Hi, and welcome KCIW listeners at one hundred
point seven FM or online at kciw.org,
Brookings, Oregon.
Hi to our syndicated listeners at KZZH
ninety six point seven FM,
hacks Access Humboldt, Eureka, California.
And a special welcome to our listeners at
KSKQ,
eighty nine point five FM Ashland and ninety
four point one FM Medford, Oregon.
This is
Joyously Free Radio with me, Joni Lindenmayer,
the best selling author of None Better, an
amazing love story, and the coauthor of Joyously
Free and Healing Religious Hurts. I am so
glad that you are tuning in today with
us. So I'm a resident of Harbor, Oregon,
a retired high school teacher, a recent author
who has published three books in two years,
created an audiobook, and with friend and film
producer Michael Gorse created a short film called
Wowzer. We are just on a roll.
But most of all, I love life, and
I love being the producer and host of
this
highly energized joyously free radio gatios show, so
named by Will and Viv.
This show talks about LGBTQ
plus stories and tips along with religion,
church, faith,
spirituality,
and joy. It's the spreading of abundant joy
and freedom. That's why we call this radio
show Joyously Free. And it happens to be
the same title of my coauthored book with
Elizabeth Ann Atkins of 2sisterswriting.com.
In this radio broadcast,
just as in my everyday life, there will
be no hate speech,
no hate behaviors, and no bullying.
We blast it with the three c's, courage,
confidence, and collaboration.
So together, listeners, let's sparkle and seek understanding.
Think out of a box or no boxes
at all, but be open minded just as
an open parachute.
Let's begin with something that Carol and I
did for forty years every single day. I
call it my daily salutation,
and it goes like this. I say it's
a brand new day, and your response is
it's never been lived before. Let's give it
a shot.
It's a brand new day.
It's never been lived before. Woo hoo. I
see. That speaker is ready to go. Our
guest is ready to go. Thank you so
much. And that's Deborah, and I'll introduce her
in just a second. But,
yes, that that is so exciting. So let's
begin also with our prayer.
Let's open our hearts as we ask the
divine to shine light on our community and
our world.
I excitedly believe in hope, in the power
of the spiritual,
and that Jesus, God, spirit, whatever
name
you put on a higher being is always
with me and always with you.
So be not afraid or troubled,
saddened or depressed.
Joy and peace are an internal expression of
love and harmony, and that's already within us.
We only have to reach deep within and
let it out.
So let's center ourselves
quietly and calmly.
Take a deep breath in
with the good
and out with doubt.
Again,
breathe in through your nose with hope
and out from your mouth with fears.
Last one, take a big deep breath in
with joy
and out with any worry or despair.
In the name of mother Earth, creator God,
Jesus, our redeemer, the blowing winds of the
spirit, we say, hi. Hi, love. Hi, light.
Hi, Jesus. Hi, God. Hi, spirit. Thank you
for being with us this beautiful day.
The quote I picked for today
is a simple one, and it came from
my give us this day prayer book that
I read every day.
And it went like this.
Help us secure
truthful reporting and journalism,
and protect the well-being
of truth tellers.
I'm gonna read that one more time.
Help us secure
truthful reporting and journalism
and protect the well-being
of truth tellers.
When I read that in my prayer corner,
all I could think about were all the
people that write
or are on TV
as anchors, but all the people that journalism
that journal that journal
truth.
And what is that truth? Oftentimes,
you'll talk to one person, they think truth
is one way and you think that truth
is another way, but we need to be
open minded.
We need to let God and spirit fill
us with what that real truth is. And
when you're still
and quiet,
this is what I have found, when you're
still and quiet,
you will know what that truth is.
It's not something society always says. It's not
something that has been doctrine or policy or
law.
It's an internal truth.
So those are my little highlights for today,
and I I hope that you gain something
from that. So in this,
let us lift up our friends and our
family.
May you and I find guidance,
divine healing,
and the pleasure of knowing what love is.
Thank you, holy one, for hearing and being
with us today.
Bless us to always do a bigger will
than ourselves.
Amen.
So it's a happy day, k c I
w, k z z h, and k s
k q because I am excited to introduce
a friend and a professional woman that has
helped me a lot my life. Her name
is Deborah Perdue,
and she has the topic of gratitude is
your superpower.
She is a book designer.
She is an author, and she is a
spiritual adventurist.
Deborah, welcome to joyously free.
Thank you, Joni. I'm just thrilled to be
here. Oh, good. Good. Good. Good. And we're
hoping we can tap into your your brilliance
and your heart throughout the day to day
that you you will inspire and challenge all
of us. I just know that will happen.
So how are you today, Deborah?
I'm doing very well,
being with you, Joni, because you're so enthusiastic
and so
filled with wisdom just brings my spirits up
even further today. Aw. Well, thank you. Thank
you. And then we're gonna get to know
about your spirits and what's what's at the
bottom of your heart or the top of
your heart. Thanks. Yes. So why don't you
start? You know, people probably don't know who
you are, Deborah. Where do you live? What's
going on in your life? Talk about your
your personal and your professional. And just a
quick little summary, a little bit about you.
K.
So,
I live in Grants Pass, Oregon,
and we live right in the forest, and
we live by the Rogue River.
And I really love living in the country.
I've lived in the country almost all my
life. Mhmm. And,
I have a husband or I have a
beautiful dog, and we have a pond with
frogs croaking right now for the spring.
And it's just really a delight to be
here, and it makes me grateful every single
day. Uh-huh.
And I'd say I wear a couple hats
in my life, and all of the things
I do, I absolutely love.
One of them is that I am a
book designer as she mentioned,
and I love this part of my work.
I've been been doing graphic design actually since
high school. Oh. And, yeah, I just
it fell into it by work experience, and
I've carried it on in my whole life
becoming a book designer about twenty five years
ago. Wow. And
I helped Joni with, her three wonderful books
with the covers and the interiors.
Yes. The form it's called formatting. I learned
that word from you. When you go in
and you actually figure out what kind of
font and what actually, you talk about it.
Talk about what all that means, please, Deborah.
Well,
let's see. What should I say about it?
Let's see. So with interiors,
that's the inside of the book. Yeah, we
have to choose type styles, sizes,
indent, margins,
etcetera, and lay it out in a pleasing
way for the reader. And then sometimes people
have pictures.
Joanie did have pictures in your,
the first book you did. I'm forgetting the
name right now. Yep. Yep. None better. And
then I I had I had pictures of
people in the other two books too. Yes.
Yeah. That's right. So then I just I
lay it out is what it's called. And
Mhmm. I can do all kinds of,
types of books, including coffee table books, which
I love, and fiction and nonfiction. It just
really delights me that this is my freelance
job.
Wow. Wow. And you get to use all
your creative talents of art and and,
Covers are
are probably the most fun because we get
to create them using different artwork. I have
a person that I use a lot named
Tara Thalen who does
artwork for the covers, but then I do
the design.
And, it just brings me great joy. Mhmm.
Mhmm. So, you know, going back, you said
you started basically when you were in high
school. And
yet did you take a class, or how
how did it come about?
Well, I lived in a tiny rural,
town called Lagunitas
out in Marin County.
And I went to work experience,
and they happened to have a job for
a newspaper
right in that tiny town. And so I
could literally walk to their place, and I
started working there.
And I loved graphic design. I did it
even before
computers, believe it or not. And, it just
has
carried me through this whole time in my
life. I just love my job and I'm
so thankful
that I found it in high school. You
know, I know some people look and look
and look for what they wanna
do, and it just really fell into my
lap. Wow. And that's your passion?
Yeah. That's one of my passions. Okay. I
want me to talk about my Sure.
Spiritual
exploring. Okay. I'm I'm a licensed practitioner at
the Grants Pass Center for Spiritual Living,
and I serve there.
I pray with other people, and I speak
on Sundays before the minister sometimes. We trade
places, the practitioners.
Mhmm. And I really, really love that part
of my life.
And I also am a gratitude gal.
And what I do is I write gratitude
reflections every day that I send out to
my subscribers.
And I've also published five gratitude books, two
journals and three
of gratitude reflections.
And, I just
love
it's my favorite topic, gratitude. Mhmm. Mhmm. And
I also facilitate book studies and classes online
and in person at Grants Pass.
And so, anyway, that's really my spiritual
what I really love in my spiritual world
as well. Okay. So so, you know, I'm
not really familiar with what a practitioner
is. Can you describe what a practitioner is
for your your fellowship?
Yeah. So,
what a practitioner
does is serve the minister and also serve
the congregants. Mhmm. And we take extra there's
classes that are all the centers for spiritual
living, spiritual classes.
So I took
the ones that were required to become a
practitioner, and then we go into two years
of study.
And we just
broaden and strengthen what we've learned already Mhmm.
So that we can teach classes and pray
for others, etcetera.
That's basically what it is. Do you have
more questions about it? Absolutely. You know, I
I think it's really interesting because we all
come from or have had different experiences and
different faith denominations.
Yeah. And so the this one here, what
I'm hearing you say is that you you
you went to school. You did two years
of study. You,
help out. You pray.
You you guide people on their journey. Yes.
And so an example would be what would
be an example of you being the highlight
of being a practitioner?
So it's really
when people they people send prayer requests to
us, the practitioners at our Grandsfest CSL
every Sunday. Mhmm. And I think one of
the highlights is we also have demonstration cards
to fill out, and that's when something manifest
that what we prayed for. Uh-huh. And it's
really, really so beautiful to hear the different
demonstrations
of people who had their prayers answered
because I believe we always get our prayers
answered in some form or fashion.
And so that's one of the highlights,
definitely. That that's a big one. And I
love what you just said that prayer all
prayers are answered.
You know? And sometimes we don't always see
it or feel it or know it, and
sometimes they take time, don't they,
before you get an answer? Do. Mhmm. Yeah.
I love that let's see. I'm trying to
remember Michael Beckwith's statement.
Who's Michael
Beck? Michael Beckwith is has Agape,
and it's a center for it's like Center
for Spiritual Living, but he went above and
beyond because he met.
He went, he was on Oprah and stuff
and he got too big for our centers.
So he opened his own and it's like
he has a following of 9,000
online.
Wow.
Every Sunday. Wow. So it's just I remember
the it was delay is not God's denial.
Oh.
Very good. Isn't that great? That's great. That's
great. I I know. I also wanna say
one more thing about the Centers for Spiritual
Living. It's a totally open and accepting and
loving place to be.
And earlier in my life when I, went
to traditional,
like Catholic, I was I started being brought
up Catholic.
But what bothered me about that was how
they said, you know, made it seem as
though other religions
might go to hell if they didn't believe
as we believed. Oh. And, you know, I
just,
really like, to me, even when I was
a little girl and I heard that that
would mean Hindus or Buddhists,
you know, aren't okay. They're not going to
heaven. Uh-huh. It just didn't ring true to
me, and the Center for Spiritual Living is
all inclusive. All inclusive. Love that about it.
That's awesome. That's awesome. You know? And and
personally, you know, I'm I'm I'm coming from
the the queer aspect as an LGBTQ person.
We we wanna make sure that that we
always feel safe and celebrated when we're in
a faith community. So that's awesome to hear.
That's awesome to hear. Yeah. It would be
everybody is Right. At our CSLs.
Right. Well and I can see why and
how what you do as a practitioner
is gratitude. And you said you've written five
books or or journals and workbooks about gratitude.
Tell me about what do you what is
your,
what do we wanna say? How would you
define gratitude, and how does it feel?
Okay. So,
you know, it's it's just being thankful and
noticing everything that you can be thankful for.
And really,
there is zillions of things to be thankful
for in this life. Mhmm. You know, it's
it's everything and it's everywhere.
Like every square inch
of, of the earth has life in it.
I mean, I just think everything's basically a
miracle. That's how I look at it. Mhmm.
And I think that being thankful and being
grateful,
like, every single moment when I walk outside
my house
and I look at all the nature and
all that, I just feel this deep, deep
thankfulness.
And so that's what I like to share
with people
because
I started out a long time ago
as a griper and complainer
Oh, okay. When I was younger. Okay. And
because I wrote in journals, I,
minister at one of the CSLs
suggested we, write five things we're thankful for
for forty five days.
And she promised our life would change beautifully.
And so I did it two different years
and that's what happened to me. Like, I
stopped griping and complaining
and I just started being thankful for everything
and then my life just
improved so much dramatically and wonderfully and powerfully
that I'm just a great believer in gratitude.
Wow.
Yeah. I feel that it can be our
superpower
and it helps to make you joyously free,
Joni.
You know it? Tell me about it. Yes.
You know? And and and I I don't
know where I learned that along the the
life journey as well, but to journal and
to write down
five things that you're grateful for that day.
And what I remember is you're not able
to repeat that for that forty five days
that you do this. You cannot repeat the
same thing that you've been thankful for. Did
did you do that part too of it?
She didn't have us, do that, but that's
a great one. Yeah. That's a great one.
So so name so name me,
name me five things today that your gratitude
heart is is bursting with, Deborah.
Just being here with you right now makes
me very grateful,
honestly. And talking to other people, knowing that
people are listening, and that, I get to
share about gratitude.
And,
I'll be going on a walk with my
darling dog pretty soon, and that makes me
so happy and thankful. Uh-huh.
Let's see.
He won five things. I I think he
he probably came up with four or five,
but, you know, if you have if you
have more,
definitely, you can put for my cozy home
and for the frog singing every single night
right now. There you go. Because it's almost
spring.
Wow. There. That's definitely five. That's definitely five.
You know? And listeners, as you're paying attention
to what Deborah is doing, they're not like
this huge enormous
thing. They could be very, very simple,
but you're recognizing,
you're observing,
you're you're celebrating the life within all of
that. That's so beautiful. So beautiful. I know.
Yep. And, you know, gratitude promotes health, both
mental and physical. Mhmm. And it helps us
be happy instead of sad or angry. Mhmm.
And that's why I call it a superpower.
Mhmm. Because,
when you get grateful, then everything just changes
to joy
and abundance and love. You know? It's like
you just can't help it because you're grateful.
Right. You know? Right. Right. You know, and
as you talk about this, I I remember,
you know, my honey, Carol, had a massive
brain bleed stroke. And,
yes, it was very hard. Yes. It was
very challenging. Yes. I I got depressed. And,
yes, I mean, all the the negative stuff
that pulls you down when you love somebody
so much, and now life is like in
in an uproar.
But then to to say to be thankful
to be thankful that she is alive or
to be thankful for the medical team and
the the airlifting that took place and the
the hospital bed and, just yeah. It it's
like it's like you have to do, like,
a switch.
You have to do a switch in your
brain and your heart to do that because
it's hard to get out of some of
the negativity of the world.
Sure is. And so,
yeah, I always turn to if I'm watching
the TV, which sometimes in the news, you
know, it can be very disheartening and depressing,
I'll just,
disheartening and depressing.
I'll just
what I do is I put on my
air earbuds and listen to something positive
Mhmm. Because you can always switch it around
like you were saying. There's always something to
be grateful for. You found things with,
Carol's,
you know, illness and then her passing. I
know you, and I know that you ended
up,
you know,
feeling so,
thankful for knowing her for so long. And,
you know, it's just that's what you can
do is you can always switch it around.
Mhmm. That's what I love about gratitude.
Mhmm. Exactly. Exactly. So in these five books,
they they might be a resource for for
listeners out there, Deborah. Can you talk a
little bit about those five books that you
did and and where they are accessible?
Yeah. So one thing I wanna say before
I talk about the books Okay. Is that
if they go to www.graceofgratitude.com
Okay.
On the homepage, they can sign up for
the gratitude daily gratitude reflections they send out
by email,
and they also receive a free PDF
of, one of my books. Oh. So that
book is Grace of Gratitude Reflections,
and that it's a small book. And
it's
if you got a physical copy, you can
put it in your pocket and just bring
it out to look for something to inspire
you if you wanted to. Mhmm. And then
the let's see. The two journals are,
Grace of Gratitude Journal. They're both called Grace
of Gratitude Journal, and they have different covers.
They have beautiful artwork that Tara Thalen did
for us
on
various pages.
And then they have a place for each
person to write what they're grateful for.
And also,
I have some inspiring quotes of gratitude.
So that's what those books entail. There's many
pages to write what you're grateful for, as
well as inspiring quotes and then Tara's
lovely artwork to look at as well. Mhmm.
I have one of those books, and I
I've been using I've been using it for
the last year, and I absolutely love the
artwork. I love the the freedom. I love
the the the the,
what do I wanna say? It's the joy
that comes out of the page because it's
just very simple, the quote or the invitation
to to write.
Yes.
Thank you. Yes. And then one's a hardback
and the other one is paperback.
Mhmm. And they can any of those, they
can get at wwdot,
graceofgratitude.com.
Mhmm. And then I wanna talk about the
reflections books too. Mhmm. So then I have
two,
gratitude reflections books,
and
they are filled with the cream of the
crop. I've been doing these gratitudes
every single day for, like, ten years or
more. Oh, oh. And so I took the
cream of the crop,
for both books,
and they're in these gratitude reflections books.
And the second one, which is volume two,
has beautiful pictures,
photos on every single page. Oh, wow. So
then I love that because then you can
really reflect on those as well as what
the words say. A picture speaks a thousand
words.
Yeah. Yeah.
Wow. Wonderful. Wonderful. You know, and I love
how you tied that in, that it promotes
healthy physical and mental health.
That's just so important.
Can you talk a little bit more about
that?
Well, you know, some,
therapists have actually ordered my books
because they found that,
when a patient is depressed,
that if they start writing what they're grateful
for, they immediately
feel more,
you know, health Mhmm. In in their minds.
And so
I think it's a great way to help
someone's
positive state, you know, to just make them
focus on what is right rather than what
is wrong. Mhmm. So Mhmm.
Mhmm.
Yep. Oh, I I get that. I get
that. You know? And I thank god every
day that that I grew up in a
family. And and Mike knows my father and
my mother from back in the old days.
But,
my parents were both very, very grateful people,
happy people. They saw the the better light
of everything.
And,
yeah, that that's part of that thankfulness. Oh
my gosh. You know, one of the quotes
that you said was everything is a miracle
is how you look at things. Why don't
you end by talking a little bit about
that and then your final comments for us
today, Deborah?
Okay. Well, I really truly believe that everything
is a miracle.
I mean, life itself is a miracle, us
being on this planet
and all the different life forms.
You know, I pretty much believe everything is
alive.
And so
how can that not be a miracle? You
know what I mean? So it just fills
me up to the brim to realize
how magical
every single moment is and how
wonderful
every single part of life is. Mhmm. And
so that's why I say everything is a
miracle. I totally believe that.
And,
I thought that I give a few tips
at the end. Great. Great. What what do
you mean? You got about thirty
thirty seconds or so. Whip them out there.
Okay. I'll go fast. Okay. Write five things
you're thankful for every day for forty days.
Awesome.
Be yourself, your glorious self, and don't try
to fit into boxes society might try to
impose on you. Awesome. And find a spiritual
path, whatever it is for you. Mine is
the Centers for Spiritual Loving Living, and it's
csl.org.
Wow. And I'm complete.
Wow. Okay. Let's repeat those. Five five things
you're grateful for for forty days.
Be yourself and don't try to fit into
a box as society might try to impose
on you. Yep. Be your glorious self and
find a spiritual path, whatever it is for
you. Oh, I love it. I love it.
Oh, you are amazing. I'd I've loved every
bit of our interview today. I I wanna
thank you from the top of my heart,
Deborah, for putting out your your love, your
joy,
and and just your gratitude of life.
Listeners, you know what? Money. Yes, Deborah.
Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. Yeah.
You're welcome. You're welcome. Hey. Let's thank the
listeners for joining us today on the Southern
Oregon and Northern California Coast and over in
the Rogue Valley. Thank you for being with
us in a joyously free manner, and I
think that you received quite a few step
tips and hopes and loves from Deborah today.
We wanna give high tens to Deborah. We
wanna give high tens to, Tom Bozak, Candice
and Rose, and especially Mike Gorse, who's on
the sound team today to make all this
happen. We give compliments to KCIW,
KZZH,
and KSKQ.
We give a shout out to the sponsors
of the show, Steve Van Cleave, Sally, and
Todd Roy. You know? And most importantly, we
give thanks to you, the listeners, for tuning
in. And you know how we always end
this. It's a big, big mantra of smile
big and wear bright colors. Have a great
day, everybody.
Thanks again, Deborah.
Thank you. Bye bye. Bye.