WALK DOWN A DIFFERENT STREET

Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen Kenney show. This is the

last episode of 2025 which is just crazy. I am actually kind

of excited though that this year is ending.

Please tell me I'm not the only one. I am ready to put 2025 in

my rear view mirror. Wicked excited about that. Okay, look

at I am so jazzed about this episode today, and I'm going to

tell you a little bit about it. We're going to dive right in.

And I also just want to say thank you so much for being here

and spending a little bit of time. Little bit of time with

me. If you're a regular listener, if you're one of my

loyal listeners, thank you so much. I just couldn't do it

without you. And if you're new here, welcome. I'm so happy

you're here. Okay, so this episode, I'm calling it walking

down another street. So really see this as an invitation for us

to walk down another street together. Okay, so I'm going to

share with you this poem, right? And the first time I ever heard

this poem was, I think I was, I know I was watching Wayne Dyer.

Wayne Dyer was the one who introduced me to this. But I

don't know if it was on a PBS special. You'd always be on the

PBS or it was like some Hay House, I can do it event. I

don't know what it was, but I remember it was him, and it's a

really simple piece, and it's really simple, but it's really

powerful, and it deeply landed in me, and I wanted to share it

with you. Now, some of you may have already heard this sucker

if you haven't, buckle up. Enjoy it if you have. Trust me,

repetition is the mother of all learning, and it never hurts to

hear something smarty pants twice, you know what I mean. So

this poem is called autobiography in five short

chapters, and it was written by a friend of Wayne's, a woman

named Portia Nelson. And Portia was a singer, she was a

songwriter, she was an author, she was an actor. And this poem,

autobiography in five short chapters. Comes from her book.

There's a hole in my sidewalk the romance of self discovery.

So that already gives you a little sneak peek into this.

Now, there's a reason, of course, why I'm sharing this

with you. So stay with me. It's bits. It'll be it'll be

beneficial. Okay, so this part made me laugh. So Portia was

attending some sort of a seminar, right? And all the

attendees were asked to write down on a five by seven piece of

paper or a five by seven card their autobiography. But they

could only write their autobiography in five chapters,

and Wayne said that they were only allowed to use five by

seven. They were only allowed to use five by seven cards to help

people, basically keep it short. And when I think about this, it

makes me laugh so hard, because we all know how we all love to

get up into our stories and just go on and on and on about all

the things that have happened, and then this happened and this.

And look, I'm a storyteller. I love to tell a good story, but

we can all be a little like attached to those stories,

right? So the people running the seminar were smart, and they

were like, five by seven. I'm surprised they didn't say four

by six. Okay, so here is the poem autobiography in five short

chapters. And listen to this chapter one, I walk down the

street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am

lost. I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find

a way out. Chapter Two, I walk down the street. There is a deep

hole in the sidewalk. I pretend that I don't see it. I fall in

again. I can't believe I am in this same place, but it isn't my

fault. It still takes a long time to get out. Chapter Three,

I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the

sidewalk. I see it. It is there. I still fall in. It's a habit,

but my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I

get out immediately. Chapter Four, I walk down the same

street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter Five, I walk down another street this and now it's

so simple, it's so good, it's so smart. Oh my god. So let's break

this sucker down. The hot beat of this poem, the hot beat of

this message is she's basically using this simple analogy of a

sidewalk with a hole in it, right. But it's demonstrating

and describing these different stages of our own unconscious

behavior, and then how the unconscious behavior, over time,

if we're willing, right, shifts to realization, and then it

shifts again, ultimately, to our conscious choice, where our

power lies. And I love this. So if we look at the progressions

of the chapters in the first in the first chapter, she falls in,

or, let's just say, you and I right these patterns of

behaviors that we do, these habits, these conditioned these

conditioned patterns and habits and ways of being and thinking

and speaking and the choices we make, all of it right? And this

is very common also, I have no doubt, and I know that this,

this poem, has been shared many, many, many times in recovery

circles and in 12 step programs. And it makes sense, because it's

really also like, it's like the breakdown of addiction. But this

is also can be applied to any of our unconscious behaviors, our

patterns, our habits, our bullshit, basically, right? So

chapter one, she's talking about, you know, she falls in,

feels lost, helpless and clueless, and you think it's not

your fault. So you do the thing, the hole. You don't even see it.

You fall in. You're stuck, you're helpless, you're

hopeless. You don't think it's your fault, okay? Chapter Two,

you fall in again. You're pretending you didn't see the

same damn hole that you already fell in before. But you're still

insisting that it isn't your fault, even though you're here

again. You're still insisting it's not your fault, right?

Chapter Three, you see the hole, and you fall in again out of

habit. Oh, my God. How many times have we done this? All of

us, all of us. But this time, this is where it's different.

You realize it's your fault, and you've been in and out of this

hole so many times. Now you know how to get out. You get out of

it immediately, right? Chapter Four, you walk around the hole.

Just, you just walk around that sucker, right? Fantastic.

Chapter Five, this is when we've really made some progress, and

this is when we walk down a whole damn different street,

like, How fantastic is that, right? And it makes me think

about A Course in Miracles, because, of course in miracles

talks about how, you know, first of all, of course in miracles

always talks about how there's but two emotions that we have,

right? One, we were born with love. One, we learned here in

the human experience, fear. Okay? There's two of them.

There's love and fear. Like, that's it all the other things,

they fall underneath this category, right? So, of course,

in miracles, kind of thinks of everything in the in these two,

these two things, they would say that only love is real, like

fear is a figment of our own imagination. These

hallucinations, this this creation of the ego, mind,

believing it's separate from its source, and it creates all of

it, the sickness, the guilt, the suffering, the separation, the

specialness, like all the bullshit, right? That's the

fear. Only thing that's really real is capital L, love. Okay,

so A Course in Miracles talks about how we take detours into

fear all the time. So you know, when you're driving down the

highway and all of a sudden you find out, like, you you've taken

the wrong exit. I'm always like, this is like, when you're you're

heading towards love, like you're really trying to do it.

You're really trying to, like, grow and be present and be more

loving and compassionate and kind and kind of not be a

selfish dick, you know, like you're trying to really work on

yourself. But we do. We take these detours into fear. I

sometimes talk about it like we go on the wrong side of the

duplex. I do this whole analogy with people in the nest, right?

I talk about this. So on one side you have all the fear

behaviors. On the other side is where, where love is, where

spirit is, right? So of course, Miracle says we take these

detours into fear. And I would always say to people, like, when

you realize, when you realize you've taken a detour into fear,

that is not the time to keep going. That is not the time to

then, like, either, like, find a campsite where you set up camp

and you set up your tent and you build a fire and you pack your

ass there. Or it's not the time to keep driving and see if

there's any houses you can buy. Like, we're not here to buy real

estate when we when we realize, oh, detail, detour into fear.

Now it's okay. I always say, like, if you realize you've

taken a detour into fear and you need to, just like, find a rest

stop for a moment. You need to, like, get your bearings and have

a little snack and take a rest. Best, right? Like, that's fine,

that's okay, right? As soon as you get your bearings, you

better bang a UE, like, lickety split, like, you recognize it.

And this is the whole thing, right?

Ken wopnick, who was a really great Course in Miracles,

teacher, he used to say that, you know you're making progress

on the spiritual path, not when you like never take a detour

into fear again. When you realize you have left love, you

have left your right mind, and you've gone into crazy town,

you've gone into the realm of fear. Because it's not that you

never take these detours into fear anymore. It's how quickly

you realize you've done it. That's how we know we're making

progress. And it kind of points right to what she's saying here.

And chapter four and chapter five of her poem, she's like,

you start to walk around the hole, or eventually you just

start to walk down a whole different street. And this is

the thing that I'm talking about for us in 2026 I really would

love to invite you so let's all walk down a different street

together, because I think 2025, has been chock full of fear and

dissonance and separation and all of this, like infighting.

Imagine if, like, we're all one big family, and there has just

been shit ton of craziness, of hate, of just just separation

and all of it. Now, look, we can't control what other people

out there are doing. All we can control is ourselves in the

choices that we're making. Right we can walk around the hole. We

can walk down a whole different street. We can see the whole. We

can warn other people about the hole. We can put up a little

sign that says, Don't go in the hole, right? I mean, we can't

save people from themselves. Some people are going to insist

on going in the hole. And I made some notes here, you know, I

said, here's the thing though about this poem, because chapter

four and chapter five, right? Walk around the hole, or go down

a different street, they sound great. They sound great. But

here's the thing, let's be real about human behavior. Let's be

real about how deeply patterned, how deeply ingrained these

habits and conditioning goes. Right? Here's the thing,

sometimes it takes us a while to recognize that there is a hole.

Sometimes, it takes us a while right to even recognize that

there's even a fucking hole. Sometimes, right, it takes us a

while to recognize that we're in the hole. We don't even know

we're in the hole because we've normalized our behaviors. We've

normalized feeling bad. We've normalized and familiarized our

suffering. So we just kind of go like, Oh, this is just how it

is. Right. Remember that Bruce coat? I always talk about the

Bruce Hornsby song, that's just the way it is, right. Some

things will never change. You know the lyrics to that song,

and he says, ah, but don't you believe them? Right? Don't you

believe them, we are all capable of change. I always say, as long

as I am alive, conscious, breathing and aware, I am going

to be able to create transformation and change. Okay?

But number one, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize

we're in the hole, that there is a hole. Sometimes we don't want

to take responsibility that we're in the hole, right,

because we're getting something from being hopeless and helpless

and behaving right, like a victim, right? Sometimes we're

getting some sort of subconscious payoff, or

sometimes we're getting like, an external right, we get

attention, or we get like, Oh, poor you, or let me help you. Or

you manipulate people, and they do shit for you, and it's never

your fault, and you got everybody running around, right,

like your little minions, right? So sometimes we don't want to

take responsibility for it, because we were getting some

positive intention we have, you know, and that's what the

subconscious does. It has a positive intention, but it often

is wreaking habit. Okay? Number three, sometimes we get out of

the hole, but we fall right back in, like a trust, fall right? We

get out, fall right back in, like a few moments later. God

bless us. All right, sometimes we don't know that it's okay to

walk around the hole, because maybe nobody else in your family

has ever walked around the hole. Maybe everybody just insists

that you get in, right? Get into that, you know, that old analogy

I hate. So how so many analogies and metaphors use, like

suffering towards animals to depict them, right? When you

talk about like the crabs or the frogs and the boiling water,

which I hate, right? But it's this idea of like, you know, the

crabs will try to pull the other ones back down into the pot or

whatever. Sometimes, your family members don't know that there's

a better way. They don't know that you can walk around the

hole. Sometimes they don't want you to walk around the hole

because they're more comfortable with you being small. They don't

want you to get out. They don't want you to like, you know,

quote, unquote, get too big for your brick. Or just shine too

bright, or, who do you think you are? Right? So you may not know.

You might have to be the pattern breaker. You might have to be

the spell breaker in your family, right? You might have to

be the first one to say, hey, there's a fucking hole here, and

I'm gonna walk around it. You don't have to like it. I'm going

around the hole. Okay? And then here's the the last one.

Sometimes that chapter five right, walk down a whole

different street. But here's the thing, some of us don't even

know that there's a different street. We only know that one

street. We don't even know that another street is available to

us depending on where you've gone and maybe how many books

you've read, or what you've been exposed to, or what your you

know, economic situation has allowed, and this is why I

always say about libraries like library cards, men are free and

they are the portal. They are the thing. They give the poor

kids a leg up because it puts us on an even playing field. When

you can get your mind into a place where there's books to

read, not everybody can read. I get that. What I'm saying is, is

that sometimes, right, I'm not making excuses. These five

things are just sometimes realities in people's lives. But

here's the thing one, if you can hear the sound of my voice, you

now know about the hole. No more excuses. And if you need help

getting out of the hole, or realizing there's a whole, or

walking around or getting better at taking a different street.

This is, this is the different ways that people work with me,

in the nest, my spiritual mentoring group, program, my

little community that's amazing, or one to one work or whatever,

right? Some people come to work with me, you know, to do more,

like yoga classes or workshops or tie yoga body work or

assisted stretching, or whatever I do all kinds of stuff. Some

people just listen to the podcast right. Here you are.

Thank you so much. But here's the thing I want to say, right

when we recognize that we are stuck in our habits and our

patterns, I'm tapping my forehead right now. This message

is for me also. PS, I do this podcast for my ears to hear it

first, because I can be kind of a knucklehead, right? When we

recognize we're stuck. I'm tapping on my forehead like I'm

doing EFT when we recognize we're stuck in our habits and

patterns and conditioning. Right? Remember this poem,

remember our power, the power that is available to us. Right?

Personal choice is a power, the grace of the wisdom that is

contained here, right? I'm dropping some spiritual bread

crumbs right now for you, as you're tiptoeing past Christmas

and Hanukkah, right, and Kwanzaa, all those things into

the new year, we are, we are going to walk down another

street, hopefully together, I would love that, right? So

here's the thing, there's power available to us in personal

choice. There's grace in this wisdom, and there is deep

transformation in this self development and personal growth

work, in the spiritual work, right? But I kind of think

about, you know, as humans, like the four buckets or the four

table legs, right? You have the mental, the emotional, the

physical and the spiritual. And we want to be able, and it's

really hard. I'm gonna do a whole podcast about balance in

2026 but we do want that table to be somewhat balanced. You

ever try to eat on the table, it's not balanced. It's not

soothing at all. It's like GA gunk gunk, GA gunk gunk, right?

Every time you move in your water. Okay? The other thing I

loved about this poem is it illustrates how we need

awareness to be able to change the destructive patterns in the

first place, right, once we become aware of them. And I do a

whole podcast on this way back in the day, the 4c and the four

A's of lasting change, right? So once we have awareness, we can

start to work on those destructive patterns, and

gradually, if we're willing to pay attention, if we're willing

to stay awake, if we're willing to take responsibility, right,

then we can progress from blindly falling in that hole

again and again and again, right? We can get out of those

same holes to eventually choosing a whole different path,

a whole new path. Let's just all double Amen hands to that, the

realization that there is a better way. When A Course in

Miracles says this great line, right? And it says, trials. This

is what this is describing. It's a trial. You keep doing the same

thing. And of course, Miracle says this, trials are but

lessons right? Trials are but lessons learned. So where you

it's saying, so where you used to do these old patterns and

habits, you no longer have to do them. Right. Trials are but

lessons presented once again, right for where before you made

this old choice, right that the wise self inside of you call it

the voice for God, Holy Spirit, spirit, call it Jesus, call.

Your intuition, your gut instinct, the inner teacher, I

don't care what you call it, but there's something inside of you

that calls to you and says, my brother, my sister, my person,

choose again.

Trials are but lessons failed to learn presented once again. So

where before you made a choice, right? The Christ in you calls

to you, the self in you calls you the smarty pants, the divine

intelligence in you calls to you and says, my brother, my sister,

choose again. And that's what this poem is all about. You can

choose to walk down a whole different street, and I would

love to walk along beside you as we do it. So here's to 2026

Here's to us going in. I might be making a few changes, I don't

know, to the podcast, cover art. I got a bunch of things. I got a

I'm always like hatching a plan. I always got my I'm always up to

shenanigans, right? So I got some cool things going on in

January. I'm going to be doing some yoga classes on Monday

nights just in January at the Pembroke Pines Country Club,

which I'm wicked excited about. They have a big, beautiful room

and a fireplace. It's going to be yoga by the fire. And this

is, this is, I'm saying all of this in 2025 if you're

listening. This is for January 2026 and that last Monday of the

month, my sweetie and I are going to be doing live music and

yoga by the fire. That's going to be wicked cool. I have some

Tuesday night yoga classes coming up, maybe some Thursday

night yoga classes coming up. And I'm doing Thai Yoga,

assisted stretching, and, of course, always spiritual

mentoring and coaching, hot to hot days, all kinds of stuff.

You can find out all about it. Karen kenney.com, just spell my

last name right, and you're good to go, k, e, n, n, e, y, and

that's it, just this. Keep your eyes peeled, right. Stick

around. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. I love

you, I care about you, and I hope you just have the most

fantastic holiday season with you, with you and yours, your

family, with your friends, whoever you spend it with, if

you spend it alone, right by choice, enjoy your company. If

you don't spend it alone by choice, maybe reach out. Maybe

there's some folks around, a neighbor, a friend, a cousin, a

somebody, a gathering somewhere. Go to a yoga class, right? But

Be around people if you're feeling a little lonely, if

you're feeling like you want to get a little connected, Okay,

listen to the podcast. You can always pop my voice into your

ear holes in your head. So Alright, you guys, look 2025 is

going to be behind us before we know it, welcoming in 2026 and

again. Always think you can find these old, these old, what are

these things called podcast episodes that I did on what we

can is just a very simple thing to be thinking about in 2026 as

well. Ask yourself this, these questions, what do you want to

let go of? Right? I always say, think of it like this. What do

you want to let go? What are you going to keep? Right? It's

sticking around. What do you want to let go of? And what do

you want to grow? What do you want more of? What do you want

less of? Get rid of it. What do you want more of? Bring it in.

What do you want to keep and expand? Right? So maybe that'll

be helpful for you. Okay, look wherever you go. Last time,

signing off in 2025 wherever you go. May you leave the animals

and yourself and the other humans and the environment and

the planet better than how you found it wherever you go, may

you and your energy, your presence and your love be a

blessing. Bye, you.