Bite of Courage

Alicia Bean is one of our country’s frontline nurses putting her life at risk in an effort to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic. She is generously blessed with humility, compassion, and determination to care for others and is deferential to courage. Instead of ascribing it to herself, she attributes it to her colleagues, essential workers and volunteers alike.

Alicia, who says fear lives in the lizard brain — the part of the brain that triggers our fight or flight response (like the rush to buy toilet paper during a pandemic) — tells us how she isolates fear to find joy. Thank you to Alicia, her colleagues, and all of the selfless people who are risking their lives to make other lives better. You are inspiring hope and spreading joy. Let’s make that contagious.

Visit BiteOfCourage.com for show notes and available downloads.

© 2020 Mo Vear

My initial intention for today’s episode was to talk to my guest, Judi Langley, about her twenty-five year marriage to her husband, Gotham.

I quickly realized, however, that Judi is one of those people who has as much knowledge as she does depth, on a variety of topics.

From her bi-racial, bi-cultural marriage and an illustrious thirty-five year career that she recently left behind, we talk husbands, kids, careers, family, and friends and the gifts that come to our communities when women have the courage to lift up and support each other.

Visit BiteOfCourage.com for show notes and available downloads.

© 2020 Mo Vear

Have you ever had to leave someone you love behind? My guest today is Ray. Over 8 years ago, Ray’s partner, who was an illegal immigrant, was deported. Separated now longer than they were together, Ray travels back and forth to see him, but every time he’s getting ready to go, he needs all the courage he can muster to go through with it. He knows the possibility of them ever returning to the U.S. together, and the place they once called home, is undetermined. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Ray says. “Each time I leave, I also have to leave behind the person I love most in life.

© 2019 Mo Vear

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Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.

Can a positive attitude help us heal? My guest today is Laura Alberts. While Laura is a breast cancer survivor, she isn't defined by it. In fact, after undergoing chemo and radiation treatments, Laura claimed to have her "breast year ever" in real estate.

One of Coldwell Banker's top realtors in Orland Park, Illinois, Laura is also a musician, dancer, and vocalist and the winner of both Senior American Idol and Seniors Dancing with Seniors Dance Competition. "Things happen in life, but I've developed a skill set to deal with them. I have faith. I have courage. I have my music, and I have a sense of humor so I forge ahead and enjoy each day as it appears," she says.

"Like the Cowardly Lion in the The Wizard of Oz, we all have the courage inside of us to forge ahead, and if we do things that bring us joy, we don't have time to think about fear. That's the key.”

© 2019 Mo Vear

Visit: HumorMeWithMo.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook page HumorMeWithMo

@BiteOfCourage on Twitter

Mo on LinkedIn

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Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.

Are you free, really?

My guest, 41 year old Dawan Warren, has had a lot of time to think about this question. He's spent half of his life in prison. Indicted at the age of 18 for a series of robberies, Dawan was facing 40 years. Charged with 16 years at the age of 20, he had served 8 by the time he was released. 11 months later, he proceeded to commit bank robbery for which he was given a 34 year sentence. Dawan had no way of knowing that he'd be released twenty years early for good behavior, yet he found the courage to change his thoughts and behaviors and turn his life around.

"A person can be free and still be incarcerated in their mind; a person can be incarcerated and still be free in their mind, too," he says. “I was looking for peace. That's what freedom is--peace. It's not about the physical world; it's about what's going on inside of you. Clean yourself up on the inside, and it does't matter what your circumstances are. You'll have joy.”

© 2019 Mo Vear

Visit: HumorMeWithMo.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook page HumorMeWithMo

@BiteOfCourage on Twitter

Mo on LinkedIn

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Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.

How do you hang on to your dreams when you have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay? My guest today is Dr. Charles Vear. Ninety-three years young, he is a retired medical doctor, a navy veteran and an author who, along with his wife Gloria, wrote their memoir called Love, Laughter & Dreams: We Prayed for Twelve Children.

But at the age of 34, with his wife and 8 children, he received, perhaps, his greatest call to courage. “I didn’t want to die with my dream still inside of me,” he says. So, with Gloria’s support, he embarked on a journey that would change the course of his and his family’s life forever.

© 2019 Mo Vear

Visit: HumorMeWithMo.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook page HumorMeWithMo

@BiteOfCourage on Twitter

Mo on LinkedIn

Bite of Courage on Instagram

Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.

Can accepting and embracing your adversities be the key to living out your wildest dreams? My guest, Elaine Gabalac, opens up for the first time about living with epilepsy. Diagnosed at fourteen, she was angry, sad and scared. But things had to get a lot worse before she realized that the very thing destroying her life was also the very thing she needed to embrace — and that thing was fear. “Fear is useless,” she says. “You can't summon courage to meet fear from a place of emptiness.”

Grateful now for having epilepsy, it's taught Elaine how to accept and embrace adversity and how to overcome fear. “Now I can catch all that is good and within my reach. I can enjoy the little things in life. That's the art of living,” she says. “But it's a choice. Healing is a choice; faith is a choice; courage is a choice." Life is a choice. Give yourself the chance to live the life you're dreaming about. In the words of Mark Nepo: “One life. Just one. Why aren't we running like we're on fire towards our wildest dreams?"

© 2019 Mo Vear

Visit: HumorMeWithMo.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook page HumorMeWithMo

@BiteOfCourage on Twitter

Mo on LinkedIn

Bite of Courage on Instagram

Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.

Is love stronger than death? My guests, Christine and Jean Bosco Rutagengwa, talk about surviving the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Inspired by his love for Christine, Jean Bosco recounts what happened and why, and how he found the courage to leave Hotel Rwanda to get Christine—hopefully, alive, and return with her to the hotel. An unplanned refuge with only a thin layer of protection, Hotel Rwanda was the only place to get away from the killers. “Love gives us courage," he says. “I accepted death, instead of failing to go get Christine.”

This isn't just a story about surviving the Rwandan genocide or a love story between a man and a woman, though. This is a love story between human beings trying to help each other through the worst of times—an ethnic cleansing. On the top floor of Hotel Rwanda, people from all denominations gathered to pray and to help each other: Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Jehovah Witnesses, Muslims, even non-believers, and they had one thing in common. They were scared and in need of protection and comfort.

© 2019 Mo Vear

Visit: HumorMeWithMo.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook page HumorMeWithMo

@BiteOfCourage on Twitter

Mo on LinkedIn

Bite of Courage on Instagram

Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.

Livia Gazzolo is a musician and jazz vocalist with a residency at the Atwood Cafe in downtown Chicago, Illinois. She also produces a monthly cabaret variety show at The Mouse House called “When the Cat’s Away."

© 2019 Mo Vear

Visit: HumorMeWithMo.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook page HumorMeWithMo

@BiteOfCourage on Twitter

Mo on LinkedIn

Bite of Courage on Instagram

Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.

Celebrate your powerlessness? That’s just crazy talk. I thought. I’d have to relinquish control! Can giving up control and embracing my pain and feelings of powerlessness really be the key to healing? It's hard to imagine, but that's how it began for my guest today. Albert Ancel, a grateful recovering alcoholic, says that once he embraced his pain and his fears of feeling powerless, he could celebrate. His whole attitude, outlook and perception changed, and life got better. That was over nineteen years ago. Devoted to the practice of the twelve step principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, Al spends much of his free time being of service. Volunteering several evenings a week at Hinsdale Hospital in Illinois, he facilitates recovery with men and women who've relapsed from drugs and alcohol and also volunteers an afternoon a week facilitating healing for inmates who are awaiting trial and sentencing at Illinois' Cook County Jail.

© 2019 Mo Vear

Visit: HumorMeWithMo.com

Email: [email protected]

Facebook page HumorMeWithMo

@BiteOfCourage on Twitter

Mo on LinkedIn

Bite of Courage on Instagram

Trio Productions. All Rights Reserved. In Association with Podcast Prowess.