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At the intersection of preparation and opportunity, I had a wonderful conversation with Hercules Invictus on his podcast. I got a chance to highlight all of the “adventures” I’m on, while getting a chance to show my personality and my authentic self. I’m so please to share this interview with you. We covered so many topics, and I have references and links to the major themes we covered. I got an opportunity to highlight my pursuits, but also the amazing work that people I have met over the past year are doing. From blog posts and writing contests to community organizations and scholarships, I was ready to talk about and reference so many parts of my journey. Not to mention several songs on my playlist that have uplifted me and encouraged me during this challenging season. Hercules is engaging and funny. We’re sharing an adventure together and will be exploring the Area of Focus for the Rotary Club. Please join the Facebook Group to stay on top of updates. Hercules Invictus: Rotarian Argonauts: Adventures in Community Service.

Blessed To Be A Blessing - Love God. Love People.

Right from the gate, I shared about my life motto: “Love God. Love People.” Last year, I updated it from my previous life mission statement which was: “Blessed To Be A Blessing.” This is perhaps one of the most formative of perspective changes after I graduated high school. The teaching I received on a Christian retreat on God’s heartbeat for all the nations, motivated me to go on a short-term mission trip to Ethiopia a year later, lead a Bible Study on the topic in college, and go on another mission trip to Mongolia after I graduated college. I write about the teaching from the book Unveiled at Last by Bob Sjogren in this blog post here. I taught another class through my meetup group a couple of months ago. If you’re interested in a Bible study that looks at this theme holistically from Genesis to Revelation, join my meetup group and look for updates on the next offering. Outside link to meetup.com here.

Counting Every Blessing

Closely linked to this topic was the role of gratitude, which spurs the desire to give your life in service to others. There are certainly many things to be grateful for. As I journey through a painful and difficult season in my life, it has been a touchstone to remind myself of the things that are going well in my life. I referenced a song with the line: “I’ve got miracles on miracles, count your miracles. One, two, three, four - I can’t even count them all.” The song title is “Million Little Miracles” by Elevation Worship & Maverick City. The YouTube video can be found here.

Personally, I have found it hard to keep a gratitude list, even though I’ve heard that wisdoms dozens of times. The last time I tried to write a gratitude list, I decided to write an “Ingratitude List.” This has actually helped me tremendously. I’m not very proficient in naming the things big and small that I’m grateful for, even though I’m working it. I’ve actually found it more beneficial to write down my grievance - all the things that I’m not grateful for. And through the process of writing them down, I have forced myself to see them as blessings. It’s not a matter of twisting my mind, but opening my mind to a greater purpose and higher power that I am not aware of. I got a chance to write about this experience at www.godspacelight.com where I am part of the writing community. Here is a link to the post “Ingratitude List - Struggling To Be Grateful.”

Tenafly, New Jersey - My New Home Town

One of the things that I’m most grateful for is my new apartment in my new hometown in Tenafly, New Jersey. After all, it was my involved in the Tenafly Rotary Club that I made the connection with Hercules to be on his podcast. Hercules identified Tenafly as a type of Camelot. There is certainly a sense of harmony and idyllic hope in my hometown. I quickly identified that the safety and peace we find here serves as a foundation for a gathering of service-minded people to enact outreach to the neighboring towns. I mentioned the work of one teacher who lives in Tenafly who teaches in a neighboring town, Englewood. She runs the Dr. John Grieco Scholarship Fund. Find more information here.

Although we don’t meet at a Round Table, we do meet at a rectangular table during our weekly lunches at TPR Restaurant on Thursdays at 12pm. This is an open invitation for anyone in the area to get in touch and join us for a networking lunch.

My daughter and I did a program in Daisy Scouts this past summer, and in trying to describe the Rotary Club to her, I remarked that it is like Daisy Scouts for adults! There are remarkable similarities. We do begin the meeting by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. And like the Girl Scouts of America, we uphold values and service projects that build “courage, confidence and character, to make the world a better place.”

In addition to being a place to network and socialize with service-mind people, we invite speakers to give presentations on their area of expertise. From topics ranging from antique cars to community health, every meeting is an opportunity to get to know interest people who are at the heart of the Rotary Club.

I had an opportunity to give a presentation last year where I introduced my pilot program for a new program to finance affordable housing and better education outcomes for moderate income families: City Walls USA, Inc.

City Walls Lease

From my personal and professional experience in affordable housing and housing finance, I have witnessed first-hand the value of having a safe and secure home or foundation. My parents immigrated from South Korea, and settled in Long Island. From an excellent school district and after 25 years of increasing housing values, my parents were able to send me to an excellent school and retire after paying off the house. Not only was it a wonderful neighborhood to raise a family, but my previous hometown provide a stable foundation for me to flourish into a service-minded individual.

As I went to college and graduate school, I was passionate about tackling the issue of socio-economic inequality. Despite some pessimistic research that showed how challenging it was, I began to see affordable housing as a vehicle to enact real social change. As I studied the topic in graduate school, I had a seed of an idea. It was a financing solution to help produce affordable rents and better education outcomes for moderate-income families. Although, I didn’t have the resources or experiences to implement the idea, I never let myself forget the youthful optimism I had as a young adult.

This website and all of the book sales are aimed at funding this endeavor now. You can learn more about this program by becoming a subscriber to this website and joining my presentations on this new pilot program. I’m excited to roll out a few fundraisers this year as well. Here is a link to the page with more information becoming a Core Supporter of this innovative program.

Walking Through Spiritual Drought

Talking about the venture inspired me to share the details of my website and book I’m working on now. The idea that I could have some inspiration almost 20 years ago and have the ability to carry it through is a central part of my story. It is universal for people to have moments of inspired thinking and motivation toward a goal, and for those excited feelings to fade. It has been my experience in my spiritual walk, and I have become a student of understanding those seasons for the last 20 years. Rather than seeing those times as negative or the enemy, I have revised my perspective to understand it as something to be grateful for, even an encouragement that I am on the right track.

The spiritual droughts serve a purpose to draw into a deeper spiritual encounter, to refine our heart-character, and develop a passion for outreach globally. That has been my experience and observations across the board in the people I meet and engage with. One of the keys to enjoying the journey has been the concept of seasons. You can read more about my insight into seasons in the blog post I write here.

Being Authentic

I also shared about my YouTube Channel, titled “The Middle Mile.” It draws upon the themes of making it through the messy and difficult middle section. My middle mile went on for 12 years as I cut my teeth in housing finance as a credit analyst. I learned to write and explain complicated concepts in a style that anyone could understand. I learned to analyze a complex problem and break it down into manageable steps. I learned to read the room and go with the flow. It was hard to be my “authentic self” in a corporate culture where that is encouraged as long as your “authentic self” conforms!

Our conversation got real “real” as with both talked about our mental health. I’ve been sharing more openly about my bipolar disorder diagnosis, but it was another thing to have a conversation about it. I’m beginning a corporation after all. Will potential supporters see my vision as the product of a high-flying person who is slightly disconnected to reality?

It is too important a part of my story to gloss over. So I shared about it, and it was well-received. I came across a song a few months ago that exemplifies the message of authentic self. From the movie, The Greatest Showman, the song “This Is Me” has certainly provided lyrics to a yearning to show myself fully to the world. Here’s the song on YouTube.

I still tear up as I did the first time when I heard the line, “I am brave. I am bruised. This is me.”

We both shared how our respective labels has become our superpower. We are both working to remove the stigma attached to these labels and love the term “neurodivergent” to describe who we are. I mentioned that this term was first introduced to me by Jessica McCabe on her YouTube Channel named “How to ADHD.” Here’s a link to one of my favorite videos if you want to see a sample of her fun personality.

Mental Health Awareness

When I first moved to Tenafly, I noticed an announcement about the Tenafly Stigma Free Committee. Without another thought, I reached out to the leaders and asked how I could help. I was on the negative end of mental health stigma before, and I needed a way to improve my corner of the world. It has been amazingly healing for me to engage in this work. By connecting with Lauren Brill and her organization The Unsealed, I made a personal connection with her mission to provide a “platform where we help people write inspirational open letters that reveal strength and encourage compassion.” Learn more here. In this community, we learn that the strength we gained by overcoming or getting up after our most painful challenges have become our superpower.

As part of a writing contest, I wrote a pretend letter to my then 5-year-old daughter on how I would explain Bipolar Disorder to her. I gave that description in my interview with Hercules. To read the letter, which was chosen as a finalist, follow this link.

I want to overall remove the stigma attached to the labels of mental illness, remove negative association with taking medication as a barometer for wellness, and help normalize seeking therapy. Since I mentioned how finding a therapist is a lot like dating, I wanted to put a direct link that that resource here. This link will taking you to The Borough of Tenafly’s website.

Hercules also shared about this journey with ADHD, which really opened up the conversation to a mutual understanding. The names attached to our challenges may be different, but the lessons we draw from them are remarkably similar. He mentioned book, ADHD: A Hunter in a Famer’s World,” by Thom Hartmann. It’s on my reading list and you can find a link to the goodreads description here.

Renewal

We couldn’t leave the conversation without having an in-depth discussion about health and wellness. It certainly permeated the entire discussion as health is more than physical. It must incorporate the mental and spiritual as well. However, we directly related in our experiences of managing our wellness. Hercules, in fighting the Hydra of Type-II Diabetes, and myself in staving off that exact possibility for me.

One of the most important parts of my health journey has been discovery SoulCycle classes. I work out at CycleBar’s Closter location regularly. After years of trying to exercise on my own, I finally found a way to make it fun and something that I can continue doing for a lifetime. I’m looking forward to checking in with Hercules from time and time, especially with blood test results on my A1C levels. Here’s a link to cyclebar and be sure to mention how you found out about it here.

The title of this section is Renewal because even though this small piece of the puzzle on getting exercise is one part of my life, it’s been the missing piece for as long as I can remember. Going on this journey and finding a community that is safe and encouraging is significant to me. It’s about finally doing the thing that I was never able to accomplish on my own.

At the top of the conversation, I mentioned how I was walking through Tenafly and came across an outdoor concert. It surely inspired me to take out my camera and start filming. As I made short video to be a trailer for this website, the words that came to mind was Renewal.

In so many ways, I safe and secure hometown provide the strong foundation in which to outreach and to be a blessing to our community and globally. I hope you enjoy the video on YouTube here.