Mystical Misfits with Courtney and Phil
Welcome to The Mystical Misfits, a journey into the heart of mysticism, self-discovery, and spiritual connection. Here, we believe that everyone has the power to be their own mystic, as they begin to trust their intuition, embrace their own unique path, and recognize that we are all divinely connected to each other and to the universe.
In each episode, we explore the deeper layers of spiritual life, from the transitting sky above, energy work, and human experience. Our goal is to help you feel loved, supported, and seen by the cosmos, as we all align with the rhythms of the planets and the wisdom of your own soul.
Whether you're new to mysticism or a seasoned seeker, The Mystical Misfits invites you to tune in, relax, and connect with a community of kindred spirits. Let's decode the stars, tap into our highest selves, and embrace the magic that’s always around us.
Come as you are, and let's make sense of the mystical world together.
Mystical Misfits with Courtney and Phil
Lead with your Heart.
Phil and Courtney explore the profound journey of self-acceptance, heart-centered communication, and the transformative power of caring for others in this intimate conversation about what it means to truly appreciate ourselves and open our hearts.
• Reflecting on how we often fail to appreciate ourselves in the present moment, only recognizing our value in retrospect
• Examining how communication passes through multiple filters, transforming messages from heart to heart
• Discussing music's ability to transport us emotionally and connect directly to our hearts, bypassing mental barriers
• Exploring the vulnerability required to speak authentically from the heart despite fear of rejection
• Considering how animals teach us unconditional love and responsibility beyond ourselves
• Learning about heart-over-mind practices like the Kundalini yoga bow posture
• Contemplating how life's "wrong" decisions were actually necessary for our growth
• Reflecting on how shared experiences like 90s sitcoms created social connection that's now missing
Open your heart today in small ways – through music, caring for others, or simply being present with those around you. When we lead with our hearts rather than our minds, we access deeper wisdom and connection.
Hi, bill, it's so nice to see you. I missed you. It's so nice to see you.
Speaker 2:Hi Courtney. Yes, I missed you too. Yeah, it seems like such a long time, but it's only been a week that we've missed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, but I think it's been two weeks because I think we would.
Speaker 1:If we missed a week, then it's been two weeks since I've actually got to see your beautiful been two weeks since I've actually got to see your beautiful, happy face and I'll say I just showed my daughter a picture of you.
Speaker 1:First of all, you're gorgeous. And then it's so funny because I was like and you're so gorgeous younger and I showed my daughter that you're with Nancy Meyers and she almost she's like you have to explain, courtney, cause she just she like loves Nancy Meyers. I was like he's so cool, and then she's, and then one of them's like he's so gorgeous, and I was like, yeah, I wonder if you knew, like I wonder, this is what I keep thinking about. Right, this is what I keep thinking about it. If I could have appreciated what I look like at 20, if I could appreciate what I look like at 30, then if I could appreciate what I look like at 40. And now can I appreciate what I look like now, because so many times we could look back and be like, wow, we were pretty attractive and we don't even appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, you're so right. I think that's a pretty, I think that's pretty common idea with people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think we better start appreciating it, because it's I don't know. I wonder if we don't start to like ourselves, can we expect other people to like us?
Speaker 2:Right Appreciate ourselves as much as other people appreciate us. Because when people say they appreciate us, how much can we believe it if we don't fully appreciate ourselves?
Speaker 1:Yeah, or do we hear like so I was talking about this. In some ways is it easier to hear the bad things, right? So I could say 10 nice things to you and maybe hear the one nice thing that I don't say, and then we focus on that. So are we even hearing? Are we even actually hearing the nice things about ourselves? I don't. I actually don't know if we are.
Speaker 2:Boy, I think you really hit the nail on the head for me about that, because I can obsess about that. The one imagined slight, whatever might've been said might've not been intended the way that I received it. I can again. I have to go back to you know, somebody speaks from their heart and it goes through so many filters. It goes through their mouth, it goes through the atmosphere, it goes to my ear, it goes to my mind to get back to my heart. So it has to go through all these filters and my particular filters. On a particularly given day, given my history or whatever mood I might be in, it's the the message gets confused. It's I lose the intent of the message, or it's possible that I could.
Speaker 1:It's like the telephone game right. So I could whisper in your ear and then it could go around and it will come back to me, and so are you actually even hearing what someone says? Are we hearing what people say, right? Right, because of our, our own perceivments of things.
Speaker 2:Exactly it's. It's really, I think it's just a very human dilemma. It's a just an ongoing dilemma, but I do think that if people continue to speak from their heart, then there's not, they're not focused on you know how it might be perceived or how it might be delivered, because that's out of their control. They'll just continue to speak from their heart, just keep putting it out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's hard, though. I think it's hard for us as humans to keep our heart open enough to speak from our heart, because we're so scared of getting hurt, right? So let's say, if I'm loved, and then I doesn't respond back, or if I, if I can't, this is my thing. If I can't control what you think you're going to think, you're going to perceive it. However, you perceive it and oh, that's where it hurts. Right, so it is. I I do think we have to practice speaking from our hearts, but it's not an easy feat, but it's not an easy feat.
Speaker 2:It's not an easy feat Right, and I think that we look towards our artists, our performing artists, our singers and our musicians, to express the things in our heart that we have trouble sharing. And I'm sure you've, I'm sure you've experienced this when you've heard someone sing a song. It will put you in a in a timeless dimension, where you're, you're just surrounded by that emotion, and it's love, but it's heartbreak, it's hope, it's tenderness, it's hope, it's tenderness, it's, you know, happy memories of things past, all those things, and the the voice of a singer or musician tunes you into that frequency and suddenly you feel like you're awash, you're all emotion because your heart is opening. And then the song ends and you perform, and then we go back. We go back to our egos and our the responsibilities. We have to live responsibly.
Speaker 1:Oh, but I love, I love music. I think it's so funny because I we went to a wedding and there was a band. There was a band at the wedding. They were, they were playing, they were, they were amazing. I mean, you talk about talent, right, that there was talent and and you think about that, right. You go to a wedding and they're playing happy music and there's joy, and I thought, well, why is there just not music everywhere? There used to be music in elevators, right. Like you used to go into an elevator, they would play music for you.
Speaker 1:You would sit in the doctor's office, they would have music playing. There was like I think there's something interesting, I wonder. It's like our vibrations have lowered in some ways and then all around we're not tuning into that frequency of love and music and joy. But yes, music does. It's like a time warp. It could bring you back to that moment in time. I keep on playing the Pointer Sisters. I'm so excited, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I just can't hide and it just gets me in a really good right. It's like how could you be in a bad mood If you're singing? I'm excited. I wonder what year that was made and and why she was so excited and why it worked so well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's great when I hear a song that I haven't heard in a very long time. Haven't heard in a very long time because my mind goes right back to who I was and what I was doing when that song was popular and it just brings up almost an overload of memories and feelings. Like I was a completely different person then and I would look back and think you know what different person then and I would look back and think you know what I? I did a pretty good job, you know I. You know it was a struggle and like I was guessing at most of the things I was doing.
Speaker 1:You know I wasn't sure guessing, but aren't you? Yes, exactly you. No one really knows, but in a way, isn't it just guessing? I used to listen to songs. Did you do this? Because when I was younger and I actually still do I like listen to songs over and over and over again. So I had like one tape I would listen to, or like one cd, and so it does very much bring back time blocks and I, I do think that I'm so different. But then there's a part of me that's like, okay, there's still. There's still a part of you that's probably was exactly who you are, this divine soul that's kind of very gentle and kind and loving and nice, and that has brought you through probably all all your moments in time, don't you think?
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that you know the, my soul, or the me within me, as I call it, was speaking to me, but it speaks to me very quietly, and so I have to be quiet enough to hear it, or relaxed enough or not on guard enough or tense enough or anxious enough on guard enough or tense enough or anxious enough. If I am I, if I'm too anxious or too hyped up or too in my ego, I don't hear it, I'm not getting, it's not getting through.
Speaker 1:But does music? So this is an interesting question. So maybe when you listen to music, it has a way of getting you out of your mind and and, and maybe, just maybe, back in the day, it allowed you to make decisions from a higher place. So, even though it might not be the way you do it now, through yoga, or through meditation or writing or whatever however you do it, maybe the music was the catalyst for your shifts.
Speaker 2:I think it was anything heart related, I think, was what I was following ultimately.
Speaker 1:Wait, you understand that, like, today is actually a very interesting day because it's a Leo moon and it is all about Leo, is all about the heart, it's all about performers, it's a music, and so it is interesting that you're talking about that. It's about art and it's about creativity and you're saying when I do things like that, it opens my heart. So I just think it's a very perfect day. I'm getting to see that today this will be uploaded, because I feel like there's a message in just the fact that we're at this kind of very powerful moon day.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:It is the moon's day. It isn't, leo, and think about what you said. The heart music art, letting you doing things that opened your heart and I. You go back to the. Do you know esther hicks? Do you know abraham hicks?
Speaker 2:is it? Yeah, yes, she's, she's, isn't she on youtube?
Speaker 1:yeah, no. So she, I think in the 80s, her and her husband. She wanted to understand what channeling was and so she started. Esther Hicks, like a normal woman, becomes a channel and for the divine and for the angels and for, but for something called Abraham. And what she talked about was how to set your tuner into the vibration you want. And she's like, it's like a radio station the radio station. You can only get the radio station when the tuner is tuned to that, to that, that frequency, and so when you listen to music or when you're doing things that open your heart, your frequency rises, you'll feel good and you'll make higher choices. Oh, but, and she was like oprah, like in 1990, and I was thinking we didn't understand. It's like it's the same thing with gary zukoff was on oprah, right at the seat of our soul, which was amazing. We could not fathom what these people were saying. Really, we were going in blindly, but now we could see it and we totally understand what they're saying. So I think something about are we all just guessing anyway?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's interesting that you mentioned that they're speaking. They're speaking about heart centered ideas and higher vibration, and for me, when I was younger, that I wasn't familiar with that and I was suspect of it because I didn't it didn't resonate with me at all. So I'm I'm grateful now that I'm at a point where what they're talking about we're talking about 30, 40 years ago.
Speaker 1:I mean, this is 30 years ago.
Speaker 2:But it makes sense to me now it doesn't. It doesn't feel foreign or confusing to me. I get. I get what they're talking about, which I'm. I'm very grateful for that I that I'm not skeptical about what they're saying and I'm not dismissing it outright because I immediately believe that what they're talking about didn't apply to me.
Speaker 1:So when I did, look really interesting that you said that, like I'll say, maybe the things that were dismissed the most or there were the most against, is actually what our soul really wants the most. It's interesting that, you see, because I don't think I, I don't know I actually would watch. I would watch all this and I would be interested. I like remember loving her back then and what she brought on and I could feel the energy of it and I knew, I just knew that there was so something so right about it. It's just that, so different than what we can understand right now. But maybe that's we could look back now and think everything that people are so dismissive of, maybe to be more open-minded of that. Maybe we don't know everything open-minded of that maybe we don't know everything.
Speaker 1:I mean, think about if you knew what you know now, and how about if like, maybe there's more we could be learning it. I just think it's so amazing is what we don't know. What we don't know.
Speaker 2:But hasn't it been quite a journey to, I guess for me it has really been an amazing journey for me to be here where I am now, with the beliefs I know outwardly that my life is amazing it is, though, internally to me, I mean, for me it is absolutely, and so that's kind of a rock solid belief. That's kind of a rock solid belief and I'm just, I'm just grateful that that these ideas caught me. They caught me and they embraced me.
Speaker 1:Because I'll say can you find this? This is my, this is I keep on thinking like I. I keep on thinking can you actually? I keep on thinking, can you actually find this knowledge and this information if you don't suffer? So it's interesting. On the outward, I know what you're saying. Maybe the outward life isn't exactly everything you expected it to be, but the gift is is that you allow it to be what it is, without having, with still being happy. And then, therefore, that's the genius, because that outside stuff doesn't doesn't make anyone any happier, it just doesn't. But can you find this? This was I was thinking this the other day. Could you find this knowing of love, this connection to something bigger than ourselves, to this knowing that we are all appreciated and loved, if you don't suffer prior?
Speaker 2:That's a great question.
Speaker 1:That's such a great question I don't think so, cause I don't think you go searching outside yourself. I think the part of the breakdown is to have the breakthrough and I think, knowing this, I think if you look at all both those people right Like you, just look at those people 30 years, this, I think, if you look at all both those people right Like you, just look at those people 30 years ago, I will bet you they had some kind of wound or pain that they had to heal and then that's where this divine connection came from, or this knowing that we're here to learn.
Speaker 2:And I think the big thing we're meant to learn is exactly everything that you just said. How, how do we? But how do we use what we've learned, all the pain that we've gone through, all the trauma, whatever it is? How do we use what we've learned, all the pain that we've gone through, all the trauma, whatever it is? How do we turn that into something meaningful, so that we're not just victims of it? We have to open up our hearts. It's our hearts.
Speaker 1:I think it starts with acceptance. I think I think cause I've been thinking a lot about this right it's. I can't change anything that happened to me or anything that I've done back there or anything that's happened, but I can allow it to be and I can accept it. And I think once, I think that is the heart, right.
Speaker 2:I mean when you love somebody.
Speaker 1:You just let them be. And do you remember? You fall in love. Think about you fall in love. You know I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love. That person is like perfect. You don't find the faults, it's only after maybe a couple months. And then you're like wait, I don't like this. And they have that thing right beforehand. You had magical acceptance for that person and then all of a sudden, you know, one day you wake up and that acceptance is just not there. That's a choice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because your heart opens, it opens. It's an amazing feeling. You know it's the best. It's almost dreamlike.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I do. I practice it every day. I mean I, I just that is my if I would say that's the one job I have right now in my life. It's, how do I practice living with an open heart, which is so hard, by the way, it is so hard. If I could love everybody. I can I practice really love, and that doesn't mean I have to like everybody, but how can I practice really love? And that doesn't mean I have to like everybody. But how can I practice? Whoever I'm with, whoever's in my present space, can I love them? And I can most of the time actually, can you practice?
Speaker 2:that's a great, it's a really you'll love it here's what I do practice and it's it's a very simple gesture. That's part of Kundalini yoga and I really, when I do it, I really pay attention to, to, to it when I do it, and that is simply just kneeling, sitting on your heels and bowing.
Speaker 1:Okay, sitting on my heels.
Speaker 2:Sitting on your heels and just bowing, just bringing your forehead to the floor or as close to the floor as you can.
Speaker 1:All right, let's see if I can do it, okay.
Speaker 2:It's just simply bowing Okay, and sometimes I have to open my knees so my head will go further. But what that posture manifests is heart over mind.
Speaker 1:Your heart is more elevated than your mind, and that's really making prayer hands right, my, my knees, my knees are a bit spread and then I am physically going down, like, like I'm praying right, like on the ground.
Speaker 2:Right, and so you can put your hands above your head once you reach the ground, but the idea is simply to bring your head forehead to the floor, or as close to the floor as you can, and just take some deep breaths there, long, deep breaths and that it's my.
Speaker 1:Oh. I see my heart is higher than my head. I got it, I got, it, I got it. Give me a second to visualize it. I had to visual, I had to do it, to visualize it.
Speaker 2:That's right Right.
Speaker 1:Do that when you meet somebody, you just go back down to them.
Speaker 2:No, it's just part of my daily practice. You close every, you close every Kundalini practice that way and the idea is, you know, to set yourself up so that your heart is over your mind, like you're leading with your heart, your heart first, don't let the mind interfere.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. I love it so much because I think our mind and I it's so. It's so apropos is that a word Apropos for this moment in time? Because our lower side, so right, we have this moment in time where we want to get to the higher side of life, or the lower side, and the lower side of life is letting your mind rule you, and the higher side would be unconditional love, right, freedom of it is, it's. It's not necessarily it's this heart opening, but it's seeing the oneness of us all, like seeing that intertwined ability, and so I actually am going to practice that. So how many? So here, because I know kundalini is a lot about numbers. So how many numbers? Do you do a certain amount of numbers or you just so there are lots of exercise in their time.
Speaker 2:They can be three minutes or seven minutes or 11 minutes. But what about that prayer? You just say it three times to tune in. And what I?
Speaker 1:mean that's like if I'm going down, I'm bowing to have.
Speaker 2:That's all it is. You can say a prayer to yourself when you do it At one time, two times or three times.
Speaker 1:You can say a prayer to yourself when you do it One time, two times or three times.
Speaker 2:You can do it as many times you want Three times is great, but slow, steady breaths, and it's really more than anything, the intention that you bring to it, right? So if you say whatever prayer you choose, and then say whatever prayer you choose and then to seal it, to maximize it, you bring your heart over your mind by bowing, right? So you say the prayer and you're really turbocharging your prayer by bowing and you're doing it for you.
Speaker 1:No. So do you keep your hands? No, I know, I think, but that's it. Aren't we doing everything? At the end of the day, it is you, because it's how you feel. If you, if I don't accept people for who they are, if I want them to be different, if I don't have my heart open, I'm the only one that's going to suffer.
Speaker 2:Right. So, and I I will say when. When I was asked to bow, I was resistant to it because in my mind I said immediately I'm not bowing to anybody or anything, I don't bow bowing to anybody or anything. I don't bow, no, because I thought I was doing it for somebody else. But in actuality, you're bowing for yourself. Well, don't you?
Speaker 1:think about like history right, it's like Jesus would wash people's feet Right. And he's like you better be washing people's feet or else you're not going to remember who you are. Or like Ram Dass Wait, do you remember Ram Dass? He wouldn't bow to his master first. He's like this is the stupidest thing in the whole world. But he wasn't doing it for the master, he was doing it for himself. And Jesus wasn't washing the foot for the other guy he was doing it for himself, right it's love yeah. It, it's love.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like something bigger than you. It's that we're of service. I mean, that's so interesting that you were like that. Wait, when was this? I can't even imagine. You feel you seem so easy. I feel like you're so easy. Oh look, my cat's coming to say hello to you.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is not cowboy. Who's this? This is Peter, peter. Oh, that's right, peter, he's a gorgeous.
Speaker 1:Oh, he loves, you.
Speaker 2:He's gorgeous.
Speaker 1:Isn't he gorgeous?
Speaker 2:Yes, he is.
Speaker 1:Talk about his name is Peter and he, um, I used to do like automatic writing about like 10 years ago and I would write to Peter. And then so, and I was like Peter I don't even know, but I never met anyone named Peter, but I would write Peter, peter, peter, and then when it was like right after COVID, my daughters could go get their nails done, it was when they were getting their nails done. It was like May 12th. I'll never forget it. It was May 11th and I think the nail place opened for the first time and they're like can we get our nails done? I was like sure, and so they went to the pet store afterwards because we weren't used to picking them up.
Speaker 1:They went to the pet store and they have like cats that are foster, cats like that need homes, and the cats they were like can we get this cat? There's no way. I just had had another cat die in my arms. I'm like I can't handle that, I can't have it again, like I can't lose something else again. And then they were like well, the cat's name is Peter or Wendy, peter or Wendy. And I was like the cat's name is Peter. Who names a cat Peter? I'm like oh my God, the cat's ours. I was like if the cat's still available tomorrow, then you could go back and we'll adopt it. And lo and behold, that beautiful, perfect cat was ours.
Speaker 1:I know the angels send you animals they do I.
Speaker 2:You know my. My cat and I are bonded what's your name?
Speaker 1:Parker oh, but you're Parker, I do right yes, parker, yeah feels very karmic, right, peter?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah it, I definitely know that we have this unspoken bond with each other. It's such a great experience. I feel so fortunate that I have, you know, a creature in my house who I feel is making me a better person. He's, he's teaching me things. I don't know how else to explain it.
Speaker 1:But he's teaching you love, I mean I think it's so interesting how animals.
Speaker 1:You know how I was saying about the karmic side of like that we're really supposed to our mind. The karmic side of like that we're really supposed to our mind. But the higher side of that karmic example right virgo is about taking care of animals, of being responsible for something besides ourselves. It's about, I mean, animals are just they're, they take work, like I was thinking that right isn't anything good. Okay, why aren't we told this from a very young age? Anything worth having you'll have to work for. And then I was thinking about cancer, right, cancer energy and love. Right, just love, motherly love, unconditional love, something with cancer energy. And then, across from it is Capricorn, it's hard work. You do not get love without effort and hard work. It doesn't there's, it goes hand in hand, it's not separate. And so I mean I know that's not the cat energy, but it is somewhat energy. Is it's home?
Speaker 2:A cat lives at home with you, it's um and I remember people saying why are you getting a cat? Because it's not like you. And I kept telling them I have this need to take care of something, I have to care for something. I you know, feed and all those things. I just have this impulse to do it.
Speaker 1:Well, isn't there something? Did you never have it before? Have you never had a cat or a dog?
Speaker 2:No, not since I was a kid.
Speaker 1:Wait, that's actually very interesting. When did you get it?
Speaker 2:My cat will be 18 in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, it's a whole nodal cycle. We're talking about the nodes and it's a whole like no cycle. And know, in, in, in, um. In hebrew, god is 18. It's like um. The same word for god is like eight. It's 18 is like god's number. It's like a. It's like a divine number. 18 years ago, how old were you that's?
Speaker 2:so I was in my forties, yeah, mid forties, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was very unlike me to want to do that, given you know life at the times and taking the cat with you and it's been on your journey for your whole time Like I mean 18 years it's made your life so much nicer. Have you been more loving since you got the animal?
Speaker 2:I definitely Less focused on myself and more focused On the cat.
Speaker 1:A dad. It's so interesting to me About that because I realized that the best thing that ever happened to me was having a child, because it it was like the greatest moment of my life for me, just because it wasn't about me anymore. And so I think an animal is the same way. It's like if there's something besides myself that I have to get over myself. I have to get up. I have to. I have to come home, like you have a big responsibility with an animal, right, you have to get up. I have to. I have to come home, like you have a big responsibility with an animal, right. You have to clean. You have to get out of the house. You have to clean up after the animal. You have to feed the animal. You have to make money to feed the animal. I had to wake up and take care of a baby. It's the same thing.
Speaker 1:I think people that are parents of animals I have as much respect as parents of children, because you love your animal as much as you love your child. I mean you do. I hate to say it, but you do. It's the same feeling.
Speaker 2:And they look in your eyes with that completely accepting, loving way, knowing that you're their whole world and there isn't anything you wouldn't do for them yeah, and it hurts.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting thing, they know it. I always say I say they're angels with fur and they are true, they're true level. Thank you for taking, thank you for being different than who you've always been, and actually it is like I wonder if it's something with the cycle, because who are we? It is interesting how other people see us and how wrong they were about you, because it's exactly who you were actually.
Speaker 2:I was. When I was younger. I was far more social and busy. I was very active, In fact, active all the time with my fingers in a lot of pies, and that's. I wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, I would just keep pursuing these different things simultaneously and I, in my mind, everything was a giant supermarket where you just grab anything that is shiny, that interests you and just then that's. That's what I did for the longest time and I'm I'm really not that person anymore that's so interesting and and and you realize that that probably didn't make you happy, right but I had to do all of those things.
Speaker 2:You know, I I had to have all those experiences and they were. There were a lot of them, and don't you think?
Speaker 1:I think, isn't it all really divinely perfect? If you didn't have every single one of those experiences, you wouldn't be here today, being exactly who you are, with the information that you have and the heart that you have.
Speaker 2:Right, and when you think about how many other possible outcomes there could have been many-. I was going to say something about.
Speaker 1:Maybe you got very lucky sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yes, that makes sense Something about you.
Speaker 1:I feel like maybe you got I don't know why I'm saying that, but maybe you got very lucky.
Speaker 2:But I do think it was I don't know again the me within me that was whispering guidance to me, and when I listened to it, it saved me from making really, really terrible decisions. I've made lots of bad decisions. Trust me, I have.
Speaker 1:But yeah, but I don't know, you know, I don't know if we can't say that what's good or bad now, that we can look at it right, as long as it was still alive. I mean, that's half the battle, right, and you seem to be in a very good place.
Speaker 2:Definitely, and I'm grateful, grateful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I wonder if we're supposed to not have judgment anymore of like, what's if we did it right? What is the right decision or the wrong decision? But know that somehow it really is just is the right decision. But I think it's definitely the right decision that you got Parker and that he's come on this journey with you.
Speaker 2:It makes you want to be home more too, doesn't it? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's I. So there's this feeling of contentment when he's on my lap or he's resting on my shoulder. There's, I don't have to be anywhere else, there's nothing else. That's that has to be done.
Speaker 1:This is and he likes you. It's like there's something about animals you don't. The only expectation they have from you is that you feed them and that you are with them. They want to be with you, do you? Do you sit with your cat? That's actually a really interesting thing. The cat, our cat, only likes to have somebody eating with it, like it doesn't like to eat alone, so it likes when you're sitting there. Our cat's a very social cat. Is your cat the same way he's?
Speaker 2:got. He's got his very particular likes and dislikes. He'll he definitely he will. He has a lot of dog-like qualities, like he'll he'll meow and lead me to what he wants, and he'll he'll expect me to follow him and if I don't, he'll come back and get me again. Until so he's he's. When he was younger, he would hear my car coming in the driveway and he would go out on the porch and start meowing because he knew I was coming home, which is very much what a dog would do. So he's.
Speaker 1:So what was the day you got him? Like what happened that day? Or did you plan on getting him? Like, was it something like in your heart was calling it, that little inner voice? What was the reason that you got him that day?
Speaker 2:I had a friend and I was talking to him about you know, I really want a cat, and he was the one who kept saying are you sure you don't seem, are you? You know what the responsibility is. And I explained to him I know, I don't, it doesn't sound logical, but I really have this. I really would love a dog, but I, I, I want to make sure that I, you know, that I'm around and that I can care for it. And I, I don't know if I can do that with a dog, but I, I know I can do it with a cat. So he connected me to this woman who lived in the Valley and she was.
Speaker 2:She was this Russian woman who worked as a costumer and she had made her house cute little house with all these costumes in it and she took animals in. She had kittens and dogs and she had a blue bird in her house that, when we went in, started attacking us like, came right up, started flapping its wings and she explained to us that he was just protecting her from us. We were intruders in her house. So this little bird was doing, making every effort to protect this woman. It was amazing, I mean, he was, he was fearless and we were giants compared to his size, but it didn't stop him and he finally got the message that we were friends, not enemies. Anyhow, she had two cats. They were the last of the litter and I took them both. So the girl passed about three years ago, but they were part of the same liver and they were the last two left them. I took them both.
Speaker 1:How did Parker do that? Oh, so you had two. Now it's wait. Not only did you get one cat, but you brought two cats, okay. So, look, I like I love that, that energy of I love how you said you went to the store and you just had multiple things at one time. I think that's so interesting. And then, of course, you got multiple cats, like it's. So you, how did parker do after she passed?
Speaker 2:well, I watched, I did not take wendy I.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting thing because parker peter had wendy and I was like I could only do one, so it is interesting that you took both. And how did parker do after he thought he lost her?
Speaker 2:he was very attentive to her when she was sick and he was very, very off balance for the longest time and would listen for her and look for her. And strangely enough, I know that she visited us a day or two after she passed because we both heard her. We both got up because we both heard her and of course she wasn't in the apartment but her presence was there.
Speaker 1:Yes, she's there. I think animals are amazing, that they know when an animal is sick.
Speaker 2:They know, they know.
Speaker 1:And it's very different how they respond. Our cat actually was not feeling good a couple of weeks ago and we have a puppy, a cowboy, and cowboy changed how he interacted with the cat and it actually again when the cat wasn't feeling well. I was very sad and upset and I thought I thought oh no, oh no. And then I could look back now a couple weeks and now the cat's better how it. Maybe they needed that experience to get along better, because cowboy shifted how he was with the cat when the cat wasn't feeling better and now the cat has a memory of cowboy being calm, so now he's reacting very different to the dog. It's so interesting to me. And now the cat has a memory of cowboy being calmer, right, so now he's reacting very different to the dog. It's so interesting to me. And now the cat's feeling better.
Speaker 2:Right Again, he was way more attentive than usual to her when she was sick. They got along fine, but he was watching her.
Speaker 1:His heart was even more open. Yes, yeah, it's what a beautiful, what a beautiful story, and I'm so I don't know how lucky that they are that they picked you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how lucky you were, that you picked them and got over your belief system about who you were. I keep on thinking that who are we? It's like we don't know what we're capable of. And if we keep on thinking of we were like we were yesterday, we're not going to, we're not going to have the most amazing things happen in our life because we have no clue what's possible. Or else we let go and we kind of let God and we just almost go blindly, like go to the girl's house blindly, yep, and I think you probably did. You're probably like what am I doing? Maybe there's a part of it to say don't do that, don't do that, yep.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I knew it was a big responsibility and I knew what I was getting into and I definitely had, you know, apprehensions about my ability to to be a cat dad, uh, but I haven't regretted a second of it and you know again, they, they made me a better person yeah, my animals, all I think in animals I bring you.
Speaker 1:I learned this and it's actually true. I I was like going back to my my experience with each animal, and each animal has brought, they bring, they come into your life and they bring you through a specific period of your life and then when they leave however, it is right, we never know how an animal leaves, whether it's through passing, or sometimes people have to give away an animal. Then, whenever, whatever happens with that animal, it's actually just they brought you to where they need you need to be and you're ready for the next part of life. And so I think it is they really do know. They really do know, and it does hurt when we you know it's to open our hearts and to love is not an easy feat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm I again. It's another thing that I'm grateful for, Very grateful for, I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't wish it any other way.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm so grateful you shared that story and I'm so grateful our cat is named, your cat name, parker, and that my name is Peter, and it is. It's a superhero, right, peter Parker, peter Parker.
Speaker 2:Is it?
Speaker 1:Spider-Man. It's Spider-Man, and what's Spider-Man's gifts? Do you know Spider-Man's gifts? What's it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's got the web. You know the.
Speaker 1:And he could climb buildings.
Speaker 2:Probably, and he swings from. I'm not a real Spider-Man fan. I don't know what else he can do.
Speaker 1:Well, he saved, Wasn't Spider-Man, was that Superman? He saved everything. Wasn't all the superheroes? Their whole purpose was to be saving the human mankind. Right, it's to make a better place.
Speaker 2:Protecting us from the bad guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's an interesting thing because it's like the good versus evil, right? It's how important you need to understand the evil to understand the good and you need to understand the good to understand. And maybe that's it. You know how you said well, maybe I didn't always make the right decisions, but maybe you have to make the bad decisions, so you know what the right decisions are.
Speaker 2:For me, definitely For me too, For me too.
Speaker 1:So it's been such a I feel so blessed that we I feel like we're like Seinfeld. I don't know what we talk about, but you know, like the whole thing Seinfeld, like it's a show about nothing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And yet it's about everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's kind of our our podcast here it's a show about maybe nothing, but yet maybe it's about everything. Yeah, I feel like that's kind of our our podcast here it's a show about maybe nothing, but yet maybe it's about everything.
Speaker 2:Right, yes.
Speaker 1:Were you a Seinfeld fan.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I was a fan of all those 90s sitcoms. I I still watch them when I can because they they're.
Speaker 1:You know they're so well written and you know the performances are great and so smart and the my daughter watches friends, I told you and like it is so smart the way the relationships are and the talking and the communication. It feels so natural. I don't know what happened. They don't seem to be able to do that anymore.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. You know it's funny that back then watching television and watching those shows was a cool thing to do. It was considered a pretty cool thing to do. I don't think it's that way anymore with television, because everybody watched it, everybody talked about it the next day. It was a shared experience and you're absolutely right, they, what happened with friends was like a lightning strike of genius right and it, of genius right and it. You can see that today.
Speaker 1:watch it anytime, it all worked together and it was brilliantly done. It was what are you? But that's interesting, you're right. And and it was water cooler talk, with something to talk about around the water cooler yeah, that's so interesting. And and it was a shared experience, because that was all that was on tv at five channels and so, and you went home and you watched the tv, something to do, and so that and I think it it again it created us to be, have some kind of something that made us all familiar with one another. Right, it was the knowing that we could all maybe be one. I keep on going back to how we're supposed to learn, how to see our oneness versus our separation.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and everybody was fans of the show, just like they were fans of a sports team or they were fans of a particular character, but everybody was invested in it, which is hard to believe today, but and it wasn't separating, it was not a separate right.
Speaker 1:I think when we have investments and it feels very separating, it separates people, so maybe we'll find something else that well, it's like 9-11, right and it's like I hate to talk about that, but it's about 9-11, right. It brought us together. Sometimes, things that are bad also bring us together. Things that are bad also bring us together. Things that are good, right. I hope that we find some way as a as a community or as a culture, or as a as a humankind, to open our hearts and find our oneness versus our separation. More watercolor, cooler talk that is love. So I believe.
Speaker 2:I believe that the planets are heralding all of what you just said that we will become more of a human family, we'll become more understanding, we'll we'll Forgiving Hmm.
Speaker 1:Forgiving.
Speaker 2:Forgiving Work with open hearts. I think, I think history is bending that way.
Speaker 1:That's what I believe, even though it might not appear right now, in this moment somebody that's listening to the show and making to the end of our show is somebody that is definitely an open-hearted person. So, as long as we each practice, you know, either doing our prayers and, like you know doing, doing that cool thing you showed us, like where we put our prayer hands down and go on our knees and go down and have our hearts over our minds or if we practice opening our hearts with each person we see and being present, I think you're right, I hope you're. I hope you're right, phil will be from your mouth to God's ears. So I look, I don't. I really am so grateful I'm going to see you next week and it's, it's such an honor to be with you and share time with you and I'm so, I just feel so blessed to know you and to know everybody within this, whoever listens to our podcast and they will, and the right people are going to find us. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, courtney. As I've always said, this is such an energizing experience for me. Every time, I just feel elevated and alive and optimistic and feeling all the feels, and I thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Well, I thank you. It takes two to tango. It takes two to tango. I love you. I'll speak to you soon.
Speaker 2:Bye.