Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's staff management or ownership.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Good morning. You'll find me out with Pete in a
poke hold.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm Peter lem and I'm the poet Goals're on.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
The air this morning with Command Sergeant Major Mustafa. And
before we get to him, we're going to go right
to the poet cold for her weekly poem prayer incantation.
Oh please let it roll.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you so much, Peter.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
I'm going to do one of the poems out of
my new book, be the poem living Beyond Our Fears.
And this poem is called courage. A shift in mind,
creating peace amongst the broken pieces, resolute, leaning into it, fearlessly,
becoming your own sun by day, the stars in the
moon by night, navigating the darkness, weightless in the galaxy,
(00:49):
freeing yourself from pain, the burden from carrying heavy locks
and chains.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Courage.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We never have enough courage, ma'am. And if we can
footnote that Arisataja, I know some things about that I
forgot most, but one of that I remember that he
said is that courage is the most important of all
the virtues, because without it nothing, none of the other
ones count. You know, Yeah, courage counts, and we're somebody's
(01:23):
get in trouble. With courage, you can go pretty far.
And the Massergeant Major, can you give us a sense
of what your resiliency projects are, about who they're year towards,
and what your methods are.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Yes, Peter, thank you so much, both you and poor
go for having me here today. And that question gets
right at the heart of the matter. We're talking about
a person. Myself is a person who has served thirty
years in a nice States Army and then four can
for instances served in combat. So upon transitioning back to
my home of It's a valley, New York, I deal
(02:02):
with my own transition, anxiety and turbulence of coming back
out of the military back to civilian life. So what
I learned from me service was a way of transitioning
and helping me get my mind right. But what I
found is there some others that struggle much more, and
they struggle with stuff like homelessness and suicidal ideations and
(02:26):
just trauma in general. So all I could do is
I started to ponder and say to myself. Well, if
I was thirty years in an army and the military
gave me so many tools as a leader who says
I had a stop just because I'm out, And so
then I started to put together these different programs, one
of which is the Veterans Resiliency Retreat. It's a three
(02:47):
day event and it starts with holistic health practices. Then
it has a galla in the middle to combat what
we call isolation and loneliness, and then we close it
out with a prayer, breakfast and an equine experience over
at Morgan's farm at West Point.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
The target.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Horses can help heal humans. A little known fact that
horses can help heal humans. So that's the combination that
I've chose to use. Those three things are holistic in nature.
You don't need pharmaceuticals for that. And not to knock
or disparage anybody that may need those, but we're just
saying that there are some other approaches.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Now.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
The target group to your question, initially was simply veterans,
the people who I'm accustomed with having served with. But
then COVID happened nineteen to be exact, and so in
the year of twenty twenty, I started to think about
who else is out here suffering that may need some
help from stress and anxiety and so forth. Then I
(03:45):
wrote this book called Resilient Transition, How you combat stress
and anxiety using music, meditation and a positive mind. And
so the target group expanded to first responders, to teachers,
to just about anybody that we can use our help.
But at the top of that pyramid it's still veterans.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Now did you find you when your organization expanded that
veterans wanted more isolation in their treatment versus mixing with
everyone else.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
It's a very good question. What happened. It wasn't even
like a kind of It was an experimental deal. So
we came out of COVID. Well, first of all, I
did five years of this program and we were building
some strong momentum. In twenty nineteen we did their hotel,
had a crowd of about two hundred to two hundred
and fifty people there. Uncle Mike and his team were president,
(04:38):
and we thought, man, we've been ready to blow up.
What happened in twenty twenty COVID COVID. So now we
can't do events, we can't gather social distancing and all
that kind of stuff. Well, that lasted for us in
the entertainment world for about two years.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Right.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
So then twenty twenty two I got enough courage to say,
maybe we're going to try it again, and we dipped
back out there. But this time I had a group
of teachers, I had a group of first responders and
even horse people that I said I'm going to honor
because of their resilience. Right. Well, to your question, the
military people in that context embraced the other folks, and
(05:19):
we saw that as guess what, there are a need
for us as veterans to come back in our communities
and serve everyone.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Now, now, how did you what did you refer to
it again, to the horse therapy?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
How did you stumble upon that?
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Another great question? That's why they got you here. So
in twenty twenty one, something interesting happened. Now I happen
to have grown up in the town of Highlands, New York,
which is adjacent to the United States Army military camp,
and many of my family members have served in the military,
one of which was a gentleman named Sergeant Leon Tatum,
(05:58):
Sergeant first class to be exactly. He retired from a
storybook organization called the Buffalo Soldiers. One of his best
friends is somebody Uncle Mike knew personally, Sergeant Sanders H.
Matthews Senior. His face is depicted on the monument over
at West Point. Well, I knew that man too, and
so what happened. Organization called Pfizer invited me to be
(06:19):
their keynote speaker for Buffalo Soldier National Day. Now, at
the time, I didn't even know there was such a thing.
I never dive. But I had to do research, and
I said, what is it about these horses and these
black men who had served in West Point? So I
dug up Sergeant Matthew's history. Found out he's from Coachsville, Pennsylvania.
(06:39):
Drove all the way down there, and while there I
ran into a horse farm called Thorncroft. These folks had
an eight week program for veterans. So I ended up
going for eight weeks, driving from a new town of
Highlands to Malvern, Pennsylvania, which is three hours for a
one hour course. Wow for eight weeks, Well, now I
(07:01):
had the bug after that. Now they showed me how
you can do horsemanship basic and that's grooming, and then
all these different things. But it led me into the
world of what they call therapeutic equal It's not just
recreational riding horses. It's the power of the horse itself
to connect with a human being and to have such
innate ability to reflect back to us what is going
(07:24):
on inside of us now?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Is that through Is that through energy? Is that through vibration?
Speaker 5 (07:31):
You know, Wow, you asked all the right questions. Both
are the truth. Energy is admitted. So there's because horses,
imagine they are herd animals. They operate as a herd,
but at the same time they're prey animals. They always
on alert for something to come out and bring it harm,
(07:51):
so they have to move a certain way. They're listening
for certain things. And so when we study just the
herd's behavior, there's a lot of lessons that come back
about families, about community and how we can function as
a community as a society. But secondly, when we talk
about this energy, there's some practices where I can have
(08:12):
a horse next to me and make that horse move
a certain direction without saying a word, just projecting my
energy where I position my body, and some we call
that pressure. So I'm standing here at the horse's hind
parts and I'm just emitting this energy and start to
move a certain kind of way. But likewise they can
(08:32):
also because of energy. Hear how fast my heart is beating,
they can know if I came into the session agitated, right,
and then they may reflect that in their behavior. So
it's a science to this. It's called evidence based practice.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I'm all in and evident's basis science, man, And that's
what science is. Do you like I do? Always? Well?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
You know, I had this dream coming up growing up
in New York and huts the valley there.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
It must have been from TV watching a Lone Ranger
or something.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I said, Man, I want a horse.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I want a horse. Mom, I want a horse. And
so then I go to our south to my mother
my grandmother's house. In the backyard, my cousin has a horse.
Now he grew up in the country. Though he's jumping
up on this horse. He's all over the place. Then
finally they asked me, you want to try it? Now
I'm New York.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Usha.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah, Now he didn't have any saddle on this horse.
I get up on this horse and all I remember,
Peter and Poet go is that the horse's hair stuck
right through my pants and I jumped up off that horse.
And at that time I was a junior in high
school and I didn't get back on a horse again
until that experience in throwing cross down in Pennsylvania, and
(09:51):
at that time I was probably fifty something years old. Now,
since then I fall in love with the horse. Horse
is a majestic.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Animal as far as yes it is. It is, and.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Someone they call it a celestial.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Being English or Western.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Boy, she got it all down. I have never tried
English yet, mostly Western at this point, but I have
become seen that writing of English, the style. Right here
in the town of Newburgh, there's the Gardener Farm, it's called,
and they have these competitions out there. Sometimes the old
(10:27):
sergeant Major would just go and watch and say to myself, Man,
if I had to do it all over again, I
might try English.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Now explain to our listeners what the difference is.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
One is a more formal practice of high up a
certain uniformity in clothing, right, and it's rules associated with
I think they without making stuff up over in England,
how they would have these competitions and so forth, And
now that has carried on and now called English. So
(10:57):
the Western is more of the Cowboys. You will right
out of style ye inclined to be.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
If you're just tuning in, you're listening to finding Out
with Pete and the Poet Gold. I'm Peter and I'm
the Poet Gold. And we're here today with our guest command,
Sergeant Major Mustafa talking about his upcoming event, three day event.
Actually that starts today when you're probably hear it on
the podcast and we'll go we'll be live tomorrow or
three day event. Nowhere is it going to be taking
(11:25):
place again building on resilience.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Day one is at the American Legion Post sixty three
to three O'Connor doyle American Legion Post sixty three, sixty
three three in Highland Falls, New York. That is the
Wellness Workshop and that will take place from ten am
to one pm. All are welcome, by the way.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Second day is the All White Affair and the Veterans
Resiliency Awards Gala. This is the tenth annual and this
one will be at the Bear Mountain End, the Historic
Bear Mountain Ends, which is part of the State park
there in the Bear Mountain. But we'll be there at
six pm for a cocktail.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Hour next Saturday, June twenty.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Saturday June twenty, that's got you, that's right, And then
concluding with June twenty. First Sunday will do prayer, breakfast
and a equine experience we call it, and that will
start at nine am and go to one pm.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Now I'm fascinated by you introducing yourself in this show
with your own abilities to adjust the civilian life. Now
we never met before. You I know, you know Poke Call,
and you know Uncle Mike, but we're meeting for the
first time, and I would accuse you of being like
(12:44):
congenerally charming. Oh wow, Now, how is it just somebody
with all your social abilities which I would imagine you
would never have a nervousness or on socially, explain to
me how that works. I have the trauma you had
(13:08):
in the past. Trans is an issue even though you
have conspicuous social gifts.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Well, you know what I tell you what you guys
are certainly a dream team because now you're hitting home
runs just like That's a great question. I thought about this.
I used to be the lead counselor for transitioning service
members at West Point, United States, saw a military academy
when I first got out of the military, and one of
the things I thought about often in that job was
when I was a first sergeant, that is a person
(13:38):
that is over a company level organization and more the
disciplinarian and the trainer of the of the organization. I
was in a unit that was responsible for bringing people
into the military, and it was a term used called
soldierization process, the soldierization process. So we as as cadre
(14:01):
by taking these young men and women and we're taking
them through the soldierization process. Well, now that I was
a transition counselor helping people leave the military, and I
saw one common thread. Whether they was a private, which
is the bottom of the tier of the ranking system,
or it was a full kernel, there was one constant
(14:22):
and that was the anxiety about what's on the other side.
So I said to myself, well, if there was a
soldier such a thing called a soldierization process, then what's
the process to bring us back. So we have a
transition counselor that give you a class on resume writing,
We'll give you dressful success, We'll tell you interviewing.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Skills, how to get a job.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
How to get a job. We never touched on the
emotional nature of leaving an institution that, for lack of
a word, have turned you into thing. So there's certain
skills in the military, like being aggressive, as we're rewarded
for when you come back into civilian life that.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
May look a little odd.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
So that to answer your question directly, when I came out,
I had an experience when I volunteered to be the
chairman of the Fourth of July Committee in twenty fifteen.
I had this one meeting and the young lady said
she we were brainstorming. It's a bunch of us, and
she put I said, okay, listen, if time is a resource,
we don't have a whole bunch of it. Let's put
one more thing and be done with it. Let's see
(15:32):
what we can do to rank these things. That lady
put another thing up there just blew me completely off,
I said, trying to calm myself. Then finally I said, look,
the meeting's done. We've done, and she said you're rude,
and I said, I'm the sergeant major were you talking about?
But that turned into me being a ogre. I realized
(15:54):
that I lacked the people skills at that moment that situation, right,
So go back to self discovery. Is it really answering
your question? Since that time of being a little bit
more aggressive, I've been to Columbia University got a master's
degree in social work. That's like being in counseling for
two years, right, helps off.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Me make you more personable, approachable.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
You know, there's a way in which this is not
entirely true, but I bet it has some truth to it.
Be your opinion. There's a way in which you might
not want self knowledge in the military what you want
as a group knowledge. In other words, your individual quirks,
(16:43):
who a personality traits is not relevant to such a
communal activity as I'm being in the military. And then
when you go back to society, who you are individually
really counts.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
That's another good spot on type of observation because one
of the biggest challenges for me when you come out.
So probably why I did so well in military because
I played sports in high school. I played basketball, football.
So military is a team sports, right, It's a team
of teams, and so if you can play well with others,
you can probably do well. But now you come out,
and I like to use the terminology of people then
(17:19):
become free radicals, right, you're kind of floating around without
something to latch onto, without a group right now. In
some instances, the earlier wars that we had the vfw's right,
Veterans of Foreign Wars, we had the American legions, right,
These places really catered to the World War Two and
the Vietnam kind of folks. Post nine to eleven, our
(17:41):
younger folks didn't really feel not that they weren't welcome,
they just didn't feel comfortable in no setting, right.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
And probably still suffered from a lack of community belonging
isolation exactly right.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
So that's why creating something like the Veterans Resiliency Coalition,
which is my nonprofit organization, and there's others. We're creating
these platforms where people can connect, right in order to
combat isolation, because when isolation comes, some other things could
be loneliness, could be depression, it could be that you're
now self medicating right right, right, So really to get
(18:16):
at the heart of really connecting people and.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Then it begins to dismantle the family structure bingo you
know as well.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Yeah, now I've experienced that even with being a startain
major and coming out fifty years old, I'm like, it's
almost like you got this kind of complex scenario where
you're from a place which you don't feel like you're
of the place anymore. Right, So, even your my mother
or my brothers and sisters, it took a while to
(18:46):
readjust to each other. Right. But in the midst of that,
some people never get there, and so now all of
a sudden you start to have this disenfranchisement from your
family or your community.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
I've I've often said people that those who have served,
particularly those who may have seen combat, it become back
a changed person. You You cannot go through an experience
like that and not be impacted in some ways. So
so to sort of have the expectation that your loved
(19:20):
one is sort of going to just pull up a
chair at the table, you know, and everything's going to
be fine, I can only imagine that it would be
a surreal moment for them. You know.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Love how you described that sitting at that table.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Yeah, man, that was so. I actually had a bit
of a flashback as you were talking, because you're one
hundred percent right, come back out of those environments and
be in a place where people really don't know what
you've experienced, right, and they can't really get it. It's
hard to get it if you were never there right right, right,
(19:53):
And so then all of a sudden, you're sitting there
and you're dealing with these anxieties or you're dealing with
these and even you, the person experiencing them, can't explain.
But then some people they just think that you could
just hit a switch and get over right, hit a
switch and just go back to who you were prior
(20:14):
to experiencing that, And that's not.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Realistic, right if you're just tuning in.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
You listen to Finding Out with Pete and the Poet Gold,
and I'm the Poet Gold, and we're having a wonderful
conversation with Command Sergeant Major Mustafa talking about his upcoming
event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
Man, you know what, just as I observed you to
Peter and Poet Go, I thought about being interviewed on
the radio in vs Baden, Germany. I thought about being
on the radio in Somalia, Moga, this Isshu and all
over the world. I've been on the radio. But I'm
looking at YouTube. You are an all star team where
you're tag teaming this thing back.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
And forth to you, sir, true or not, thank you
doesn't have to be true to be grateful.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Let's let's remind our listeners about one how to get tickets.
If you have a website, let another website, you know
how to get in touch and be a part of
you know, your organization and your event.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Yeah, so tickets still available for the tenth annual All
White Affair and Veterans Resiliency Awards at Bear Mountain End
on Saturday, June twentieth at six pm. You can go
to www dot Veterans Resiliencycoalition dot com. That's our website,
and on that website you can find tickets. If you
(21:41):
have any challenges with that, you can call eight four
five six eight two one three three seven and then
somebody will.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Get you straight and repeat that phone number again.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
Eight four five six eight two one three three seventh.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
I like the idea if you have challenge, is just
with that automatically challenge and I want to give you
a chance to clear something up. Calling something an all
White affair, I can get some some people, give some
people a ruining. You know you have a white beard,
but it stops there. Right. You want to explain to
you all white.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
That was a vibrational moment because, as I said it,
something in my mind that they're going to need to
be a little clarity. And then we're talking about the attire, folks.
All white attire is the uniform of the day. Remembery,
this is a military type of gathering. I got to
put people back in uniform so that way, at least
(22:41):
one night, they could feel like they're amongst their comrades.
If you have some metals, you can put the medals
on if you like. But the attire is all white.
The audience is very diverse. Everybody's welcome.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Saying all white. In the world today, some people might
feel excluded. Some people might feel overully proud of themselves.
But you know, I'm happy that that I'll clear it up.
And I went to an all white event last week.
My a nephew was married in France and his wife's
(23:18):
family is from Chad in Africa, and they have a
tradition of dressing ail in white, and so everyone had
a dress all in white and the bride and this
the night before the wedding, but the bride was all
in red and she was wearing a crown. This woman
was born in Houston, Texas, but she's a black woman's
(23:41):
family is from Chad. She's wearing a crown comfortably, She
were okay, and she had her whole hand done in
chatty and design. They have like temporary tattooes or something,
And it was surprising. And so I had a bit
of a hint of some events in which everyone dresses
(24:03):
in white, and that was the only one I've ever
been to. But the event you have coming up makes
a lot of sense.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Yeah, well, thank you for sharing that story, because what
came to mind is that that that woman certainly sounds
like a queen, and so before she should wear that
crowd the art that she probably was wearing, it was
probably called Hinda if you know anything about that type
of temporary tattooing.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That's right. You know, she lives in New York City,
so she was able to find somebody who knew the
Chattian tradition one hundred and forty fifth Street and Broadways.
But you can find a lot of things in New
York City that you can't find in Beacon Open Keepsie.
(24:46):
And so she was all done up.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Well similar to what you just witnessed and described eloquently.
We have culture in the military, right, and so these
types of events we would call a dining in or
a dyning out or a military ball. And so therefore
I'm trying to slightly replicate that not all the formalities
call it a party with a purpose. Right, So we
want to get at the heart of veteran suicide and homelessness.
(25:12):
But I want to kind of do what I used
to do in the military. That's trick you into training.
So now we come to this party, because everybody loves
a good party, right, But I got an important message
to hit you with.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Absolutely, then we're going to turn the band loose.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Let that vibration hits you.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I have a great mentor that you that you've met
mister Arrington Tree Arrington, and he's always say the message
before the party.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That the message before the party.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
He had a bunch of junior high school kids and uh,
if you don't get the message, you don't get to
the party. And he enforced it strictly. If you were
not you, we're not going to sneak into the party
after you missed the Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Right, you had to show your report card that was
your passing, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Wow, Yeah, and very brush by you know. The real issues.
You deal with a suicide and depression and you know,
very serious human things. And you know, you have an
organization in which I could imagine some people who would
be nervous about going to a party like that, you know,
(26:19):
like having an anxiety and it's a party. Is they
ultimately to serve them, you know, through the programs that
would make them more comfortable. Absolutely, right.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
There are some people that have still a challenge with
being amongst crowds or being in groups of people that
they don't really know, and so we try our best
to make it comfortable for folks. One of the other things,
quite frankly Poet and Peter, is that so at that event,
which is also evidence based really because music also is
(26:51):
a healing mechanism. So I won't do anything without music, right,
So we got horses on one hand as an intervention,
and then we have music on another hand is an intervention.
And then Friday, if you show up at the American Legion,
you're gonna get a little meditation, you're gonna get a
little acupuncture, and then you're gonna get acute pressure, which
(27:13):
anybody who knows the distinction knows that. So acupuncture, somebody
can put needles in certain parts of your body and
relieve pain and all kinds of things. But there's acute
pressure where you can do that yourself by touching certain
pressure points, this one in your hands, So all these
kinds of things. So we're going to try to make
it comfortable and welcoming, and so we reduce some anxiety
(27:36):
by putting it in white because it's just a calming color.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
And you are open to a very wide range of healings,
you know, from from music to touch to horses. You're
open to healing in very very different ways. Exactly right,
And how did the vests that sometimes they might think
(28:03):
do they think sometimes it's not for make music, it's
for entertainment.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Now, I think there's folks who in any background, whether
they're vets or their common folks or their civilians, people
sometimes just don't know what they don't know. They have
to be exposed as something to experience it to know. Wow,
that's pretty decent.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Now.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Where I found this evident, that is when I took
this practice in twenty twenty two out the Houston, Texas.
I went downtown Houston to the Lama Ridian and I
partnered with the United Way of Houston to do my
holistic health part of it. In fact, I took three
practitioners from New York with me, folks who could do
meditation and mindfulness and various things. They flew out and
(28:45):
then we put on the holistic point and then we
did the white party in downtown Lama Ridian and then
we came out to a farm called Brookside Village Ranch
and doctor Beverly Walsh, a psychotherapist, and we turned that
thing out out there in Houston. And that's what I do.
He has some special I know it works in New York,
right right. I wasn't so sure if I took it
somewhere else. What would happen is boom home run. So
(29:07):
we went to Houston the very next year, did it again,
and then following year to San Antonio home run. Now
we're invited to go to the Asheville, North Carolina, if
you know anything about that place there just a couple
of years ago had a huge flood recovering from. Yes,
but I went down there at the keynote speaker for
a Veterans Day in twenty twenty four, and then they
asked me to bring this three day healing operation.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You know, I'm not. I'm just sure make you know
the orf from here poetry, especially when the poet colds,
that's a whold of it has the healings a mention
to it. Well, you don't want me to brag about you.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
He's always bragging about me, you know, but he knows that.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
You know. My workshops deal with helping people find their voice,
you know, and processing their I called them non traditional
poetry workshops because they're really about healing.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Absolutely positively. I'm a believer that falls in the realm
of art, right and so so so I include poetry.
We haven't got there with a specific program yet, and
certainly I'll be looking to the great poet goal for
advice and how we bring that as a collaboration in
the future for veterans, because I'm a believer in that.
(30:22):
I've also done art therapy personally with the drawings, yes,
and coloring using coloring books.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Okay a goal.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Are we coming to the end at.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
The end, and wow, wow, we need another session you
know well, Command Sergeant Major, thank you for being with
us here today.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Folks. Make sure you get your ticket. Give them the
number one more time eight four.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Five six eight two one three three seven website www
dot Veterans Resiliency Coalition dot com.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Okay, well, I'm Poe of Gold and thank you for
listening to finding out repeating the Poe of Gold
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's staff management or ownership.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Good morning. You'll find me out with Pete in a
poke hold.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm Peter lem and I'm the poet Goals're on.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
The air this morning with Command Sergeant Major Mustafa. And
before we get to him, we're going to go right
to the poet cold for her weekly poem prayer incantation.
Oh please let it roll.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you so much, Peter.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
I'm going to do one of the poems out of
my new book, be the poem living Beyond Our Fears.
And this poem is called courage. A shift in mind,
creating peace amongst the broken pieces, resolute, leaning into it, fearlessly,
becoming your own sun by day, the stars in the
moon by night, navigating the darkness, weightless in the galaxy,
(00:49):
freeing yourself from pain, the burden from carrying heavy locks
and chains.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Courage.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
We never have enough courage, ma'am. And if we can
footnote that Arisataja, I know some things about that I
forgot most, but one of that I remember that he
said is that courage is the most important of all
the virtues, because without it nothing, none of the other
ones count. You know, Yeah, courage counts, and we're somebody's
(01:23):
get in trouble. With courage, you can go pretty far.
And the Massergeant Major, can you give us a sense
of what your resiliency projects are, about who they're year towards,
and what your methods are.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Yes, Peter, thank you so much, both you and poor
go for having me here today. And that question gets
right at the heart of the matter. We're talking about
a person. Myself is a person who has served thirty
years in a nice States Army and then four can
for instances served in combat. So upon transitioning back to
my home of It's a valley, New York, I deal
(02:02):
with my own transition, anxiety and turbulence of coming back
out of the military back to civilian life. So what
I learned from me service was a way of transitioning
and helping me get my mind right. But what I
found is there some others that struggle much more, and
they struggle with stuff like homelessness and suicidal ideations and
(02:26):
just trauma in general. So all I could do is
I started to ponder and say to myself. Well, if
I was thirty years in an army and the military
gave me so many tools as a leader who says
I had a stop just because I'm out, And so
then I started to put together these different programs, one
of which is the Veterans Resiliency Retreat. It's a three
(02:47):
day event and it starts with holistic health practices. Then
it has a galla in the middle to combat what
we call isolation and loneliness, and then we close it
out with a prayer, breakfast and an equine experience over
at Morgan's farm at West Point.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
The target.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Horses can help heal humans. A little known fact that
horses can help heal humans. So that's the combination that
I've chose to use. Those three things are holistic in nature.
You don't need pharmaceuticals for that. And not to knock
or disparage anybody that may need those, but we're just
saying that there are some other approaches.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Now.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
The target group to your question, initially was simply veterans,
the people who I'm accustomed with having served with. But
then COVID happened nineteen to be exact, and so in
the year of twenty twenty, I started to think about
who else is out here suffering that may need some
help from stress and anxiety and so forth. Then I
(03:45):
wrote this book called Resilient Transition, How you combat stress
and anxiety using music, meditation and a positive mind. And
so the target group expanded to first responders, to teachers,
to just about anybody that we can use our help.
But at the top of that pyramid it's still veterans.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Now did you find you when your organization expanded that
veterans wanted more isolation in their treatment versus mixing with
everyone else.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
It's a very good question. What happened. It wasn't even
like a kind of It was an experimental deal. So
we came out of COVID. Well, first of all, I
did five years of this program and we were building
some strong momentum. In twenty nineteen we did their hotel,
had a crowd of about two hundred to two hundred
and fifty people there. Uncle Mike and his team were president,
(04:38):
and we thought, man, we've been ready to blow up.
What happened in twenty twenty COVID COVID. So now we
can't do events, we can't gather social distancing and all
that kind of stuff. Well, that lasted for us in
the entertainment world for about two years.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Right.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
So then twenty twenty two I got enough courage to say,
maybe we're going to try it again, and we dipped
back out there. But this time I had a group
of teachers, I had a group of first responders and
even horse people that I said I'm going to honor
because of their resilience. Right. Well, to your question, the
military people in that context embraced the other folks, and
(05:19):
we saw that as guess what, there are a need
for us as veterans to come back in our communities
and serve everyone.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
Now, now, how did you what did you refer to
it again, to the horse therapy?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
How did you stumble upon that?
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Another great question? That's why they got you here. So
in twenty twenty one, something interesting happened. Now I happen
to have grown up in the town of Highlands, New York,
which is adjacent to the United States Army military camp,
and many of my family members have served in the military,
one of which was a gentleman named Sergeant Leon Tatum,
(05:58):
Sergeant first class to be exactly. He retired from a
storybook organization called the Buffalo Soldiers. One of his best
friends is somebody Uncle Mike knew personally, Sergeant Sanders H.
Matthews Senior. His face is depicted on the monument over
at West Point. Well, I knew that man too, and
so what happened. Organization called Pfizer invited me to be
(06:19):
their keynote speaker for Buffalo Soldier National Day. Now, at
the time, I didn't even know there was such a thing.
I never dive. But I had to do research, and
I said, what is it about these horses and these
black men who had served in West Point? So I
dug up Sergeant Matthew's history. Found out he's from Coachsville, Pennsylvania.
(06:39):
Drove all the way down there, and while there I
ran into a horse farm called Thorncroft. These folks had
an eight week program for veterans. So I ended up
going for eight weeks, driving from a new town of
Highlands to Malvern, Pennsylvania, which is three hours for a
one hour course. Wow for eight weeks, Well, now I
(07:01):
had the bug after that. Now they showed me how
you can do horsemanship basic and that's grooming, and then
all these different things. But it led me into the
world of what they call therapeutic equal It's not just
recreational riding horses. It's the power of the horse itself
to connect with a human being and to have such
innate ability to reflect back to us what is going
(07:24):
on inside of us now?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Is that through Is that through energy? Is that through vibration?
Speaker 5 (07:31):
You know, Wow, you asked all the right questions. Both
are the truth. Energy is admitted. So there's because horses,
imagine they are herd animals. They operate as a herd,
but at the same time they're prey animals. They always
on alert for something to come out and bring it harm,
(07:51):
so they have to move a certain way. They're listening
for certain things. And so when we study just the
herd's behavior, there's a lot of lessons that come back
about families, about community and how we can function as
a community as a society. But secondly, when we talk
about this energy, there's some practices where I can have
(08:12):
a horse next to me and make that horse move
a certain direction without saying a word, just projecting my
energy where I position my body, and some we call
that pressure. So I'm standing here at the horse's hind
parts and I'm just emitting this energy and start to
move a certain kind of way. But likewise they can
(08:32):
also because of energy. Hear how fast my heart is beating,
they can know if I came into the session agitated, right,
and then they may reflect that in their behavior. So
it's a science to this. It's called evidence based practice.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I'm all in and evident's basis science, man, And that's
what science is. Do you like I do? Always? Well?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
You know, I had this dream coming up growing up
in New York and huts the valley there.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
It must have been from TV watching a Lone Ranger
or something.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I said, Man, I want a horse.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I want a horse. Mom, I want a horse. And
so then I go to our south to my mother
my grandmother's house. In the backyard, my cousin has a horse.
Now he grew up in the country. Though he's jumping
up on this horse. He's all over the place. Then
finally they asked me, you want to try it? Now
I'm New York.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Usha.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yeah, Now he didn't have any saddle on this horse.
I get up on this horse and all I remember,
Peter and Poet go is that the horse's hair stuck
right through my pants and I jumped up off that horse.
And at that time I was a junior in high
school and I didn't get back on a horse again
until that experience in throwing cross down in Pennsylvania, and
(09:51):
at that time I was probably fifty something years old. Now,
since then I fall in love with the horse. Horse
is a majestic.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Animal as far as yes it is. It is, and.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Someone they call it a celestial.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Being English or Western.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Boy, she got it all down. I have never tried
English yet, mostly Western at this point, but I have
become seen that writing of English, the style. Right here
in the town of Newburgh, there's the Gardener Farm, it's called,
and they have these competitions out there. Sometimes the old
(10:27):
sergeant Major would just go and watch and say to myself, Man,
if I had to do it all over again, I
might try English.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Now explain to our listeners what the difference is.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
One is a more formal practice of high up a
certain uniformity in clothing, right, and it's rules associated with
I think they without making stuff up over in England,
how they would have these competitions and so forth, And
now that has carried on and now called English. So
(10:57):
the Western is more of the Cowboys. You will right
out of style ye inclined to be.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
If you're just tuning in, you're listening to finding Out
with Pete and the Poet Gold. I'm Peter and I'm
the Poet Gold. And we're here today with our guest command,
Sergeant Major Mustafa talking about his upcoming event, three day event.
Actually that starts today when you're probably hear it on
the podcast and we'll go we'll be live tomorrow or
three day event. Nowhere is it going to be taking
(11:25):
place again building on resilience.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Day one is at the American Legion Post sixty three
to three O'Connor doyle American Legion Post sixty three, sixty
three three in Highland Falls, New York. That is the
Wellness Workshop and that will take place from ten am
to one pm. All are welcome, by the way.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Second day is the All White Affair and the Veterans
Resiliency Awards Gala. This is the tenth annual and this
one will be at the Bear Mountain End, the Historic
Bear Mountain Ends, which is part of the State park
there in the Bear Mountain. But we'll be there at
six pm for a cocktail.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Hour next Saturday, June twenty.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Saturday June twenty, that's got you, that's right, And then
concluding with June twenty. First Sunday will do prayer, breakfast
and a equine experience we call it, and that will
start at nine am and go to one pm.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Now I'm fascinated by you introducing yourself in this show
with your own abilities to adjust the civilian life. Now
we never met before. You I know, you know Poke Call,
and you know Uncle Mike, but we're meeting for the
first time, and I would accuse you of being like
(12:44):
congenerally charming. Oh wow, Now, how is it just somebody
with all your social abilities which I would imagine you
would never have a nervousness or on socially, explain to
me how that works. I have the trauma you had
(13:08):
in the past. Trans is an issue even though you
have conspicuous social gifts.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Well, you know what I tell you what you guys
are certainly a dream team because now you're hitting home
runs just like That's a great question. I thought about this.
I used to be the lead counselor for transitioning service
members at West Point, United States, saw a military academy
when I first got out of the military, and one of
the things I thought about often in that job was
when I was a first sergeant, that is a person
(13:38):
that is over a company level organization and more the
disciplinarian and the trainer of the of the organization. I
was in a unit that was responsible for bringing people
into the military, and it was a term used called
soldierization process, the soldierization process. So we as as cadre
(14:01):
by taking these young men and women and we're taking
them through the soldierization process. Well, now that I was
a transition counselor helping people leave the military, and I
saw one common thread. Whether they was a private, which
is the bottom of the tier of the ranking system,
or it was a full kernel, there was one constant
(14:22):
and that was the anxiety about what's on the other side.
So I said to myself, well, if there was a
soldier such a thing called a soldierization process, then what's
the process to bring us back. So we have a
transition counselor that give you a class on resume writing,
We'll give you dressful success, We'll tell you interviewing.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Skills, how to get a job.
Speaker 5 (14:47):
How to get a job. We never touched on the
emotional nature of leaving an institution that, for lack of
a word, have turned you into thing. So there's certain
skills in the military, like being aggressive, as we're rewarded
for when you come back into civilian life that.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
May look a little odd.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
So that to answer your question directly, when I came out,
I had an experience when I volunteered to be the
chairman of the Fourth of July Committee in twenty fifteen.
I had this one meeting and the young lady said
she we were brainstorming. It's a bunch of us, and
she put I said, okay, listen, if time is a resource,
we don't have a whole bunch of it. Let's put
one more thing and be done with it. Let's see
(15:32):
what we can do to rank these things. That lady
put another thing up there just blew me completely off,
I said, trying to calm myself. Then finally I said, look,
the meeting's done. We've done, and she said you're rude,
and I said, I'm the sergeant major were you talking about?
But that turned into me being a ogre. I realized
(15:54):
that I lacked the people skills at that moment that situation, right,
So go back to self discovery. Is it really answering
your question? Since that time of being a little bit
more aggressive, I've been to Columbia University got a master's
degree in social work. That's like being in counseling for
two years, right, helps off.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Me make you more personable, approachable.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
You know, there's a way in which this is not
entirely true, but I bet it has some truth to it.
Be your opinion. There's a way in which you might
not want self knowledge in the military what you want
as a group knowledge. In other words, your individual quirks,
(16:43):
who a personality traits is not relevant to such a
communal activity as I'm being in the military. And then
when you go back to society, who you are individually
really counts.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
That's another good spot on type of observation because one
of the biggest challenges for me when you come out.
So probably why I did so well in military because
I played sports in high school. I played basketball, football.
So military is a team sports, right, It's a team
of teams, and so if you can play well with others,
you can probably do well. But now you come out,
and I like to use the terminology of people then
(17:19):
become free radicals, right, you're kind of floating around without
something to latch onto, without a group right now. In
some instances, the earlier wars that we had the vfw's right,
Veterans of Foreign Wars, we had the American legions, right,
These places really catered to the World War Two and
the Vietnam kind of folks. Post nine to eleven, our
(17:41):
younger folks didn't really feel not that they weren't welcome,
they just didn't feel comfortable in no setting, right.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
And probably still suffered from a lack of community belonging
isolation exactly right.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
So that's why creating something like the Veterans Resiliency Coalition,
which is my nonprofit organization, and there's others. We're creating
these platforms where people can connect, right in order to
combat isolation, because when isolation comes, some other things could
be loneliness, could be depression, it could be that you're
now self medicating right right, right, So really to get
(18:16):
at the heart of really connecting people and.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Then it begins to dismantle the family structure bingo you
know as well.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Yeah, now I've experienced that even with being a startain
major and coming out fifty years old, I'm like, it's
almost like you got this kind of complex scenario where
you're from a place which you don't feel like you're
of the place anymore. Right, So, even your my mother
or my brothers and sisters, it took a while to
(18:46):
readjust to each other. Right. But in the midst of that,
some people never get there, and so now all of
a sudden you start to have this disenfranchisement from your
family or your community.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
I've I've often said people that those who have served,
particularly those who may have seen combat, it become back
a changed person. You You cannot go through an experience
like that and not be impacted in some ways. So
so to sort of have the expectation that your loved
(19:20):
one is sort of going to just pull up a
chair at the table, you know, and everything's going to
be fine, I can only imagine that it would be
a surreal moment for them. You know.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Love how you described that sitting at that table.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Yeah, man, that was so. I actually had a bit
of a flashback as you were talking, because you're one
hundred percent right, come back out of those environments and
be in a place where people really don't know what
you've experienced, right, and they can't really get it. It's
hard to get it if you were never there right right, right,
(19:53):
And so then all of a sudden, you're sitting there
and you're dealing with these anxieties or you're dealing with
these and even you, the person experiencing them, can't explain.
But then some people they just think that you could
just hit a switch and get over right, hit a
switch and just go back to who you were prior
(20:14):
to experiencing that, And that's not.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Realistic, right if you're just tuning in.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
You listen to Finding Out with Pete and the Poet Gold,
and I'm the Poet Gold, and we're having a wonderful
conversation with Command Sergeant Major Mustafa talking about his upcoming
event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
Man, you know what, just as I observed you to
Peter and Poet Go, I thought about being interviewed on
the radio in vs Baden, Germany. I thought about being
on the radio in Somalia, Moga, this Isshu and all
over the world. I've been on the radio. But I'm
looking at YouTube. You are an all star team where
you're tag teaming this thing back.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
And forth to you, sir, true or not, thank you
doesn't have to be true to be grateful.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Let's let's remind our listeners about one how to get tickets.
If you have a website, let another website, you know
how to get in touch and be a part of
you know, your organization and your event.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Yeah, so tickets still available for the tenth annual All
White Affair and Veterans Resiliency Awards at Bear Mountain End
on Saturday, June twentieth at six pm. You can go
to www dot Veterans Resiliencycoalition dot com. That's our website,
and on that website you can find tickets. If you
(21:41):
have any challenges with that, you can call eight four
five six eight two one three three seven and then
somebody will.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Get you straight and repeat that phone number again.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
Eight four five six eight two one three three seventh.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
I like the idea if you have challenge, is just
with that automatically challenge and I want to give you
a chance to clear something up. Calling something an all
White affair, I can get some some people, give some
people a ruining. You know you have a white beard,
but it stops there. Right. You want to explain to
you all white.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
That was a vibrational moment because, as I said it,
something in my mind that they're going to need to
be a little clarity. And then we're talking about the attire, folks.
All white attire is the uniform of the day. Remembery,
this is a military type of gathering. I got to
put people back in uniform so that way, at least
(22:41):
one night, they could feel like they're amongst their comrades.
If you have some metals, you can put the medals
on if you like. But the attire is all white.
The audience is very diverse. Everybody's welcome.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Saying all white. In the world today, some people might
feel excluded. Some people might feel overully proud of themselves.
But you know, I'm happy that that I'll clear it up.
And I went to an all white event last week.
My a nephew was married in France and his wife's
(23:18):
family is from Chad in Africa, and they have a
tradition of dressing ail in white, and so everyone had
a dress all in white and the bride and this
the night before the wedding, but the bride was all
in red and she was wearing a crown. This woman
was born in Houston, Texas, but she's a black woman's
(23:41):
family is from Chad. She's wearing a crown comfortably, She
were okay, and she had her whole hand done in
chatty and design. They have like temporary tattooes or something,
And it was surprising. And so I had a bit
of a hint of some events in which everyone dresses
(24:03):
in white, and that was the only one I've ever
been to. But the event you have coming up makes
a lot of sense.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Yeah, well, thank you for sharing that story, because what
came to mind is that that that woman certainly sounds
like a queen, and so before she should wear that
crowd the art that she probably was wearing, it was
probably called Hinda if you know anything about that type
of temporary tattooing.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
That's right. You know, she lives in New York City,
so she was able to find somebody who knew the
Chattian tradition one hundred and forty fifth Street and Broadways.
But you can find a lot of things in New
York City that you can't find in Beacon Open Keepsie.
(24:46):
And so she was all done up.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Well similar to what you just witnessed and described eloquently.
We have culture in the military, right, and so these
types of events we would call a dining in or
a dyning out or a military ball. And so therefore
I'm trying to slightly replicate that not all the formalities
call it a party with a purpose. Right, So we
want to get at the heart of veteran suicide and homelessness.
(25:12):
But I want to kind of do what I used
to do in the military. That's trick you into training.
So now we come to this party, because everybody loves
a good party, right, But I got an important message
to hit you with.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Absolutely, then we're going to turn the band loose.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Let that vibration hits you.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
I have a great mentor that you that you've met
mister Arrington Tree Arrington, and he's always say the message
before the party.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That the message before the party.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
He had a bunch of junior high school kids and uh,
if you don't get the message, you don't get to
the party. And he enforced it strictly. If you were
not you, we're not going to sneak into the party
after you missed the Uh.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Right, you had to show your report card that was
your passing, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Wow, Yeah, and very brush by you know. The real issues.
You deal with a suicide and depression and you know,
very serious human things. And you know, you have an
organization in which I could imagine some people who would
be nervous about going to a party like that, you know,
(26:19):
like having an anxiety and it's a party. Is they
ultimately to serve them, you know, through the programs that
would make them more comfortable. Absolutely, right.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
There are some people that have still a challenge with
being amongst crowds or being in groups of people that
they don't really know, and so we try our best
to make it comfortable for folks. One of the other things,
quite frankly Poet and Peter, is that so at that event,
which is also evidence based really because music also is
(26:51):
a healing mechanism. So I won't do anything without music, right,
So we got horses on one hand as an intervention,
and then we have music on another hand is an intervention.
And then Friday, if you show up at the American Legion,
you're gonna get a little meditation, you're gonna get a
little acupuncture, and then you're gonna get acute pressure, which
(27:13):
anybody who knows the distinction knows that. So acupuncture, somebody
can put needles in certain parts of your body and
relieve pain and all kinds of things. But there's acute
pressure where you can do that yourself by touching certain
pressure points, this one in your hands, So all these
kinds of things. So we're going to try to make
it comfortable and welcoming, and so we reduce some anxiety
(27:36):
by putting it in white because it's just a calming color.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
And you are open to a very wide range of healings,
you know, from from music to touch to horses. You're
open to healing in very very different ways. Exactly right,
And how did the vests that sometimes they might think
(28:03):
do they think sometimes it's not for make music, it's
for entertainment.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Now, I think there's folks who in any background, whether
they're vets or their common folks or their civilians, people
sometimes just don't know what they don't know. They have
to be exposed as something to experience it to know. Wow,
that's pretty decent.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Now.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Where I found this evident, that is when I took
this practice in twenty twenty two out the Houston, Texas.
I went downtown Houston to the Lama Ridian and I
partnered with the United Way of Houston to do my
holistic health part of it. In fact, I took three
practitioners from New York with me, folks who could do
meditation and mindfulness and various things. They flew out and
(28:45):
then we put on the holistic point and then we
did the white party in downtown Lama Ridian and then
we came out to a farm called Brookside Village Ranch
and doctor Beverly Walsh, a psychotherapist, and we turned that
thing out out there in Houston. And that's what I do.
He has some special I know it works in New York,
right right. I wasn't so sure if I took it
somewhere else. What would happen is boom home run. So
(29:07):
we went to Houston the very next year, did it again,
and then following year to San Antonio home run. Now
we're invited to go to the Asheville, North Carolina, if
you know anything about that place there just a couple
of years ago had a huge flood recovering from. Yes,
but I went down there at the keynote speaker for
a Veterans Day in twenty twenty four, and then they
asked me to bring this three day healing operation.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You know, I'm not. I'm just sure make you know
the orf from here poetry, especially when the poet colds,
that's a whold of it has the healings a mention
to it. Well, you don't want me to brag about you.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
He's always bragging about me, you know, but he knows that.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
You know. My workshops deal with helping people find their voice,
you know, and processing their I called them non traditional
poetry workshops because they're really about healing.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Absolutely positively. I'm a believer that falls in the realm
of art, right and so so so I include poetry.
We haven't got there with a specific program yet, and
certainly I'll be looking to the great poet goal for
advice and how we bring that as a collaboration in
the future for veterans, because I'm a believer in that.
(30:22):
I've also done art therapy personally with the drawings, yes,
and coloring using coloring books.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Okay a goal.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Are we coming to the end at.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
The end, and wow, wow, we need another session you
know well, Command Sergeant Major, thank you for being with
us here today.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Folks. Make sure you get your ticket. Give them the
number one more time eight four.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Five six eight two one three three seven website www
dot Veterans Resiliency Coalition dot com.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Okay, well, I'm Poe of Gold and thank you for
listening to finding out repeating the Poe of Gold
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