December 25, 2025 • 24 mins
On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, I talk about a little poem that packs a big spiritual punch, “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters” by Portia Nelson.
We discuss how the poem uses a simple but powerful analogy of “a sidewalk with a hole” and how it’s a brilliant mirror for our own repetitive patterns, habits, and choices that often keep us stuck.
I connect this to how A Course in Miracles talks about choosing between love and fear and how we often take “detours into fear"...
And why real spiritual progress isn’t about never visiting fear again, but about how quickly we recognize when we’ve left Love and then make a conscious choice to return to it.
I also reflect on why change can be so hard – we’re talking those old family patterns, the subconscious payoffs, and how we normalize our suffering. 🫣
This episode ultimately is an invitation to walk down a different street together in 2026 - one with more clarity, curiosity, compassion, and courage to create new ways of being. ❤️
SNEAK PEEKS INSIDE THIS EPISODE:
1. “Sometimes it takes us a while to recognize that there’s even a fucking hole.” - KK
2. “We’ve normalized feeling bad. We’ve normalized and familiarized our suffering, so we just kind of go like, ‘Oh, this is just how it is.’” - KK
3. “You might have to be the pattern breaker. You might have to be the spell breaker in your family.” - KK
4. “Some of us don’t know that there’s a different street. We only know that one street. We don’t even know that another street is available to us.” - KK
5. “If you can hear the sound of my voice, you now know about the hole. No more excuses.” - KK
6. “There’s power available to us in personal choice. There’s grace in this wisdom, and there is deep transformation in this self-development and spiritual work.” - KK
7. “Trials are but lessons we failed to learn, presented once again… and there’s a voice in you that says, ‘My brother, my sister, choose again.’” - KK
8. “You can choose to walk down a whole different street in 2026, and I would love to walk along beside you as you do it.” - KK
KAREN KENNEY BIO:
Spiritual Mentor and writer Karen Kenney uses dynamic storytelling and humor to bring a down-to-earth, no-BS perspective to spirituality and self-development.
Bringing together tools that coach both the conscious and unconscious mind, Karen also helps clients deepen their personal connection to Self and Source, in relatable, practical, and actionable ways, so they can discover their unique understanding of spirituality.
Her practice combines neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, somatic work, Spiritual Mentoring, and other holistic modalities to help regulate the nervous system, rewrite old stories, remove blocks, and reimagine what’s possible.
A passionate yoga teacher for 25+ years, a longtime student of A Course in Miracles, and a Gateless Writing instructor, Karen is also a frequent speaker, podcast guest, and retreat leader. She coaches both individuals and groups via her programs The Quest and The Nest.
With The Karen Kenney Podcast, she encourages listeners to shift from a thought system of fear - to one of love, compassion, and personal responsibility.
CONNECT WITH KAREN:
Website: http://karenkenney.com/
Podcast: https://www.karenkenney.com/podcast
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey you guys, welcome to theKaren Kenney show. This is the
last episode of 2025 which isjust crazy. I am actually kind
of excited though that this yearis ending.
Please tell me I'm not the onlyone. I am ready to put 2025 in
(00:27):
my rear view mirror. Wickedexcited about that. Okay, look
at I am so jazzed about thisepisode today, and I'm going to
tell you a little bit about it.We're going to dive right in.
And I also just want to saythank you so much for being here
and spending a little bit oftime. Little bit of time with
me. If you're a regularlistener, if you're one of my
loyal listeners, thank you somuch. I just couldn't do it
(00:49):
without you. And if you're newhere, welcome. I'm so happy
you're here. Okay, so thisepisode, I'm calling it walking
down another street. So reallysee this as an invitation for us
to walk down another streettogether. Okay, so I'm going to
share with you this poem, right?And the first time I ever heard
(01:11):
this poem was, I think I was, Iknow I was watching Wayne Dyer.
Wayne Dyer was the one whointroduced me to this. But I
don't know if it was on a PBSspecial. You'd always be on the
PBS or it was like some HayHouse, I can do it event. I
(01:32):
don't know what it was, but Iremember it was him, and it's a
really simple piece, and it'sreally simple, but it's really
powerful, and it deeply landedin me, and I wanted to share it
with you. Now, some of you mayhave already heard this sucker
if you haven't, buckle up. Enjoyit if you have. Trust me,
repetition is the mother of alllearning, and it never hurts to
(01:56):
hear something smarty pantstwice, you know what I mean. So
this poem is calledautobiography in five short
chapters, and it was written bya friend of Wayne's, a woman
named Portia Nelson. And Portiawas a singer, she was a
songwriter, she was an author,she was an actor. And this poem,
(02:19):
autobiography in five shortchapters. Comes from her book.
There's a hole in my sidewalkthe romance of self discovery.
So that already gives you alittle sneak peek into this.
Now, there's a reason, ofcourse, why I'm sharing this
with you. So stay with me. It'sbits. It'll be it'll be
beneficial. Okay, so this partmade me laugh. So Portia was
(02:40):
attending some sort of aseminar, right? And all the
attendees were asked to writedown on a five by seven piece of
paper or a five by seven cardtheir autobiography. But they
could only write theirautobiography in five chapters,
and Wayne said that they wereonly allowed to use five by
(03:01):
seven. They were only allowed touse five by seven cards to help
people, basically keep it short.And when I think about this, it
makes me laugh so hard, becausewe all know how we all love to
get up into our stories and justgo on and on and on about all
the things that have happened,and then this happened and this.
(03:22):
And look, I'm a storyteller. Ilove to tell a good story, but
we can all be a little likeattached to those stories,
right? So the people running theseminar were smart, and they
were like, five by seven. I'msurprised they didn't say four
by six. Okay, so here is thepoem autobiography in five short
(03:43):
chapters. And listen to thischapter one, I walk down the
street. There is a deep hole inthe sidewalk. I fall in. I am
lost. I am helpless. It isn't myfault. It takes forever to find
(04:04):
a way out. Chapter Two, I walkdown the street. There is a deep
hole in the sidewalk. I pretendthat I don't see it. I fall in
again. I can't believe I am inthis same place, but it isn't my
fault. It still takes a longtime to get out. Chapter Three,
(04:28):
I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the
sidewalk. I see it. It is there.I still fall in. It's a habit,
but my eyes are open. I knowwhere I am. It is my fault. I
get out immediately. ChapterFour, I walk down the same
(04:52):
street. There is a deep hole inthe sidewalk. I walk around it.
Chapter Five, I walk downanother street this and now it's
so simple, it's so good, it's sosmart. Oh my god. So let's break
(05:14):
this sucker down. The hot beatof this poem, the hot beat of
this message is she's basicallyusing this simple analogy of a
sidewalk with a hole in it,right. But it's demonstrating
and describing these differentstages of our own unconscious
behavior, and then how theunconscious behavior, over time,
(05:36):
if we're willing, right, shiftsto realization, and then it
shifts again, ultimately, to ourconscious choice, where our
power lies. And I love this. Soif we look at the progressions
of the chapters in the first inthe first chapter, she falls in,
or, let's just say, you and Iright these patterns of
behaviors that we do, thesehabits, these conditioned these
(06:01):
conditioned patterns and habitsand ways of being and thinking
and speaking and the choices wemake, all of it right? And this
is very common also, I have nodoubt, and I know that this,
this poem, has been shared many,many, many times in recovery
circles and in 12 step programs.And it makes sense, because it's
really also like, it's like thebreakdown of addiction. But this
(06:23):
is also can be applied to any ofour unconscious behaviors, our
patterns, our habits, ourbullshit, basically, right? So
chapter one, she's talkingabout, you know, she falls in,
feels lost, helpless andclueless, and you think it's not
your fault. So you do the thing,the hole. You don't even see it.
You fall in. You're stuck,you're helpless, you're
(06:44):
hopeless. You don't think it'syour fault, okay? Chapter Two,
you fall in again. You'repretending you didn't see the
same damn hole that you alreadyfell in before. But you're still
insisting that it isn't yourfault, even though you're here
again. You're still insistingit's not your fault, right?
Chapter Three, you see the hole,and you fall in again out of
(07:07):
habit. Oh, my God. How manytimes have we done this? All of
us, all of us. But this time,this is where it's different.
You realize it's your fault, andyou've been in and out of this
hole so many times. Now you knowhow to get out. You get out of
it immediately, right? ChapterFour, you walk around the hole.
(07:27):
Just, you just walk around thatsucker, right? Fantastic.
Chapter Five, this is when we'vereally made some progress, and
this is when we walk down awhole damn different street,
like, How fantastic is that,right? And it makes me think
about A Course in Miracles,because, of course in miracles
talks about how, you know, firstof all, of course in miracles
(07:51):
always talks about how there'sbut two emotions that we have,
right? One, we were born withlove. One, we learned here in
the human experience, fear.Okay? There's two of them.
There's love and fear. Like,that's it all the other things,
they fall underneath thiscategory, right? So, of course,
in miracles, kind of thinks ofeverything in the in these two,
(08:11):
these two things, they would saythat only love is real, like
fear is a figment of our ownimagination. These
hallucinations, this thiscreation of the ego, mind,
believing it's separate from itssource, and it creates all of
it, the sickness, the guilt, thesuffering, the separation, the
specialness, like all thebullshit, right? That's the
fear. Only thing that's reallyreal is capital L, love. Okay,
(08:34):
so A Course in Miracles talksabout how we take detours into
fear all the time. So you know,when you're driving down the
highway and all of a sudden youfind out, like, you you've taken
the wrong exit. I'm always like,this is like, when you're you're
heading towards love, likeyou're really trying to do it.
You're really trying to, like,grow and be present and be more
loving and compassionate andkind and kind of not be a
(08:57):
selfish dick, you know, likeyou're trying to really work on
yourself. But we do. We takethese detours into fear. I
sometimes talk about it like wego on the wrong side of the
duplex. I do this whole analogywith people in the nest, right?
I talk about this. So on oneside you have all the fear
behaviors. On the other side iswhere, where love is, where
spirit is, right? So of course,Miracle says we take these
(09:19):
detours into fear. And I wouldalways say to people, like, when
you realize, when you realizeyou've taken a detour into fear,
that is not the time to keepgoing. That is not the time to
then, like, either, like, find acampsite where you set up camp
and you set up your tent and youbuild a fire and you pack your
ass there. Or it's not the timeto keep driving and see if
(09:40):
there's any houses you can buy.Like, we're not here to buy real
estate when we when we realize,oh, detail, detour into fear.
Now it's okay. I always say,like, if you realize you've
taken a detour into fear and youneed to, just like, find a rest
stop for a moment. You need to,like, get your bearings and have
a little snack and take a rest.Best, right? Like, that's fine,
(10:02):
that's okay, right? As soon asyou get your bearings, you
better bang a UE, like, licketysplit, like, you recognize it.
And this is the whole thing,right?
Ken wopnick, who was a reallygreat Course in Miracles,
teacher, he used to say that,you know you're making progress
on the spiritual path, not whenyou like never take a detour
(10:24):
into fear again. When yourealize you have left love, you
have left your right mind, andyou've gone into crazy town,
you've gone into the realm offear. Because it's not that you
never take these detours intofear anymore. It's how quickly
you realize you've done it.That's how we know we're making
progress. And it kind of pointsright to what she's saying here.
(10:44):
And chapter four and chapterfive of her poem, she's like,
you start to walk around thehole, or eventually you just
start to walk down a wholedifferent street. And this is
the thing that I'm talking aboutfor us in 2026 I really would
love to invite you so let's allwalk down a different street
together, because I think 2025,has been chock full of fear and
(11:09):
dissonance and separation andall of this, like infighting.
Imagine if, like, we're all onebig family, and there has just
been shit ton of craziness, ofhate, of just just separation
and all of it. Now, look, wecan't control what other people
out there are doing. All we cancontrol is ourselves in the
(11:32):
choices that we're making. Rightwe can walk around the hole. We
can walk down a whole differentstreet. We can see the whole. We
can warn other people about thehole. We can put up a little
sign that says, Don't go in thehole, right? I mean, we can't
save people from themselves.Some people are going to insist
on going in the hole. And I madesome notes here, you know, I
(11:55):
said, here's the thing thoughabout this poem, because chapter
four and chapter five, right?Walk around the hole, or go down
a different street, they soundgreat. They sound great. But
here's the thing, let's be realabout human behavior. Let's be
real about how deeply patterned,how deeply ingrained these
habits and conditioning goes.Right? Here's the thing,
(12:18):
sometimes it takes us a while torecognize that there is a hole.
Sometimes, it takes us a whileright to even recognize that
there's even a fucking hole.Sometimes, right, it takes us a
while to recognize that we're inthe hole. We don't even know
we're in the hole because we'venormalized our behaviors. We've
(12:38):
normalized feeling bad. We'venormalized and familiarized our
suffering. So we just kind of golike, Oh, this is just how it
is. Right. Remember that Brucecoat? I always talk about the
Bruce Hornsby song, that's justthe way it is, right. Some
things will never change. Youknow the lyrics to that song,
and he says, ah, but don't youbelieve them? Right? Don't you
(13:00):
believe them, we are all capableof change. I always say, as long
as I am alive, conscious,breathing and aware, I am going
to be able to createtransformation and change. Okay?
But number one, sometimes ittakes us a while to recognize
we're in the hole, that there isa hole. Sometimes we don't want
to take responsibility thatwe're in the hole, right,
(13:21):
because we're getting somethingfrom being hopeless and helpless
and behaving right, like avictim, right? Sometimes we're
getting some sort ofsubconscious payoff, or
sometimes we're getting like, anexternal right, we get
attention, or we get like, Oh,poor you, or let me help you. Or
(13:42):
you manipulate people, and theydo shit for you, and it's never
your fault, and you goteverybody running around, right,
like your little minions, right?So sometimes we don't want to
take responsibility for it,because we were getting some
positive intention we have, youknow, and that's what the
subconscious does. It has apositive intention, but it often
is wreaking habit. Okay? Numberthree, sometimes we get out of
(14:04):
the hole, but we fall right backin, like a trust, fall right? We
get out, fall right back in,like a few moments later. God
bless us. All right, sometimeswe don't know that it's okay to
walk around the hole, becausemaybe nobody else in your family
has ever walked around the hole.Maybe everybody just insists
(14:26):
that you get in, right? Get intothat, you know, that old analogy
I hate. So how so many analogiesand metaphors use, like
suffering towards animals todepict them, right? When you
talk about like the crabs or thefrogs and the boiling water,
which I hate, right? But it'sthis idea of like, you know, the
crabs will try to pull the otherones back down into the pot or
whatever. Sometimes, your familymembers don't know that there's
(14:46):
a better way. They don't knowthat you can walk around the
hole. Sometimes they don't wantyou to walk around the hole
because they're more comfortablewith you being small. They don't
want you to get out. They don'twant you to like, you know,
quote, unquote, get too big foryour brick. Or just shine too
bright, or, who do you think youare? Right? So you may not know.
You might have to be the patternbreaker. You might have to be
(15:08):
the spell breaker in yourfamily, right? You might have to
be the first one to say, hey,there's a fucking hole here, and
I'm gonna walk around it. Youdon't have to like it. I'm going
around the hole. Okay? And thenhere's the the last one.
Sometimes that chapter fiveright, walk down a whole
different street. But here's thething, some of us don't even
(15:29):
know that there's a differentstreet. We only know that one
street. We don't even know thatanother street is available to
us depending on where you'vegone and maybe how many books
you've read, or what you've beenexposed to, or what your you
know, economic situation hasallowed, and this is why I
always say about libraries likelibrary cards, men are free and
(15:49):
they are the portal. They arethe thing. They give the poor
kids a leg up because it puts uson an even playing field. When
you can get your mind into aplace where there's books to
read, not everybody can read. Iget that. What I'm saying is, is
that sometimes, right, I'm notmaking excuses. These five
things are just sometimesrealities in people's lives. But
(16:10):
here's the thing one, if you canhear the sound of my voice, you
now know about the hole. No moreexcuses. And if you need help
getting out of the hole, orrealizing there's a whole, or
walking around or getting betterat taking a different street.
This is, this is the differentways that people work with me,
in the nest, my spiritualmentoring group, program, my
(16:30):
little community that's amazing,or one to one work or whatever,
right? Some people come to workwith me, you know, to do more,
like yoga classes or workshopsor tie yoga body work or
assisted stretching, or whateverI do all kinds of stuff. Some
people just listen to thepodcast right. Here you are.
Thank you so much. But here'sthe thing I want to say, right
(16:51):
when we recognize that we arestuck in our habits and our
patterns, I'm tapping myforehead right now. This message
is for me also. PS, I do thispodcast for my ears to hear it
first, because I can be kind ofa knucklehead, right? When we
recognize we're stuck. I'mtapping on my forehead like I'm
doing EFT when we recognizewe're stuck in our habits and
(17:12):
patterns and conditioning.Right? Remember this poem,
remember our power, the powerthat is available to us. Right?
Personal choice is a power, thegrace of the wisdom that is
contained here, right? I'mdropping some spiritual bread
crumbs right now for you, asyou're tiptoeing past Christmas
and Hanukkah, right, andKwanzaa, all those things into
(17:35):
the new year, we are, we aregoing to walk down another
street, hopefully together, Iwould love that, right? So
here's the thing, there's poweravailable to us in personal
choice. There's grace in thiswisdom, and there is deep
transformation in this selfdevelopment and personal growth
work, in the spiritual work,right? But I kind of think
(17:56):
about, you know, as humans, likethe four buckets or the four
table legs, right? You have themental, the emotional, the
physical and the spiritual. Andwe want to be able, and it's
really hard. I'm gonna do awhole podcast about balance in
2026 but we do want that tableto be somewhat balanced. You
ever try to eat on the table,it's not balanced. It's not
(18:18):
soothing at all. It's like GAgunk gunk, GA gunk gunk, right?
Every time you move in yourwater. Okay? The other thing I
loved about this poem is itillustrates how we need
awareness to be able to changethe destructive patterns in the
first place, right, once webecome aware of them. And I do a
whole podcast on this way backin the day, the 4c and the four
(18:41):
A's of lasting change, right? Soonce we have awareness, we can
start to work on thosedestructive patterns, and
gradually, if we're willing topay attention, if we're willing
to stay awake, if we're willingto take responsibility, right,
then we can progress fromblindly falling in that hole
again and again and again,right? We can get out of those
(19:03):
same holes to eventuallychoosing a whole different path,
a whole new path. Let's just alldouble Amen hands to that, the
realization that there is abetter way. When A Course in
Miracles says this great line,right? And it says, trials. This
(19:23):
is what this is describing. It'sa trial. You keep doing the same
thing. And of course, Miraclesays this, trials are but
lessons right? Trials are butlessons learned. So where you
it's saying, so where you usedto do these old patterns and
habits, you no longer have to dothem. Right. Trials are but
(19:44):
lessons presented once again,right for where before you made
this old choice, right that thewise self inside of you call it
the voice for God, Holy Spirit,spirit, call it Jesus, call.
Your intuition, your gutinstinct, the inner teacher, I
don't care what you call it, butthere's something inside of you
(20:05):
that calls to you and says, mybrother, my sister, my person,
choose again.
Trials are but lessons failed tolearn presented once again. So
where before you made a choice,right? The Christ in you calls
to you, the self in you callsyou the smarty pants, the divine
intelligence in you calls to youand says, my brother, my sister,
(20:28):
choose again. And that's whatthis poem is all about. You can
choose to walk down a wholedifferent street, and I would
love to walk along beside you aswe do it. So here's to 2026
Here's to us going in. I mightbe making a few changes, I don't
know, to the podcast, cover art.I got a bunch of things. I got a
I'm always like hatching a plan.I always got my I'm always up to
(20:52):
shenanigans, right? So I gotsome cool things going on in
January. I'm going to be doingsome yoga classes on Monday
nights just in January at thePembroke Pines Country Club,
which I'm wicked excited about.They have a big, beautiful room
and a fireplace. It's going tobe yoga by the fire. And this
is, this is, I'm saying all ofthis in 2025 if you're
listening. This is for January2026 and that last Monday of the
(21:15):
month, my sweetie and I aregoing to be doing live music and
yoga by the fire. That's goingto be wicked cool. I have some
Tuesday night yoga classescoming up, maybe some Thursday
night yoga classes coming up.And I'm doing Thai Yoga,
assisted stretching, and, ofcourse, always spiritual
mentoring and coaching, hot tohot days, all kinds of stuff.
You can find out all about it.Karen kenney.com, just spell my
(21:35):
last name right, and you're goodto go, k, e, n, n, e, y, and
that's it, just this. Keep youreyes peeled, right. Stick
around. Thank you for beinghere. I appreciate you. I love
you, I care about you, and Ihope you just have the most
fantastic holiday season withyou, with you and yours, your
family, with your friends,whoever you spend it with, if
(21:58):
you spend it alone, right bychoice, enjoy your company. If
you don't spend it alone bychoice, maybe reach out. Maybe
there's some folks around, aneighbor, a friend, a cousin, a
somebody, a gathering somewhere.Go to a yoga class, right? But
Be around people if you'refeeling a little lonely, if
you're feeling like you want toget a little connected, Okay,
(22:19):
listen to the podcast. You canalways pop my voice into your
ear holes in your head. SoAlright, you guys, look 2025 is
going to be behind us before weknow it, welcoming in 2026 and
again. Always think you can findthese old, these old, what are
these things called podcastepisodes that I did on what we
(22:42):
can is just a very simple thingto be thinking about in 2026 as
well. Ask yourself this, thesequestions, what do you want to
let go of? Right? I always say,think of it like this. What do
you want to let go? What are yougoing to keep? Right? It's
sticking around. What do youwant to let go of? And what do
you want to grow? What do youwant more of? What do you want
less of? Get rid of it. What doyou want more of? Bring it in.
(23:04):
What do you want to keep andexpand? Right? So maybe that'll
be helpful for you. Okay, lookwherever you go. Last time,
signing off in 2025 wherever yougo. May you leave the animals
and yourself and the otherhumans and the environment and
the planet better than how youfound it wherever you go, may
you and your energy, yourpresence and your love be a
(23:26):
blessing. Bye, you.
Hey you guys, welcome to theKaren Kenney show. This is the
last episode of 2025 which isjust crazy. I am actually kind
of excited though that this yearis ending.
Please tell me I'm not the onlyone. I am ready to put 2025 in
(00:27):
my rear view mirror. Wickedexcited about that. Okay, look
at I am so jazzed about thisepisode today, and I'm going to
tell you a little bit about it.We're going to dive right in.
And I also just want to saythank you so much for being here
and spending a little bit oftime. Little bit of time with
me. If you're a regularlistener, if you're one of my
loyal listeners, thank you somuch. I just couldn't do it
(00:49):
without you. And if you're newhere, welcome. I'm so happy
you're here. Okay, so thisepisode, I'm calling it walking
down another street. So reallysee this as an invitation for us
to walk down another streettogether. Okay, so I'm going to
share with you this poem, right?And the first time I ever heard
(01:11):
this poem was, I think I was, Iknow I was watching Wayne Dyer.
Wayne Dyer was the one whointroduced me to this. But I
don't know if it was on a PBSspecial. You'd always be on the
PBS or it was like some HayHouse, I can do it event. I
(01:32):
don't know what it was, but Iremember it was him, and it's a
really simple piece, and it'sreally simple, but it's really
powerful, and it deeply landedin me, and I wanted to share it
with you. Now, some of you mayhave already heard this sucker
if you haven't, buckle up. Enjoyit if you have. Trust me,
repetition is the mother of alllearning, and it never hurts to
(01:56):
hear something smarty pantstwice, you know what I mean. So
this poem is calledautobiography in five short
chapters, and it was written bya friend of Wayne's, a woman
named Portia Nelson. And Portiawas a singer, she was a
songwriter, she was an author,she was an actor. And this poem,
(02:19):
autobiography in five shortchapters. Comes from her book.
There's a hole in my sidewalkthe romance of self discovery.
So that already gives you alittle sneak peek into this.
Now, there's a reason, ofcourse, why I'm sharing this
with you. So stay with me. It'sbits. It'll be it'll be
beneficial. Okay, so this partmade me laugh. So Portia was
(02:40):
attending some sort of aseminar, right? And all the
attendees were asked to writedown on a five by seven piece of
paper or a five by seven cardtheir autobiography. But they
could only write theirautobiography in five chapters,
and Wayne said that they wereonly allowed to use five by
(03:01):
seven. They were only allowed touse five by seven cards to help
people, basically keep it short.And when I think about this, it
makes me laugh so hard, becausewe all know how we all love to
get up into our stories and justgo on and on and on about all
the things that have happened,and then this happened and this.
(03:22):
And look, I'm a storyteller. Ilove to tell a good story, but
we can all be a little likeattached to those stories,
right? So the people running theseminar were smart, and they
were like, five by seven. I'msurprised they didn't say four
by six. Okay, so here is thepoem autobiography in five short
(03:43):
chapters. And listen to thischapter one, I walk down the
street. There is a deep hole inthe sidewalk. I fall in. I am
lost. I am helpless. It isn't myfault. It takes forever to find
(04:04):
a way out. Chapter Two, I walkdown the street. There is a deep
hole in the sidewalk. I pretendthat I don't see it. I fall in
again. I can't believe I am inthis same place, but it isn't my
fault. It still takes a longtime to get out. Chapter Three,
(04:28):
I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the
sidewalk. I see it. It is there.I still fall in. It's a habit,
but my eyes are open. I knowwhere I am. It is my fault. I
get out immediately. ChapterFour, I walk down the same
(04:52):
street. There is a deep hole inthe sidewalk. I walk around it.
Chapter Five, I walk downanother street this and now it's
so simple, it's so good, it's sosmart. Oh my god. So let's break
(05:14):
this sucker down. The hot beatof this poem, the hot beat of
this message is she's basicallyusing this simple analogy of a
sidewalk with a hole in it,right. But it's demonstrating
and describing these differentstages of our own unconscious
behavior, and then how theunconscious behavior, over time,
(05:36):
if we're willing, right, shiftsto realization, and then it
shifts again, ultimately, to ourconscious choice, where our
power lies. And I love this. Soif we look at the progressions
of the chapters in the first inthe first chapter, she falls in,
or, let's just say, you and Iright these patterns of
behaviors that we do, thesehabits, these conditioned these
(06:01):
conditioned patterns and habitsand ways of being and thinking
and speaking and the choices wemake, all of it right? And this
is very common also, I have nodoubt, and I know that this,
this poem, has been shared many,many, many times in recovery
circles and in 12 step programs.And it makes sense, because it's
really also like, it's like thebreakdown of addiction. But this
(06:23):
is also can be applied to any ofour unconscious behaviors, our
patterns, our habits, ourbullshit, basically, right? So
chapter one, she's talkingabout, you know, she falls in,
feels lost, helpless andclueless, and you think it's not
your fault. So you do the thing,the hole. You don't even see it.
You fall in. You're stuck,you're helpless, you're
(06:44):
hopeless. You don't think it'syour fault, okay? Chapter Two,
you fall in again. You'repretending you didn't see the
same damn hole that you alreadyfell in before. But you're still
insisting that it isn't yourfault, even though you're here
again. You're still insistingit's not your fault, right?
Chapter Three, you see the hole,and you fall in again out of
(07:07):
habit. Oh, my God. How manytimes have we done this? All of
us, all of us. But this time,this is where it's different.
You realize it's your fault, andyou've been in and out of this
hole so many times. Now you knowhow to get out. You get out of
it immediately, right? ChapterFour, you walk around the hole.
(07:27):
Just, you just walk around thatsucker, right? Fantastic.
Chapter Five, this is when we'vereally made some progress, and
this is when we walk down awhole damn different street,
like, How fantastic is that,right? And it makes me think
about A Course in Miracles,because, of course in miracles
talks about how, you know, firstof all, of course in miracles
(07:51):
always talks about how there'sbut two emotions that we have,
right? One, we were born withlove. One, we learned here in
the human experience, fear.Okay? There's two of them.
There's love and fear. Like,that's it all the other things,
they fall underneath thiscategory, right? So, of course,
in miracles, kind of thinks ofeverything in the in these two,
(08:11):
these two things, they would saythat only love is real, like
fear is a figment of our ownimagination. These
hallucinations, this thiscreation of the ego, mind,
believing it's separate from itssource, and it creates all of
it, the sickness, the guilt, thesuffering, the separation, the
specialness, like all thebullshit, right? That's the
fear. Only thing that's reallyreal is capital L, love. Okay,
(08:34):
so A Course in Miracles talksabout how we take detours into
fear all the time. So you know,when you're driving down the
highway and all of a sudden youfind out, like, you you've taken
the wrong exit. I'm always like,this is like, when you're you're
heading towards love, likeyou're really trying to do it.
You're really trying to, like,grow and be present and be more
loving and compassionate andkind and kind of not be a
(08:57):
selfish dick, you know, likeyou're trying to really work on
yourself. But we do. We takethese detours into fear. I
sometimes talk about it like wego on the wrong side of the
duplex. I do this whole analogywith people in the nest, right?
I talk about this. So on oneside you have all the fear
behaviors. On the other side iswhere, where love is, where
spirit is, right? So of course,Miracle says we take these
(09:19):
detours into fear. And I wouldalways say to people, like, when
you realize, when you realizeyou've taken a detour into fear,
that is not the time to keepgoing. That is not the time to
then, like, either, like, find acampsite where you set up camp
and you set up your tent and youbuild a fire and you pack your
ass there. Or it's not the timeto keep driving and see if
(09:40):
there's any houses you can buy.Like, we're not here to buy real
estate when we when we realize,oh, detail, detour into fear.
Now it's okay. I always say,like, if you realize you've
taken a detour into fear and youneed to, just like, find a rest
stop for a moment. You need to,like, get your bearings and have
a little snack and take a rest.Best, right? Like, that's fine,
(10:02):
that's okay, right? As soon asyou get your bearings, you
better bang a UE, like, licketysplit, like, you recognize it.
And this is the whole thing,right?
Ken wopnick, who was a reallygreat Course in Miracles,
teacher, he used to say that,you know you're making progress
on the spiritual path, not whenyou like never take a detour
(10:24):
into fear again. When yourealize you have left love, you
have left your right mind, andyou've gone into crazy town,
you've gone into the realm offear. Because it's not that you
never take these detours intofear anymore. It's how quickly
you realize you've done it.That's how we know we're making
progress. And it kind of pointsright to what she's saying here.
(10:44):
And chapter four and chapterfive of her poem, she's like,
you start to walk around thehole, or eventually you just
start to walk down a wholedifferent street. And this is
the thing that I'm talking aboutfor us in 2026 I really would
love to invite you so let's allwalk down a different street
together, because I think 2025,has been chock full of fear and
(11:09):
dissonance and separation andall of this, like infighting.
Imagine if, like, we're all onebig family, and there has just
been shit ton of craziness, ofhate, of just just separation
and all of it. Now, look, wecan't control what other people
out there are doing. All we cancontrol is ourselves in the
(11:32):
choices that we're making. Rightwe can walk around the hole. We
can walk down a whole differentstreet. We can see the whole. We
can warn other people about thehole. We can put up a little
sign that says, Don't go in thehole, right? I mean, we can't
save people from themselves.Some people are going to insist
on going in the hole. And I madesome notes here, you know, I
(11:55):
said, here's the thing thoughabout this poem, because chapter
four and chapter five, right?Walk around the hole, or go down
a different street, they soundgreat. They sound great. But
here's the thing, let's be realabout human behavior. Let's be
real about how deeply patterned,how deeply ingrained these
habits and conditioning goes.Right? Here's the thing,
(12:18):
sometimes it takes us a while torecognize that there is a hole.
Sometimes, it takes us a whileright to even recognize that
there's even a fucking hole.Sometimes, right, it takes us a
while to recognize that we're inthe hole. We don't even know
we're in the hole because we'venormalized our behaviors. We've
(12:38):
normalized feeling bad. We'venormalized and familiarized our
suffering. So we just kind of golike, Oh, this is just how it
is. Right. Remember that Brucecoat? I always talk about the
Bruce Hornsby song, that's justthe way it is, right. Some
things will never change. Youknow the lyrics to that song,
and he says, ah, but don't youbelieve them? Right? Don't you
(13:00):
believe them, we are all capableof change. I always say, as long
as I am alive, conscious,breathing and aware, I am going
to be able to createtransformation and change. Okay?
But number one, sometimes ittakes us a while to recognize
we're in the hole, that there isa hole. Sometimes we don't want
to take responsibility thatwe're in the hole, right,
(13:21):
because we're getting somethingfrom being hopeless and helpless
and behaving right, like avictim, right? Sometimes we're
getting some sort ofsubconscious payoff, or
sometimes we're getting like, anexternal right, we get
attention, or we get like, Oh,poor you, or let me help you. Or
(13:42):
you manipulate people, and theydo shit for you, and it's never
your fault, and you goteverybody running around, right,
like your little minions, right?So sometimes we don't want to
take responsibility for it,because we were getting some
positive intention we have, youknow, and that's what the
subconscious does. It has apositive intention, but it often
is wreaking habit. Okay? Numberthree, sometimes we get out of
(14:04):
the hole, but we fall right backin, like a trust, fall right? We
get out, fall right back in,like a few moments later. God
bless us. All right, sometimeswe don't know that it's okay to
walk around the hole, becausemaybe nobody else in your family
has ever walked around the hole.Maybe everybody just insists
(14:26):
that you get in, right? Get intothat, you know, that old analogy
I hate. So how so many analogiesand metaphors use, like
suffering towards animals todepict them, right? When you
talk about like the crabs or thefrogs and the boiling water,
which I hate, right? But it'sthis idea of like, you know, the
crabs will try to pull the otherones back down into the pot or
whatever. Sometimes, your familymembers don't know that there's
(14:46):
a better way. They don't knowthat you can walk around the
hole. Sometimes they don't wantyou to walk around the hole
because they're more comfortablewith you being small. They don't
want you to get out. They don'twant you to like, you know,
quote, unquote, get too big foryour brick. Or just shine too
bright, or, who do you think youare? Right? So you may not know.
You might have to be the patternbreaker. You might have to be
(15:08):
the spell breaker in yourfamily, right? You might have to
be the first one to say, hey,there's a fucking hole here, and
I'm gonna walk around it. Youdon't have to like it. I'm going
around the hole. Okay? And thenhere's the the last one.
Sometimes that chapter fiveright, walk down a whole
different street. But here's thething, some of us don't even
(15:29):
know that there's a differentstreet. We only know that one
street. We don't even know thatanother street is available to
us depending on where you'vegone and maybe how many books
you've read, or what you've beenexposed to, or what your you
know, economic situation hasallowed, and this is why I
always say about libraries likelibrary cards, men are free and
(15:49):
they are the portal. They arethe thing. They give the poor
kids a leg up because it puts uson an even playing field. When
you can get your mind into aplace where there's books to
read, not everybody can read. Iget that. What I'm saying is, is
that sometimes, right, I'm notmaking excuses. These five
things are just sometimesrealities in people's lives. But
(16:10):
here's the thing one, if you canhear the sound of my voice, you
now know about the hole. No moreexcuses. And if you need help
getting out of the hole, orrealizing there's a whole, or
walking around or getting betterat taking a different street.
This is, this is the differentways that people work with me,
in the nest, my spiritualmentoring group, program, my
(16:30):
little community that's amazing,or one to one work or whatever,
right? Some people come to workwith me, you know, to do more,
like yoga classes or workshopsor tie yoga body work or
assisted stretching, or whateverI do all kinds of stuff. Some
people just listen to thepodcast right. Here you are.
Thank you so much. But here'sthe thing I want to say, right
(16:51):
when we recognize that we arestuck in our habits and our
patterns, I'm tapping myforehead right now. This message
is for me also. PS, I do thispodcast for my ears to hear it
first, because I can be kind ofa knucklehead, right? When we
recognize we're stuck. I'mtapping on my forehead like I'm
doing EFT when we recognizewe're stuck in our habits and
(17:12):
patterns and conditioning.Right? Remember this poem,
remember our power, the powerthat is available to us. Right?
Personal choice is a power, thegrace of the wisdom that is
contained here, right? I'mdropping some spiritual bread
crumbs right now for you, asyou're tiptoeing past Christmas
and Hanukkah, right, andKwanzaa, all those things into
(17:35):
the new year, we are, we aregoing to walk down another
street, hopefully together, Iwould love that, right? So
here's the thing, there's poweravailable to us in personal
choice. There's grace in thiswisdom, and there is deep
transformation in this selfdevelopment and personal growth
work, in the spiritual work,right? But I kind of think
(17:56):
about, you know, as humans, likethe four buckets or the four
table legs, right? You have themental, the emotional, the
physical and the spiritual. Andwe want to be able, and it's
really hard. I'm gonna do awhole podcast about balance in
2026 but we do want that tableto be somewhat balanced. You
ever try to eat on the table,it's not balanced. It's not
(18:18):
soothing at all. It's like GAgunk gunk, GA gunk gunk, right?
Every time you move in yourwater. Okay? The other thing I
loved about this poem is itillustrates how we need
awareness to be able to changethe destructive patterns in the
first place, right, once webecome aware of them. And I do a
whole podcast on this way backin the day, the 4c and the four
(18:41):
A's of lasting change, right? Soonce we have awareness, we can
start to work on thosedestructive patterns, and
gradually, if we're willing topay attention, if we're willing
to stay awake, if we're willingto take responsibility, right,
then we can progress fromblindly falling in that hole
again and again and again,right? We can get out of those
(19:03):
same holes to eventuallychoosing a whole different path,
a whole new path. Let's just alldouble Amen hands to that, the
realization that there is abetter way. When A Course in
Miracles says this great line,right? And it says, trials. This
(19:23):
is what this is describing. It'sa trial. You keep doing the same
thing. And of course, Miraclesays this, trials are but
lessons right? Trials are butlessons learned. So where you
it's saying, so where you usedto do these old patterns and
habits, you no longer have to dothem. Right. Trials are but
(19:44):
lessons presented once again,right for where before you made
this old choice, right that thewise self inside of you call it
the voice for God, Holy Spirit,spirit, call it Jesus, call.
Your intuition, your gutinstinct, the inner teacher, I
don't care what you call it, butthere's something inside of you
(20:05):
that calls to you and says, mybrother, my sister, my person,
choose again.
Trials are but lessons failed tolearn presented once again. So
where before you made a choice,right? The Christ in you calls
to you, the self in you callsyou the smarty pants, the divine
intelligence in you calls to youand says, my brother, my sister,
(20:28):
choose again. And that's whatthis poem is all about. You can
choose to walk down a wholedifferent street, and I would
love to walk along beside you aswe do it. So here's to 2026
Here's to us going in. I mightbe making a few changes, I don't
know, to the podcast, cover art.I got a bunch of things. I got a
I'm always like hatching a plan.I always got my I'm always up to
(20:52):
shenanigans, right? So I gotsome cool things going on in
January. I'm going to be doingsome yoga classes on Monday
nights just in January at thePembroke Pines Country Club,
which I'm wicked excited about.They have a big, beautiful room
and a fireplace. It's going tobe yoga by the fire. And this
is, this is, I'm saying all ofthis in 2025 if you're
listening. This is for January2026 and that last Monday of the
(21:15):
month, my sweetie and I aregoing to be doing live music and
yoga by the fire. That's goingto be wicked cool. I have some
Tuesday night yoga classescoming up, maybe some Thursday
night yoga classes coming up.And I'm doing Thai Yoga,
assisted stretching, and, ofcourse, always spiritual
mentoring and coaching, hot tohot days, all kinds of stuff.
You can find out all about it.Karen kenney.com, just spell my
(21:35):
last name right, and you're goodto go, k, e, n, n, e, y, and
that's it, just this. Keep youreyes peeled, right. Stick
around. Thank you for beinghere. I appreciate you. I love
you, I care about you, and Ihope you just have the most
fantastic holiday season withyou, with you and yours, your
family, with your friends,whoever you spend it with, if
(21:58):
you spend it alone, right bychoice, enjoy your company. If
you don't spend it alone bychoice, maybe reach out. Maybe
there's some folks around, aneighbor, a friend, a cousin, a
somebody, a gathering somewhere.Go to a yoga class, right? But
Be around people if you'refeeling a little lonely, if
you're feeling like you want toget a little connected, Okay,
(22:19):
listen to the podcast. You canalways pop my voice into your
ear holes in your head. SoAlright, you guys, look 2025 is
going to be behind us before weknow it, welcoming in 2026 and
again. Always think you can findthese old, these old, what are
these things called podcastepisodes that I did on what we
(22:42):
can is just a very simple thingto be thinking about in 2026 as
well. Ask yourself this, thesequestions, what do you want to
let go of? Right? I always say,think of it like this. What do
you want to let go? What are yougoing to keep? Right? It's
sticking around. What do youwant to let go of? And what do
you want to grow? What do youwant more of? What do you want
less of? Get rid of it. What doyou want more of? Bring it in.
(23:04):
What do you want to keep andexpand? Right? So maybe that'll
be helpful for you. Okay, lookwherever you go. Last time,
signing off in 2025 wherever yougo. May you leave the animals
and yourself and the otherhumans and the environment and
the planet better than how youfound it wherever you go, may
you and your energy, yourpresence and your love be a
(23:26):
blessing. Bye, you.
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