Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Hey friends.
Welcome to the Enter Sparkpodcast.
I'm your host, Casey Caton.
If you're looking to hearstories of transformation and
personal growth, this podcast isfor you.
My guest and I will be sharingthose sparking moments that has
changed the mental living a morefulfilling authentic life.
I'm so excited for you to heareach unique story.
(00:24):
So sit back, relax, and let'sget started.
Hey friend, welcome back to myshower sprinkles.
This is your host Casey Taten.
Today I want to talk about youridentity and what I mean by that
(00:45):
is who you were, who you'vebeen, and like the stages of
life you've been through.
The reason I'm going to talkabout this is because a memory
came up on my Facebook storythat 10 years ago on February
13th I had my first stroke.
surgery for malls.
If you haven't listened to thatepisode, my first episode, I
talk about a battle I fought fora couple years before I got a
(01:08):
diagnosis.
And the struggles I fought toget a diagnosis and then to get
surgery.
And that surgery was my first ofwhat I thought was going to be
my life changing.
Getting my life back, being ableto eat, being able to drink.
I spent a lot of time in my bed.
The picture of me that was onFacebook was a picture of me and
(01:30):
my cat that had passed away, butwas my best friend.
And I spent many hours in mybed.
I spent a lot of time, like morehours than you can even imagine.
Unproductiveness, just sleeping,not having anything to do,
because I didn't have anyenergy.
I didn't have any energy to doanything.
And that became my identity wasbeing sick.
(01:52):
I wouldn't show up to familyevents.
I was always like not going tothings.
And then eventually you juststopped getting invited, but it
was because, oh, she's sick,she's sick, yeah, you're right,
I was fighting a battle, I had adisease, I had a dis ease
happening in my life, I wasspending days, I don't know if
(02:12):
any of you have faced a medicalbattle, it's not people just
laying at home.
It is people who spent hoursfighting for their life, trying
to get help, trying to stay,keep the things they have,
trying to keep their belongings.
Trying to figure out where to gonext.
What doctors do I see?
(02:34):
I can't even imagine The amountof hours I spent in doctor's
offices every week likeUnimaginable amount of hours you
guys it's crazy something.
I don't even like to think aboutand Probably why when I have
friends that say like don't youbinge watch tv or like today's a
(02:55):
snow day?
And they're like, why don't youstay in bed and rest?
And I'm like, stay in bed andrest?
Why would I stay in bed?
Like, that was my identity, wasbeing sick.
And I identified being sick withbeing in bed or being in a
doctor's office.
Or being in a treatment, gettingan infusion.
Or not having any energy to doanything.
(03:17):
When I saw that memory of me inmy bed, it was actually me when
I was back home from Cleveland.
From ten years ago, I was inCleveland for a couple days.
I had a laparoscopic surgery.
where they actually nicked myaorta, they took out my
gallbladder as well, and theydidn't get to finish my surgery.
I didn't know that at the time.
I thought I was coming homehealed, cured, like, wow, I, you
(03:40):
know, like a laparoscopicsurgery and I'm fixed.
Um, but that was way wrong.
So I was laying in my bed withmy cat and I just remember
thinking, like, life is gonnaget better.
Like, I had this surgery, Ispent Valentine's Day in the
hospital.
Cleveland had, like, I want tosay, like, 17 inches of snow,
(04:01):
you guys.
It was crazy.
my mom and my aunt were with me.
I remember my dad sending usValentine's stuff.
he sent me this sock monkey witha heart on it that I still have
because When you're fightingsomething, you find value in
everything, and it meant theworld that, you know, my family
was thinking about us, why mymom and my aunt were with, with
(04:21):
me, my dad was back home takingcare of my animal, taking care
of my fur baby, and your lifejust changes.
In my story, I talk about goingon and having another surgery.
And how I was in, you know, Iwas at, I had to go to Mayo
(04:42):
Clinic, then I went to Clevelandand had my surgery, that was 10
years ago, and then a coupleyears after that I had to go
have another open surgery.
And that was my identity for solong.
And we all go through thesestages in our life, and the one
thing that I know that's true isthat if we hold on to the hope
(05:02):
and we keep going, then We canmake the best out of every
situation.
I just went, did live, a liveFacebook and my community, my
Facebook group that I run anorganization doing parties for
kids in the hospital, littlemoments, big dream celebrations,
and every time I post in there,I just want to yell and scream
(05:26):
because like, it comes out ofme.
Like, what are you doing to helpsomebody?
I was that kid.
I mean, I wasn't that kid.
I was that adult.
And actually I was that kid.
when I was a baby, I don't talkabout this because I don't
honestly remember it, but I hadspinal meningitis when I was a
couple months old and I spent along time in the hospital.
And it's something that myfamily, like, they hold on to
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that.
They still, you know,occasionally my grandpa will
say, yeah, I remember holdingyou down or my dad will say that
and my mom will like, my momcringes when she sees needles
and IVs because They watched meas a baby get stuck over and
over and over and blow the IVsand then unfortunately as an
adult my family went throughthis again with me and so it's
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been my identity a couple timesbut the one thing that I
treasure when I'm doing theseparties and I'm like going live
in these Facebook groups I'mlike hey look I've had these
surgeries I've been sick butguess what people did things for
me to bring me smiles and that'smy mission now.
And I wanna know, what are youdoing?
Like, yeah, TV's great, go findan episode, watch it, but get up
(06:32):
and do something.
Like life is too short not toand to everybody who thinks that
oh, I'm these things don'thappen to me You're wrong
friend.
You're wrong I'll be the firstone to look you in the face and
say if it don't happen to youYou know props to you for living
a healthy life that you werejust Nothing was happened to
(06:53):
you.
You live this great life becauseit's not really true Everybody's
going through something on adifferent level and everybody I
know Has been affected by sometype of illness Cancer.
Mine wasn't cancer, but I sat ata treatment center.
I stayed in the hospital forlong periods of times.
Everybody's fighting a differentbattle, and my identity keeps
(07:19):
growing and keeps changing, andso can yours.
Make it something special.
Leave a legacy on this world.
I want to tell everybody in thatgroup, like when I went live,
like get up and do something.
What are you doing to helpothers?
If you're not helping someone inmy group, go find another group.
Go find someone to help.
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Reach out to somebody and helpthem.
And by helping, it doesn't meanyou just have to give money.
You can help in so many ways.
And to me, it means bringing asmile to someone's face.
And sometimes, that's just withconnection.
Because really, in life, there'sa couple things we all deeply
desire.
We all want to have connection.
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We all want to feel heard.
And we all want to feel seen.
And if you don't feel that way,please let me know.
Because I do believe that everyone of us, no matter How
introverted, how extroverted youare.
We all want to have a connectionwith something and someone and
feel heard and feel seen.
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And that's the part, importantpart about a community.
And I want every single one ofthose kids in those families to
know that I'm supporting them.
I love them.
But not only do I, our communityloves them.
And I recently talked about inthere, like on my Facebook live
post about how not just only ourcommunity here in Wichita,
(08:45):
Kansas is helping.
Our community outside of Kansasis helping.
We got rocks from Montana.
Shout out to them.
Hug rocks.
How cool is that?
It means people are payingattention and people have either
been through this or they canrelate to this or they're
finding a purpose to dosomething.
(09:06):
They can paint on rocks andbring a smile to someone's face.
You can bring a smile toanybody's face.
They don't even have to bebattling an illness, a dis ease.
They can be battling somethingtotally different, and maybe
they're lonely.
Maybe they don't have anyone tolet them feel heard, to be a
part of a community.
(09:28):
And that's truly what we're alldesiring.
So, as we all grow into, thesedifferent things that identify
these different phases of lifewe go through, what are you
going through now?
You know, right now, the bestthing I want, I want to grow my
parties.
Not my parties.
I want to grow the parties we doin our community.
(09:49):
We do it for these kids.
They're not mine.
I have a slew of volunteers thatare just amazing that step up
and help in every way.
And it takes a community to makethese things happen.
But what are you doing?
What do you value in your life?
And what can you do to make yourlife better?
(10:09):
It's as simple as bringing asmile, saying a kind word to
somebody.
I don't know what you're goingthrough.
I know that everybody's goingthrough different phases of
their life, different points ofidentity in their life.
But today, I want you to thinkabout how you can make an
impact.
on someone else's life.
(10:30):
How you can change the waysomeone else sees this world.
This world is a crazy world,right?
But what I know is that it'sfull.
It's full of amazing, wonderfulhuman beings that desire to be
heard, seen, and want acommunity of like minded people.
So go find that community.
I am so blessed to have, to bein communities surrounded by
(10:55):
amazing people.
And I'm also blessed that I'mspeaking my truth on this
podcast that.
I'm getting the word out that I,at one time, had this identity
of being sick and that's who Iwas and I let people say that
about me and that's not how Iwant to live.
I am Casey.
I am a human being and I want tofeel good.
(11:18):
I want to feel well.
I do feel well.
Not I want to.
I do.
I may face challenges some dayswith my health or dis eases.
I may have a dis ease in thatday but guess what?
That's not who I am as a humanbeing.
I have a huge heart and I wantto bring smiles and joy to
others Because I know what itfeels like to be at a point in
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your life Where you felt likethere wasn't any joy and I feel
like everybody can relate tothat in some way so Today i'm
going to close out the showersprinkle with please just go do
something that brings someonejoy Sit down and think about who
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you are who you are as a personWhat does that look like to you?
And then who do you want to be?
You Because it's never too lateto start doing something.
Never.
Start doing it today.
By the way, you had a bad day?
Okay, guess what?
Tomorrow, you get to start allover, my friend.
You get to start a new day.
If you want to call tomorrow NewYear's, go for it.
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I don't really care what you do,but I want you to know that the
next day is not guaranteed.
So go make a difference today.
Go do something.
Go do something.
You know, like live your dreamsout, write down your dreams,
your goals, whatever you want tocall them, but go touch a life.
Go bring a smile, bring a smileto yourself.
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Find something that brings youjoy.
Find out what you truly value inyour life and find out the
places that you want to givemore and love more and share
more.
And the different things you canbring joy to other people's
lives.
Because whether it's youridentity and then you leave a
(13:09):
legacy in someone's life, letthose be the imprints that we
leave.
I thank you for listening toanother episode of My Shower
Sprinkle.
Sorry, I get fired up, you guys.
There are some things that whenthey just hit me in memories
they hit you, like, they bringit back.
It's just like the one I talkedabout a picture.
Well, fighting a battle broughta lot out of me.
(13:33):
And the one thing it did is Idon't lay around in my bed and
feel sorry for myself.
If you want to do that, go do itfor a couple hours, but then
snap out of it, my friend,because there is too much to be
grateful for and so much in thisworld to find joy in little
things.
So go find joy out of something.
Go do something and make yourtime here valuable.
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Make it important.
Go make a difference.
Everybody has a different skill.
Everybody has a differenttalent.
And if we all did the goodthings in the world, can you
imagine what this world wouldbe?
Alright, I'm leaving you withthat.
Go do something, and as always,let those sparks fly.
Thank you for tuning intoanother episode.
(14:18):
I hope today's story inspiredyou to embrace your own journey
of growth and change.
Remember, transformation isn'talways easy, but it's always
worth it.
If you enjoyed this episode, besure to subscribe.
Share it with a friend, andleave a review.
If you found something thatsparked you in this episode and
may spark a friend, I encourageyou to go share with them.
(14:38):
If you have your own story youwould like to share, I would
love to hear it.
So please reach out to me.
Until next time, friends, gohave some fun and let those
sparks lie.