Episode 223 (Transcript): Making Friends with Change | A Conversation About Hope

Episode Transcript

Many thanks to listener, Rebecca Graham, for her work in transcribing this episode!

This episode can be found on any podcast app, or can be listened to here on our website as well. All the notes and resources we cited in the episode are found at this link as well:

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SH: Soft heart, Cynthia, soft heart. Where have we heard this idea before? That our hearts are supposed to be softened? CW: Mmm. SH: Interesting when I put it in the context of a faith journey, because I think that I suspected that I was gonna be accused of having a hard heart when I started to change direction…CW: Yes! SH: …You know, and struggle with some beliefs and reevaluate things.

CW: Oh my gosh. 

SH: Actually, maybe I was doing it just right._____

CW: Hello, I'm Cynthia Winward. SH: And I'm Susan Hinkley. CW: And this is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things and the title of today's episode is “Making Friends with Change | A Conversation About Hope.”

CW: Welcome back Susan. SH: Welcome back, Cynthia. I'm really excited to be here. CW: I am too.

SH: It always feels pretty exciting at the beginning of a season, CW: Uh-huh. SH: Sometimes by the end of the season we're feeling a little bit tapped out. Like, can we possibly think of anything else to say into these microphones? CW: Yeah. SH: But at the beginning, it's all about hope. CW: It is. But you know what's funny is I actually had to read our opening line, “We are women of faith discussing complicated things,” because it's been a while. 

SH: [laughing]CW: It's been a while since we're on microphones, and I was like, I totally forgot our whole intro. So luckily, that's great. It was written word for word in our notes, so it's a good thing we came back because I'm forgetting the very basic things about At Last She Said It.

SH: I think that means that you did the break right.  That's what I think. 

CW: Thank you! SH: Yeah. Well done. CW: Let's go with that. Right. Let's go with that. Well, as we begin Season 10, can you even believe it, first of all?SH: I can't believe it. CW: [laughing] As we begin season 10, you and I were thinking on break, not thinking too hard, 'cause you know, break.

SH: [laughing]

CW: But we were thinking about what our theme could be. And you texted me one day and you said, “What do you think of the theme of navigating change?” So, why don't you go ahead and tell our audience why you came up with that, because I loved it instantly, but let's hear a little more. 

SH: You know, I heard myself the other day on one of the interviews that we did, podcast interviews that we did, promoting our book. I heard me call myself a Warrior for Change. I don't know if you remember that, but CW: [laughing] I don’t. SH: When it came outta my mouth…sometimes you learn things about yourself like while you're talking, right. And that surprised even me. But I think it's true. I think I've become a warrior for change at this point in my life.CW: Yes. 

SH: And it's because it has been such a huge revelation to me, somehow as I get older, that change is the constant thing about life. I don't know why I thought it was gonna get better. I thought things were gonna slow down at some point, I guess, and that's just because I hadn't lived long enough, maybe.

But duh, I finally figured it out that this is the constant thing. And I mean, it makes sense if you think about life, it begins in change. I mean, you're this baby safe and happy, wrapped in this warm, dark place. You don't know what's going on, and then suddenly you're in this life and death struggle to be born.CW: Hm. 

SH: And then imagine finding yourself in the world all of a sudden, right? You got bright lights, you got beeps, you got noises, you got all kinds of stuff going on. CW: Mm. SH: You may have mom making unpleasant noises as she's trying to push you out. I mean, it would be really traumatic and it doesn't get better. Like, a few weeks later you are toted off in a baby carrier and you, like, you might find yourself in an Applebee's, Cynthia. Both: [laughing] SH: And so it's just like, I can't imagine how you go from being in the womb to being in an Applebee's in just a couple of short weeks. CW: Exactly. SH: But to me, it's a great metaphor for life because the traumas just keep coming. It's one after another. And so I figured out I better get comfortable with this. And so talking through it on a season of podcast episodes feels like a really good way, to me, to plumb my own depths about this, figure out how much I really have learned, how much I have figured out, and maybe teach myself some new things.

So, that's why we're gonna talk about it. I feel like every woman who listens to us is probably in a transitional phase of her life in some way, just because we all are. 

CW: We all are. And in this conversation, I feel like we're going to talk about, we're gonna kind of introduce that topic of navigating change, but maybe from more of a, like, 10,000 foot view.