Let Me Tell You This About That

Springing Forward to Growth and Change

• Hess and Delbert • Season 1 • Episode 27

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This podcast episode, hosted by Hess and Delbert, revolves around the themes of new beginnings, growth, and introspection, inspired by the arrival of spring and the celebration of Easter and Passover. They share personal reflections on the beauty of springtime, the symbolism of renewal, and cherished memories from their childhood, involving religious experiences and school days.

Throughout the conversation, they touch upon important societal issues, emphasizing critical thinking, compassion, and active participation in social and political matters. Hess mentions her participation in a protest, and both hosts discuss the importance of standing up for justice and informed action. They highlight the significance of obtaining news from reliable sources and engage in discussions about empathy, love, and unity, drawing parallels with religious teachings, especially the life and messages of Jesus Christ.

The episode also introduces the concept of somatic experiencing for emotional and mental well-being, suggesting techniques to manage discomfort and move forward. Delbert and Hess conclude with reminders to support the common good, engage in productive dialogue, and wish their listeners a joyous and reflective spring and holiday season.

Jose is getting his chemo--Help my friend José wipe out the Stage 4 cancer in his body! The Chemo has shrunk the mass in the colon, but the cancer in his liver has increased--so the chemo is going to be more powerful! Help him out and donate please.
https://gofund.me/e6f61999

In addition to being a podcast host, Hess is also an LCSW--if you'd like to learn more about her work as a therapist, check it out at www.jessicabollinger.com

One of her mission's is for all of our lights to shine--when we see each other and allow ourself to be seen--and we can say to the person in front of us, There You Are! the world will be an amazing place!

Delbert is a realtor in Louisville, KY, and you can find her at Kentucky Select Properties

Her philanthropic work to continue her sister Carole and niece Meghan is Carole's Kitchen. Blessings in a Backpack helps feed the many hungry students in our schools. The instagram account is: https://www.instagram.com/caroleskitchen.nonprofit?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==





Hess:

Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to Let me tell you this about that. My name's Hess.

Delbert:

Hey, this is Delbert coming to you live from the green couch. Again, happy Easter, everybody or Passover whatever you're celebrating today. It's a beautiful day in Louisville, Kentucky. How's it looking there in Lexington, Hess.

Hess:

So I'm in the white chair by my window in my bedroom, and I'm looking out through the backyard and I'm seeing the apple blossoms. I'm seeing green, I'm seeing Tyler's big ball out there in the yard. I'm seeing the asparagus pushing up in the garden, we added some compost to the other part of the garden. I'm seeing some dark rich brown there where I'll be planting tomatoes later on. Yeah, looking out and bringing the, my crews bringing the rest of the horses in this morning. It's all good.

Delbert:

It's what I love about springtime. It's a new beginning, it's a new day. And I, for me, growing up Catholic Easter I love it so much for all the symbolism for, new beginnings. It's almost if you didn't. Get it right in the new year. Maybe you didn't start out. Hey, it's springtime. It's a new fresh start, wake up and it's a new day. Things are blooming. There's just life and nature all around you. So just take that all in and make that a new beginning for you, for whatever it is that's on your mind, that's on your heart.

Hess:

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Delbert. And now I'm seeing a bunch of purple Martins all flying around the yard. The,

Delbert:

Oh wow.

Hess:

purple Martin houses have been reinstalled. They go about the end of August, they start traveling back to Brazil and they come back to the same place where they had. Where they had made their nest before and they really rely a whole lot on humans putting up purple martin boxes. yeah. Yeah. So it's really cool. That's what I'm seeing flying around in the yard.

Delbert:

Love it. Love it. I yesterday I revisited our eighth grade year. I was cleaning my house and like my mom used to play music when she cleaned and when I clean up, I've already said I feel close to her.'cause she loved a clean house. So I was listening to Jesus Christ Superstar and I. Mopping my living room floors and just singing away to all the songs and just took me back to eighth grade when Sister Maria and Father Flynn introduced us to that soundtrack and we just fell in love with that. We, would act it out, play all the parts on the playground. Dewey was our friend Nancy, who you've heard us talk about. She wanted to play Jesus. And we were like, you got it. Go. And then our other friend, Mary Denny, she recognized how awesome the songs for Judas were. And so she's I'll, and so Dewey and Mary Denny had this great, back and forth. Song they did together. And then Mary Wright, your cousin and I had a sing off for Mary Magdalene and she was bummed out that I beat her up, but I said, you know what? Why don't you beat Caiaphas or her? They've got great songs too. We were really about the songs. And then Hess and Tina. Mary Kay. All of our other friends on the playground were the disciples. And we'd all sing all the songs. Hosanna Hana the song from the Last Supper when they sing about shoot till this morning was these, was this evening. Life was fine. Love that.

Hess:

And

Delbert:

Love that. Part one of the one of the lines in the song is they say, look at all my trials and tribulations sinking in a gentle pool of wine. And they say, till this evening was, till this morning was the e this evening, life was fine. Look what happened in a day. They're at the last supper. Look what happened, look, What's the buzz? Tell me what's happening. All the great songs that the apostle sang, we were just into it. We did it the whole year. And I went to my sister's house last night and I said, I listened to Jesus Christ Superstar while I was cleaning my house. And she's oh my gosh. Every time I hear that, I think about you and your friends on the playground. So anyway I called Hess and I'm like, Hess, that whole soundtrack just makes me think about, a crowd mindset. One day, you know their Hana with Jesus, and the next day they're saying, crucify him. And you think about going back through Christianity and going back through history. We've had so many times when there's been a crowd mentality where people get swayed by hearsay. Rumors. And I told Hess I felt like I needed to say something I've told you about my papa, being one of the people who freed a concentration camp, and I see that prison in El Salvador, and I have to say, it looks like a concentration camp to me. I just feel like I needed to say something. So listeners we want everybody to be welcome and to be able to listen and you can certainly send us your opinion. But really my message today is be a critical thinker. Stretch outside your comfort zone. Listen to everyone. Listen to everyone and try to get that news from several sources because I think we're. We could be heading down a bad direction in history.

Hess:

Get it from, get Your News from really good sources. I read The Guardian. I read The Atlantic. I watch PBS News at night. Fox News, they've said, we are not news. And they, they had to say that they said that because they had lawsuits against them they said we're not news, we're entertainment. Please just flip a few channels, Google and try to find really good sources. So Delbert, I thought about, I went to the protest yesterday here in Lexington and sent you those pictures from there.

Delbert:

I'm so proud of you, Hess.

Hess:

As the pod today it's new beginnings and in new beginnings, we gotta feel it. We gotta move into action and we gotta use our voice when something doesn't feel right. Because that's how we move into something different is we need to move towards joy, right? If something feels uncomfortable, what do we need to do? We need to sit with the feeling, not push it away. It's important and we don't wanna numb it. We, you have to acknowledge it. And then also we've talked before. Don't let that feeling constrict. You don't let it freeze you. And Peter Levine is a psychotherapist and he developed the work of somatic experience. So I wanna explain that to you. Somatic experience is where you focus your, in your attention on the internal sensations rather than the cognitive your thinking. And so one of the somatic techniques that he demonstrates is taking a full deep breath. When you exhale it to make the sound deep from your belly, like voooh, and then take a deep breath in and Vooh and do that a few times rest and just notice the sensations in your body and then move physically, move. He points out that when we're studying, when they study polar bears and they shoot a tranquilizer into the polar bear, and then they can take the information on the Bear's health and they put a tracker on it or whatever. When the bear wakes up, Delbert, it slowly gets up and then he or she does this big shake and then it moves on. And Delbert, when you talk about new beginnings. The movement. To me, this movement is the new beginning. It's an action that we move into and that action makes a different, it's a difference. It's a step. then after we take that step, then we take another step and do the next best thing.

Delbert:

Exactly.

Hess:

So to me, spring is a part of all the moving forward. The daffodils first showed us their little yellow smiley faces, right? And now the red and purple tulips are up in my yard. The apple blossoms are in full rampage, and then here you are blasting Jesus Christ, superstar, as you clean your house with dawn yesterday afternoon.

Delbert:

And I, and I'm just having all these beautiful feelings about growing up and how free we felt, to just be singing and acting all this out every day on the playground. And I look up and there's my Desiderata that my Papa Charlie gave me when I graduated from eighth grade. And he framed it using, of course, construction wood, and,

Hess:

he stole from your dad's work site.

Delbert:

He borrowed and and it's a window pane. It's glass from a window is how he framed it. And, I'm like I need to honor him and speak my mind. I need to honor what he did so much. So I've got that hanging in my living room and I was just having a full on eighth grade moment yesterday. And a feeling, feeling how lucky we were to be able to express ourselves that way.

Hess:

empower. We felt empowered by singing Ourselves. Yeah.

Delbert:

did, we, I told you Mitzi Petri and Vicki Petri, their mom was our cheerleading coach, and Mitzi was in our class. They called me the other day. And we just talked so much about how lucky we were to grow up and to have the direction that we had and to be able to play sports and, express ourselves in the arts and all the things that we were exposed to. What a great. What a great time. What a great childhood we had. And so I think we're so lucky. We need to help people in that meaning, even if it's just got gently guiding you in a direction to open your eyes and experience the world in a new way, to think about things more critically.

Hess:

right. I remember Delbert in the sixth grade. Sister Maria, I was acting out. I was doing something that wasn't very good, and she looks at me eye to eye and she says, I beg your pardon, and boom. Yep, you're right. In my mind I thought, yeah, you're right. I'm doing something that really isn't, my core self isn't really my core goodness or core aliveness. So like that, excuse me, the Hona Hana. Jesus preached, loving all your neighbors, even the sick and the poor. people exalted him along that street ho on Hana Ho, and he was leading example, focusing on love and forgiveness. He encouraged people to act kindly and justly in their interactions. He taught that we show love through actions and not just beliefs. Yeah.

Delbert:

That's beautiful. And he was so connected to nature and to children. Don't forget that part of it, to love our earth. Love our children want, we wanna make the world a better place for them so that they can grow up and say they had a wonderful childhood that they were, I sometimes I feel like maybe my grandchildren are gonna have a similar experience growing up as we did. And the fact that, there's a lot of conflict of, the way people think and I think. What you believe. You need to really stand up for it. You need to protest like Hess did. I need to. I need to do that. I haven't been involved with one of our protests here in Louisville, and I need to do that.

Hess:

Delbert, Jesus. I wanna say more about

Delbert:

Let's talk more about Jesus. It's Easter. Yeah.

Hess:

He was healing the sick

Delbert:

Yes.

Hess:

thousands, and that highlighted his concern for people's needs. And that's just like your mission. Delbert with Carol's kitchen and blessings in a backpack. You're feeding the children, they're our future. And he focused on the core message of love and salvation.

Delbert:

Not judgment, not telling people they're wrong for what they think or who they love or how they feel. Jesus,

Hess:

was with all, he was with all the people.

Delbert:

all the.

Hess:

Delbert, I told you yesterday that I went to go pick up my boat. My boat's name is the relationship, two words relationship, I keep her in the high bridge springs. area, underground storage. And Highbridge Springs is a water company. Mr. Griffith bought this rock quarry in Wilmore, Kentucky, this old rock quarry, and there was a leak in the ceiling. And oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? It was a spring water leaking through the ceiling, so he started to bottle it. This is back in the early eighties when before bottled water. Really? Now, I asked my dad, I interviewed my dad like eight years ago or so. He was in his late eighties. I said, dad, what do you see in your life now that you thought you'd never see? You know what he said?

Delbert:

Bottled water.

Hess:

He said bottled water. I never thought I'd see water being bottled. So anyway, it's an underground storage place and I'm picking up my boat and I thought about that. That clicked in my brain this morning. Delbert, actually when I was taking my shower is I got my boat out of the cave and I brought it out the light.

Delbert:

Oh wow. Oh how.

Hess:

Yeah. So I'm driving back home down this country road'cause to Wilmore, ISS a little two lane, windy, windy road with barely an edge on the side of the road. It's not a very busy road, but as I'm coming home before I reached Wilmore,'cause it's out further past Wilmore, was a fellow walking along the side of the road barefoot with long hair and I had to slow down. I had to make sure nobody's coming. And I went around and I thought, could be that, that was how Jesus is represented, being barefoot and long hair. I said that. That person is Jesus. And that's a cool thing about Jesus is teaching that God is in all of us, right?

Delbert:

Yes.

Hess:

and I thought as I'm driving past him, what would people think? This person, oh, that person's walking barefoot. Is this a street person? A critical view of this person who's not dressed. And that's all judgment. That's all judgment, so I thought this could have been Jesus and it was

Delbert:

Yeah,

Hess:

is in everybody walking along the side of the road,

Delbert:

see Christ in everyone or whatever your faith tells you. Everybody. Is a child of the universe, right? No less than the trees and the stars, and everyone has a right to be here. And the only way we're gonna work things out is to listen to each other and to accept each other with love and peace.

Hess:

Amen. Amen. Jesus, his core message was love and salvation. and I'm not a theologian, Delbert, I went to Catholic mass every Sunday for 45 years of my life. And when I was 45 years old, I landed at the Unitarian Universalist Church and there's no doctrine, but just core beliefs and they believe in these seven principles. And as soon as I pulled in that parking lot, Delbert, I totally related to the bumper stickers on the car. It's okay.

Delbert:

Must be in the right place.

Hess:

So like the first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Okay, that's good. The second principle, justice, equity and compassion and human relationship relations. Yeah. Third, acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. Fourth, a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. That's what you're talking about, Delbert, to be a critical thinker. Five. The right of conscious and the use of democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. Yeah, we all have a voice just like yesterday at the demonstration.

Delbert:

Yes.

Hess:

The sixth principle. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. We are all on this earth as the ladies that went up in space for 10 minutes the other day, up in space and back down. You look back down at the earth and we're one globe, we're one, we're one. then the seventh principle, the last one is respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part. existence, all these different ecosystems. Us as human beings, we're just one, we're just one species of all of the different animals and insects around on the world. So Delbert,

Delbert:

Beautiful,

Hess:

that.

Delbert:

beautiful. Love that, love all of it

Hess:

I'm good with those principles. Yeah.

Delbert:

spiritual. And seven is a very spiritual number. I love that you have seven.

Hess:

Yeah. So anyway, back to Jesus. And you can believe in Jesus and be UU. You can believe in Buddha, you can be Jewish, you could be agnostic, you could be anything. And anyway, the celebration of the resurrection what we do in Christianity, Easter. It's about hope and joy. represents victory over death and the promise of eternal life. Many see this as proof that Jesus', divine nature and his teachings about love, redemption, and mercy, through those events, followers are inspired to embrace faith and spread kindness. So in springtime, with the blossoms and the asparagus poking up out of the ground and with warmer days, it's a perfect time to celebrate resurrection.

Delbert:

It really is. I was in a very spiritual frame of mine yesterday, called Hess and said, Hey, wow. I've been listening to Jesus Christ Superstar and Hess is such a good friend. She listened to me. She said, okay let's do it. Let's do it.

Hess:

So all the people that were down there at the courthouse square yesterday in Lexington, they were feeling something uncomfortable in their body. Something's not right. I need to speak up, I need to show up here. And there's a a movement called 50 states, 50 and I know that there were a whole lot more than 50 protests. In these 50 states because just in Kentucky alone, there were protests almost in every city. Yeah, but we were all there because we felt that we're uncomfortable with the executive Overreach. In our government, We each have a voice. We are the government. The government is the people.

Delbert:

That's right. I love that.

Hess:

And when you feel this connection, Delbert, that the El Salvador prison is just like a concentration camp. You're feeling that in your stomach, Your grandfather walking towards that concentration camp, smelling it for miles away, how these people are held captive. And here in El Salvador, the pictures that you see where they're all dressed the same, they have to have their head shaved. They're kneeling, they have their hands tied behind their backs. my gosh. You are feeling in your gut. Delbert. We can't be doing that. Be doing this.

Delbert:

And everybody is a human being. We're all a child of the universe, right? We're all connected. And I'm not saying that, we should allow people to, commit crimes, violent crimes, there's, there is, there's justice for that. But let's treat everyone like a human being,

Hess:

There's due process and Albrego Garcia did not get due process. It's been claimed that he's an illegal alien, that he's an MS 13 gang member. That's never been proven. He had the papers to be here. He was given a permit to be to work here legally, and they're calling a foreign terrorist. Who should be deported back, who is deported back and the press Secretary if he ever ends up back in the United States, he'll be immediately deported again. Nothing will change in the fact that he will never be a Maryland father. He will never live in the United States of America again, no Uhuh, not truth, that's not valid. All of those things. She's holding up a piece of paper saying that his wife had a a domestic violence order and Yep, that happened. she's on the podium. She's behind the microphone saying we went to therapy. I dropped the charges. We went to therapy, and we worked it out. Beautiful.

Delbert:

You gotta love that Hess as a therapist.

Hess:

that.

Delbert:

Yeah.

Hess:

love that.

Delbert:

Yeah. None of us are without fault or without flaws or problems in our lives. Our relationships we're human beings and we just have to give each other grace. And I told Hess, I said, I don't really want our podcast to be political because I want everybody to feel included and everyone belongs. But I also felt like I really needed to say something, and Hess gave me that grace too. Say something religious and political on here, and I appreciate that because I think we can't be a society that stays silent when we see something wrong and whether we agree or disagree, let's have a dialogue. Let's have a peaceful dialogue about what's going on in our country right now.

Hess:

To speak up if you feel it in your gut. To use your voice about anything. If you hear somebody talk and smack about somebody else, don't be silent. Say, Hey, you know what I don't like to hear those kind of things. Ooh, okay. I was talking to a friend that had been in this bad relationship with this narcissist and, she said she didn't allow the narcissist to zero in and not let her do her little bridge club every week that she did. She just didn't allow, he criticized and said, you need to stop doing that. And she just kept doing it and she kept, and. She showed up for what she needed to do and he stopped bugging her about it. He knew he couldn't change that. So you have to do what you know is right for you and speak up about it,

Delbert:

Exactly. So we hope that you

Hess:

anything, bridge club,

Delbert:

Your own, yes, your own life, Your own city, state, country, and the world. Stand up for justice, wherever it is. And so we, we hope that you just have a beautiful Easter, beautiful Passover, whatever you're celebrating today.

Hess:

Hey, Delbert.

Delbert:

a new beginning. What?

Hess:

Delbert, I wanna say this about that,

Delbert:

Let's hear this about that.

Hess:

That's what the pod is. Y'all. I heard about this app that you can get to your phone if there's things going on.

Delbert:

Oh.

Hess:

the, in politics or in the government, that feels uncomfortable to you, there's an app called 5 Calls, and that's what it's called, the number five calls. And if you load that on your phone, there'll be the list of different issues and they'll, and the question, Hey, what's. It's a, it's what's important to you. For instance, there's information where about opposing funding cuts to N-P-R-P-B-S or bringing Albrego Rego Garcia home and stop trafficking civilians to a foreign gulag or fight the Trump administrations to defiance of the constitution and the courts, or protect workers' safety or demand unfreezing of FEMA funds. Or oppose the voter suppression bill or stop the tariffs save the National Endowment to Humanities. That matters to you Delbert, because your darlings are all into the arts

Delbert:

Absolutely.

Hess:

defend scientific progress in the National Institute of Health. Protect the forests from unregulated logging, protect public health. And here's another one important to you. Delbert is restore USDA funding for food banks and schools.

Delbert:

Yes.

Hess:

Hossanna Heysanna a get out there.

Delbert:

Find out what's the buzz, tell me what's happening.

Hess:

Amen. Amen. Woo.

Delbert:

Thanks for sharing those Hess. That's awesome.

Hess:

Thanks for speaking. What was going on in your belly Delbert and what you thought, what you know is important to you

Delbert:

thank you it's the new beginning. Let's be thoughtful about the world that we're in.

Hess:

Feel it. Take a step and then take the next best step. We love you all. Thanks so much for joining us.

Delbert:

Be sure to like and subscribe and let us know what you think. Peace and love. We love you friends.