Shedding Old Identities & Living a Life of Purpose

In today's episode of My Shower Sprinkle, I take you on a deeply personal journey, sharing my own story of battling illness and how it shaped my identity over the years.  Reflecting on a powerful memory, I revisit the moment 10 years ago when I had my first surgery and the surgeries that followed. I talk about facing physical challenges and health battles and how I redefine who I am, but also how these challenges can lead to growth, purpose, and a new understanding of what truly matters in life.

I talk about the struggles of dealing with chronic health issues and how, for a time, my identity was tied to being sick. I share how my perspective has shifted, emphasizing the importance of embracing change, helping others, and finding joy even in difficult times. My mission now is to spread hope and positivity by bringing smiles to others, especially through the parties my organization does for kids in the hospital.

You can find me at:
https://www.instagram.com/cataton/
https://www.facebook.com/casey.taton/

You can find what sparks me at:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AgeRtyojY/
https://www.instagram.com/lmbdcelebrations/

Music by: Jason and Ashley Scheufler
Artwork by: https://www.instagram.com/graphx_ink/

Transcript

0:04

Hey friends. Welcome to the Enter Spark podcast. I'm your host, Casey Caton. If you're looking to hear stories of transformation and personal growth, this podcast is for you. My guest and I will be sharing those sparking moments that has changed the mental living a more fulfilling authentic life. I'm so excited for you to hear each unique story. So sit back, relax, and let's get started. Hey friend, welcome back to my shower sprinkles. This is your host Casey Taten. Today I want to talk about your identity and what I mean by that is who you were, who you've been, and like the stages of life you've been through. The reason I'm going to talk about this is because a memory came up on my Facebook story that 10 years ago on February 13th I had my first stroke. surgery for malls. If you haven't listened to that episode, my first episode, I talk about a battle I fought for a couple years before I got a diagnosis. And the struggles I fought to get a diagnosis and then to get surgery. And that surgery was my first of what I thought was going to be my life changing. Getting my life back, being able to eat, being able to drink. I spent a lot of time in my bed. The picture of me that was on Facebook was a picture of me and my cat that had passed away, but was my best friend. And I spent many hours in my bed. I spent a lot of time, like more hours than you can even imagine. Unproductiveness, just sleeping, not having anything to do, because I didn't have any energy. I didn't have any energy to do anything. And that became my identity was being sick. I wouldn't show up to family events. I was always like not going to things. And then eventually you just stopped getting invited, but it was because, oh, she's sick, she's sick, yeah, you're right, I was fighting a battle, I had a disease, I had a dis ease happening in my life, I was spending days, I don't know if any of you have faced a medical battle, it's not people just laying at home. It is people who spent hours fighting for their life, trying to get help, trying to stay, keep the things they have, trying to keep their belongings. Trying to figure out where to go next. What doctors do I see? I can't even imagine The amount of hours I spent in doctor's offices every week like Unimaginable amount of hours you guys it's crazy something. I don't even like to think about and Probably why when I have friends that say like don't you binge watch tv or like today's a snow day? And they're like, why don't you stay in bed and rest? And I'm like, stay in bed and rest? Why would I stay in bed? Like, that was my identity, was being sick. And I identified being sick with being in bed or being in a doctor's office. Or being in a treatment, getting an infusion. Or not having any energy to do anything. When I saw that memory of me in my bed, it was actually me when I was back home from Cleveland. From ten years ago, I was in Cleveland for a couple days. I had a laparoscopic surgery. where they actually nicked my aorta, they took out my gallbladder as well, and they didn't get to finish my surgery. I didn't know that at the time. I thought I was coming home healed, cured, like, wow, I, you know, like a laparoscopic surgery and I'm fixed. Um, but that was way wrong. So I was laying in my bed with my cat and I just remember thinking, like, life is gonna get better. Like, I had this surgery, I spent Valentine's Day in the hospital. Cleveland had, like, I want to say, like, 17 inches of snow, you guys. It was crazy. my mom and my aunt were with me. I remember my dad sending us Valentine's stuff. he sent me this sock monkey with a heart on it that I still have because When you're fighting something, you find value in everything, and it meant the world that, you know, my family was thinking about us, why my mom and my aunt were with, with me, my dad was back home taking care of my animal, taking care of my fur baby, and your life just changes. In my story, I talk about going on and having another surgery. And how I was in, you know, I was at, I had to go to Mayo Clinic, then I went to Cleveland and had my surgery, that was 10 years ago, and then a couple years after that I had to go have another open surgery. And that was my identity for so long. And we all go through these stages in our life, and the one thing that I know that's true is that if we hold on to the hope and we keep going, then We can make the best out of every situation. I just went, did live, a live Facebook and my community, my Facebook group that I run an organization doing parties for kids in the hospital, little moments, big dream celebrations, and every time I post in there, I just want to yell and scream because like, it comes out of me. Like, what are you doing to help somebody? I was that kid. I mean, I wasn't that kid. I was that adult. And actually I was that kid. when I was a baby, I don't talk about this because I don't honestly remember it, but I had spinal meningitis when I was a couple months old and I spent a long time in the hospital. And it's something that my family, like, they hold on to that. They still, you know, occasionally my grandpa will say, yeah, I remember holding you down or my dad will say that and my mom will like, my mom cringes when she sees needles and IVs because They watched me as a baby get stuck over and over and over and blow the IVs and then unfortunately as an adult my family went through this again with me and so it's been my identity a couple times but the one thing that I treasure when I'm doing these parties and I'm like going live in these Facebook groups I'm like hey look I've had these surgeries I've been sick but guess what people did things for me to bring me smiles and that's my mission now. And I wanna know, what are you doing? Like, yeah, TV's great, go find an episode, watch it, but get up and do something. Like life is too short not to and to everybody who thinks that oh, I'm these things don't happen to me You're wrong friend. You're wrong I'll be the first one to look you in the face and say if it don't happen to you You know props to you for living a healthy life that you were just Nothing was happened to you. You live this great life because it's not really true Everybody's going through something on a different level and everybody I know Has been affected by some type of illness Cancer. Mine wasn't cancer, but I sat at a treatment center. I stayed in the hospital for long periods of times. Everybody's fighting a different battle, and my identity keeps growing and keeps changing, and so can yours. Make it something special. Leave a legacy on this world. I want to tell everybody in that group, like when I went live, like get up and do something. What are you doing to help others? If you're not helping someone in my group, go find another group. Go find someone to help. Reach out to somebody and help them. And by helping, it doesn't mean you just have to give money. You can help in so many ways. And to me, it means bringing a smile to someone's face. And sometimes, that's just with connection. Because really, in life, there's a couple things we all deeply desire. We all want to have connection. We all want to feel heard. And we all want to feel seen. And if you don't feel that way, please let me know. Because I do believe that every one of us, no matter How introverted, how extroverted you are. We all want to have a connection with something and someone and feel heard and feel seen. And that's the part, important part about a community. And I want every single one of those kids in those families to know that I'm supporting them. I love them. But not only do I, our community loves them. And I recently talked about in there, like on my Facebook live post about how not just only our community here in Wichita, Kansas is helping. Our community outside of Kansas is helping. We got rocks from Montana. Shout out to them. Hug rocks. How cool is that? It means people are paying attention and people have either been through this or they can relate to this or they're finding a purpose to do something. They can paint on rocks and bring a smile to someone's face. You can bring a smile to anybody's face. They don't even have to be battling an illness, a dis ease. They can be battling something totally different, and maybe they're lonely. Maybe they don't have anyone to let them feel heard, to be a part of a community. And that's truly what we're all desiring. So, as we all grow into, these different things that identify these different phases of life we go through, what are you going through now? You know, right now, the best thing I want, I want to grow my parties. Not my parties. I want to grow the parties we do in our community. We do it for these kids. They're not mine. I have a slew of volunteers that are just amazing that step up and help in every way. And it takes a community to make these things happen. But what are you doing? What do you value in your life? And what can you do to make your life better? It's as simple as bringing a smile, saying a kind word to somebody. I don't know what you're going through. I know that everybody's going through different phases of their life, different points of identity in their life. But today, I want you to think about how you can make an impact. on someone else's life. How you can change the way someone else sees this world. This world is a crazy world, right? But what I know is that it's full. It's full of amazing, wonderful human beings that desire to be heard, seen, and want a community of like minded people. So go find that community. I am so blessed to have, to be in communities surrounded by amazing people. And I'm also blessed that I'm speaking my truth on this podcast that. I'm getting the word out that I, at one time, had this identity of being sick and that's who I was and I let people say that about me and that's not how I want to live. I am Casey. I am a human being and I want to feel good. I want to feel well. I do feel well. Not I want to. I do. I may face challenges some days with my health or dis eases. I may have a dis ease in that day but guess what? That's not who I am as a human being. I have a huge heart and I want to bring smiles and joy to others Because I know what it feels like to be at a point in your life Where you felt like there wasn't any joy and I feel like everybody can relate to that in some way so Today i'm going to close out the shower sprinkle with please just go do something that brings someone joy Sit down and think about who you are who you are as a person What does that look like to you? And then who do you want to be? You Because it's never too late to start doing something. Never. Start doing it today. By the way, you had a bad day? Okay, guess what? Tomorrow, you get to start all over, my friend. You get to start a new day. If you want to call tomorrow New Year's, go for it. I don't really care what you do, but I want you to know that the next day is not guaranteed. So go make a difference today. Go do something. Go do something. You know, like live your dreams out, write down your dreams, your goals, whatever you want to call them, but go touch a life. Go bring a smile, bring a smile to yourself. Find something that brings you joy. Find out what you truly value in your life and find out the places that you want to give more and love more and share more. And the different things you can bring joy to other people's lives. Because whether it's your identity and then you leave a legacy in someone's life, let those be the imprints that we leave. I thank you for listening to another episode of My Shower Sprinkle. Sorry, I get fired up, you guys. There are some things that when they just hit me in memories they hit you, like, they bring it back. It's just like the one I talked about a picture. Well, fighting a battle brought a lot out of me. And the one thing it did is I don't lay around in my bed and feel sorry for myself. If you want to do that, go do it for a couple hours, but then snap out of it, my friend, because there is too much to be grateful for and so much in this world to find joy in little things. So go find joy out of something. Go do something and make your time here valuable. Make it important. Go make a difference. Everybody has a different skill. Everybody has a different talent. And if we all did the good things in the world, can you imagine what this world would be? Alright, I'm leaving you with that. Go do something, and as always, let those sparks fly. Thank you for tuning into another episode. I hope today's story inspired you to embrace your own journey of growth and change. Remember, transformation isn't always easy, but it's always worth it. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. Share it with a friend, and leave a review. If you found something that sparked you in this episode and may spark a friend, I encourage you to go share with them. If you have your own story you would like to share, I would love to hear it. So please reach out to me. Until next time, friends, go have some fun and let those sparks lie.