Day 5: Camp NaNoWriMo

Today I will talk about podcasts. I love podcasts a lot. There are some I listen to every week no matter what and there are others I hop around on, esp if I am just learning about them and there are so many to catch up on. In a way I would consider all the podcasts I listen to self-care because they make me happy to listen to them. Some are imperative for my mental health, some are great so I can laugh, some have really great religious deconstruction/construction, and some just give me great information for life and fun.

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I will start with the podcasts that I listen to every week without fail. One of the very first podcasts I ever listened to was the Inglorious Pasterds. This podcast is what I would call my guilty pleasure. They have bad language and they can be very crude…YET…through this podcast and the honesty of these three men, two ex pastors and a worship leader ( Matt, Brad and Michael), and the amazing lineup of guests they have had on the podcast these last three years, I have learned so much. These guys have been a major part of my deconstruction and honestly, they make me laugh until I cry, every week and it feels so good.

The Business of Life with Jann Arden and Arlene Dickinson. This is so great. They cover so many topics and rabbit trails can go anywhere…it may be embarrassing for the male listeners sometimes. They are so good together. I look forward to the new episode every Saturday and have grown to appreciate these ladies much more!

The Holderness Family…you may know them from their You Tube channel about Christmas Jammies. Penn and Kim host it and they get some really great guests on it. They are brutally honest about their marriage, Kim’s depression and Penn’s ADD and the topics they cover are every day life.

Still Growing in Grace is fairly new. There are 10 Episodes. It is led by Mike Zenker who used to be the head of Grace Walk Canada, which has transitioned into Still Growing In Grace. Honest and amazing Truths about the grace of God…an amazing God who loves us all. Mike is enthusiastic about his beliefs and is a Pastor. Tune into his You Tube channel to hear his weekly messages from the pulpit. They are great.

Catching Your Breath by Steve Austin. I’ve talked about Steve before, in the other blogs. His podcast is awesome and very informative when it comes to mental health. It can get pretty heavy but that’s life and that’s healing. Tough stuff, but amazing. Steve is an ex pastor who almost died by suicide.

I’m going to end here with one more guilty pleasure and will do part 2 of podcasts tomorrow. I will link them all to their podcast site. American Greed. It’s based on the TV show. I saw the show for the first time in January while we were on holidays in a hotel room. We don’t have cable or anything here. It’s exactly what it sounds like, Americans that have been greedy and turn to crimes. It’s great listening if you are into that kind of thing. 🙂

I use the app Podcast Addict on my Android. So far, I have found every podcast I have looked for. I think it’s connected to itunes somehow. I don’t know how it works.

There you have it. If you listen to podcasts, what are your faves and why? I still have some more I listen to weekly, but like I said, I will share them tomorrow. Btw…these are in no particular order. Have a great Friday friends!

Ttfn

Alexis

My inner peace is unaffected by external triggers: Steve Austin

Thursday Night Thoughts

Hi, Friend!  I am failing miserably at this whole Joy Dare Thing on here so I will end it for now.  I’m better off stopping now and carrying on rather than beating myself up, which is what I do.  I am just too tired to think.  I haven’t had a decent sleep for weeks ( literally) and depression is at my door the last few days so frankly, all my energy is being used to keep it at bay.  I have never been a good sleeper.  The years that Wally was drinking, I not only didn’t sleep but I had major anxiety too.  I still get night time anxiety but not near as bad as it used to be.  I wonder if this is one of these things that is part of healing?  It seems like it never ends, but freedom is worth fighting for so I keep on keeping on.

I was reading our local obituaries and noticed that a lovely lady that I loved passed away this week.  She was 98 turning 99 in August.  Our birthdays are the same month but she is exactly 50 years older than me.  We celebrated them together two years in a row a few years ago.  It made me kind of sad but it made me remember her too and the time we spent together…going for meals and praying.  She was sweet.  ❤

I guess that’s about it.  I thought I had more to say and maybe I would have if I had written my blog first before listening to an episode of The Inglorious Pasterds. 🙂  Now I am just too bagged.  It is 10:32 and I might just head to bed which is very unusual for me since I don’t usually go to bed until between 12 and 1 am.  I figure there is no point laying in bed staying awake for hours on end.  I have started using oils and night and putting relaxing meditation music on.  Can’t hurt, right?

Good night friend!  I’ll post a couple pics I took last night.  I loves you!

What I Learned From the Inglorious Pasterds

It’s so easy to look at only the surface people and judge them, just on what we see and hear and that moment. I would say that I have experienced this in a negative way, both individually and as a couple with Wally ( more about that another time).

What makes me think about this is a Podcast that I have grown to LOVE. It is called the Inglorious Pastereds and they are what I would call Progressive Christians. It would be nice if we didn’t have to label people but as I am finding out, there are all kinds of people that call themselves Christians and they are quite different from each other in beliefs. Truth is, I don’t even hardly know what a Christian is anymore. I do know that Jesus wasn’t one.

Anyway, the first time I listened to these guys I was quite shocked and didn’t listen to them for a while. As I started to notice they came up on my feed more and more on Twitter I decided to give them another listen. I am so glad I did. You see…I don’t like cursing or drinking and because of that, I didn’t listen to them anymore. I hear cursing at home all the time and Wally was a drunk (his words) for most of our marriage up until two years ago. I didn’t want to hear it on a podcast. I’m glad I got over the hump and listened to them because they have really changed a lot about me, in the way I think (in a good way) and the way I look at the world and God. I swear that we as a society are just looking for reasons to not like each other. It’s so sad that we don’t even give some people a chance just because they communicate something different than we do and in a different way.

I love what God is doing in me. I love that my mind has become open enough that I can listen to others who communicate their truth in a different way that I do because I am learning new things. The hardest and most painful thing about a paradigm switch is the deconstruction but there is beauty and awe as construction happens in the midst of it and you learn the truth and you know it’s the Truth! I love that it’s the Holy Spirit who guides me into my new and different beliefs and out of my old. That is how I know it is the Truth. I also know as time goes on and maybe I share more, that some of my Conservative Christian friends will have problems with what I believe and I know I may even lose some of their friendship ( as we are already)  but as I have learned:

What has been seen, cannot be unseen; What has been heard, cannot be unheard; There is no looking back.

My friend, I loves ya!

Check these guys out if you dare.  Consider yourself warned.  You might just learn something new and you might die from laughing, all in one podcast.  They are on itunes and most podcast places.

The Inglorious Pasterds