways, walls, everything. I mean, it's kind of funny
Speaker 2: now when I look back on it, but it got
Speaker 2: pretty serious.
Speaker 1: And today, what are you able to do that? During
Speaker 1: that five year recovery, you thought you would never be
Speaker 1: able to do again.
Speaker 2: Ride a motorcycle.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: A lot of people are probably saying that's crazy, but
Speaker 2: my balance was totally gone.
Speaker 1: No, I'm saying that's crazy because if you survived a
Speaker 1: horrible traffic accident, I don't know that you want to
Speaker 1: be out there on a motorcycle with crazy drivers.
Speaker 2: It's just a whole feeling you can't even describe unless
Speaker 2: you've been riding a motorcycle for years. So that was
Speaker 2: one of the things that I always said to myself,
Speaker 2: is I could get back on a bike, I'd be
Speaker 2: happy because I'm content when I'm on a motorcycle.
Speaker 1: That's how I am when I'm on the back of
Speaker 1: my horse. And people are like, really, after you've had
Speaker 1: back surgery and a hip replacement, you're going to keep riding. Heck, yes,
Speaker 1: we love to do something.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, But I gotta tell you real quick. I
Speaker 2: used to listen to you when I grew cross country.
Speaker 2: So you've been with me through three divorces.
Speaker 1: I am neck and neck with you, dude, right there
Speaker 1: with you, and to finally.
Speaker 2: Get through to talk to you is just a blessing.
Speaker 2: I just want to tell you. You are such a
Speaker 2: blessing on already, you really are, and you don't know
Speaker 2: how how many lives you affect by the songs and
Speaker 2: the things that you said.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm happy to be here. I praise God that
Speaker 1: life is good again. And then did you get to
Speaker 1: walk through a door and have control of your feet
Speaker 1: and your body? And then you get to sit on
Speaker 1: your motorcycle and go for a ride, and that you
Speaker 1: get to live fully however many more years God gives you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate that. Toho.
Speaker 1: All right, God, bless you.
Speaker 2: God, bless you, Bubba, great job.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You know, we really don't think a great
Speaker 1: deal about the way our brain, our body, our movements
Speaker 1: are all connected until we lose that ability, until it's
Speaker 1: not quite working right. Rick had a very difficult time
Speaker 1: with his balance, with his equilibrium with the spatial relationships
Speaker 1: after he sustained a traumatic brain injury. Now, if you've
Speaker 1: ever put it on a pair of bifocals for the
Speaker 1: first time, that's most of us who are over forty,
Speaker 1: you know that it changes the way you see things
Speaker 1: and you lose your depth perception for a second. It
Speaker 1: took me several weeks to readjust and to be able
Speaker 1: to accurately gauge how high a step was, to be
Speaker 1: able to walk over uneven turf. I can't even begin
Speaker 1: to imagine the challenges and frustration Rick experienced after his
Speaker 1: brain injury and his brain wouldn't give him accurate information
Speaker 1: on exactly where his body was when he was standing
Speaker 1: in a room or trying to walk again. I am
Speaker 1: so great that this injury is healing and that Rick
Speaker 1: is able to share his miraculous story and his gratitude
Speaker 1: with us today. Next we're going to hear from a
Speaker 1: mother with a young child athlete named Miracle. Their story
Speaker 1: is also one of gratefulness in the midst of turmoil.
Speaker 4: Hi, this is Teresa, and actually it's Miracle.
Speaker 3: Miracles.
Speaker 1: Say, Hi, your baby's name is Miracle.
Speaker 4: Her name is Miracle.
Speaker 1: Oh. I love that. How old is she?
Speaker 4: She will be four November twelve. She was grand baby
Speaker 4: number eight, but at four days old I found out
Speaker 4: that I needed to pick her up from the hospital.
Speaker 4: And I've had her since she was four days old
Speaker 4: and I adopted her. It was two years in February.
Speaker 4: But I've had her, like I said, since she was
Speaker 4: four days old. So she's now daughter number five.
Speaker 1: So Mom, can I ask, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: answer this, but how old are you?
Speaker 4: I am sixty one. I will be sixty two in no,
Speaker 4: I mean, shoot me in Mark.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we are neck and neck because I'm just
Speaker 1: a little bit behind you and I have a three
Speaker 1: year old.
Speaker 3: Oh goodness.
Speaker 1: So I know that neither one of us thought in
Speaker 1: our twenties, or our thirties, or our forties, and certainly
Speaker 1: not our fifties, that we would be changing diapers at
Speaker 1: this stage of life.
Speaker 4: No, absolutely not. And my oldest daughter's forty two, so
Speaker 4: and my youngest daughter will be thirty seven in November.
Speaker 4: So I haven't done this for a little while now.
Speaker 1: See, I never took any time off. My oldest is
Speaker 1: forty and my youngest besides the one, that the baby
Speaker 1: that I have is ten. So it wasn't really that
Speaker 1: big of a shock because I've been parenting all these years.
Speaker 1: But still it's not what we think we're going to
Speaker 1: be doing at the stage in life.
Speaker 4: No, and I know she was a gift for me.
Speaker 4: I just truly believe she saved my life. I lost
Speaker 4: my father and eleven months later, my second daughter was murdered.
Speaker 4: So then I have a thirty seven year well she's
Speaker 4: thirty excuse me, she's thirty eight right now, who gave
Speaker 4: birth to Miracle. And she is an addict and has
Speaker 4: been a long term addict. And we never know from
Speaker 4: one day to the next with the phone it's gonna ring.
Speaker 4: We just you know, we pray.
Speaker 2: That's what we do.
Speaker 4: That's all we can do for her. And then my
Speaker 4: youngest one is here close to me. The miracle was
Speaker 4: given to me to save me. Like I said, I
Speaker 4: lost my father. Eleven months later, I lost my daughter.
Speaker 4: About two years later, I lost my partner. Then about
Speaker 4: three months after that, I lost my best friend. And
Speaker 4: so it was like, okay, my plans are never what
Speaker 4: I think it ought to be, which is good, which
Speaker 4: is a good thing for me. She's amazing. This is
Speaker 4: a challenge and it is something that a lot of
Speaker 4: grandparents are having to do, is become the parents again.
Speaker 4: You know, I never in a million years dreamed ever, ever.
Speaker 3: Ever.
Speaker 4: Miracle has a nineteen and a half year old half sister.
Speaker 4: She doesn't have any joints and that was due to
Speaker 4: the drugs, and she's in a power chair. She'll never walk.
Speaker 4: She's brilliant, she's got an amazing voice. But she's also
Speaker 4: the reason why Miracle is called miracle, because when I
Speaker 4: brought her home, there's nothing physically, mentally, emotionally, any way,
Speaker 4: shape or form. Miracle has been tested since she was
Speaker 4: born and she's absolutely perfect. And so her sister says, Nana,
Speaker 4: can we please name her Miracle? And I said absolutely.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, you got a lot to be
Speaker 1: grateful for in that little bundle of love in your arms.
Speaker 4: Yes, she keeps me going.
Speaker 1: I believe you when you say that she was sent
Speaker 1: to you to save you.
Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely. You know, we move on and we keep going,
Speaker 4: and life goes on, and again I have Miracle, and
Speaker 4: I know she was given to me to help, you know,
Speaker 4: plug up some of the holes.
Speaker 1: God bless you. Teresa felt like she was a sinking
Speaker 1: ship storm toss loss after devastating loss, but then a
Speaker 1: miracle was sent into her life to plug the holes,
Speaker 1: if you will, of that sinking ship. And now she
Speaker 1: finds herself sailing through the storm with new purpose, meaning,
Speaker 1: and so much love. She's overwhelmed by it. If your
Speaker 1: life seems out of control and you're feeling down and dejected.
Speaker 1: I hope that Rick and Teresa's miraculous stories have helped
Speaker 1: you to see that things can always get get better.
Speaker 1: I'm going to share one more conversation with you that
Speaker 1: I found to be incredibly inspiring right after we break
Speaker 1: for this message, David, welcome. What can I do for you?
Speaker 3: I was wondering if you could play a song for
Speaker 3: my best friend of the last seven and a half years.
Speaker 1: Who's your bestie? His name is Mackenzie And what do
Speaker 1: you want to tell me about Mackenzie?
Speaker 3: Well, Mackenzie has stood beside me through sick and sins
Speaker 3: for the last seven and a half years. Even when
Speaker 3: I was at my lowest point and didn't think I
Speaker 3: could continue on, he refused to give up on me
Speaker 3: and refused to let me give up on myself. And now,
Speaker 3: thanks to him, I now see the beauty in the
Speaker 3: world around me and the beauty in myself. And I've
Speaker 3: been living a life free from drug addiction for the
Speaker 3: last six months, all because of his support.
Speaker 1: Oh, David, do you know how you just made my
Speaker 1: heart sore?
Speaker 3: Friendship is a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1: Friendship is a beautiful thing, but so is living life
Speaker 1: without the cloud in the fog in your brain from addiction.
Speaker 3: That is why I love this friend with all my heart.
Speaker 3: He has helped me to turn my life around.
Speaker 1: It sounds to me like, now that you're clean and sober,
Speaker 1: you can return to Mackenzie the love, the unconditional love,
Speaker 1: the true love that he's been showing you. Because when
Speaker 1: you're addicted, Absolutely, when you're addicted, you and I both
Speaker 1: know this. Your addiction comes before.
Speaker 2: Love, Yes it does.
Speaker 1: Parents call me all the time and say, I love
Speaker 1: my kids so much. How can they do this to me?
Speaker 1: Don't they know I love them? I'm like, honey, Addictions
Speaker 1: come before love. Addictions win every time over love. Addictions
Speaker 1: cause you to do stupid, crazy things. And it sounds
Speaker 1: like Mackenzie been by your side for a long time,
Speaker 1: and now that you're a long time, you're clean and sober,
Speaker 1: you're able to see the value of true friendship, of
Speaker 1: true love.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it is a beautiful, wonderful thing to have someone
Speaker 3: in this world that stands beside you and refuses to
Speaker 3: give up and helps you see the best in yourself.
Speaker 1: How does it feel to be clean?
Speaker 3: It's amazing. The world feels brand new again.
Speaker 1: What was that? What was the tipping point. What made
Speaker 1: you say I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 3: The tipping point really was when I got in such
Speaker 3: a downward spiral that I couldn't see the spiral I
Speaker 3: was in until I reached the point one night of
Speaker 3: swallowing an entire bottle of pills because I didn't want
Speaker 3: to live this life anymore. And Mackenzie just happened to
Speaker 3: be at my house that night and found me with
Speaker 3: the bottle of pills and made the calls that needed
Speaker 3: to be made to save my life.
Speaker 1: I wish I could reach through this phone line, David
Speaker 1: and ug you. I'm so proud of you, so stinking
Speaker 1: proud of you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you. It feels great to be living
Speaker 3: a life free from addiction.
Speaker 1: And are you going to meetings? Do you have a sponsor?
Speaker 1: Are you working the steps? Have you done your fourth
Speaker 1: step yet?
Speaker 3: I am attending meetings. I do have a sponsor. Mackenzie
Speaker 3: has put a great support network around me. When I
Speaker 3: can't get through to my sponsor, He's given me a
Speaker 3: list of people that I can call, including himself, and
Speaker 3: he is my Rocke at this point. He is just
Speaker 3: the best thing going in my life.
Speaker 1: Him and God, you are a blessed, blessed person. I
Speaker 1: know you know that. Thank you so much, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, honey, God bless you. My heart was so
Speaker 1: happy it thrilled when David said he had found freedom
Speaker 1: from substance abuse. What a gift. I know that Teresa
Speaker 1: praised that her daughter will find the same, and in
Speaker 1: the meantime, focuses on all the many things she is
Speaker 1: grateful for, including her miracle. Rick too, has been through
Speaker 1: terrors and trials and tribulations most of us can even imagine,
Speaker 1: and he's come out on the other side, full of
Speaker 1: gratitude and healing, for life, for love, for things he
Speaker 1: once thought were lost that have been returned to him.
Speaker 1: It often works like that, doesn't it. We must lose
Speaker 1: something precious to us, or almost lose it to be
Speaker 1: so grateful for what we took for granted. I like
Speaker 1: to use these stories to inspire you to reach for gratitude,
Speaker 1: to search for gratitude in your daily life, to practice
Speaker 1: gratitude daily. Don't wait for calamity to strike, don't wait
Speaker 1: until you've lost everything to start experiencing the joy that
Speaker 1: being grateful can bring. One of the beautiful things that
Speaker 1: advanced medical imaging has proven to us that gratefulness triggers
Speaker 1: the same pleasure centers of the brain that harmful, addictive
Speaker 1: substances do. Gratitude rewires our brain, So being grateful, being
Speaker 1: conscious thinking about the things you are grateful for will
Speaker 1: bring you more joy than you ever thought possible. How
Speaker 1: do you do it? By developing a habit of looking
Speaker 1: for things to be happy about. Start your gratitude practice today.
Speaker 1: Get a notebook, write it down, Start looking for things
Speaker 1: to be grateful for. Take some part of each day
Speaker 1: to jot down a short list of things you've noticed.
Speaker 1: A short list of things that you've noticed that make
Speaker 1: you smile. Blue skies, the smile of the baby in
Speaker 1: the cart at the grocery store, the smell of a
Speaker 1: fresh pot of coffee when you arrive at the office.
Speaker 1: The trick is to only write something down once, though.
Speaker 1: That way, you have to look harder and harder each day,
Speaker 1: and when you do that, you train your brain to
Speaker 1: be more in tune, more perceptive, more aligned with all
Speaker 1: the good in your life. And when you start taking
Speaker 1: notice of the positivity the goodness that is there. You
Speaker 1: can share those lists with me if you want to,
Speaker 1: and I'll share some of them on the air, because
Speaker 1: November Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude. Let me know
Speaker 1: how it's going for me. Call into my radio program,
Speaker 1: visit me on Facebook or Instagram, write to me Datdelilah
Speaker 1: dot com, and I want to tell you this. I
Speaker 1: am grateful for you. I am so grateful that I
Speaker 1: have a career that provides for my family, where I
Speaker 1: get to meet you, talk to you, connect with you,
Speaker 1: be a part of your life on the radio and
Speaker 1: on this podcast. Thank you for spending time with me.
Speaker 1: I love someone. With the lineup
Speaker 4: M