Gratitude Is Everything

And I do this with inspirational insights and conversations with celebrities and everyday people like you and me, Because if you want to be better and you want to do better, then you're going to have to be able to see better. So join me on this journey of living our best lives and understanding and realizing how you are your greatest assad. I met up within old improv friend the other day.

His name is Christian. We took in a minute together over at the Groundlings and I immediately told him, I said, your genius, I have a lot to learn from you. Fast forward a couple of years later, I learned that he has taught all over the world and prov has went through several programs schooling for it and I always said, I got a lot to learn from you. Well, we probably haven't seen each other for a couple of years now,

we know, with everything going on with the pandemic. And we sat down the other day and just yesterday in fact, and we had a conversation about where we are in life and what we're doing. And you know, on this podcast, I've been constantly talking about how I'm working on our vulnerability. Well, they say vulnerability is your source of power, it's our way of connecting, it's our way to saying I'm just

like you. But in this conversation with Christian, we talked about how important it is to have vulnerability when it comes down to your characters, because there's an emotion that you're conveying, there's a point of view. But what he broke down something and I want to share with you, is he talked about the difference between being vulnerable and authentic. And immediately I was like what, And he said, well, if you think about it, vulnerability is more than likely

lead by ego. I'm lane Dan, he said, because you're kind of in the way of telling the story, you're instructing it the way to go, almost as if you are giving it a direction versus Authentic is just whatever you feel in that moment. Whatever you feel that is what you are expressing. Now, I don't believe neither are wrong, but I do think how it is important to really tap into our authentic selves because it's in our authentic selves that we give ourselves permission to exist. We give

ourselves permission to breathe. Oftentimes we have a trouble with vulnerability and opening up is because we can't control the narrative after we've shared a part of us. So now I share something with you. I can't control your thoughts. But what freedom is that being concerned with that rather than feeling or being authentic of whatever it is in that moment. And as I say, you grow from that moment. Be that moment, exists in that moment. It's kind of

like when things are led by your ego. It causes a lot of strength, causes you to hold onto things, can't breathe, choked up, Relax and just work on being You give yourself permission to feel whatever it is that you need to feel in that moment. Be in that moment and grow from that moment. Just be authentic, right with me and get excited about. So the day after I walked outside, my car was gone. Thank God. Shout out to my neighbor Jackie. She's been looking out. Jackie

is a real one. But anywhere. I said, well, we've haven't been here before. But what do I need to get done? While I still got the car? So I said, all right, let me go ahead and get all my groceries together. I was thinking of the heaviest things. Let me get gallons of water on water because those are things that you know, my bike that would be more of a challenge to carry um. And also along with getting the groceries together, I said, oh, I gotta do

my laundry. Now, I'm just so grateful. Sidebar, let me just say, I've noticed how much I've been saying grateful now that I don't have that car, because I said that I was not grateful for that car. And I know you're like, Dona, can you still say that even right now? I can't even say that there's a testament how grateful I was for the car when I had it, because I can't even I never even gave the car nade.

And you know, when you're grateful for something you treasure read you honor read you show it off not to uh provoke somebody else. It's not about that. You just embrace it. I was sometimes that bears to pull up places with the car. I know, I no, and look we out here on two wheels anyway, catch it? So fast forward back to what I was saying. So I had got a dumb early because Jackie was like, okay, Dawn,

I got some errands to do in the morning. Um, you know, so what as long as you know I have the car back like nine or something like that. And I'm infamous. Infamous that's a negative thing. I am well known as a person or I've always been the type of person that I functioned better in the morning, like my brains on. I prefer to even go to

sleep from like ten to three. I remember high school going to sleep in like ten and three, or in college and a way about four or five, and I can get that paper and I can get whatever done because I'm fresh and ripe. I say all that to say I accidentally fell asleep trying to get everything together. My body was probably going through shock. Mentally, I'm going through shock. Emotionally, I'm going to through shock. Hell, I just told you today before I walked outside and my

damn car was go, can you imagine? And you don't even know what's going on anyway, I'm still trying to come to two. But what do I say? Just like with anything, and just like I was telling Jeremiah when I first came to video, like she's gonna come your wife, but you just gotta put one ft in front of the other. I gotta think about what is it? How do I keep moving? Not saying I'm not feeling, but moving anyway? Fast forward. I'm outside at the laundry match.

It's about what four thirty five o'clock in the warning doing laundry. I'm outside and um, how to put the clothes in there? So I'm gonna say I'm about to hear I'm hit my j So I met the holy I like to. I want to call him Homie Harry, his his homeless man. His name is Harry. So he pulled up. One thing I learned about in New York is that And I don't know, Maybe it's just a gangster in me because you know, always sound from Detroit. What up though? And I think it's important too, is

that people want to be seen. I think and and and that could be in safe situations and even in situations that you may not feel safe, Uh see somebody, And even when you want to know somebody, you gotta see somebody. So one thing I learned about in New York. When I'm walking to the street, and I feel like, if I wasn't unsure, let me let you know that I see you, and I'm going to acknowledge. So if you decide to pull up me, let's believe I see you anyway, So here go Harry outside. Harry is a

older Caucasian guy. I think at the time, I think he said he's about fifty. So, like I even wrote it in my dang old notes because I said I was gonna talk about this. And he was on a kind of like a walker, but one of those walkers that you can sit down and it becomes a cheer as well. So he um he asked me. He said, uh, some I'm like, you got a cigarette or something like that. I was like no, and he was like, oh, that's

such a just like can I hit that? I was like, it's COVID out here, But you know, I had another jay on deck, so I was like, let me give it to him. You know. And at this point I said, let's have a little conversation. Who was Harry. So we were talking and I said, I said, where were you sleeping at He said, oh, I slept a couple of hours, um, by the bus stop. Now one thing, let me just put as a sidebar, and I'm so grateful for Janice Hill. My mother was big on speaking. I may have said

you now, I may have. I know I said it. You've heard me say this before, or how we would be riding around in the car and my mother would be playing phonics the phone alphabet about how to pronounce, how to speak, how to do anything and what. That has allowed me the confidence to talk to people that could be the CEO down to a homeless man on the street. And here it's proof of that. So back to Harry. So we began to talk and he was telling me about just traveling when he's lived and he

said he's from Michigan. I looked at him. I sit on from Michigan too, And he went on to tell me, um, how he was from, you know, Traverse City, I believe. And I didn't know that that was like the capital for like cherry picking or something like that. But I thought that was amazing. So in that about he was telling you all the places he had lived, and I

two had shared with him. I was like, you know, yeah, after Detroit, you know, I went to Howard and Washington, d C. Then lived in New York and came out here and he said, man, I had me some ball. I had a ball. I said, you did, And you know I looked at us here here, I am. I didn't graduated college. I may not be on the street. But it remember, like I said before, like everything is always on the flip of the side of a coin.

It's always on the other side of the coin. So don't think it's you in one situation that you didn't top somebody else so that you can't be there. Everybody has a story. Um, so he said, I saw. I asked him. I said, um, do you regret any other things that you've done or how you lived your life? And I can't even listening back and even saying this to you right now, I can hear how that was a tinge of judgment because it was like, oh my gosh,

you have so much fun at the time. I don't feel like it was, but I feel like it could have been or maybe this is me overthinking because it's like, Dawn, Well, what did you mean by that? I don't know, But anyway, he said he had had some funny a living. I said, well, do you regret anything? I said, looking at all the things that you've been able to do, all the things that you've done, did you regret um where you are right now? And he looked at him. He said, well,

I've been on my own since I was fifteen. Yeah, I I don't know. For some reason, that just hit me a little different because I think oftentimes we walked these streets, and especially if you live in l A and you've been down to Skid Road, there are so many like the homelessness epidemic is just insane. In fact, you have heard me mentioned before. You know, I had Marian on the show, and Marian when I first moved out here, Marian stayed downtown and I stayed with him.

I thought it was the whole stale hell, it could have been hostile, and how many homeless people that we walked around the streets and says my god. But anyway, I say all that to say is that everybody has a story, and I think oftentimes we are so quick to judge somebody and not realizing that they were to somebody's baby, They were to somebody's person, They too had its love and aspiration and dream. They too had a

life that was beyond what you see right now. And remember I said how I feel like there was a layer attend to judgment. Perhaps that's what Harry felt as well, because it was interesting that his response was, I've been on my own since I was fifteen. He said, his mother, I think he believed. I believe she said that she died of a stroke in her sleep. Then two years after that, when he was seventeen, his dad died. So his whole time and figure it out. And then another

thing hit me to the core. He was talking about drinking. I don't know how we got on drinking, and I don't know if we had talked about other drugs he had done. I'm not sure about that, but he said that he had started out with drinking. I guess that's how he started out, you know, dippling, dabbling, having his fun, and he started because he was so shy. And they hit me to my core because I have uncled us a severe alcoholic. When I say alcoholic, I'm talking about

if he doesn't have a drink, he would have a seizure. Everyone. I'm outique and we are investors in tenoral Seller's wine company, like sharing, subscribed to Parkers available wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And you know, that's only be a whole other story that we are going to explore one day. Because um, uncle Derrek got a big impact in life. It wasn't until my mom was on her deathbed that I said that I forgive him. So there's some layers

on layers on that. But what it reminded me of the story my mom used to say about my uncle Derek is that he was incredibly shy and how he would loosen up has had a few drinks. And you know, whether the narrative is right or wrong back in the day, and I say, back in the day, Harry about fifty something.

Growing up in the fifties, sixties, seventies, it was something about being a man, being strong, being confident, and if you didn't have that and just like some people used today, whether we want to get things or drugs or hair makeup, I don't know, to make us feel good, to be more confident, to what so that we can be seen in her. So anyway, he goes on to tell me how his parents had done and basically how he had

raised himself by himself. And I thought to myself, I said, man, how many of us are just getting by raising ourselves with ourselves, doing the best that we know how. And it just made me think that perhaps slow down on judgment, slow down, because that could be you one day. In fact, even on my ride today now. So I ran into Hero Area a couple of weeks back, right, and I was grateful because that was a great conversation of hell. He taught me something because I didn't know Travors City

was like the cherry capital of whatever. But I was reminded about what it is to be a person and how everybody we're doing the best that we know how, and sometimes you slip and fall, but sometimes you just gotta give somebody a moment to let them know that EY seen and they heard because they got a story so fast for today. On my way here this morning, I'm at Nova. His name Josh Nova fly is hell. Nova had on He had on his flip flops, white pants, black shre flias glasses. He had a bag in the

bag he got all types of treats and snacks. He got this bag that you could probably put on for your for your bike. Let you can zip up and put compartments in there and it latches onto the bar. He had honey buns, he had I think he even had some whoppers in there. Hell, he was even trying to sell me some air raids. I looked at him. There was some pearl areas. I said, I'm not even that girl, like I said, do I look like I would wear something like that? And he left, But I said,

I said, where are you from? He say, I'm from Santa Monica, And immediately I thought about cat Dog, Cat Dog. He runs the board over very Harvey. And we remember at the time that because even now when I think of Santa Monica, I don't think like a lot of black people or whatever. And a lot of things have changed because at one point it was a predominantly black neighborhood area. But this was my invitation because I wanted to get to know Nova, because he was very artist

kill it how he stood up. There was a story of Nova. His birth name is Josh Before this Nova that I was there and I was hoping to talk to him more and furthermore, let me just say that's the reason why I had to go talk to Nova, because he pulled up a little close. And what I mean by that, like I say, I need to let you know that I see you. And I wasn't about the budge because I'm sitting on the bench and he came up close, and I'm like, all right, I said,

what's up? I got my bag a little closer, got everything closer, just so you know. But he happened to be a cool person. So anyway, he said he was um from Santa Monica and I said, oh, did you go to school? He said, he went to Santa Monica College a couple of years and in his route he had lived in Michigan, he had lived in Ohio. I think even said he enjoyed Vegas. I didn't get a chance to really see the story. But then again, I'm grateful because I had a chance to see a person.

I had a chance to also have a realization about just life in general. How there's so many stories to our lives and at the job, but the dime, it could just be you because here I am in this studio in Charmanov's California. But how my dream were people that I aspired to be making millions on millions of dollars use the same equipment. But yeah, guess what, me

and Novo on the same damn bush. Huh huh. And again I was just reminded of gratitude that I'm able to keep going, that I'm able to move forward also, and that I'm able to see people as a person because I don't know what it was. It was something about that exchange, but it just felt felt so real and authentic. And Nova here came up to me because

he asked if I had two dollars. I was like, no, I don't have any cash, because you know not Now in the Metro, they got this thing where you use the tap card and you can use in your Apple walless, so you just load up their tap just a sidebar if you ever had to check public transportation. But um, I guess the blessing not, I guess the blessing was from him. They didn't even uh the machine wasn't even work on the bus. So he got on there. So we wrote a couple of stops, and I think, I

I'm glad I called him in that moment. I don't even know why I'm getting emotional. I'm glad I called him at that moment before we got on the bus, because, UM, I guess, like with anything, I don't, I don't really know. UM, you know, I guess if people are higher under the influenced. I guess you can go with abouts where you're in and out like you can be too, but then you

might get high for a second. And I'm grateful because I think I got a window where he wasn't in his whole high moment, because it wasn't until after we got on the bus that he sat down. I can tell he was rocking, he was trying to move, no weather, and I'm assuming that it can be how. Who knows he could have been dealing whatever mental disorder and mental illness if he had one. I don't even want to put that on him, but I knew that there was something all going on. But I'm grateful that I had

to know how. I'm grateful that I'm human enough to talk to him. I'm grateful that, UM, I can get these real life experiences because what I tell you, when I got gonna come out on the other end, it's gonna be crazy. I don't even like the way I just use that term right there. It's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be out of this world. And I just want to keep on collecting stories and keep on collecting memories of people so that I can share, because sometimes

you think things are impossible. You know, it's very naked and me sharing this process of me going to get my dream. But I'm grateful for it because oftentimes I think people are like, oh, don you don't go through nothing, or oh no, naked. I just had a little grace. You know. You you may have heard, but I heard this thing on social media. You never heard a tree growing.

And you just gotta keep going. You just thought the team just got that tall, without stretching, without expanding, without going deeper, We're going further, but I'll being more than it's gonna be. Well. Hell, that's what you gotta do for yourself. And that's going to take getting out your comfort zone. And damn, and I'm so damn uncomfortable. I came to the studio today. I was just like jeremiahstic, I just feel so dirty. I was like, don't even

touch anything. And it's no judgment, it's just what I felt. It was too much and I guess it even started out when I sat down on the damn up. But first of all, I said, Dawn, do we want to even sit on this bitch? I don't know, but I'm still working out the schedule of the time, and you know, it's like you'd better be early than late. And so because I'm coming super early. The second bus, I'm here and it's like a twenty minute stop, you know, a moment.

But the next time I'm gonna come later. But anyway, say, I'm sit down and this is one actually all hell kind of broke alongs because I'm not really with just uh um. I'm sitting there and I put my bad because I got the ring light with me too in my backpack, and I put the ring light on the lab to put my bag on top of that. The next thing I know, water just gushes out. I said,

oh hell. So I don't know, you know how like U you can have some have a slighting dust on there, but if you wet it, it can dirty up something. So I noticed, like my shirt got dirty. I was like, oh hell. And then I I was sitting there and I was like, oh my god, is this ship I'm smelling? I'm looking under the bench, I'm walking under my feet. I'm like, what is this coming from? All I know is that I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go to the next moment, and which I did, and nothing

was around me. So I was definitely fine, and I was definitely okay with that. But I will say, um, I just felt not clean. Uh and yeah, but it ain't a different going anywhere else. I was like doing, get over yourself. So the whole point is is that everybody has a story, um, and I hope that we get to the point that we can see people for their stories and who they are and not just for where they are right now, because we are We're more than where we are right now. I mean we we

learned that we see it when people die. I mean we know we see the death, the dates and when somebody was born in which they die. But you know, the story is the dash and you know, think about when you see somebody, you just looking at the date of today, But there was more life that they live. And that goes the same for you. More life in front of you and more life behind you. M Well, they say, they say it's more life behind you than

in front of you right, because we don't know. But I said all that to say, shout out to homeless man Harry, Homie Harry, shout out to josh A k a Nova. And you should have seen the smile on his face. I said Nova. I said, like out of this world. He was like yeah, so um yeah, that's all I had to say with that. Oh yeah, Pete this Uh did you would you like to be on the podcast? I want you to email us Vitamin D at during day speaks dot com. You can be a guest or if you have an idea for the show. Also,

you know, I take some advice letters. That's our Vitamin D Advice letters. That's where I give you advice on love, relationships, career, anything you need, I got you. But I always say be prepared when you email and all that. I'm gonna keep it real with you, because what do I say. If you want to be better and you want to do better, you have to be able to see better and that may be seeing some things that may be a little uncomfortable. But I want to be great, don't you.

So yeah, if you ain't scared, you about it because you bought that life. Because you're like going about greatness, go ahead and email me. I want to hear from you. Okay. Also, if you've done all that, then clearly you want to be down, So go ahead and tell somebody to tell somebody else that Doing Day got a podcast. It's called Vitamin D. It's available everywhere. And furthermore, go ahead and

um rat it. Yeah, put some stars up there and make a comment if you've been inspired, if you've had something to take this away and you feel like this can bless somebody else? Can you? Can you make the review while you go ahead and share and me in the world to me, you know, I'm gonna be making it over, So let's get this story to now. Okay. Also, would you like to know what we're doing in the

studio and what we got going on? Yeah, you can get the inside scoop along with some monivation, some inspiration Jeremiah on the Red carpet. You can follow us and Vitamin D Dawn Day where everywhere Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, fan base, Pinterest, Twitter, we outshide, and you can follow me personally. Uh Day speaks. I'm on social media some Hey, just maybe private because you need to announce yourself if you want to look

at me. Don't just be coming up in my house just waltzing up in here, all up in my business. What I'll saying? Who you are? I just gotta know that you that you there. That's it, So go ahead. And I just got back on Twitter. What my my bio on there is that, uh, nobody can judge me but me. I was born free. So what that means is I'm gonna say whatever the hell I want to say. I'm working on the god dang it. And you may not like it. It may not be this motivation. It'spiration

that you think it's gonna get. But you're gonna give me. And I am who I say I am. And if I wasn't, then why would I say I am? That's it. Get your right in mindy right here with me, and get excited about your lives