Shows
Livin' What You're GivenSteppin out of the BoatAs I end my podcast for the foreseeable future, I reflect with great gratitude upon what I have learned, the people I have met, the support I have enjoyed and the incredible opportunity to tell and share stories from people all over this world. I want to end this season, episode and podcast as I started it, by stepping out of the boat of sameness and into the sea of adventure. Although I would have liked to thank each guest by name, I did not want my whole episode to sound like a segment from the acceptance...2024-12-3126 min
Livin' What You're GivenGift to the Soul I can not imagine a better guest to end this fourth season of Livin' What You're Given Podcast, than Robin Freed. Robin is also my last interview as I end the podcast for the foreseeable future. The reason Robin is such a great fit for this role is because she embodies all the values and encouraging messages I've tried to highlight in this show for four seasons.Ms. Freed is a musician, playing several instruments, including piano, harp, and hammered dulcimer. She is a teacher of all of these as well. She feels that no matter what a...2024-12-1827 min
Livin' What You're GivenWhy Our Sharing MattersMy guest today holds a special place in my heart. Her name is Suzanne Chimera and she is Co-Founder of Hair We Share, an organization that takes hair donations and make wigs for people who are losing their hair due to a variety of reasons.I met Suzanne in January of 2024 when I contacted her to take a donation of my sister, Mary's, hair after she passed away from cancer. Mary had long brown hair but because she had gray throughout her locks, I had to find a place that would take hair that had gray in it...2024-12-1129 min
Livin' What You're GivenGratitude in All ThingsMy guest today, Beatrice Bruno, the Drill Sergeant of Life, joins me as we explore the idea of gratitude in all things. She talks about being thankful for each day and the opportunities she has been given by God, including her very life. As the author of books on various topics, including grief, Beatrice shares helpful hints on how to navigate life's ups and downs through being grateful at all times. For example, she reflects on how a person came to just sit with her after the passing of her husband, John, several years ago. In the encounter, she...2024-11-2640 min
Livin' What You're GivenGratitude Stories MatterThis month, November, I am bringing on two guests who remind us of the power of gratitude even in these difficult, divided and tumultuous times. The gentleman who is my first guest in November, Stephen Ray Watts, shares with me and my audience today about how his life, ministry and music have been influenced by having a grateful heart. If you recognize the name, that is because this is one of the musicians who has lent his music to me for the purpose of enriching this podcast for the last four seasons.Sharing from his personal...2024-11-1349 min
Break The Silence With KathLivin’ What You’re Given: Finding Self-Worth and Healing with Laura PadgettToday on Break the Silence with Kath, we have the incredible Laura Padgett. Laura is a multi-published, award-winning author, dancer, and storyteller, who has spent over seven decades finding her place and purpose in the world. As an adult child of alcoholics, Laura's early years were marked by challenges in understanding relationships and discovering self-worth. Yet, through years of faith, resilience, and personal work, she has transformed from victim to victor and moved from tears to triumph.Laura’s journey is not only inspiring but also deeply rooted in her fait...2024-11-0951 min
Livin' What You're GivenWhen Relationships Suffer Estrangement My guest today is Michelle Rohlf, and she is granting me another interview to follow up her interview in May of 2023. In our last session, Michelle and I discussed the pain of having a child estrange themselves from us. She described her journey through her healing process and writing a book that chronicled that process.Today, Michelle describes how her work has helped her and others. She says that while writing the book, "Losing Her, Finding Me" (info below) she learned not only about herself, but about her child's journey too. She describes finding understanding about her o...2024-10-2336 min
Livin' What You're GivenCourageously Sharing TruthKaren DeArmond Gardner is a survivor of thirty years in a marriage where she was verbally, emotionally and at times physically abused. She talks about how her own work of writing a book, speaking to others and helping to educate communities around the issue of domestic abuse, has been helpful for her own growth and healing. She points out that churches are not always equipped to deal with this issue. She states it is better to go to shelters, support groups, therapy and advocates who will listen and point victims to the resources needed to begin living l...2024-10-0950 min
Livin' What You're GivenWe're Not Alone in our StoriesToday, my guest, author and speaker Lori Ann Wood, discusses where her story of a divine detour has taken her and how sharing her story has helped other people. After discovering she had end-stage heart failure, she began to ask the questions of God that we are trained not to ask. This is a follow up to our original interview that took place on March 8, 2023 called, "Involuntary Tide Turning." Please feel free to go back and listen to that for more of her backstory. Her journey began nine years ago and she says it has been up...2024-09-2535 min
Livin' What You're GivenEmbracing ReasonPlease note: This is a rebroadcast of an episode that I ran in 2023. Because we are still in the political chaos, or perhaps worse, I feel it is important for us to remember that we can have a voice, we can turn this tide and we can bring unity to our beautiful U.S.A. by turning from the chaos to the reasonable and unifying voices. I was excited to sit down with former senator and house representative, Don Coram, from the Western Slope of Colorado today. Our conversation focused on a frank and honest discussion about how...2024-08-2838 min
Livin' What You're GivenDismanteling Toxic Politics Note: This is a rebroadcast of the episode with Kevin Kuns in July of 2023. Because we seem to be in the same or worse political situation than when this was first recorded, I felt it worth a revisit of the wisdom, strength and hope in the words of people like Kevin Kuns. Drawing from personal experiences of living in different countries, having a diverse employment background, running successful companies and being involved in the Colorado Democratic Party, my guest today, Kevin Kuns and I explore how we can turn the tide on the toxic political landscape we...2024-08-1438 min
Livin' What You're GivenHelping Others Deal with BullyingIn March in 2015, Maya Haynes' daughter Caitlyn completed suicide because of bullying. After her death, Cait's peers came forward and told Maya and her husband that they had witnessed the bullying and did not know what to do. Many had reported the bullying incidents, but there was no action taken.Instead of becoming angry, bitter, and vengeful, Maya turned grief, pain, and loss into a direction of helping other kids who are being bullied, those witnessing the situations, as well as those who are doing the bullying. She created P.E.E.R. Kindness, an organization...2024-07-2441 min
Livin' What You're GivenHelping Others HealIn 1989, Jerry Schemmel survived the airplane crash of United Airlines Flight 232 that landed in a field in Sioux City, Iowa. In 1996, he wrote a book called "Chosen to Live" detailing not only the disastrous incident itself, but also his journey of healing afterward. Jerry does not allow this incident to define him, but he thinks about it as a way to share his personal testimony of finding help, strength, and hope through a personal relationship with Jesus.In my first interview with Jerry, he said during the excruciating minutes prior to the plane's touchdown, he tried...2024-07-1037 min
Livin' What You're GivenFeeling our Feelings Gwendolyn Burton is an author, teacher, speaker, and certified grief educator. But mostly she is an authentic voice for those who are experiencing grief and loss, as she has suffered one of the toughest losses known to humans - the loss of a child. Through her work and in this interview, she discusses how she began to heal and move forward from her loss. She speaks about finding help by hearing the stories of others which helped her to see she was not alone. By encouraging herself and others to express what is...2024-06-2637 min
Livin' What You're GivenWhy Stories MatterWe are starting our fourth season of "Livin' What You're Given". The rest of 2024, I want to explore the effects of storytelling. In this episode I talk about why our stories matter. They have been given to us so we can share them to encourage other as they walk their stories as well as help others along the way in their own journeys.I open this season by explaining why this podcast has not been offered for the past several months. In telling the reason for my absence, I have told a story of loss a...2024-06-1218 min
Livin' What You're GivenLetting Go of 2023 Today in this solo podcast episode, the last one of 2023 and the last one for a few months, I want to talk about letting go of idolizing the past. We cannot move forward, if we insist on focusing on the past. The tendency to retro reach (trying to recapture and relive the past at the expense of the now and the future) is a prescription for unhappiness. Through a personal, and humorous story, I share how we can get the wrong idea of who God is and proceed with that idea until we fi...2023-12-2719 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning from Retro-reachToday, I am joined by Ashley Pyles, a Christian Transformational Faith Coach who has spent decades helping women not only strengthen their faith, but also put it into action. There are many reasons why we can stunt our spiritual growth, and one of those is hanging onto the past. In our conversation on Livin' What You're Given, Ashley offers some tools to help us resist this retro-reach posture. She shares from her own experiences how she has learned to release the past and receive the blessings of the future.Through a three-step process based in scripture...2023-12-1336 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning from Burdens to Blessings In this week's episode, which is a solo, I want to share the word "burdens" as an acronym. I think this is particularly important as the holidays are here and we can feel overwhelmed by the expectations we place on ourselves and the expectations we try to meet that are placed upon us by others. The point of this is to demonstrate that it is our choice to allow our own (sometimes unreasonable) expectations and those of others to weigh us down or not. Drawing from seven decades of I want to share how we can be:2023-11-2918 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning From Holiday StressWhoa, the holidays are here already and the pressures can be real. In today's episode, my guest Sue Moore Donaldson, and I explore how to drop some of the baggage around what we expect of ourselves and others when it comes to holiday festivities.As an author, podcaster and public speaker, Sue uses her own experiences to help us relax around our imperfections. That can be, and often is, the first step in moving through the holidays with less stress and more joy. Through her faith base as a follower of Christ, she encourages us to surrender...2023-11-0836 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning From Domestic Abuse Part 2Please note: This is a re-broadcast of an earlier episode that was taped and aired in 2021. The subject is domestic abuse, and because it is October (National Domestic Violence Awareness Month), I wanted to air this again. The topic follows my September episodes on bullying. Domestic abuse is in fact one of the most commonly seen areas of bullying because it relies upon the unequal power structure. The dates and times mentioned in this episode are from September of 2021. But the message is one we need to hear often as it is not going away, a...2023-10-2543 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning From Domestic Abuse Part 1Please note: This is a re-broadcast of an earlier episode that was taped and aired in 2021. The subject is domestic abuse, and because it is October (National Domestic Violence Awareness Month), I wanted to air this again. The topic follows my September episodes on bullying. Domestic abuse is in fact one of the most commonly seen areas of bullying because it relies upon the unequal power structure. The dates and times mentioned in this episode are from September of 2021. But the message is one we need to hear often as it is not going away, and in s...2023-10-1139 min
Sherry Speaks Life PodcastThe Blessings of Aging with Laura PadgettDid you know by 2030 all Baby Boomers will be over 65 years old? As our population gets older, society continues to diminish their value and perpetuate stereotypes based on age. How can we dispel the myths about aging and be grateful for every moment God has blessed us with?
Our guest, Laura Padgett, is passionate about helping us embrace aging and understand God's purpose for it. Laura is a multi-published, multi-awarded author and dancer. She also hosts a podcast called “Livin’ What You’re Given,” which she launched on her 70th birthday to encourage listeners to live their best lif...2023-10-1150 minLivin' What You're GivenTurning From Bullying Part 2"Before you hate, think of Cait." This is the statement that began P.E.E.R. Kindness, an organization started by our guest, Maya Haynes, after her teenage daughter Cait completed suicide in 2015.In the second part of this two-part series on turning the tide on bullying, my guest Maya Haynes and I discuss some of the tools her organization PEER Kindness utilizes to help identify this behavior and take steps to change it. She and her team go into schools and out into communities to share what can be done to identify, intervene and report such...2023-09-2739 minLivin' What You're GivenTurning From Bullying Part 1"Before you hate, think of Cait." This is the statement that began P.E.E.R. Kindness, an organization started by our guest, Maya Haynes, after her teenage daughter Cait completed suicide in 2015.I am joined today by Maya Haynes, the mother of a young woman who in her teens completed suicide as a result of being bullied. Sharing from her own experiences during and since that time, she tells us that many of the kids who observed this behavior toward her daughter had reported it, with no results. Therefore, even though they witnessed it, they did...2023-09-1332 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning to Lead TogetherToday, I’m joined by Annie Perdue-Olson, a certified coach with a Masters of Arts in Human Resources and Change Leadership. Annie has fifteen years in her current coaching work of helping leaders and teams be healthier in their relationships and workplace processes. In this episode Annie stresses the impact of three particular issues in leadership roles. Those are feeling overwhelmed, dealing with people problems and facing testing of confidence.Overwhelmed feelings can impact personal and spiritual health in a negative way when leaders and/or team members do not balance the tension between the product and peo...2023-08-2342 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning from the RutDo you ever feel you are in a rut? Today, my friend and fellow Christian podcaster, Jerry Dugan, joins me as we discuss the definition of being in a rut. As host of the podcast, "Beyond the Rut" Jerry helps us identify when we are in a rut and how to get out, and beyond it. He explains that being in a rut is doing the same activities day-after-day, week-after-week, and feeling unproductive. There's no passion or excitement in the rut. We are just sort of on autopilot. It usually starts with a gut feeling of just being s...2023-08-0952 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning Toward UnityI was excited to sit down with former senator and house representative, Don Coram, from the Western Slope of Colorado today. Our conversation focused on a frank and honest discussion about how we can begin to turn from toxic political division in America, and toward unity and healthy discourse with civility. When asked how we, in the USA, have gotten to this point of malignant polarization, Senator Coram offered his opinion based on his experience as a lawmaker and a citizen. He tells us that we now have elected officials who are being rewarded for bad behavior. W...2023-07-2640 min
The Back 40 Podcast030. Hello 70s and Still Livin' Large! | Laura PadgettToday's guest, Laura Padgett, joins me from the mountains of Colorado. She's vivacious, kind and full of wisdom about living life to the fullest and using what you're given!We chat about lots of life lessons she's learned and how she still looks forward to the next thing God has planned for her!Connect with Laura:Website: https://lauralpadgett.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraLPadgettAuthorSpeakerDancer Twitter: https://twitter.com/lauraleepadgett Instagram: laurapadgettauthor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-padgett-7b084742/Thanks for listening in!2023-07-1838 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning from Toxic PoliticsDrawing from personal experiences of living in different countries, having a diverse employment background, running successful companies and being involved in the Colorado Democratic Party, my guest today, Kevin Kuns and I explore how we can turn the tide on the toxic political landscape we are now living in. We also discuss what the word "patriot means" and how that word is being used against our groups of citizens today.Kevin helps us identify some ways we have become polarized politically, what is dividing us and how we can begin to walk into unification beyond our differences...2023-07-1139 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning GracefullyMary Hess is the host of the Back Forty Podcast, where she shares stories of people who are navigating the second half of life. She gives examples of topics she is sharing to offer truths and hope as well as the message that we are not alone in some of the changes, struggles and joys of living life in the back forty.Mary says that her generation, which is generation X, was the one that began talking about the things her boomer parents just did not discuss. Mary wants us to know we do not need to...2023-06-2847 minLivin' What You're GivenSecond Anniversary EditionIt is hard to believe that two years ago, I launched my first podcast episode. Here we are now two years down the line and going strong. In this solo episode I want to share my gratitude for people who have helped me along the way including my friends and family, as well as all the great guests who have agreed to be interviewed.I have learned a lot about many subjects. And I have been inspired by the stories of folks just livin' what they’ve been given by being creative, even in the toughest of ci...2023-06-1417 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning from Self-SabotageToday we welcome The Drill Sergeant of Life, Beatrice Bruno, to help us understand how we sometimes get in our own way by practicing self-sabotage. Speaking from her own experience and from parts of her books based on letting go, letting God and getting what we want out of life, Beatrice is a refreshingly authentic voice that speaks truth into the idea that turning the tide begins with each of us. Being in the U.S Army helped Beatrice in the area of discipline that was needed and still is needed to move into sticking to the...2023-05-2451 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning Within EstrangementToday, my guest Michelle Rohlf, and I talk about the pain suffered when children estrange themselves from their parents. She wants us to know that this is not a unique situation, and we are not alone if we are in this place. Talking from her own experience that is chronicled in her book, "Losing Her, Finding me: A Mother's Story of Estrangement and Self-Discovery," she shares a story that is all too familiar to many parents. Her journey includes the ups and downs of trying to reconcile with her daughter, counseling for the two of them, recognizing...2023-05-1055 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning to the Light Part 2In part two of this two-part series about turning to the light, my friend James Early and I explore how we can embrace the mindset of Jesus Christ. In part one we unpacked some myths around who we sometimes think Jesus is in order to support our agendas. But if we really want to know what Jesus was/is all about, we need to try to think in the mindset of Christ, which is as a selfless servant. In order to do this, we need to study what Jesus said, what He did, how He treated others...2023-04-2642 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning to the Light Part 1My friend James Early, from The Bible Speaks to You Podcast, and I explore who Jesus is from a spiritual lens. James says that we tend to assign human attributes to Jesus to support our own agendas. We project onto Jesus, as well as other people, our own characteristics. Our mind is the lens through which we see Jesus. But if we really do want to follow Jesus, we need to follow His example and not what we "want" to believe about Him.Through stories of different aspects and truths of the Bible, James challenges us to...2023-04-1250 min
Livin' What You're GivenTurning from HatredDid you know that antisemitism is not only back in the U.S. and the rest of the world, it is on the rise? Don't believe it? Listen in as my friend, and former broadcast journalist, Dave Segal and I explore this topic on a national and local level.Born and raised with the idea of religious inclusion, Dave shares stories of growing up in a family where there were Jewish, Christian and even Buddhist faiths practiced. Dave has practiced various faith paths in his life, including a great many years in Judaism. He shares stories...2023-03-2245 min