Podcast appearances and mentions of John John

On 2 October 1963, American photographer Stanley Tretick took the best picture of his life – a photo of President John F Kennedy working at the Resolute Desk in the White House, with his two-year-old son ‘John-John' peeking out a secret door underneath. The photo was published in Look magazine a month later, days after the President was assassinated. Rachel Naylor uses the transcript of an interview with Stanley, provided by the John F Kennedy Library and Museum, to tell the story of how he captured his most famous shot. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina's Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall' speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler's List; and Jacques Derrida, France's ‘rock star' philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world's oldest languages.(Photo: The photo Stanley Tretick took of JFK and his son. Credit: Alamy)

If John had ended with chapter 19, we would only be left with the end that comes to all mankind. A burial. Instead, he continues…

The Bishop's Hotwife: Part 4Asking forgiveness instead of permission.Based on a post by Wendy Trilby, in 5 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels."Saturday, Caleb has a soccer tournament all afternoon, and Sunday, oh, I know how much you love Sundays."Yes, I did, and she could see my eyes light up."Tell you what, you come to church with us, we'll take the crew to Sonic for lunch and then home; I'm pretty sure I can be plastic balls deep in your ass by two."She was so matter of fact about this."So, church?"I didn't want to go to church with her and the family, but there was a certain wicked allure to attending services, knowing I'd be feasting on her later in the day."Can't I just wait for you until after church?""If you're there with us, I know I'll be sweating just a little more than usual."She knew my kinks far too well. I couldn't resist her Sunday savor and quickly agreed.This strange conversation was made even stranger as she was now scheduling me to attend church with her, then the exact time she would sodomize me. Salvation and sin in a single afternoon.I didn't have to say yes, she knew I'd be there from the reaction of my cock that began to thicken rapidly. She gently stroked it and looked at it."You're right, seven and a half inches. Would you be a dear and get the coconut oil and that big ass plug from the bedside table?""Now?""If I'm going to shove seven inches up your cute bottom tomorrow, it's only fair you should shove your seven and a half inches up mine today.""You mean; ?"She bit her lip in a sensuous way and rolled over presenting her ass to me.I move quickly to the side table, my breath quickening."You're sure?""I've been waiting for you to knock at my back door for a while. That Gideon thing really put a damper on our progress."We had done just about everything else we could this summer, and now she was offering me her ass. Of course there was a price, my ass in exchange.I and been fingers deep, I had probed with my tongue, pressed my cock on that pink knot of door and had surrendered to the notion it wasn't going to happen, but now she was granting me entry.I found the coconut oil and the large ass plug and returned to her. She met me with a gentle kiss."Here's what I want you to do. Put that in me. All the way"She rolled over so she was face down, then took several pillows and shoved them under her tummy, so she was tilted down with her ass up. Relaxing, she and opened her legs, a trickle of my cum leaked from her pussy to my pillow covers.I approached her gently, smearing the soft coconut oil on her. The room was chilly enough that the oil was semi-solid, the consistency of soft butter. When it contacted her sealed puckernut, her body heat turned it to liquid in an instant. I wiped more on, gently poking into her tight ring with my forefinger. I pushed into the first knuckle and could tell she was receptive to what was to come.I took the large plug and pushed it against her ass. I was tentative, not wanting to bring any pain."You can go harder."With her permission I pushed again, and her anus dilated, opening a small gape, but that was all I needed and fed the pointed end inside to trap her muscles open.Another push and her anus widened with remarkable ease. At its widest this ass plug was thicker than my cock so I was confident she could accommodate me.When her anus was opened to its zenith, the plug was half in and half out, a push could reject it. A pull could accept it.Her muscles took over, a gentle squeeze and a pull the entire ass plug was swallowed the plug sealing shut with gentle fart sound, leaving only the jeweled handle showing."You've been practicing," I whispered."I know you want to cum in my ass," she whispered, "do you have condoms?""Really? We need condoms?""You can cum in my ass inside a condom. But then you have to put the contents into my cunt."I didn't have to ask why. She had made it perfectly clear all summer where my sperm had to end."No, I don't have any.""Go to my house. Bedside table, right side, under a booklet of evening prayers. There are some there.""You want me to go to your house for condoms?""No one is home. Go now while I let this toy relax my muscles. Hurry."I sat up and thought about this."This is nuts.""I want this for you," she whispered. "The backdoor is open."I assumed she meant the backdoor to her house, but either way, I jumped up, threw on some sweats, and hurried out of my house to the bushes separating our two homes.I looked around; no one was in sight, so I dashed for the back door. It was open. Inside, I hurried up the stairs, searching for the master bedroom.Once I arrived, I approached the bed, opened the bedside table, and saw a metal liquor flask.I then realized I was on the wrong side of the bed, so I jumped over to the right side, opened the drawer, shuffled through some religious materials, and found several condoms. I took one, shut the drawer, then opened it again and took two more. Why settle for one and done?I gazed at the enormous bed and envisioned Mandy in it with The Bishop. That diminished some of the excitement.But then I noticed her clothes hamper and lifted the top. Several pairs of her LDS garments were calling to me. I grabbed a pair and inhaled that scent that drove me wild. In seconds, I was back on track. I held on to the panties, stuffing them into my pocket to enjoy later, and I sprinted back to my house.Stashing the garment in a kitchen drawer, I wondered who I had become. Two months ago, if you had told me I'd be having an affair with the woman next door and now be stealing her used underwear, I would have laughed. But that was me now; and I didn't mind at all.I walked into the bedroom holding the condoms like a trophy.Mandy was on the bed, on her knees, facing away from me. I think she had been in this position since I left, enjoying the expansion in her rectum.Her hands were on her thighs just below where her ass cheeks met her legs. She was holding her ass cheeks open wide.The ass plug handle was glaring at me.I just stood there as she began to push. Her ass flexed and the ass plug pushed out then quickly retreated back in. She did it again, and again. Each time the plug came further out, widening her tight brown ring with each push."Can you push it out, or should I pull it?""What do you want me to do?""Push it out," I said. Goddam I wanted to see this.She bent forward and placed her hands on her thighs to catch her breath. She resumed pushing, letting out a small moan with each push. From this view I could see her long pussy lips hanging below her, thick from her lust.She was both putting on a show to please me and training her body to obey her commands, rather than nature's instructions. So, I practiced the virtue of patience.She gripped her cheeks and gave a strong push, the egg-shaped toy crowned. She gave another push, and it popped out, followed by a small rush of fouled coconut oil that had been trapped inside. There was a little noise, half air, half wetness.Then her asshole closed and quickly opened again. She flexed her core, and it remained open like a small mouth, fixed to whistle, ready for me to enter.She had a penchant for doggy style, something I realize other women liked as well. I always felt self-conscious in this position, because it felt so dominant, and I wasn't sure if that was my sexual personality; until this summer when Mandy assured me, she was mine to do with as I wanted. I grew to love the control doggy style gave me over her.Strangely, she had trained me to be more assertive, to encourage and bring out any dominant traits I had kept buried. So, as she presented her ass to me, I knew it was mine to enjoy; so long as I didn't cum in there.I quickly unwrapped the condom and rolled it on my cock. It was pre-lubed, but so was her ass as clear drips of coconut oil dribble down her perineum to her cunt.I chose to stand, bending my knees to bring my cock to the waiting hole. Her sphincter looked like a large round bullseye against the paleness of her ass. I wasn't sure how long she could keep it open, so I grasped my cock and pushed the thick cap past the open barrier.She groaned with pleasure as I expanded her slightly upon entry. Putting a hand back to my thigh, she slowed me."Give it a second, baby, just a second."I paused and could feel her tight muscles on my cock tip, slowly that grip faded and pushed forward."Easy now,""Oh my God, you're big. You're;"I wasn't sure if she was just trying to stroke my ego or making a declarative statement. I put one hand on her back, the other on my leg and continued inward.She let out a high-pitched howl, three times in a row, something I had never heard before.I gave a hard push."Oh my God, not all the way in yet, please." She begged.I hesitated. Then decided I was in charge and pushed inward. She reacted with a long groan. I gave several pushes then withdrew to admire her open ass.Holding my latex covered cock in hand I admired the view of her waiting for my next plunge. Her unused pussy lips were visible below, confused by the blood swelling them, but lack of attention.I thrust deep in her ass this time driving myself to the hilt. While the ass plug might have been wider than me at its midpoint it wasn't longer, and my cock entered the deeper areas of her rectum unexplored by fingers or toys.Her internal muscles went to work on my cock enclosing around it and doing what nature created them to do, ripple and pulse to expel anything in the area. So, while her rectum tried to push me out, I overpowered it will be pushing inward, and the battle of pleasure began for the two of us.I let out a low groan."You like that filthy hole, don't you?" she said.I certainly did, and I also enjoyed hearing her speak in this manner. Not that she didn't speak during sex; she was always vocal. But she didn't say things like that."All I could think of in church was that thick cock of yours in my ass," she continued. "I soaked my panties thinking of you."Wow, she was going places, but I didn't reply instead began to push and pull my cock creating a frenzy of pleasure. I responded with a groan, but she wanted more.I tried my hand at it."All I could think about in that hot church was to bend you over the pew and fuck your ass in front of the entire congregation."I pressed harder to emphasize my claim on her, and she responded with a long, submissive moan. I was confident the mental imagery I painted in her mind was compelling."I would make The Bishop watch me defile you."She liked that and replied."He would be so angry, knowing I let you in my ass."As obscene as that image was, it emboldened me to fuck her ass harder as I fantasized about The Bishop being forced to watch me take his wife in that sacred sanctuary.I could have finished but the position was causing my legs to cramp.I withdrew, my cock to with a loud fart sound from the air I had pushed into her colon. She was caught her off-guard, but I gave her no time to react and then dragged her body back, so her feet were off the bed, torso on the bed, and her ass was presented to me at the perfect height to defile it.A thick glob of coconut oil mixed with her anal moistures rolled down her inner thigh as I was quick to reenter her, only now I was pushing hard and no longer exploring her ass, I was fucking it mercilessly.But this position wasn't perfect either. I pulled out to another rush of air and noise."It feels numb; It's so good. Keep going," she begged.I moved her forward, this time flat on the bed, her legs spread open. I crawled on the bed on my knees, her ass under my balls. Guiding my cock back to the hole I desired. Perfect. This was the way to fuck a woman's ass.

The Bishop's Hotwife: Part 3Gideon Gets it on.Based on a post by Wendy Trilby, in 5 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.Walking around the impressive property, I was greeted by neighbors, some I knew, others I had never seen before. I recalled several of them being friends of my father.Walking by the pool, I found Gideon, Hannah's brother, who was the reason for the party. He was coming up the pool ladder, enroute back to the diving board."Gideon, congratulations on the mission. You must be very excited."Gideon stepped up to shake my hand. He was 18 and about to face adulthood directly. I was glad I never went on a mission, but I was also impressed by how much my LDS friends learned about life during theirs.Gideon's eyes were locked on the pool, and it was easy to see she was distracted by the attractive moms in their bathing suits."Hey, Ethan, welcome back home. I'm sorry to hear about your dad. He was such a great guy and even came to all my baseball games." I guess my dad and I both had some regrets. Dad was busy working hard and being a single dad. And then I've stayed away at college for years, hardly even calling my dad. It probably crushed him. And that's what probably led to his enjoying the Barton kids and investing in them."Really? I don't think he was at one of my football games. So, Chicago, huh? Not too bad for a mission. No need to learn a new language. Although you might want to brush up on your colloquialisms."Gideon was confused."If someone doesn't want to hear you talk about the Book of Mormon, just grab your balls and say, suck on this." It's like saying thank you in Chicago speak."Gideon laughed. I knew men his age had issues with the church, and as exciting as it might be to get away from home for a year, he was probably wondering what it was all for."Which college are you thinking about? No, wait, let me guess: BYU."Gideon laughed again. The chances of one of the Barton kids attending any school other than BYU were slim.His twin sister, Hannah approached. It was astonishing to realize how much she resembled her mother. I didn't want to sexualize her, but she was 18, and in the Mormon faith, some girls her age have two children by this point."The Bishop was asking for you." Hannah said with a warm smile. Gideon waved off and went back to the diving board.It always amazed me that the Bartons referred to him as The Bishop, rather than dad or father."Me? Why?""He didn't say.” Then she changed the subject; “Hey, do you know the Kristensons? The two oldest sons?""Buck and Hank, yeah. Buck was my year.""Could you introduce me to him? I know him kinda, from the temple, but you and he were friends.""Of course. If that's what you want. Buck's a little wild, though.""Hey, I can be wild too," she fired back with a devilish grin.Naturally, that would be the moment Amanda would walk up."Excuse me, young lady," her mother glared.Hannah turned beet red."I'm wild about skiing, too, Hannah. Too bad I'll be back at school when the mountains get snow."Hannah smiled, appreciative of my giving cover to her story. She left, leaving me with Mrs. Barton."What did I tell you about talking to Hannah?""She was talking to me, " I said defensively. "Look, this isn't a good idea. I'm going to leave, Okay?"Mrs. Barton looked at me and I could see she felt bad."I'm sorry. I've been rude to you. It's just that I'm under all this pressure, and I've got you and The Bishop, and then I have to wrangle all my kids. I took a Xanax and I'm waiting for it to kick in.""Hey, you're truly incredible. I mean, really incredible. I just don't understand how you do it.""It's because I care too much. I like to please people."Well, you sure know how to please me."I then tensed up and looked around to ensure no one heard that comment.She gently touched my arm and gave it a slow, sensual rub. From her touch, I could tell she wanted to be in our bed in my house."I'm going to head out," I whispered.She looked around and then leaned toward me."Follow me."She started walking toward the car barn, and I followed.The Bishop had built the car barn to house his collection of cars, cars he felt promoted his masculinity. The barn housed seven vehicles and the family's Gulfstream trailer. I immediately spotted something special: a 19 75 green Ford Bronco in mint condition."Wow, is this what you wanted to show me? It's great. Look at the condition. This is wonderful."She leaned on the hood of the vehicle like a car show girl."Want to see something even better?" She asked.She didn't wait for me to respond and turned so she was facing the front of the vehicle. She leaned forward, and her skirt hiked up slightly, but not enough to reveal anything. Reaching back and she flipped it up revealing her soft white ass."You wore the red lingerie," I said with a smile."That's not all," she replied as she put her thumbs in the bands of her panties and pulled them down to reveal her bare ass punctuated by the bedazzled handle of the ass plug sticking out of her clench.I stood there in awe of this woman."All day. Just for you," she purred.She tipped further forward and pushed from her core; her anus dilated slightly revealing some of the gold toy. She then relaxed, and her tight ring sealed around the stem, keeping the toy where the sun doesn't shine."Oh my God. How does it feel?""Full, I feel wonderful, but full. It's the big one. I had a spontaneous orgasm about an hour ago. I was sitting there, and it hit me when I was talking to Sara Carlton. She asked if I was Okay.""You're better than Okay. You're amazing."I knew it was time to leave. I also knew that what we were doing was against our own rules, but she remained bent over the Bronco, with her white ass glowing, punctuated by the jeweled handled of the ass plug and below that a drop of dew forming on her backpussy. I had been in her snatch so many times with fingers, my face and my cock, yet at this moment I want her more than ever."Make it fast," she whispered.Game fucking on!I had my cock in hand in seconds. It felt bigger than ever. But then again, I'd never had an LDS mom lying on the hood of her husband's car, in his garage, beckoning me to take her from behind.My cock was coated with her wetness the moment I pressed it against her slit. I slid in fast and deep. The sensation of my cock and her stuffed rectum was overwhelming, and she let out a whispering groan. I set a rapid pace, and she responded with gentle signs of pleasure each time I thrust inward. Her wetness increased and her pussy made loud slurps as it swallowed my cock.My eyes were locked on her stretched hole, which fought to retain the toy. She put her hands back, grasping her ass cheeks pulling them wide to give me an incredible view of my cock entering her pussy clean and coming out of her coated in glistening wetness.I decided to change things up, then pulled my cock out, dropped to my knees and planted my face in her back pussy to let my tongue give my cock a short break."We don't have time for you to;"She never finished her sentence my tongue darted across her dangling clit."Oh, that motherfucking tongue of yours."I needed to get my cock back inside her because she was talking up a filthy storm and it would probably only take one more "motherfucker" for me to blow my lode.I stood and pushed my cock in hard and fast, surprising her. Her body reacted, her core responded as I began to pump her pussy. In our heightened state and the relaxation brought on by her Xanax, we were both unaware her asshole was giving birth to the ass plug.I glanced down to see the egg-shaped toy pop out, followed by a rush of lube and her anus snapping shut.I vaguely remember it hitting the ground with a metallic clang, but she and I were now reaching our plateaus, and neither of us wanted to stop.Her empty brown eye opened and closed with each push and pull and when I felt her body shake with pleasure, I unleashed a healthy flow of cum deep within her.She moaned in pleasure as she felt herself being filled, and it was in that moment of bliss we both forgot about the plug that had rolled under the Bronco.You could smell our lust in the air as we slumped forward onto the dusty truck. She was pressed against the hood, and I was pressed against her back as we tried to catch our breath.In the distance, I heard something topple over. I'm not sure of what, but the sound brought us to. She turned, putting a finger over her pursed lips, shushing me.She quickly pulled up her panties and flipped he dress down, and I pulled up my shorts and straightened up.She guided me away from the area, walked me to the driveway, ensured no one was around, and gave me a deep kiss."I have to get back," she said, "but thanks for coming."I wasn't sure if she was making a pun."My pleasure," I replied."Hey, the plug. It fell under the car," I reminded her."I'll get it, you go."She gave me a deep kiss, the kind that's hard to break and could easily turn into another session. She then broke off and gave a wink.I walked through the bushes into my yard. We had broken our rules about sex outside the non-kosher kitchen, and nothing had gone wrong. Maybe some rules were made to be broken.Chapter 4: Nothing Gone Wrong.As I kissed Ethan, I could feel his semen gently flowing from my cunt, saturating the red fabric of his favorite panties. The warm fluid turned cold against the breeze coming up my skirt.When we were out of the garage and out of sight, I put my hand in his and left him with a kiss that promised so much more.I gave him a little shove and watched his ass as he left. Our liaison in the garage was unexpected, but was it really?I had taunted him with the sex toy. I could pretend what happened was spontaneous, but deep down, I wanted him to take me amid The Bishop's favorite things. I wanted him to know he could have me anytime, anywhere.When I entered into this agreement, it was about sex, but things were changing rapidly. Now it was about my desire to be with Ethan as much as possible.We had broken our rules about sex outside the non-kosher kitchen, and nothing went wrong. Maybe some rules are made to be broken.I'd need to change my panties or risk his cum dripping down my legs. But first I needed to retrieve the ass plug. I returned to the exact spot. I could see the dust on the hood of the truck been wiped clean.I bent over to look under the car and heard a familiar voice,"Mom, we need to talk."I turned to see Gideon holding the gold ass plug that I had ejected from my ass.A cold trickle of Ethan's thick cum slid down my leg.Chapter 5: Fucking Gideon.It was nice to sleep in on Sunday. I knew Mrs. Barton wouldn't show up until after church. She usually made sure her kids had lunch and then came here to prepare a meal for me.We ate, screwed and then she left, returning home before The Bishop returned from the Temple.There was something I learned to love about Sundays. A kink I didn't know I had until our first Sunday together.Her daily routine was no different on Sundays, rise early, poop, shower and be perfect before the rest of the family was awake.Sunday mornings meant getting everyone fed and out the door for church. It meant dressing nicely, and that included wearing her church undergarments.While The Bishop was often indifferent to her wearing the church garments on the daily, he was insistent that they be worn on Sundays and would inspect her before leaving for church. She had come to mention that the in

The Bishop's Hotwife: Part 2It's not a tryst when she's training me.Based on a post by Wendy Trilby, in 5 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels."You can have me any way you choose. But you must always finish in my cunt. God's seed is never to be wasted."I found it amusing, or perhaps ironic, that she somehow integrated religion into what was essentially just a wild sexual affair."What about The Bishop?""The Bishop is a wonderful man-a great provider, a man of the temple, a leader. But he's impotent in the bedroom; he has been for years. I, on the other hand, have an insatiable thirst.""Are you on the pill? Should I get condoms?""No and no. But Mandy needs frequent servicing.""Um, who's Mandy? You keep saying her name.""Me, I'm Mandy. At least here in the non-kosher bedroom. Amanda, Mandy. Get it?""I'm not even used to calling you Amanda; and now you have a nickname.She wrinkled her nose at me."That name is meant for our shared use; no one else. As for Mrs. Barton, you should probably keep that up in public. We can't display any informality around The Bishop; he's a very intuitive man."Mrs. Barton got on her knees and straddled my body. I hoped she was going to shed the robe, which she did, but only partway. She took off the top, revealing her tits."Now, if there are no more questions, I want to feel you inside me."Her tits were large for her petite frame and hung down with some weight. Her areolas and nipples were surprisingly larger than I'd have imagined. She was always tan, but her tits were milk-white, and I could even see the blue of her veins.She remained hovering over me, but when my cock began to stir, I could feel it pressing against something fleshy and wet.She smiled."You like them. I can tell.""They're amazing.""They are. Now watch this."She took her left hand and grasped the nipple of her left tit, placing her hand above the nipple and pushing down as she squeezed.To my shock and amazement, twin tiny streams of milk shot out of her nipple, landing on my face; she continued to squeeze, and droplets of her mother's milk followed.I was amazed, and I continued to harden in response. I could feel my cock pressing on the wet flesh under her robe."This is for John-John. I can't get pregnant while I'm breastfeeding, so we won't need any protection.""You sure? That sounds like some kind of myth."I have five children; I've nursed them all for over a year. I've made love countless times and never conceived while I breastfeed. So, no, we don't need any protection. We'll celebrate each other's bodies as God intended, natural, skin on skin, intimate. I'll do anything you desire, and you'll leave your seed in me. We cannot waste what the Lord has provided.She held out her tit."Now, would you like to taste?"I was unsure, but my cock was certain. It surged yet again against her body. I could not tell where, but a small trickle of hot fluid dripped from within her and drenched my glans let me know I was almost inside her pussy.She bent forward, holding her left tit out, bringing it to my mouth. Her purple nipple was saturated in the milk she had already produced, and she gently guided it around my lips, wetting them.I opened my mouth wider, and she pushed her thick teat inside, like a cock penetrating a cunt. She was forceful, and her tit flesh filled my mouth as her nipple sought out my tongue and urged my mouth to latch on.I could smell her clean body and the scent of her milk."Come on, Bryant, taste Mandy."My mouth closed on her tit, creating suction, and my tongue stimulated her nipple, telling her nerves it was time to produce. There was nothing, and then she gave a gentle sigh. I could feel a strange sensation as her milk ducts contracted, followed by a letdown, and her breast milk filled my mouth."There's a good boy," she said as she went from straddling me to sitting directly atop my cock.The warmth of her pussy enveloped my cock. I wasn't inside her, but her cunt was around the length of my cock like the bun of a hot dog, sliding back and forth, wetting and preparing it.Slowly, she took her teat out of my mouth. I chased it slightly, but she pulled it away, drying it with the robe."That's all for you. The rest is for John-John."She slid back and forth over my cock, using her pussy to sense how hard I was."You want me to take a shower first?" I offered."No, I want to taste your sweat; I want to smell your animal scent. Now, one more thing. Take off that lingerie. From here on out, you're in charge of me. You tell me what you want. You tell me what you're going to do to me. You can punish me if I displease you.""Are you sure?" I asked. "That feels kind of, I don't know.""Have you heard the term Trad Wife? It means a traditional wife. That's me. I serve my husband and my family. Cook the meals, get the children off to school. Being a trad wife is my full-time job."This wasn't the conversation I needed as I was about to enter her.A man should treat his woman with love and respect, but with a firm hand. My job is to please my husband. In this bed, I am your property."But I'm not your husband.""In this house, you are. I answer to you. You'll treat me as your wife, and I'll serve you as my husband."And outside this house?"I'm Mrs. Barton. Wife of Bishop Barton and expect you to honor that."I was starting to comprehend her game and her rules.I had always heard the joke: When Mormon girls go bad, they go really bad. But no one ever told me when Mormon moms go bad, they go incredible.I decided to test the waters."Ok, Mandy, take off that robe and let me see your body."Mandy complied by getting off the bed and dropping her robe, standing before me unadorned and unabashed. At least now I could see her entire body.She was of average height, neither short nor tall, but she had a petite frame. You wouldn't know she had given birth to five children when clothed, yet her body revealed some signs of childbirth and early middle age.Her tits, full and natural, bore the unmistakable signs of the milk she carried. Still, they retained a sexy fitness that was undeniably alluring.She had some flaws, and while they were few, they made her all the more alluring. Her soft body bore the marks of her life. Her waist had a gentle, elegant curve, and despite having given birth a year ago, her skin remained tight. Her hips were full, and the only hint at the five children she had borne was the slight softness of her midsection.Her pubic hair was neatly groomed above her perfectly bare slit. I could see her labia lips were large and hung down."Do I please you?" she asked.She was very intentional in her statements.Sure, she said I was meant to be in control, but I realized that she was someone who understood her power and required no one's permission to claim it.She had orchestrated everything to lead us to this moment and was entirely unapologetic."You do."I got up off the bed and tore off the lingerie, ripping it in half until I was standing before her naked. My cock was now fully erect.I guided her to the bed, and she sat and scooched back. I sat next to her and slowly moved in. This incredible woman had masturbated me and then offered herself to me without limits, and yet I hadn't even kissed her.She looked at me as I moved in for a gentle kiss. When our lips connected, I could feel a true spark of passion. Putting her hand around my neck, she pulled me in tight and opened her mouth to explore mine. Her hand slid to my erection and began to masturbate me gently. I could tell she wasn't trying to make me cum but was testing to see if I had refracted.I let my hand drift to her tit, gently rubbing her nipple with my thumb. How we held each other and pressed our bodies together was strangely intimate and felt right.I didn't feel like an adulterer. I felt like I belonged with her, and she belonged with me. My non-kosher wife.I desperately wanted to feel her mouth on my cock. I knew I could tell her to suck it, but I wanted this to be her choice. I gently pushed on her head, letting her know my desire.Far more experienced than I, she began to kiss her way down my body. She licked around my nipples and across my chest, taking in the salt of my sweat.When she finally reached my cock she licked it gently, put the tip in her mouth and ran her tongue around a band of rough flesh under the thick cap. Looking up at me with a smile."I love a circumcised cock. So good-looking. So perfect. The Bishop isn't circumcised."I wasn't looking for a conversation or debate about the aesthetics of circumcision, and I did not want to discuss another man's cock.Fortunately, she put her mouth over my cock and took it gently in her mouth. I could feel her tongue working the underside of my shaft while she slid down the base and gently pulled back.She was taking her time, enjoying the thickness of my cock as it begged for more friction.My girlfriend had never been keen on blow jobs, and more than once, she used her teeth, which was always a deal breaker.But Mrs. Barton; I mean, Mandy, came with all the care of an experienced, passionate lover, and her mouth-work was sending shivers through my body.I'd have been happy to cum in her mouth, but the build-up to this moment was too intense, and I reminded myself I needed to finish deep inside her per her instructions.Mandy moved her body, so she was down between my legs, my cock still in her mouth, her eyes looking up at me as she continued to bob slowly in and out.I could see the wet sheen her saliva left when she would pull up on my cock, and then it would disappear as her mouth returned to the hilt.She then pulled back, and my cock popped out of her mouth and slapped against my body with a wet, meaty sound. When she lifted my balls and took her tongue to my perineum I could feel her cleaning my flesh and teasing my anus, almost daring me to cum.She finally crawled forward, moving over my body until her mouth was on mine again. Her weighty tits were pressing on my chest. She held my face as she kissed me gently."Baby, I know you want to be inside me, but would you taste me first?"While completely unabashed, she had a way of suggesting the most lurid things most innocently."Taste you?""Uh huh. The Bishop won't go down on me. He considers it filthy. It's been so long since I've had a tongue in there. I love a tongue inside me."What I wanted to do was fuck her, but the way she offered me to sample her pussy was inviting. I pushed on her shoulder to roll her over so I could go down on her, but she wanted to serve me.She held me down and sat up, straddling my lower torso so that the round of her ass was just above the tip of my pulsating cock and she began to scooch forward.She put a pillow behind my head and slid her wet pussy along my torso and then chest, leaving a trail of her glistening essences behind her.As she shuffled forward, bringing her cunt to my face, I got a better look at the object of my desire. She had shaved her labia lips, revealing a pronounced pubic mound. Above the mound, she kept a neatly maintained field of thin pubic hair. Her pussy was swollen, and I could see she had surprisingly larger inner lips.She smelled clean and wholesome and held still, allowing a long, clear string of her pussy juice to drip off her thick purple labia lips. It just held there, waiting for gravity to claim it.She gyrated gently, and the drizzle of her thick glycerin effusion dripped down to my waiting tongue like drool.I ran her thick honey across my lips with my tongue.She lowered herself to my waiting mouth, leaving my nose free to breathe as she ground herself against my face with a long moan of pleasure.I immediately went to work with my mouth and tongue. She took both hands, leaned forward and began running her fingers through my hair. Rising and falling methodically, she kept her hand in my hair, pulling it as she rode my face with indulgence.Her gentle moans were like music, and the taste of her cunt was as intoxicating as the strongest liquor.Occasionally, she would clear her hair from her face and grasp her heavy tits, massaging them as she enjoyed the ride.

The Bishop's Hotwife: Part 1When Mormon mothers go wild, they go really wild.Based on a post by Wendy Trilby, in 5 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.Chapter 0: Gideon's Dilemma.Despite living in a large home with four brothers and two sisters, Gideon Barton had little privacy. When you're 18 just about everything gives you an erection and most young men turn to porn for relief.But in Gideon's strict Mormon household, his father, The Bishop, a respected pillar of the church, imposed restrictions on internet access, computers, and phones. Visiting sites like Pornhub or Literotica was nearly impossible.But then again, nothing's as vivid as the mind of a horny teen, and Gideon could create fantasies from just about anything. He had masturbated to thoughts of the weather girl on channel 5, several of his teachers, and right now, his mother's good friend, Kristi Haskett.It was the Barton's big summer backyard barbeque and Mrs. Haskett had just emerged from the pool with firm, erect nipples poking through her bathing suit. She went for her towel, but the image of her thick nipples tenting the nylon of her modest swimsuit would remain burned in his memory to be recalled for countless masturbation sessions in the days to come.That's all it took to make Gideon's balls swell. He needed to masturbate right now. With two brothers and two sisters plus a houseful of guests for the cookout, jerking off in a bathroom wasn't going to happen.That wasn't an issue for Gideon as he entered the spacious car barn to conduct his personal business. Much more than just a garage, The Bishop had built the car barn to house his collection of cars, cars he felt promoted his masculinity. The barn housed seven vehicles and the family's Gulfstream trailer.Gideon noticed how dusty his dad's 19 74 green Bronco was. He coveted this vehicle, even if that was a sin. His mom was trying to convince his dad to let him take it to college after his mission. After all, he was an adult, and his mother believed he needed to take on responsibilities, like owning a car.But right now, he needed to masturbate and quietly entered his go-to spot, the Gulfstream trailer.This had become his favorite place to masturbate. It was private, and he could concentrate on his fantasy as he stroked himself.Getting some hand lotion from the bathroom, he sat on the couch, pulled his shorts down, and lathered himself up. Gently grasping his cock, he began slowly gliding up and down the shaft.He closed his eyes and imagined Mrs. Haskett taking him by the hand behind the garage and showing him her tits. She held them out for him, offering him one to feed on.This wasn't going to take long. He could feel his balls swelling and then;He heard the side door to the car barn open and someone entered.Fuck, not now.Mrs. Haskett's tits would have to wait. He could hear two people talking in hushed tones."Wow, is this what you wanted to show me? It's great. Look at the condition. This is wonderful."The voice was familiar, and Gideon moved to the window to see who it was."Want to see something even better?" came a voice he recognized as his mother's voice. Why was she in here?He peered into the car barn, trying to see who she was talking to and if they were going to leave.Looking out, he saw his mother leaning back on the hood of his father's green Bronco like a teenage girl flirting on a date.Whomever it was, Gideon felt he was way too close to his mother. She then turned around, leaned forward, and her skirt hiked up slightly, but not enough to reveal anything. Reaching back, she flipped it up exposing her soft white ass.Gideon nearly fell over in shock. What was she doing?Just then, he could see the face of the other person. It was Ethan Bryant. He lived next door; he was in his last year of law school in Boston and home for the summer, clerking for The Bishop. He was probably around 25 or 26 years old."You wore the red lingerie," Ethan said with a lascivious smile.Gideon's mother was always talking about Ethan's success at law school and kept encouraging Gideon to use him as a role model."That's not all," his mother replied to Ethan as she put her thumbs in the bands of her panties pulling them down to reveal her bare ass. Ethan's eyes were fixated on her behind. Gideon strained to see, but from his angle, there was no looking into that dark abyss."How long have you;""All day. Just for you," she interrupted."Oh my God. How does it feel?" Ethan asked.Gideon's mind was racing. How does what feel? Did she get some kind of piercing? What was he looking at?"Full, I feel wonderful, but full. I had a spontaneous orgasm about an hour ago. I was sitting there, and it hit me when I was talking to Sara Carlton. She asked if I was Okay."Gideon remembered noticing his mother shivering earlier when she was talking to Mrs. Carlton. What the hell was going on?"You're amazing," Ethan said in a loud whisper.Gideon's mother remained slumped over the car."Make it fast," she replied.Ethan had his cock in hand in seconds. Gideon's eyes were wide. This was it. He was going to see someone have sex. Not just someone, his mother. He resigned himself to worry about that later.Gideon watched as Ethan gently inserted himself into his mother from behind. She let out a long, plaintive groan, enjoying the moment.Gideon thought he should run out there and put an end to this.But he didn't.Above anything in the world, he wanted to see people having sex. And here it was, just fifteen feet from him, a man riding an older woman from behind. They were carnal, and they were desperate. Never mind that it was his mother; this was sex, raw and unbridled, and he began to masturbate as he watched.His mother's pelvis hitched as Ethan began increasing his cadence. It started slow, but they were picking up the pace.Her red panties were now around her ankles. Her torso lay flat against the Bronco, and her face was a portrait of bliss.If there was any doubt his mother wasn't a willing participant, the wet sounds of her pussy, and her less than muffled moans testified just how much she was enjoying the moment.Gideon continued to stroke himself, pacing with the couple, not wanting to blow his load too soon.His mother put her hands back, grasping her ass cheeks and spreading them, offering Ethan a better view of his target.Then, out of nowhere, Ethan pulled himself out, revealing his sizable cock, dropped to his knees and planted his face in between her ass cheeks. The sounds of his mouth on her pussy echoed off the walls."We don't have time for you to;"Gideon's mother never finished her sentence as she froze with pleasure."Oh, that fucking tongue of yours. That motherfucking tongue of yours."From his hiding spot, Gideon was about to hyperventilate, having never heard his mother say anything more substantial than "darn it.”Ethan stood, wiped the wetness from his face and then returned to fucking Gideon's mother from behind.Their body friction increased, and it was evident the two were to about cum, as was Gideon. Mrs. Barton groaned loudly, followed by a metallic clank on the floor like someone had dropped a tool.The two lovers didn't seem to notice or care and kept at each other, intent on reaching a mutual climax quickly. While Gideon's only experience with orgasm was his own, he watched his mother plateau, determined to burn the memory into his brain.Inside the trailer Gideon was about to cum despite slow strokes, just the visuals were enough to finish him off. When he heard his mother's final groan he felt his balls swell and his cock erupted in a geyser of cum spraying on the walls and window.With his pants around his knees, he staggered back and knocked over a box of cooking utensils, making a slight but audible clatter.Fuck!Gideon looked out the window again. The sound had spooked the two as his mother pulled up her panties and flipped back her dress, while Ethan zipped his shorts and straightened up.She then led Ethan out of one of the side doors.When Gideon was sure they were gone, he quietly exited the trailer and walked to the Bronco. The dust on the hood was disturbed, showing the buxom outline of a woman's body. On the floor was a puddle of what could only be spent cum and his mother's fluids combined.Gideon took a rag and wiped off the dust, wiping off any evidence, then took the rag to wipe up the fluids on the ground. On his knees, he noticed something shiny under the Bronco. Reaching for it, he held it in his hand; a metallic gold ass plug, covered in a sheen lube and a bejeweled handle.He knew what he had to do.Chapter 1: The Homecoming.Two years of law school were behind me, and I was returning home to Provo for my last summer. I was happy to be going home and sleeping in my old room, and equally excited that my neighbor, Bishop Barton, had secured me a legal clerking internship in his firm.There was no better way to finish a successful law degree than clerking for Utah's most prestigious law firm, Pratt, Collins, and Barton.I can't remember the last time I heard anyone call Rob Barton by his name. He was known as "The Bishop" due to his high standing in the LDS Church. That's the term that Mormons preferred, with LDS meaning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although they did use the term "Mormon," that name was sometimes used in a pejorative way. Thus, using LDS avoided any possible negative connotations.The Bishop was a mountain of a man, imposing and always the center of attention. Despite having been our neighbor for as long as I can remember, I rarely spoke to him, but my dad and The Bishop's wife had secured me this internship last year.Then the worst happened. My father passed away suddenly ten months ago. At just 25 years old, I had faced the loss of both my parents. My mother had died when I was only three, leaving Dad and me together all those years. Our relationship was rocky at times, but he always supported me and kept me focused on a prosperous future. I felt his absence deeply now that he was gone.He was disappointed that I had left the Mormon faith. It wasn't that I questioned the faith itself, but all faith. Still, I was respectful of his beliefs and those of my LDS neighbors.Living in Provo meant having LDS neighbors everywhere. Honestly, I can't think of a better place and better people. Despite the slurs and jokes about the faith, my LDS neighbors were some of the kindest people on earth. When Dad died, The Bishop and his wife, Amanda, traveled to Harvard to convince me to stay in school and finish. He reminded me how important it was to my Dad that I get that degree and assured me of the clerkship. Mrs. Barton promised to take care of my dad's home. They came through on both accounts.These were good people, and I felt fortunate to have pillars of society in my life.Mrs. Barton was younger than The Bishop and could have been a recruiting poster for Mormon wives. She was sporty, with blond, shoulder-length hair that framed her face effortlessly. She had an attractive figure, and her larger-than-average tits always caught the church dads' attention; and their wives. But if there was one feature that could stop me in my tracks, it was her smile. It made me feel welcomed and safe.I grew up with the Bartons. I was seven when they bought the huge house next door. My memories of Mrs. Barton are that she was always pregnant. She had her first child, Gideon, that year, and then it seemed like she was always expecting right up until last year when she had her fifth child. Perhaps that explained her large tits, which I must confess, I'd sneak a peek at whenever I could.Mrs. Barton was a traditional wife who began by having children to continually increase the LDS population. She was always busy, driving carpool, cooking meals, and doing everything necessary to support The Bishop's vital role as a community and church leader. The affectionate term for a woman devoted to her husband and family was helpmeet. As in, she was The Bishop's helpmeet.Of course, being seen and at the center of attention due to her husband's status caused some jealousy, and some of the catty mothers called her the "More Mom," which is a bit of a slur, especially coming from other members of the LDS faith, demeaning her role to merely being attracted to the attention she received from her status.I found an Amazon package at the door when I arrived home. After taking it inside, I turned on the lights. The place was clean and bright for a home that hadn't been lived in for several months. Mrs. Barton had undoubtedly ensured it was cheerful upon my return.I sorted through the stack of mail, opening some items and throwing away others, and then remembered the Amazon package. Opening it up, I was surprised to see a delicate but revealing lingerie set. I held up the red thong and bustier top, wondering where they had come from. Looking back in the box, I found a sex toy, the Womanizer. It was a vibrating suction toy that only added to the mystery.I looked at the box and noticed that it was addressed to me, but I certainly didn't order this. I put the items back in the box and set it aside.A day later, I was finishing my paperwork for the clerk internship when I heard someone at the door.I opened it to see Mrs. Barton, who walked into the house as if it belonged to her. I understood her actions because she had cared for it for so long."Come on in," I said with a joking smile. She looked at me with a smirk."Sorry, I just barged in, didn't I? I'm so used to coming over here and just decompressing."She gave me a warm hug, pressing herself against me."Welcome home, Bryant. We have missed you. I've missed you."I smelled toast burning and rushed to the kitchen. She followed me. It was burnt, so I tossed it out and poured myself a cup of coffee.I had never tasted coffee until my first year of law school. Shunned by the LDS faith as a stimulant, I avoided it until midterms, but after my first cup, I was hooked."Coffee? Tisk tisk, what'll I ever tell The Bishop?""Law school, late nights. If this is a sin, let me be burned at the stake," I replied."I'm sure it can be overlooked. You know how many exceptions we must make to keep the faith. I had a Long Island iced tea a few weeks ago."Mormons don't drink coffee, and they sure as hell don't drink alcohol, let alone a strong drink like a Long Island Iced Tea."I was out with some friends who weren't from church. They had wine, and I innocently asked for tea. Well, I said Long Island Iced Tea. I assumed it was like a tea and lemonade drink.""That's an Arnold Palmer," I added."So, I found out. I took a sip and instantly realized it wasn't made with lemonade."

Danny is back with Bev, Dolly and Nigel once more. There's geneology, accidental absences, first-timer introductions, the parkrun primary initiative, socks, Things, reluctant cancellations and Danny popped down toward the New Forest for Fordingbridge Recreation Ground parkrun and forgot the bridge.

Join us for a study through the Gospel of the Apostle John, beginning with John 1:1-13. We start with the prologue, uncovering the beautiful way John describes the eternal existence and divinity of Christ.

Financial Debt is something everyone deals with at some point in life. The simple mention of finances can make people feel anxious, insecure or intimidated. On this episode, we chat with John Dismore, PhD who is a Professor of Marketing at Wright State University. We cover everything from marketing of debt, student loans, payday and car title lending and how certain neighborhoods are targeted, how the very wealthy actually donate less, mortgage loans, the role testosterone play in financial decision making, how low self-esteem can contribute to debt accumulation, and so much more! There's something for everyone in this episode! Tune in! How to Connect with John: John's Website: https://www.johndinsmore.com/John's TED Talk: https://youtu.be/5EMunkwubzI?si=qLejRf-dcMFxaIiNThe Marketing of Debt Book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/fU1Y65yStay Connected with Us: https://linktr.ee/JanieCharlot?utm_source=linktree_profile_share

Juntamos unos cuantos nombres de la realeza femenina del rhythm and blues de los años 50 y primeros 60, leyendas eternas y otras reinas más olvidadas.Playlist;ARETHA FRANKLIN “Rough lover”MARY ANN FISHER “Put on my shoes”LAVERN BAKER “Love me right”CORDELLA DE MILO “Ain’t gonna hush”WYNONA CARR “Jump Jack jump”DAKOTA STATON with EDDIE WILCOX and ORCHESTRA “My babe”MARY JONES with JOHNNY MOORE THREE BLAZERS “Down in Texas”BIG MAMA THORNTON “You did me wrong”LULA REED and HER LITTLE TEENERS “Say hey pretty baby”TINY TOPSY “Miss you so”EVELYN FREEMAN “Didn’t it rain”ROSE MITCHELL “Baby please don’t go”ETTA JAMES “Nobody loves you like me”RUTH BROWN “Mambo baby”ANNISTEEN ALLEN “Fujiyama mama”BLANCHE THOMAS “You ain’t so such a much”CARMEN TAYLOR “Ding Dong”AGGIE DUKES “John John”JEANETTE (BABY) WASHINGTON “Move on”VARETTA DILLARD “Scorched”ODESSA HARRIS and ORCHESTRA “A rockin' good way (to mess around and fall in love)”BIG MAYBELLE “Whole lotta shakin’ goin on”Escuchar audio

Sermon by Michael Bailey on August 24, 2025.Key scripture: John 1:6–8, 19–34 & 3:22–30We are often tempted to find our identity, purpose and meaning either in others or in our selves. But John the Baptist's message echoes: Jesus must increase, and I must decrease. This sermon invites us into a radically freeing humility that finds identity and purpose by centering our lives, not on others or our selves but on Christ.

Sermon by Ant Frederick on August 24, 2025.Key scripture: John 1:6–8, 19–34 & 3:22–30As we welcome our children for a child-friendly message, we receive from John the Baptist a reminder that, because Jesus is the light, we are to seek His glory above our own.

Daily Dose of Hope August 21, 2025   Scripture – Luke 10:1-24   Prayer:  King Jesus, We come to you today with praise and lifting your name high.  You are a Lord of love, mercy, and forgiveness.  Thank you so much for allowing us to experience those things in you.  Also, Lord, thank you for showing us a new way of doing life.  The ways of this world are empty and temporal but your ways are eternal and fulfilling.  Help us remember who and whose we are.  Help us live like the people you have called us to be.  We love you.  Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, a deep dive into the Gospels and Acts.  Today, we start Luke 10.   In chapter 9, we read about Jesus sending out the twelve to teach about the Kingdom, heal, and cast out demons.  In today's reading, Jesus sends out seventy-two other disciples, working in pairs, to all the towns and places he planned to visit.  Similar to when he sent out the twelve, they were to stay where they were welcomed, bless those homes, and quickly leave those places that didn't care to have them.  Jesus couldn't possibly go everywhere and see everyone so he taught, he mentored, and then he delegated.  These disciples were to very literally show the people a new way of doing life – the Jesus way.    Jesus sent his followers out in small groups and in larger groups.  Consider these two verses from John: John 17:18, Praying to the Father, Jesus says, “Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.” John 20:21, Speaking to his disciples, he says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”   We who follow Jesus are a sent people, then and now.  Just as Jesus was sent into the world by God, we are sent on mission together – to keep doing the work of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, to both proclaim and live out the Kingdom of God, and to alert people to the reign of Christ right here, right now.  Jesus is King and we are to live like it.  This Scripture from Luke gives us a great template to follow.  Go, share, proclaim, heal, pray, and teach.  If someone does not receive you well, don't sit around and worry about it.  Keep going.  Keep sharing, keep proclaiming, keep healing, keep praying, and keep teaching.    These were Jesus' instructions to the seventy-two disciples: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest and ask him to send more workers into the fields...go proclaim the Kingdom of God.”  Pray for more people to help and then go proclaim the Kingdom.  Don't overthink it.  Don't micromanage,  Just pray and go.  He also told them that they were like lambs among wolves.  They were going, knowing it might not be safe and knowing they would be vulnerable.  But it didn't keep them from going.    How often does fear or risk keep us from sharing and proclaiming the Gospel?    Here's a very practical question:  How do we alert people to the reign of Christ, to the Kingdom of God, right now? How do we live out this mission of being sent?   I want you to think of your life as a movie trailer. What's the purpose of a movie trailer? A trailer is like a teaser for the soon-to-be released movie, and it usually shows the best parts of the movie. If a trailer does its job well, then it leaves you feeling like, “I want to go see that movie.” This is a great metaphor for our mission as God's people, for his church. Jesus' sent people are to be like a trailer for God's intended world, for the Kingdom of God. If the Kingdom is a place of love and mercy, then we are to a trailer that shows, through word and deed, that incredible love and mercy. If the Kingdom is a place of justice, then that should be clear in our trailer. If we believe that under the reign of God, “every knew shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord,” then in our trailer, not only do we proclaim Jesus as Lord of our life, but we live it out, and we encourage belief in Jesus where there isn't any.” In every area of our lives (at work, at school, on the golf course, at the baseball field, in our neighborhoods), Jesus' sent people announce and demonstrate that Jesus is Lord and King.    One more thing about today's reading.  Notice that the seventy-two return with great joy, amazed that even the demons listened to them.  Of course, the demons only listened to them because they went under Jesus' authority.  We also are sent, not on our own authority, but under the authority of King Jesus.  We go in his name and I think that's an important point.    Jesus then tells them not to rejoice that the demons listened to them but rejoice because their names are written down in heaven.  Rejoice because of who they are in Jesus.  The demons are in the distractions.  How often do we get distracted from the main thing?  How often do we fail to rejoice because of who we are in Jesus?   More tomorrow.   Blessings, Pastor Vicki

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This is Jesus' first appearance tothe eleven disciples in the upper room when they're all together. Jesus had told themmany times He would be crucified, and that He would rise again, but theirhearts still doubted even now.  Whatwe want to talk about today is in these next words of Jesus to the disciples, “HandleMe and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Ihave. And when He said this, He showed them His hands and His feet”. NowJohn's gospel tells us in John 20:25-27 that when Jesus showed them His handsand His feet, it doesn't say that He showed them the scars on His body, but at leasttwice it says that He showed them the prints. He showed them “the prints ofthe nails”. The prints of the nails in His hands and in His feet.  Jesussaid, "Handle Me and see”, And again, it says, “He showedthem His hands and in His feet”, not the scars. The only thing in heaventhat will be made by man are the prints of the nails in His hands and His feet.We will be able to still see them. And then we find also that Jesus went on tosay, "And while they did not believe for joy and marveled, He said tothem, 'Do you have any food here?'" And they gave Him a piece of boiledfish and some honeycomb, and He took it and ate in their presence”.  Now,one of the most asked questions I get is, "Will we eat in heaven?" Whatwill we be like in heaven? Will we have bodies in heaven? And for a fact, I'mconvinced at the rapture of the church, the Bible speaks about the dead inChrist rising in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4:13-18 and in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58.Paul reveals to us a mystery and there He says, "We shall all bechanged in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye." In Thessalonians 4:16,he wrote, "And the dead in Christ shall rise first”. The bodies ofall the deceased believers will resurrect out of the graves and at that momentthey'll reunite with their soul and spirit in heaven and at the same time ourbodies with be changed to a body like Jesus'.  1John 3: 2-3, tells us, "And when we see Him, we will be like Him, forwe shall see Him as He is." We'll have a body like Jesus. He could eatsolid foods. He could move in and out of rooms through closed doors. Now how aphysical body could go through a closed solid wall, I cannot explain. But myfriend, we'll have a body like that. I believe we'll travel at the speed ofthought even during the millennium, just like Jesus did from Galilee and backand forth to Jerusalem during the 40 days after His resurrection.  Oh,heaven's going to be a wonderful place. We have new bodies. “Thiscorruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality, thenshall be brought to pass the saying that's written, Death is swallowed up invictory." We will have new bodies. A body that will not experience anymore pain, any more suffering, and has no more problems with health at all. Oh,we'll see perfectly because we'll still have all our faculties. People willrecognize each other in those bodies that we originally had on planet Earth,but they'll be glorified bodies just like Jesus. Jesusstill says troubled hearts, "Handle Me and see." Interestingto me, the Gospel of John starts out with, "Come and see," toAndrew and John (John 1:39). But now Luke's Gospel ends with, "HandleMe and see." Later John went on to write in 1John 1:1, “That whichwas from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word oflife”.  Ohmy friend, today Jesus invites us to come and handle Him. First you, “Come andsee”, but now You can handle Him and see. Come to Jesus today and handle Him inHis Word. You can reach out and touch Him today! Open your heart to Him.Believe in the reality of a physical, literal resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thereality of this truth will change and transform your life like it did thedisciples as the Holy Spirit fills you.

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Church Expands G'day and welcome to Partake! We are now on day 29 of our series "Glimpses", looking at the story of the Bible in 30 days - from the time of creation through to the time of the fullness of redemption! We saw last time Jesus making a sudden reappearance which resulted in the conversion of one of the main persecutors of the church - Saul, who later changed his name to Paul. We saw also a problem to be solved, it was done so judiciously and it was decided that salvation was by grace alone through Jesus' death on the cross and through the Holy Spirit alone. The church had begun to spread throughout the Roman Empire from its birthplace in Jerusalem. Remember back to the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit first came? The people there had gone back to their own countries and cities: places such as : Egypt, Arabia, Libya, Italy, Greece, Judea, Elam, Media, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Pamphylia, Phrygia, Asia, Crete, Cyrene and Crete, parts of the Parthian Empire and of course even the headquarters of the Roman Empire, Rome! As far as we know, from the Bible record, the most effective missionary was Paul, and that's because most of what we call the New Testament consists of letters written by him. Here are the places he and his various teams of people visited on what we call his missionary journeys. You can read about them in the book of Acts. Paul's First Missionary Journey The first journey was to places such as: Antioch (Acts 13:4), Seleucia and sailed to Cyprus. From there they went to Salamis and Paphos (Acts 13:4-6). Then onwards to Perga in Pamphylia, which is now southern Turkey. At Antioch in Pisidia, Paul deliberately plans to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). Then Iconium (Acts 14:3), Lystra (Acts 14:19), and Derbe. Where they went back to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch (in Pisidia) (Acts 14:21), before going throughout Pisidia, Pamphylia, then to Perga, Attalia, and returning to Antioch in Syria (Acts 14:24-26). Paul's Second Missionary Journey The second journey begins, Paul goes through Syria and Cilicia (now southeastern Turkey), coming to Derbe and Lystra, and then onto Phrygia and Galatia, before passing through Mysia to Troas, the island of Samothracia, and then to Neapolis in Macedonia (now northern Greece) and Philippi (Acts 16:14-34). Passing through Amphipolis and Appolonia, they came to Thessalonica. After teaching in Berea, Paul departed into Achaia (now southern Greece), to Athens (Acts 17:14-15). Then Paul then makes his first visit to Corinth (Acts 18:5)! Paul leaves Corinth to go to Cenchrea and then across to Ephesus and Caesarea, before finishing up in Antioch in Syria. Paul's Third Missionary Journey Paul's third journey begins in Galatia (central region of Turkey) and then to Phrygia (Acts 18:23) before arriving in Ephesus where he stayed for 3 years (Acts 20:31). Paul then went to Troas and continued to Macedonia (2 Corinthians 2:12-13 and 7:5). After going through Macedonia (northern Greece), Paul came to Achaia (southern Greece) (Acts 20:2-3), makes a third visit to Corinth before headed back to Macedonia (Acts 20:1) and onto Philippi (Acts 20:6). Following this, Paul went to Troas, Assos, Mitylene, Chios, Samos, Trogylium, Miletus (now in southwestern Turkey), Coos, Rhodes, Patara, Tyre (in Lebanon), Ptolemais and to Caesarea before finishing back in Jerusalem. Paul's final journey Paul in Jerusalem, is beaten by the Jewish authorities (Acts 22) and taken to trial before them. Many Jews wanted to kill him (Acts 23:12) for his service to Jesus Christ. Paul is taken before the Roman Governor Felix at Caesarea (Acts 24:10) and when the reign of Portius Felix begins, Paul appeals to Caesar in Rome! Paul was a Roman citizen, he was innocent of the crimes bought against him and it was his right to appeal to the Roman emperor! So He did and Paul's final journey starts in Acts 25:11. The boat sails to Sidon, Myra (now southern Turkey) and on to Crete (Acts 27:7-13), Melita, near Sicily, Syracuse, Rhegium (southern tip of Italy), then to Puteoli (on the western coast of Italy). Finally, Paul ends up in Rome (Acts 28:30)! During all these journeys, Paul has endured persecution, beatings, stonings, whippings, imprisonment, mock trials and shipwrecks! In 2 Corinthians 11 you can read all that Paul endured and he sums it up 2 Corinthians 12:10 "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Paul was an amazing man! Issues in the Churches of the Bible Lets look now at some of the issues of the churches at that time, and we see this best by looking very briefly at some of the letters of the New Testament, written by Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude. Romans: Paul's letter to the church in Rome presents God's plan of salvation, which sees it extended to all of humanity based solely on Jesus Christ' work on the cross and received by an individual's faith in Him alone. 1 Corinthians: At Corinth, the church was an established church, taught by Paul, yet they were not living he had taught by him. Members of the church were living improper lives and Paul wrote to correct them, with the love of a pastoral heart. 2 Corinthians: here due to people doubting his integrity and authority, Paul presents his authority, message, sufferings, disappointments, responsibilities, blessings, and hope. Ephesians: Paul discusses the position of Christian believers before God - that they are now children of God! He then goes on to discuss the daily function of the Christian, including living a life worthy of Jesus Christ, supremely by serving others. 1 Thessalonians: Paul is unable to revisit this new group of believers who are under attack and persecution. He commences with some personal reflections and continues on to teach, stabilize, console and to encourage them in their Christian walk. 2 Thessalonians: The Thessalonian church is still enduring persecution. Central to this letter is Paul's concern for them regarding the coming again of the Lord, where some believed it had already occurred. 1 Timothy: Paul the apostle delegates authority to Timothy, his personal representative in Ephesus. His instructions include Timothy's life and ministry as an apostolic representative and about the organization, function, and edification of the church. This includes countering all kinds of false teaching about Jesus the Christ. James: James writes to scattered and leaderless Jewish believers who still met at a synagogue and were enduring hardship. James urges them to keep going and develop an active working faith that is actively working and to live a morally and ethically correct life. 1 Peter: Peter writes to believers undergoing suffering & persecution. He instructs them toward Christian stability, and the proper expression of this stability and growth. Peter stresses a hope that is alive, glorious and certain, and because of that can endure persecution and suffering. 2 Peter: Peter is dying as he writes this letter to a group of believers who are enduring trials and being confronted with false teachers. He also clarifies teaching about the Last Days. 1 John: John writes about fellowship which comes through obedience to the Word of God and through confession of sin when sin is committed. John also writes to tackle false Gnostic teachers who were challenging the teachings of Jesus' apostles. Jude: Jude writes warning against apostasy, which is giving up and abandoning a belief in Jesus and going back to old ways. . He urges his readers to recognize the problem and fight for the faith. Through these letters of the New Testament, we see the early church dealing with issues of doctrine and teaching, countering false teachings about salvation and Jesus' return, warning against apostasy and encouraging wholesome living and service as believers in Jesus Christ. The church has grown and spread throughout most of the known world in obedience to Jesus' last command to go to all nations. This growth of the church is the greatest evidence of Jesus' bodily resurrection from the dead. His resurrection was the catalyst to turn 11 frightened men, his disciples, into the leaders of the early church. But Jesus also promised that He would come back again and that's what we will look at next time, in our final part of Glimpses! Thank you. 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In this episode of 'Don't Cut Your Own Bangs,' host Danielle Ireland introduces John Kippen, a resilience and empowerment coach, magician, and motivational speaker. John shares his incredible journey of overcoming a life-threatening brain tumor and how it transformed his life and career.  Throughout the episode, John discusses his healing journey, the power of vulnerability, and the importance of facing one's limiting beliefs. He also reveals the origins of his unique phrase 'impossible really means I am possible' and offers a special gift to listeners. Tune in to uncover valuable wisdom nuggets and be inspired by John's story of triumph over adversity.   00:00 Introduction to the Episode 00:40 Meet John Kippen: A Multihyphenate Talent 01:23 John's Life-Altering Diagnosis 05:46 The Surgery and Its Aftermath 08:04 The Road to Recovery 13:30 Embracing the New Normal 17:29 The Power of Truth and Magic 29:14 The Power of Magic and Connection 29:31 Introducing Treasured: A Journal for Self-Discovery 30:44 The Magic of Personal Connection 32:59 Overcoming Personal Struggles Through Magic 34:38 The Journey to Self-Acceptance 35:42 The Importance of Asking and Vulnerability 50:24 The TED Talk Experience 54:34 Final Thoughts and Encouragement   RATE, REVIEW, SUBSCRIBE TO “DON'T CUT YOUR OWN BANGS”  Like your favorite recipe or song, the best things in life are shared. When you rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast, your engagement helps me connect  with other listeners just like you. Plus, subscriptions just make life easier for everybody. It's one less thing for you to think about and you can easily keep up to date on everything that's new. So, please rate, review, and subscribe today.    DANIELLE IRELAND, LCSW I greatly appreciate your support and engagement as part of the Don't Cut Your Own Bangs community. Feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or anything you'd like to share. You can connect with me at any of the links below.   JOHN KIPPEN: https://www.ted.com/talks/john_kippen_being_different_is_my_super_power_magic_saved_my_life   https://www.johnkippen.com   DANIELLE IRELAND, LCSW Website: https://danielleireland.com/ The Treasured Journal: https://danielleireland.com/journal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielleireland_lcsw TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dontcutyourownbangspod?_t=ZP-8yFHmVNPKtq&_r=1 Transcript:   John Kippen Edited Interview [00:00:00] [00:00:07] Hello. Hello, this is Danielle Ireland and you are catching an episode of Don't Cut Your Own Bangs. And today I have the great pleasure of introducing you to someone I can now call a new friend John Kippen. John is a multihyphenate. He has had quite a life and he's an excellent storyteller. So this episode you're gonna wanna buckle up. [00:00:31] It is so good. Get those AirPods in, go on your walk, get safely in your car, get ready to listen because this is just an absolutely beautiful episode. But let me tell you a little bit about John. John is a resilience and empowerment coach. He was and is the CEO of a very successful IT company. [00:00:49] He was a main stage performer at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, so if that just gives you a little insight, is the level of his magic. He is a motivational speaker. He's a life coach, and. He has a TED talk that has received over a million views. And the heartbeat of this TED talk is how he triumphs over tragedy with a diagnosis of a tumor the size of a golf ball that is separating his brainstem and the procedure he needed to save his life, changed his life forever. [00:01:23] Doing the work of healing does not come easily to anyone, but as John so beautifully puts in this episode, if John can do it, you can do it. He's using his stories, his vulnerable and raw experiences, and talking about not only what happened to him, but how he moved through the impossible. [00:01:45] He actually coins a phrase that I love and I'm going to keep. Which is that impossible really means I am possible. So the ultimate magic trick, the ultimate illusion is what your limiting beliefs are about yourself, and how do you use facing those fears and those limiting beliefs to transform your life. [00:02:08] And in John's case, he takes that healing and offers it as a gift to us. As listeners to his clients and his coaching practice to the readers of his book, he has authored a book The Forward by None other than the Jamie Lee Curtis from all of the places. You know her most recently. The Bear where she won an Emmy, but everything everywhere, all at once. [00:02:32] She and John are buds, and she believes in him and believes in his work, and as a champion of that work, it just adds a little extra sparkle and fairy dust to the beautiful work that he's already doing to say that he's been vetted by someone who is so sparkly and magnetic and also deeply entrenched in holding space for the truth and honoring the truth. [00:02:52] This is a heartfelt episode, so what I would recommend. If you're in a place to do so is you might wanna jot some notes down because John drops some beautiful wisdom nuggets in this episode. And the book that he authored is playing The Hand You're Dealt. And what I wanna share too, we talk about it in the episode, but I wanna highlight this 'cause it's really important. [00:03:12] John is giving everyone who listens to the episode a free gift, but it is not linked in the show notes. It is only available to those of you who listen. It's a special little surprise embedded in the episode that you have to listen to find, but it is a free gift from him to you. So without further ado, get ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy the beautiful wisdom of John Kippen. [00:03:35] ​ [00:03:36] Kippen, multihyphenate resilience and empowerment, coach magician, keynote speaker, author, and all around. Nice guy. Thank you for joining me today on the Don't Cut Your Own Bangs podcast. [00:03:47] Danielle: Hollywood legend wrote the forward of his beautiful book, playing the Hand You're Dealt Forward by the one and Only Take It Away, John, Jamie [00:03:58] John: Lee Curtis. [00:03:59] Danielle: Jamie Lee Curtis. Yes. So you have to stay and listen to the entire episode because he's going to tease out a special little giveaway that will only be revealed in the audio. [00:04:10] So you gotta listen. It's not gonna be linked in the show notes, folks. So buckle up, sit down. This is gonna be a great episode with a fun gift for you, a special little dose of magic hidden inside. So, John, you, I mean, all the different fun things that we listed about what you do. You're a magician, you're a motivational speaker, you're a coach. [00:04:30] What I know doing the work I do as a therapist is the skills and trade that you're building your life on. Those were skills that they were. Hard one, like nobody chooses, in my opinion and in my experience, no one chooses to go into a helping profession that hasn't needed help in their life. It's like the, our healing becomes our medicine. [00:04:54] And I really wanna learn about not just what you offer, but your healing journey that put you in the unique position you're in to do the work you do. So, welcome and I'd love to hear from you. [00:05:05] John: So just quickly, the Reader's Digest version of my backstory. Grew up Los Angeles, middle class family, two great parents loving, no sisters or brothers, had everything I needed. [00:05:18] They sent me to a nice school and, I got into theater, started doing theater, in college. I studied theater and became the big man on campus because pretty much I grabbed every opportunity that presented itself. Started a computer company out of college. 'cause I'm a creative problem solver. [00:05:38] That's the thread that goes through everything I do in my life. [00:05:42] Mm-hmm. [00:05:42] John: I look at a problem, I say, how am I gonna solve that? [00:05:45] Mm-hmm. [00:05:46] John: And then in June of July of 2002, I was diagnosed with a four half centimeter brain tumor called an acoustic neuroma. [00:05:55] Danielle: Yes. And this was, so it was slowly severing your brainstem? Correct. [00:05:59] John: It was displacing the brainstem. Causing not only hearing issues, but dizziness upon standing or walking. [00:06:07] Mm-hmm. [00:06:08] John: I had to have something done with it. I would not have survived. [00:06:12] Mm-hmm. [00:06:14] John: And. It was a whirlwind , I went and saw the doctor who finally diagnosed it after seeing him the MRI films, and he, he had no bedside manner. [00:06:25] I remember sitting on the examining room table, right. And the, the tissue paper is crinkling under my butt. Mm-hmm. I could feel the, I could sense the temperature. I'm heightened sensitivity. [00:06:37] And he looks up at the MRI after talking to a neurosurgeon, and he turns around and says, John, you have a four and a half centimeter brain tumor. [00:06:46] It's killing you. We're operating you on Friday. You're gonna go deaf in your left ear, and there's a possibility for some facial weakness. We're gonna do everything we can to prevent that. And he left [00:07:01] Danielle: the room. So he knew, and in his own. Brash in abrupt way, essentially prepared you for the outcome and challenges that would come assuming the surgery was a success? [00:07:17] John: Yeah. He is a world renowned acoustic neuroma surgeon. He's one of the guys you go to, when you have this kind of tumor and that's all he does. Wow. But he literally left the room and I'm sitting there and I didn't bring anybody in and [00:07:31] yeah. [00:07:32] John: A tip to anyone who's potentially going in for a serious diagnosis. [00:07:36] Yeah. [00:07:37] John: Bring a friend or a family member. [00:07:39] Because it goes in one ear and out the other, you're in shock. Right. Right. When you get home and you say, wait a minute, he said that surgery gonna be four hours or 14 hours or 20. How, how long ago and you have all these questions. Yeah. And you know, getting ahold of the doctor to ask them again is just not the way our medical system works. [00:08:01] He's back to back, to back to back patients. [00:08:04] So, I checked in the night before, they did blood tests and I tried to get an hour or two sleep, 6:00 AM my clockwork the orderly came in and said, okay, get naked, get on this cold gurney. What a sheet over you and we're going take you to the operating room. [00:08:21] Danielle: I wanna pause your story for a moment. 'cause there's a couple things that I, I wanna tease out a little. So one is you, the way that you tell your story, so well probably because you've told it on stages, you've shared it with others, you've written about it. There is something about a trauma. [00:08:37] That really marks the sort of BCAD of life. And the way you shared, I felt like I was in the room with you when you were getting this bomb of news dropped on you so you were theater trained, theater kid, a creative person, a creative problem solver, and a business owner. [00:08:57] Like I, I think about that often when people are experiencing trauma. What, what was life sort of the, the illusion of normalcy. The, the, you know, the predictability of this is my life and this is my to-do list and this is my calendar. So before that moment, you were just a guy on the west coast running a business. [00:09:17] Is that right? [00:09:18] John: Very successful business. [00:09:19] Danielle: And I, I just wanna share briefly too, I haven't met too many other only children. Theater background 'cause that's me too. [00:09:30] John: Oh, really? [00:09:31] Danielle: I'm an only child and I was a theater major and started acting when I was 13, so before. But, the creative problem solver, God, my theater background has paid dividends in ways I didn't know at the time. [00:09:42] I didn't know that when I was preparing for this interview, but now that you've said that, it's like that thing that I couldn't put my finger on has clicked into place. [00:09:49] John: I love doing improv. [00:09:51] Improv is the, you know, everybody talks about being in the moment. [00:09:57] Yeah. [00:09:57] John: What does that really mean, being in the moment? [00:10:00] When you do improv, you have to be in the moment. Otherwise you fall flat. And everybody, you're doing improv looks at you going. Well, it's your turn. [00:10:10] Danielle: You've tapped in. Now you've gotta say something. How are you gonna move the story forward? [00:10:14] Exactly. I feel most alive when I'm engaged in moments like that. And I, it's, I'm not a, a adrenaline junkie, but I would say that's my high, it's the, rush of connecting with somebody like that. So you were running a very successful business. This bomb has dropped. [00:10:32] You can barely remember what you were told and what your life is likely going to be. Assuming everything goes well, what is going to happen when you wake up off your op? And how long was your operation? [00:10:46] John: 15 hours. [00:10:48] Danielle: And the surgery was a success. They were able to remove the golf ice tumor. [00:10:52] Yeah. So they removed the fall sized tumor. [00:10:54] John: I didn't have time to think, you know, I got one of my guys who worked for me told him that he was gonna be running the company for a month or two. He agreed. [00:11:05] Mm-hmm. [00:11:05] John: Had to shovel up some more money to get him to do it, but, you know, it is what it is. You do what you have to do. [00:11:11] Yeah. And then,, I just tried to think positively, hope for the best. Plan for the worst. You know, I had someone gonna stay with me the first week, make food because I just wanted to recover and I didn't know what it was gonna be like. [00:11:27] Danielle: Yeah. You're like, I just need a week to recover, and then I'm just gonna hop back into life, hopefully. [00:11:31] John: Rolling the gurney into the surgical, prep area. [00:11:35] The nurse saying, Hey John, you know, we know we have to shape after your head. You want me to do it now or after you're under. [00:11:42] Danielle: So you didn't even know that they were gonna shave your head. Well, I didn't think about it. [00:11:48] John: I mean, if I had thought about it, I got a shaved part of my head. [00:11:51] Danielle: Right. [00:11:52] John: I said to her, please. [00:11:56] Danielle: Yeah. [00:11:58] John: And so, they roll me into the operating room. You got these really bright lights, , blinding you, and you're laying there and they're like, okay, you're gonna count back toward five. [00:12:09] The next thing I know, I hear faint voices and it was like I was 30 meters deep in a pool. Struggling to get to the surface. And I remember this like it was yesterday, literally trying to swim to the service to regain consciousness. [00:12:26] And finally when I got enough, I realized that my dad was sitting on the edge of my bed holding my hand, [00:12:34] and [00:12:34] John: he was smiling at me, but I didn't see my mom. [00:12:40] So I asked my dad for my glasses and he handed me the glasses. And I remember trying to put the, and then I realized my head's bandage. [00:12:48] Danielle: Oh, right. [00:12:50] John: So I had to figure out how to get the glasses in Cockeye to get 'em on my face, right? [00:12:55] And the look on her face was one of horror. What did these butchers do to my son's face? And at that point, I didn't know my face was paralyzed. Because I have full feeling, I just can't move it. [00:13:10] Danielle: So you currently, you still have full feeling in your face. You just lost mobility, [00:13:14] John: so I didn't really understand what that look was. [00:13:18] Danielle: Right. How could you? [00:13:19] John: And then my mom handed me her compact makeup. [00:13:22] And I opened it up and I'm like, holy crap. And then, I'm still getting [00:13:30] accustomed to, the one thing I noticed is leading into surgery, I was constantly dizzy and that dizziness was gone. [00:13:38] Danielle: Wow. [00:13:39] John: And that was like, oh my God, what a relief. [00:13:42] Mm-hmm. [00:13:43] John: So the doctor finally made his way in and I was like, so when's my face gonna move? And he said, John, we were, successful. [00:13:50] The tumors removed. Right when we were close the incision, your face stopped moving. But we think it's just to do the swelling, and once the swelling goes down, your face should start moving again. So I'm like, okay. I can handle that. That's a, it's not a permanent thing. I can deal with it. [00:14:05] So I'm in the hospital a week and, they're like, when you can do three laps around the hospital floor, without a walker, we'll send you home. [00:14:16] So that became my goal. I remember getting outta bed and then they said, no, no, no. Wait for the, I said, no. The doctor said that I need to rock three laps around. [00:14:26] I want to get the hell out of here [00:14:28] Five days I got home. My dad drove me home and I sat on my couch and now I'm like, okay, I can start healing and check email here and there. And I was taking lots of naps. And then I coughed and I touched the back of my neck and it was wet. [00:14:45] Mm. [00:14:47] John: Oh, it was a spinal fluid leak on the base of the incision. [00:14:51] Whew. [00:14:53] John: So immediately I called the doctor's office and the said, oh, get your ass back here. And I went back to the hospital three times with them to redo the bandaging to try to prevent the leak. [00:15:05] Danielle: Wait, you call the hospital. Hey, their spinal fluid leaking out of my surgical incision. And they're like, yeah, you should get in a car and drive yourself to the hospital. [00:15:16] John: They didn't say how I should get to the hospital. [00:15:19] Danielle: Okay. Fair, fair. But that, [00:15:22] okay. Wow. ' [00:15:24] John: cause that's not good. [00:15:25] And there was potential for getting, spinal meningitis in that. From what I understand is one of the most extreme pains out there. [00:15:35] Okay. [00:15:35] John: I went back and forth three different times over that week. [00:15:39] They tried to, it was just as right behind my ear, right at the base of the incision. So, there was no way that they were going to be able to, put a pressure manage to keep that and so it could start healing. [00:15:51] Danielle: Mm-hmm. [00:15:52] John: So they finally said, all right, tomorrow you're gonna come in and we're gonna, redo the incision and pull more belly fat outta your belly to fill the hole. [00:16:01] And Yeah. This time they used staples, man, thick Frankenstein. [00:16:07] All the way up. [00:16:08] But then I'm like, I was only in the hospital for a day. And then, and I'm like, okay, I can relax. I remember getting up and brushing my teeth, you know, and I'm looking at the mirror and God, , I don't recognize that guy. [00:16:24] Yeah. And I got rid of all the mirrors in my house. [00:16:30] I didn't want a constant reminder. [00:16:33] My face was screwed up. [00:16:34] Danielle: I, there's so much specificity to what is uniquely your story. [00:16:46] Mm-hmm. [00:16:47] Danielle: But what I have found is when people. Are able to share elements of their experience. It's when you go into the specificity of what you experienced. I can see myself in so many elements of your story in my own, like when we get in deeper, it becomes somehow more accessible and universal. [00:17:16] And in that way, you're not alone, even though it happened to you and that detail about your removing the mirrors from your home. It, it brings me to something I really wanted to ask you about. You share by saying, and then also , by, actually demonstrating in your TED talk that, once you began the healing process of really addressing your depression after your operation, that, the story, it led you to magic, literally. And I also think in a more magical way, beyond performing an illusion. And I know not to call it a trick, I learned that from arrested development. [00:18:03] But, there's something you said that I wanted to quote that it's amazing how accepting kids are of the truth. You open up your TED talk, which I will link in the show notes so people can see. But that you mentioned that this in a way that your permission and your humor and your honesty, it created levity and lightness. [00:18:27] For something that would be considered maybe so precious and heavy. And what I wanna speak to, and open up a question if that's okay, is, I'm curious what your relationship with the truth is because I think humor in its highest expression is allowing us to laugh at something that we see the truth in. [00:18:49] And yet it's this razor's edge between laughing at someone or laughing at something versus inviting us to laugh at the, the human experience that we maybe don't know how to name or express in another way. But I wanna know personally for you, what your relationship is with the truth and the value of embracing it. [00:19:13] And then in your line of work as a coach, where do you see people struggle with it? [00:19:19] John: Truth is an illusion. [00:19:21] Danielle: Ooh, tell me more. That just, that was a zingy response that you popped right out. Please tell me more. [00:19:28] John: Yeah. Truth. Everybody has their own truth. [00:19:31] Danielle: Oh, well there you go. [00:19:32] John: Their own perspective, [00:19:34] Danielle: uhhuh, [00:19:35] John: And the truth is formed out of your limiting beliefs. [00:19:41] Danielle: So the truth is formed out of your limited beliefs, [00:19:44] John: your limiting beliefs. [00:19:45] Danielle: Limiting beliefs. Okay. [00:19:47] John: Yeah. [00:19:48] I just wanted to take a slight step back. [00:19:50] Danielle: Mm-hmm. [00:19:51] John: I told you this was gonna be the Reader's Digest version. [00:19:54] Danielle: Yes. [00:19:54] John: But it took me 12 years [00:19:57] To come out of that hiding. Wow. 12 years. [00:20:02] Danielle: How old were you when you had your operation? [00:20:05] John: 33. [00:20:06] Danielle: 33. Okay. [00:20:08] John: And fortunately for me, I could work from home. But I miss so many celebrations with friends and family. 'cause I just didn't want to have to explain it. I didn't want to have to deal with the looks, , and I tell this story on my TED Talk and in my book. You know, at a restaurant I wanted to get a burger at Tony Aroma's. And I'm sitting there by myself and in a booth, and there's a booth right in front of me and there's a family with a kid, two parents and a kid. And the kid's squirming and gets up and turns around and is now on his knees on the bench and looking at me. [00:20:44] And he gets up and he comes over and he says, Mr, what's wrong with your face? And in that moment, I didn't want to have a five or 6-year-old come over and Right. And I'm like, okay, I had the strength to come out and go to a restaurant. I have to deal with this. So I started talking to this little boy [00:21:06] Danielle: Mm. [00:21:07] John: And saying, I had a medical procedure that caused me not to with my face before I could continue his mom grabbing him [00:21:16] mm-hmm. [00:21:17] John: The arm and drug him back and said, don't bother him. The nice man, he has enough troubles already. And I couldn't leave it there. [00:21:25] Mm-hmm. [00:21:27] John: So I had to go to the little boy and I knelt down and I got eye level and I said, I love my new face because it's different. [00:21:34] It's different just like yours. And I remember it like it was yesterday, he took his fingers and he tried to distort his face to be crooked like mine. And he turned to his mom and said, look, mom, I could do that too. And then he went back to eating his meal. His question was answered. [00:21:56] He had no judgment. And his parents were like, holy crap, did we just learn a lesson? How to raise our child? [00:22:03] They whispered, thank you on their way out. [00:22:07] Danielle: But there is something I, there, there's something to that woman's response to you that really resonated with me. [00:22:14] And it also, highlights the point you made so well about the, essentially the truth being relative. Because she projected onto you what her perception of your life was. Don't bother the nice man one, she didn't know you were nice, though. You are. But she didn't know that. Right. And she also didn't know what your troubles were or weren't, and she assumed that. [00:22:39] John: But I always wonder what her motives were. [00:22:41] Danielle: Right. [00:22:42] John: was it to make me comfortable or was it to make her and her son comfortable [00:22:48] Danielle: it for her? I think so. [00:22:50] John: And that's how I took it. [00:22:51] Danielle: I remember. So I have two children and I was pregnant once before and lost that pregnancy. [00:22:57] 12 weeks in. And I haven't thought about this in a very long time, but I remember going into, a annual doctor's appointment and she saw on the chart that I was listed as pregnant and clearly now was not. And it was in her own discomfort of not, she was asking me about the baby thinking, 'cause she was not my ob, GYN it was a different type of doctor. [00:23:20] And, she caught. Oh, and then I had sort of explained to her what that meant, and then she said, well, I'm sure, you blame yourself and I want you to know it's not your fault. Like she took her discomfort and tried to turn it into, she positioned herself above as someone who knew what he was experiencing and wanted to offer me this sympathy that was, one, she was wrong. [00:23:45] I totally misplaced. Yeah. I didn't blame myself. And it, that, that moment was such an extension of her own inability to hold the moment and the discomfort of the moment, and, tried to offer it up as a gift for me, which that's, yeah. [00:24:03] John: It's your perception of how you deal with that. [00:24:06] Danielle: Mm-hmm. [00:24:07] John: Losing a child can be. Empowering because you know that you can try again and get a child that is not gonna have any kind of defects and is gonna have a good life. And you know whether or not you believe in God or not. [00:24:24] Danielle: Yeah. [00:24:25] John: Things happen for a reason and we don't always understand the reason for them. [00:24:30] Danielle: I don't know if it, what the reason was, but I can say a gift from that was that somebody who lived with a very active monkey mind and a lot of head trash and some anxiety in the experience of the early grief, not for very long, but there was a moment in time where my mind was quiet, not numb, but quiet. [00:24:55] And it helped me realize, oh, there's the observer within me. Then there are the different conversations that are happening in my head that aren't me, which are maybe the perceptions that I call truth sometimes I wanna bring that same question of truth, which you had an answer I was not expecting, which I love when I never see it coming, so thank you. [00:25:18] Where do you see your clients? Because you're a coach, right? You are taking your healing and offering it as medicine to people that are trying to make a connection in their own life. So where do you see people that you work with? Struggle with the truth? [00:25:36] John: Everybody's hiding from someone something in their life. [00:25:40] They have buried something so deep and it keeps them from moving forward in their lives. 'cause it erodes their self-confidence. [00:25:50] That's what I learned through my love for performing magic. [00:25:58] Going to the magic castle, sitting at a table with a paralyzed face. [00:26:03] Yeah. I'm this overweight guy with balding, balding with a paralyzed face. And I could sit at a table and have people come to me. I tell this story sometimes, that the Magic Castle is a place where you have to get dressed up to the nines, you know? And women love to get dressed up [00:26:22] Danielle: That's true. [00:26:23] John: They're wearing their best outfits, right? And all of a sudden I'd have five or six women sitting at the table, and their reactions are very guarded. [00:26:34] Hmm. [00:26:36] John: You know, they're sitting there with their legs and arms crossed. [00:26:39] Hmm [00:26:40] John: they're leaning back. They have a smile that's just more of a grin. [00:26:45] Mm-hmm. ' [00:26:47] John: cause I don't know what I'm about. Sure. They don't know if I'm gonna be inappropriate, if I'm gonna come onto them, if I'm what it is. So they have no expectations other than they're gonna see some magic. [00:26:58] Mm-hmm. [00:26:59] John: So I start my act saying, hi guys. My name is John and I'm doing magic all my life. [00:27:05] But in 2 0 2 I had a brain tumor. And when they cut over my head, they traumatized medication, nerve offense, a paralyzed face. But something happened to me on that talk table that day, Danielle. [00:27:16] Mm-hmm. [00:27:17] John: I'm not sure what it was because I was unconscious. All I know is I recovered. I realized I had acquired some new skills and I pause. [00:27:29] Yeah. And I wait for everybody to get on the edge of their seat. Like, what happened, John, what? Skills. Skills I could acquire. I'm having brain surgery. [00:27:40] Mm-hmm. I [00:27:41] John: looked to my right and I looked to my left like it's the biggest secret. [00:27:45] Lean in and I whisper in a loud voice as I am able to visualize people's thoughts. And then I do some mental magic mentalism. Love it. And what I just did was I turned my biggest challenge into a superpower. [00:28:07] Danielle: Yes, you did. And I wanna pause you because when you said that in your talk, have, have you read Elizabeth Gilbert's book, big Magic? [00:28:15] Yes. [00:28:15] Danielle: When she talks about trickster energy, I was like, John Kippen is a freaking trickster. [00:28:22] That is trickster energy that you can shift. Before someone's very eyes. It's like you are performing magic and you are performing magic. You shifted before them and you invited them, your audience to see beyond their own limiting beliefs, their own projected truth. [00:28:47] John: They were distracted. They wanted to know why it was paralyzed, but they couldn't ask, did he have a stroke? Did he have be palsy? What was the reason? So I found them being distracted when I was performing. So I got that outta way in the first two minutes. [00:29:00] Mm-hmm. [00:29:01] John: I explained why my face is paralyzed. [00:29:03] And now I treat it as the experience is now I'm able to do superhuman things. [00:29:10] And now they're like, okay, cool. So as I perform [00:29:16] I focus on the spectator. Magic happens in your mind as a spectator. [00:29:22] Danielle: Oh, I love that magic happens in your mind [00:29:26] ​ [00:29:31] If you've ever wanted to start a journaling practice but didn't know where to start, or if you've been journaling off and on your whole life, but you're like, I wanna take this work deeper, I've got you covered. I've written a journal called Treasured, a Journal for unearthing you. It's broken down into seven key areas of your life, filled with stories, sentence stems, prompts, questions, and exercises. [00:29:51] All rooted in the work that I do with actual clients in my therapy sessions. I have given these examples to clients in sessions as homework, and they come back with insights that allow us to do such incredible work. This is something you can do in the privacy of your own home, whether you're in therapy or not. [00:30:10] It has context, it has guides. And hopefully some safety bumpers to help digging a little deeper feel possible, accessible and safe. You don't have to do this alone. And there's also a guided treasured meditation series that accompanies each section in the journal to help ease you into the processing state. [00:30:29] So my hope is to help guide you into feeling more secure with the most important relationship in your life, the one between you and you. Hop on over to the show notes and grab your copy today. And now back to the episode.​ [00:30:44] John: Magic is what you see in your mind or someone else sees in their mind. [00:30:49] Magic is that thing that immediately makes you present. [00:30:56] Danielle: Yeah. [00:30:57] John: And your, all of your sensors are now in a heightened state , whether it's a sunset or a beautiful beach or a beautiful woman or a magic trick or whatever it is, there's that sense of awe and wonder. [00:31:15] So as I would start to take each spectator, I would learn their names. [00:31:19] And I would use their names throughout the show. [00:31:22] Danielle: People love that. [00:31:23] John: People, I ask them, the one word in everybody's language that they love to hear the most is their own name . and so I use that as a way of engaging the audience. [00:31:33] They start leaning in and now they've got real smiles on their face [00:31:37] and I can literally see this wall that women in today's society are forced to put up as a self-protection mechanism. [00:31:45] Yeah. [00:31:46] John: I see this wall start to grow as they start to identify with me and they're like, I'm okay being myself. [00:31:54] And then the end of this [00:31:56] they're asking permission to hug me. [00:31:58] And , having a creative mind, I wanted to understand. What that is. What that, what was going on. [00:32:06] Danielle: You also, not only through performing magic, inviting the curiosity you could see in other people's faces into your opening act essentially, or your sleight of hand. [00:32:17] I'm gonna show you this over here so that you can not see what's coming here. Vulnerability in its purest form is magic because it's the one thing sharing the story you feel like you couldn't share. Letting somebody see the one part of you that you would never let anybody see 'cause you were so utterly convinced you would be outed or you would be cast out by exposing that vulnerability is the birthplace of true connection. [00:32:47] Yeah. Which is the ultimate magic trick. It's, it's like what they say in nightmares, if you stop and face the thing that's chasing you, it, it can't chase you anymore in the dream. And so you spent a decade, did I remember that correctly, you wanted to be a main stage performer at the Magic Castle? [00:33:06] It took you about 10 years and you did it. [00:33:08] John: I did. [00:33:09] Yeah. [00:33:09] Danielle: 10 years. [00:33:11] John: Yeah. [00:33:12] Danielle: 10 years. [00:33:13] John: It was my creative coping mechanism. I had hit rock bottom, was I suicidal? No, not really. But I was unhappy. [00:33:25] Danielle: Yeah. [00:33:26] John: I was, my girlfriend left me, and, fortunately I had a job that I could focus on. But I needed something more. And through sharing something so personal and tying magic into it and making it a positive instead of a negative [00:33:45] people are attracted to it. [00:33:49] Danielle: Yeah. Well, because you're holding fire in your hand. Yeah. You're not just saying it's possible, but you're living. You're turning it into a performance, which I think for an artist is one of the most selfless, beautiful acts. [00:34:11] John: It's what separates great artists from mediocre artists. What is he giving me to care about? [00:34:18] Danielle: I never thought about that with magic. What are they giving me to care about? [00:34:22] John: Yeah. What do I want them to think when they leave the theater? [00:34:27] Ability to put your own life in perspective. If John can, so can I. [00:34:33] That's my true message. [00:34:36] Any different is your superpower. [00:34:38] Now, my facial paralysis does not have to define me if I don't let it. [00:34:44] You know, Danielle I live my life that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. [00:34:51] And that's bit me in the butt numerous times. [00:34:54] Danielle: I can also say the opposite, can bite you in the butt. I think I waited probably too long, many times for permission that wasn't really coming because no one can ultimately grant it. Right? Like, if there's a path you wanna carve, like the job that you built, all of the different things that you've done, there's no resume posted on LinkedIn. [00:35:15] No one's hot. Like that's an empowerment coach slash magician slash keynote speaker, slash documentarian like that. You have to get curious and still, and listen to that little voice inside and follow that curiosity to a path that may not make sense for anyone for a really long time. And I didn't do that. [00:35:40] And that can bite you in the butt too. 'cause regret's hard to hold. [00:35:42] John: Alex SBE came out on national television [00:35:45] to his fans, to the world and said, I'm scared. I am fighting the battle of my life and I'm gonna ask for everyone's good thoughts and prayers . of what I'm going through. I reached out to Nikki Trebek, Alex's daughter and I said, Nikki, I need to perform for your dad . we're having a 75th birthday party and we don't have any entertainment. [00:36:13] So if you wanna be the entertainment, and I was like. Damn. Yes. [00:36:18] Danielle: Well, yeah. I will go to his house and perform magic for him. a [00:36:22] John: restaurant, but [00:36:23] Danielle: Oh, a restaurant. Okay. [00:36:23] John: Wrote a unique magic show [00:36:25] With Jeopardy themes and the whole nine yards and he was actually at the table as one of my assistants. [00:36:33] Oh. Along with his daughter. so he was this, he needed to understand how things worked. [00:36:39] Was a genius. And so he was constantly looking at me like, wait a minute. That's not possible. Just embrace it, Alex. You're not gonna figure it out. Just enjoy it. [00:36:52] Danielle: That's awesome. [00:36:54] John: And there's, on my website, john kipp.com. There are some magic videos and there are two videos of me performing for Alex , sat with him, and I said, Alex, I need to share something with you that, when you came out so publicly about your diagnosis [00:37:10] I asked for everybody's support and love and prayers that resonated with me. I am here to give to you. You've been a part of my life and the lives of millions of people. [00:37:27] And your life's work is meaningful. [00:37:30] I just wanted to tell you that, 'cause I had a feeling that no one ever takes the time to say thank you for your life's work. [00:37:37] And he immediately started welling up. [00:37:39] Danielle: Well, anybody who makes something look easy that we do take for granted. [00:37:45] And I think that, like I appreciate so much in the telling of your story, you share not just the struggles, but the time you had a vision of yourself. On the main stage performing at the Magic Castle, like the most elusive place where magic is. And you didn't just wanna get in, you didn't just wanna get an audition, you didn't wanna just like get to per perform an illusion, like main stage. [00:38:23] You didn't just have a goal. You had the goal and you did it, but you also say that it took you 10 years. And there's usually themes that run with anxiety, about not enoughness and the crunchiness of time. There's never enough time. I'm not enough and there's not enough time. And not being worthy. [00:38:42] Yes, yes, yes. One of my main motivations when I started this podcast originally several years ago, was I was. Starting to increasingly feel, trapped in this sort of, world of before and after story. And it was no longer feeling inspirational. It was just another measuring stick for how not enough. [00:39:03] Yeah. 'Cause it, it's great to see where somebody was and where they are, but when I'm knee deep in my own struggle when I'm the caterpillar goo and the chrysalis, and I'm not the shiny butterfly, but I'm also not the caterpillar anymore. What do I do when my life is literally a shitty pile of goo this is something that most clients don't come right out and ask me like in sessions one, two, and three. But it inevitably comes well, I've been doing this for, so many months. How much longer is it gonna take? How long is it gonna take? And I just always, I appreciate when people can acknowledge. [00:39:41] The time and consistency that goes into healing [00:39:47] John: joy is in the journey. [00:39:48] Danielle: Mm. [00:39:49] John: Not in the destination. [00:39:51] And that's the thing I really focus with my clients. [00:39:55] I have clients come to me because they're holding themselves back in their life. [00:39:59] And it's my job to get that out of them by asking open-ended questions, by building a rapport, I can trust this guy. [00:40:08] Danielle: Yeah. Would you say that's your superpower as a coach? [00:40:11] John: Through my journey of reverse engineering who I am and who I wanted to become. Coming out the other side immediately understood that it's not about me. [00:40:24] Danielle: Yes. It's only true every single time. [00:40:27] John: The joy comes from helping others get that realization, [00:40:32] That they understand they are truly powerful and have a chance to shape their destiny. [00:40:40] That's why I talk about limiting beliefs. [00:40:43] And we grow up with our parents or whoever raised us, those are our belief systems. [00:40:49] And so that's what forms who you are. You stop dreaming. [00:40:54] That's what midlife crisis is all about. [00:40:58] Danielle: Yeah. [00:40:59] John: We got educated, we got a job, we built a career. We have a family. [00:41:06] Danielle: It's, I think the version of that I hear in my sessions is essentially I did everything right. Shouldn't I be feeling better than I am? Yeah. Like, I followed all the rules. I'm winning. Why does it not feel like I'm winning? Yeah. And finding our way back to that. [00:41:29] The unlearning and the unraveling. That is a, it's a process. [00:41:34] John: I'll talk to a friend. How you doing? And so many people respond automatically living the dream. But is it your dream? You're living? [00:41:46] Whose dream are you living? Because you're wasting your life by living someone else's dream. And that's why you get to that point in life where it's not enough. [00:41:58] Cause it's not your dream. You just finished the last 30 years building. [00:42:03] Danielle: Yeah. And the joy really is in the process and there's no way to enjoy the process of fulfilling the wishes of somebody else because you, what you're constantly chasing is when I get there, then the relief will come and then you're there and you're like, well, where's my pot of gold? [00:42:22] John: Yeah. I had, I spent 20 years learning how not to hide my face. [00:42:28] And what happened in March in 2020? The pandemic hit [00:42:33] now covering your face with a mask, became not only politically correct. [00:42:41] But government mandated and I'm like sitting there thinking to myself, what do I do? So I found a company who prints things on masks and I sent them a picture of my face and a picture of the lower part of my job. [00:43:01] Danielle: Trickster energy, John Kippen trickster. That's the new hyphen to your list of all of your accomplishments. [00:43:08] John: I would walk around and strangers would look at it and not understand. [00:43:12] Danielle: Right, right. But people who knew me [00:43:15] John: would do a double take. [00:43:17] Danielle: I will not hide. [00:43:19] John: Refuses to hide. [00:43:20] Even through a global pandemic. [00:43:23] Yeah. [00:43:23] John: I'm gonna live my life [00:43:25] Danielle: mm-hmm. On [00:43:26] John: my own terms. [00:43:28] Danielle: Yeah. I work too hard, too long to get free and I will not hide for you. Wow. Wow. And [00:43:37] John: when I share that story, people like, wow, John's done some soul searching. [00:43:44] Danielle: Which is why your clients come to you. [00:43:46] John: Yeah. [00:43:46] Danielle: Yeah. I unfortunately have come across many. People in the helping profession that haven't started with their first client, which is themselves. I put myself in that camp. I've talked about it on the podcast before, but I didn't start seeing a therapist until I became one, which is probably not the right order, but I didn't realize until I was sitting there trying to help people. [00:44:09] And then my own stuff was getting activated in the session. It's called Counter Transference. And, yeah, I was like, oh shit, I gotta look at the mirror. I gotta do a little more digging. But I think a, what leads a lot of people into helping professions is its desire to heal. And it sounds like in your case you did the herculean task of lifting your own self up before you said, now what can I offer you? [00:44:39] I wanna ask, just a purely curious, selfish question before we get to the very end I wanna ask. In your book playing the Hand you're Dealt how did you connect with Jamie Lee Curtis? The same way you did Alex Trebek? Did you just find someone and you DMed them and [00:44:55] John: you're like, her assistant worked for a production company [00:45:00] in a previous job. [00:45:02] Danielle: Gotcha. [00:45:02] John: That I knew. [00:45:03] When Jamie was like, I need it. So help with my computer. Her assistant said, I've got the guy for you. And I remember being at Jamie's house. [00:45:15] She knew me before my facial surgery, and after. [00:45:18] Danielle: So you have a history then? [00:45:19] John: Oh yeah. We met in 2000. [00:45:21] Danielle: Oh, okay. [00:45:22] John: So she saw me before. [00:45:24] She saw the struggle. Sure, she has two. Great kids. [00:45:29] And she adopted me as her third child. Wow. She saw the ability to help me. And so I had a filmmaker friend of mine reach out and said, John, I'd love your story. [00:45:45] I want to film a documentary on you. And I'm like, cool. So I realized I'm paying for the damn documentary. [00:45:51] Danielle: Oh. So I wanna offer you this gift, and by the way, here's the bill. [00:45:55] John: Yes, exactly. But at that point, I'm all in and I'm like, what do I have to lose? I'm a risk taker. I can afford it. [00:46:01] I've got money in the bank. [00:46:03] Let's make sure we stay on budget or close to budget, so there I am working on Jamie's computer and I'm staring at the screen and I'm summoning the courage. Ask Jamie. So I'm telling her the story. My friend Ryan's gonna direct this documentary about my life and my journey, and then I pause and I'm just staring at the screen. [00:46:23] I feel these eyes burning into the side of my head. [00:46:26] Mm-hmm. [00:46:28] John: And Jamie says, and [00:46:32] Danielle: I love that she didn't do it for you, but she made you do it. [00:46:36] John: And then at that point, I realized what the question was. I said, Jamie, will you be in my documentary? [00:46:44] And she goes, fuck yes, I will. [00:46:48] Danielle: Yeah. [00:46:49] John: She gets it. [00:46:50] Yeah. [00:46:51] John: Going through her sobriety, she wears her sobriety on her. Shoulder as a badge of honor. [00:47:00] And that is her message. [00:47:02] Yeah. [00:47:03] John: If she can get people to stop drinking by showing up for people. That's her ultimate goal in life. And so, she saw in me what I didn't see, [00:47:18] Danielle: and you asked the question. I think it's a lesson that I feel like I'm eternally playing a game of peekaboo with where I forget, and then I remember and then I forget and then I remember. But like the opportunities that you're asking for, you have to ask. [00:47:39] Yes. You have to say the thing. Right. Which is so brave and so vulnerable. But then the magic is sometimes when you ask, someone will say Yes. Now, in your case, she was essentially lovingly poking you until you, [00:47:55] John: asked. There was a point where I was debating plastic surgery. [00:48:00] Did I want to try to fix my face? Because at the end of the day, I wanted symmetry at rest. I wanted to be able to get rid of the droopiness and just, have a symmetrical base. That's all I really wanted. Sure. And because I would say, I hit my smile. And I've had friends come up and say, John, your first smile, we love your smile. [00:48:23] But I didn't love my smile. And until I, not up here, not in my head, but in my heart, accepted my smile. I couldn't move forward. I couldn't heal. And once I accepted my new smile, I found joy. I found that I could love myself. [00:48:46] And what's funny is when you get to that point, [00:48:49] yeah. [00:48:50] John: You overcome whatever that thing is that's holding you back. [00:48:53] Yeah. [00:48:54] John: And you want to share it with every person you come in contact with. [00:49:00] Danielle: Yeah. You are the love you're seeking. [00:49:02] John: Yes. Yes. And you are your acceptance. [00:49:05] Danielle: It reminds me of, something. He said in an interview, in, A New Earth, but author Eckert Tolle said that right before his essential death of the, he called it the death of his ego, but we could call it enlightenment or rebirth. [00:49:19] But he remembers the last thing he said before he went to sleep was, I can't live with myself anymore. And it wasn't about in the interpretation , of , taking one's own life . but what he realized is that he couldn't live with the self that was hating him. He couldn't live with that self. [00:49:40] And that self never woke up. But he did. [00:49:45] John: Through my journey [00:49:46] Of coming to accept myself for who I am. I immediately see others. [00:49:53] Yeah. [00:49:53] John: How they're hiding. [00:49:54] Before they recognize it. And so my coaching is all about not saying, this is why you're hiding. [00:50:03] That's what's holding you back. [00:50:06] Danielle: What you said about once you, you see somebody's wall so clearly because you understand your own so well. My less eloquent way of saying that to clients, it's once you smell bullshit, you can't unm it. It's the scent in the air and you're like, huh, what am I smelling? [00:50:23] Oh, it's bullshit. Well, John, I would love to know your, don't cut your own bang moment. [00:50:30] John: I'm backstage. There are a thousand people in the audience and I had theatrical training I had a talk memorized. It had to be 12 minutes long. [00:50:39] I'm doing a magic trick with other people that are coming up stage. I needed to control that. I got there early the morning of the TED Talk and helped the guys focus the lights so that it looked better. I'm all in. I want to shine in this TED Talk. , I remember I'm going up on stage and I'm saying, to the cherry picker operator, can I give you a hand? Because I have lighting experience. And I expected the presenter come and say, no, John, you're the actor. Go in your, the green room and there's some donuts and coffee , and we'll call you already, but you didn't. She knew that I was there to make the entire event better. And she let me do it, [00:51:18] That's awesome. [00:51:19] John: This is my first real speech. Okay, in front of a thousand people. And I knew that I had a limited time to get the audience on my side. [00:51:30] Get the audience engaged. How was I gonna be able to break their, going through their phone, talking to a neighbor, drinking, eating, snacking in a full day of speech? [00:51:41] Yeah. [00:51:43] John: So I said, I wanna go first. And everybody has said, great, but we don't, you can go first. And right before the mc went on stage to introduce me. I did a magic trick war. I turned Monopoly money into real money and then back again. [00:52:00] So as a magician, everything was possible. I turned monopoly into real money, but then I realized that's actually called counterfeiting he stays out for like seven seconds. I did that to the mc and now he just saw a miracle happen. [00:52:16] So he turns around and walks on stage beaming, and he told that story to the audience and said, Hey guys, your next speaker just did a miracle. He turned monopoly money into real money in front of my eyes. Pay attention to this cat. [00:52:37] Yeah. [00:52:38] John: So I walked on that stage. I had the love of everybody in the audience that everybody wanted to see what I was gonna do. [00:52:46] Everybody wanted to hear what I was gonna say, so I didn't have to warm up the audience. I got the mc to do it for me. Genius. And I do that every time I speak because it works but anyway, three quarters of the speech, I'm standing on my red circle and I'm delivering my talk. [00:53:08] And the front lights go out. [00:53:10] Danielle: Wait, you were three fours of the way done when they went out. [00:53:13] John: I'm standing in shadows. And my first reaction was, whoa. That Whoa. Got the lighting guy to realize, holy shit, I hit the wrong button, and he brought the lights slowly back up. [00:53:27] As the lights went back up, I went magic [00:53:32] and so I got an amazing laugh from the audience. [00:53:36] Because I cut the tension, I was doing improv. [00:53:38] I remember walking off stage and the producer of the event said, John, don't worry about, we'll edit that part out. And I said, don't you dare. That was my finest moment. Don't you dare edit that out. [00:53:54] I want that in the video. [00:53:57] She just smiled as I went back to the dressing room and sat down and then the adrenaline was like, whew. Walking out into the audience after the event and having strangers just come up to me and wanna hug me and say, holy cow, I resonate with your message. [00:54:18] And my message on the TED Talk was, treat people are different with respect to compassion. [00:54:23] That's what TED talks are all about. You want one key message and that was my message. [00:54:27] You never know, you might be in their shoes in an instant. [00:54:34] Danielle: I wanna add to that, another way to speak to the value of doing some self investigation, whether that's through journaling, through therapy, or seeking out a coach from someone like yourself is, because that expression of, treat other people the way you would wanna be treated. [00:54:53] What I know is that we don't treat ourselves all that well. A lot of us, many of us don't treat ourselves well, which is why accessing the compassion. Of treating others kindly is sometimes harder for us to find, jumping to criticism or judgment, because there's something we are rejecting in us. [00:55:13] So I think a way to do the thing you're saying , that beautiful treat others with kindness and compassion. The best way to do that is to look within. And I invite anybody listening to go to the show notes, visit John's website, seek out a coaching call, grab a copy of his book. There are resources that can help you be kinder to yourself, to lowering the walls, to lifting the veil, to seeing yourself in a new way, to performing the ultimate illusion, which is [00:55:52] to love yourself more fully exactly as you are so that we can be kinder to each other. 'cause we need that, we need a lot more kindness. [00:56:00] Thank you, John. Do we have the information we need for our listeners to get the special code? [00:56:06] John: John kipping.com. [00:56:08] Slash free gift. [00:56:11] Danielle: Ooh, you heard it here. John kipping.com/free gift. And this is only the gift for those of you who have listened this far. [00:56:20] So if you listen to the beginning and you just try to skip to the show notes, sorry. You ain't getting a gift. Thank you, John. [00:56:28] Thank you so much for joining me on this incredible episode of Don't Cut Your Own Bangs. I hope that you love listening because I thoroughly enjoyed making it. My favorite episodes are the ones where I get to learn something too. I'm also a listener. And benefiting from the wisdom and insights of all of the experts, creatives, performers, adventurers seekers that I get an opportunity to meet in this podcast format. [00:56:56] Don't forget to check out the show notes and please before you sign off , always remember rate, review, subscribe to the podcast when you interact with the podcast. It just helps send it out like a rocket ship to other people that are looking for the same value that you are. And it also helps create a conversation where I can continue to develop and cultivate something that benefits you more and is more fun for you to listen to. Feedback is great, and also if you just wanna throw a compliment, that's sweet too. But thank you so much for being here. [00:57:26] Your intention, your time mean the absolute world to me, and I hope you continue to have an incredible day. [00:57:32] ​

https://schweitzer.church

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John John Florence is a three-time World Surf League Champion and one of the most naturally gifted surfers of his generation. This conversation explores John John's decision to step away from competition at his peak. We discuss his evolution from forcing outcomes to allowing flow, why mastery begins with surrendering control, and transforming pressure into presence. We delve into why external achievements can't heal internal wounds and his choice to prioritize fatherhood over fame. Through it all, John John shares the profound life lessons the ocean has taught him. This is surfing as spiritual practice. And John John is the perfect guide. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up   Today's Sponsors: LMNT: Get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase

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Every sign in the Gospel of John points not just to Jesus' power, but to his grace, mercy, and the life-transforming truth of who he is.Today, as we continue The Gospel: One Sign at a Time, our year-long study through the Gospel of John, Paul unpacks John 20:30–31, where the apostle reveals his purpose for writing: so that we might believe Jesus is the Christ and find life in his name.For more in-depth Bible studies, visit PaulTripp.com/John.