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Healing God’s Temple: Fasting, Prayer, and the Shift from Grief to Gratitude with Dr. Hugh A. Jenkins
0 Playsin 4 hours
Dr. Hugh A Jenkins became both a Naturopathic and Chiropractic doctor after years of mentoring by Dr. Alvenia M. Fulton, ND, a pioneer of natural healing and the world authority on fasting. During his many years of practice and mentoring others he was able to assist many people through their journey to Health and Wellness.
Beginning in 2007, he wanted to write a book on fasting and prayer but felt that he did not have enough knowledge in his head to write a successful book. Since that time God has taken him through several life challenges of his body, mind, spirit and emotions to bring him where he is today.
One of his characteristics is that he is a master of Desert Dry Daddy Jokes. He consider himself a sit-down comedian because he would not make it in stand-up.
https://www.facebook.com/hugh.a.jenkins
From Grief to gratitude (his story of going from Grief to Gratitude)
Show Highlights
• The "Big G" Shift: A major highlight of the conversation is Dr. Jenkins’ philosophy of releasing the "little G" in grief to embrace the "big G" in gratitude. He argues that while chronic complaining creates a "poverty mindset," gratitude constitutes true riches and wealth.
• Healing from Within: As the author of Fasting and Prayer: God's Healing Therapies, Dr. Jenkins asserts that all diseases are "incurable" by external medicine alone; true healing is a spiritual process that occurs from the "inside out" when one connects with the "master healer" in the heart.
• Redefining Death as Ascension: Dr. Jenkins views the passing of his brother, David (DJ), not as death, but as "transcending" or "ascending". He shares a profound experience of meeting his brother’s spirit on a porch to receive the "spirit of philanthropy," which he defines as service to the community rather than just financial wealth.
• Spiritual Signs in Nature: To maintain a connection with his brother, Dr. Jenkins looks for signs from "God’s creatures" in nature. He identifies a dragonfly as a spiritual messenger that guides him and has even visited him inside his home
Disclamer: This episode of Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between includes personal stories and perspectives on topics such as grief, health, and mental wellness. The views expressed by our guest are his own and reflect individual experiences and professional philosophies—including his work with naturopathic medicine, fasting, and spiritual healing—which are not meant as medical advice.
As the host, I hold space for diverse voices and holistic perspectives, but this does not imply an endorsement of every viewpoint shared. Discussions regarding the "incurability" of disease or the use of fasting and prayer as "healing therapies" should be viewed as personal and spiritual insights rather than a substitute for professional medical consultation. Please listen with care and take only what resonates with you. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen or medical treatments
Get in touch with f Kendra Rinaldi https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Perspective Change
00:00:00
Speaker
It came to me to release the little G in grief and make it a big G in gratitude. And it starts out, it says start, i can I got this plaque on the wall above the window so I can see out in the garden. It says start your day with a grateful heart.
00:00:22
Speaker
Gratitude. Okay. And gratitude is rich. It's riches. Wealth. And complaining is poverty. So all these folks that chronically complain have a poverty mindset, no matter how much money they make.
About the Podcast and Host
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Rinaldi. This is a space to explore the full spectrum of grief, from the kind that comes with death to the kind that shows up in life's many transitions.
00:00:59
Speaker
Through stories and conversations, we remind each other that we're not alone. Your journey matters, and here we're figuring it out together. Let's dive right in to today's episode.
00:01:19
Speaker
Let's start with a quick disclaimer. This podcast includes personal stories and perspectives on topics like grief, health, and mental wellness. The views expressed by guests are their own and may reflect individual experiences that are not meant as medical advice.
00:01:36
Speaker
As the host, I hold space for diverse voices, but that does not mean I endorse every viewpoint shared. Please listen with care and take what resonates with you.
Meet Dr. Hugh A. Jenkins
00:01:47
Speaker
Welcome to today's conversation. Today I am chatting with Dr. Hugh A. Jenkins. He is a doctor of naturopathic as well as chiropractor doctor. He is also an author of fasting and prayer, God's healing therapies. And today we will be chatting about his grief and gratitude experience after the passing of his dear brother, David. So welcome Dr. Jenkins.
00:02:19
Speaker
Welcome, Kendra. I'm so happy and grateful that God has blessed me to be with you this morning. Thank you for being here. And when I met you, I met you at a prayer gathering for a friend that we have in common. We were saying prayers in honor of her brother who had passed. And we got to connect then and i got to i met you as Tony. So you introduce yourself as Tony usually when you're out and about, but you're Dr. Huey Jenkins. So i will probably refer to you as Tony since that's how i met you.
Dr. Jenkins' Upbringing and Community
00:02:52
Speaker
So Tony, share with us about journey.
00:02:56
Speaker
journey your upbringing and your brother, David, a little bit about your up yeah, how you, where you both grew up, if you had other siblings and then I'll, I'll kind of guide our conversation from there. Okay.
00:03:10
Speaker
Let's start from when God, um, connected us together. were both, both born and raised in South side of Chicago. He was on,
00:03:25
Speaker
God put him here ah first a year and three weeks before me. he was born July 1951 from our parents, Darryl Jenkins, who was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, and my mother, Phyllis Ena-Dosie Bell Jenkins, who was a descendant of the Jamaican runaway slaves to Maroons.
00:03:52
Speaker
And so I was born a year later and three weeks later, July 25th, 1952. So thank God, God blessed us with the same birthday month.
00:04:07
Speaker
We grew up like brothers, siblings and things like that in South side of Chicago. And you know, like brothers, things like that, arguments and fights and things like that, joy and pain played a whole bit.
00:04:20
Speaker
Then nine years later, My parents disturbed our childhood with other siblings. That's the best medicine. With my sister, she was born nine years um after me.
00:04:39
Speaker
So she was born in April of 1961. No way to let me add another addition to the family. We had a babysitter. We got a dog. Her name was Princess, but her nickname, like I have a nickname, was Pitty.
00:04:55
Speaker
Okay. She was a female Labrador. She was the babysitter of the neighborhood, the community. Okay. Because it takes a village to raise a child. So you had to have babysitter first.
00:05:07
Speaker
Then that was 1960. She was born. and sixty one then my sister was born And then 1962, 18 months later, my younger brother, Scott Jenkins, was born. So we grew up as a family there, as a family. But the neighborhood we lived in, south side of Chicago, called Princeton Park, was a community.
00:05:36
Speaker
Because back in the day, when you were out playing, one, anybody, any neighbor, man or woman, could
00:05:49
Speaker
punish you, correct you. If you did something wrong and they knew it, one, they would chastise you verbally, which is the worst beating. Don't beat me. Don't, don't, don't. You know, the tongue last you, mama, this and the other.
00:06:02
Speaker
And if you acted really up, they could give you a spanking. Get on the phone, call your parents. and tell them about that. So when you got home, they said, oh, you were acting up in the street, Mr. Such and such, and Mr. Such and such said this, you're getting another beating, okay? It wasn't abuse. It was a beating, you know, correcting us.
00:06:24
Speaker
And so we grew up in a family community, and it was a blessing. And I love my brother, you know, because One of the things I remember before our other siblings was born, we had a serious fight.
00:06:41
Speaker
But the thing about it, and I say this in in ah you know and ah his celebration of life and the celebration of life we met at, is that we had a fight and we were fighting so long, we forgot what we were fighting about. Like, wait a minute, why are we fighting? we I don't know. I don't know.
00:07:02
Speaker
How long was that fight? Oh, how long did that fight last? That's one thing that it was not important in my memory for to remember that time.
00:07:14
Speaker
ah The most important to remember in that time is when we started laughing and said, oh, this is crazy. Let's start playing. So the rest of the day, we were having joy and fun as loving brothers.
00:07:29
Speaker
not as fighting siblings. you know And so we played in the house, played outside, played with friends, and it was a wonderful day. And I always say that because everybody that I talk to in whatever celebration of life, they laugh about that because they have this same experience in life.
00:07:49
Speaker
you know So this is really interesting. So like they said, it takes a village to raise a child.
The Role of Community in Healing
00:07:55
Speaker
When I wrote my book, it ah I put in here, it takes a village to raise a child, and it also takes a village to heal the body through fasting and prayer.
00:08:06
Speaker
Thank you, God, for my healing. Then I went home Thanksgiving. ah either Thanksgiving, we have a daddy-sibling video chat once a week with my kids.
00:08:21
Speaker
And they they said, Dad, we got something. else because I've been going through some emotional changes and it's affecting my ah mental physical temple of God and they said okay got dad you say that phrase but you also have to add it takes a village to heal elder okay and me being one of the elders of the community what I love to to do and I'm going to create a Facebook group
00:08:56
Speaker
is seniors, okay, shining, shining in their golden years. And that's what we're supposed to do because they don't say your retirement years are your tarnished years. They say your retirement years are your golden years, okay?
00:09:16
Speaker
So we are shining. We're supposed to shine. And so many of us seniors, elders, excuse me, of the community, are not shining because we've abused God's temple.
00:09:29
Speaker
okay Yeah. So it's like making sure to take care of your body so that you're able to shine through and be able to flourish in these days, in the years of when you retire. Now, you then grew up as siblings with the fighting, with forgetting why it is you fought and then going back to being best friends. I can relate to that. My sister and are two years apart. And so we we were And actually, similarly to you a little bit, it was the two of us. And then after when my younger sister, who was two years younger than I, was seven, then our other sister was born and then our brother. So it was kind of four of us, too, just like you and your your siblings. Right.
00:10:14
Speaker
In our case, it was one one boy, three girls. You guys were three boys, one one girl. so ah So, Tony, so you grew up that way.
Family and Relocation Stories
00:10:24
Speaker
You grew up in Chicago. You now live in Texas. Where did your brother David live, and how was that how was your relationship then as adults? Excuse me. Okay.
00:10:38
Speaker
Now, my brother and all the rest of my family, my blood family, except for my oldest daughter who lives in Brooklyn, still live in Chicago. Okay.
00:10:48
Speaker
I married me a beautiful Texas girl and and took her up to si Chicago. She said she didn't like Chicago's winters. And I said, I'm tired of them too.
00:11:04
Speaker
So I brought her down here to keep her ah happy and to keep us warm. Okay. Okay. And that that story is, let me go back farther because to talk about that joy and the joy and pain in life.
00:11:20
Speaker
The joy in that is that she was married before she heard me on the radio. She was having some pain, infertility. She hears me about that. Talking to, I was married in and you successful practice in Chicago as a naturopathic doctor before I became a chiropractor in the 90s.
00:11:43
Speaker
She heard me because I was talking about how helped at least a half a dozen or so women to get pregnant, but I specified I was not the daddy. Okay. Yes, I specified that. Most people get a laugh like, yeah, atomic dog. No, no, no.
00:12:02
Speaker
So, ah What I did is that she heard me. She called my office on Monday. She came to the office within Wednesday. And within a week, she went on my cleansing program and went ah on a 40-day fast like Jesus.
00:12:20
Speaker
Okay? And Jesus did many miracles, and God did many miracles for when? Because in that 40 days, he says,
00:12:32
Speaker
that it felt like she had internal surgery. Okay. Instead of being cut by man, she was healed by God. And people say, I said, who is the master healer? And they say, God. I said, where god where is God? They said, God is everywhere. He's above us, around us. And I said, where else is God?
00:12:53
Speaker
They said, God is within me. And the majority of the people touched their heart because that is the seat of a emotions. And emotion is the healing, has the highest healing frequency of any emotion.
00:13:09
Speaker
And what is love? God is love. So God lives within us in our heart. And all
00:13:20
Speaker
disease, there is no exception, from common cold to common cancer, are incurable.
00:13:32
Speaker
The doctor might give you the negative fear thing that, oh, you got cancer, so it's incurable. There's nothing we can do, and you'll die in 6 to 12 months or whatever. And so, you know, get your things in order for your
Spiritual Beliefs and Connections
00:13:52
Speaker
death.
00:13:52
Speaker
They don't say you're ascending. They say death. They make everything so negative. So what you do is if you realize that, and I also read my book, fasting prayer that all diseases are incurable because no man, woman, ah other than you and God can heal you.
00:14:13
Speaker
So, doc, please tell me what you can do. Can you heal me? And I've told folks for decades, no, I cannot heal you. Only you and God can heal you.
00:14:25
Speaker
Because all diseases come from the inside out, from the top. down from the most frequent to the past. So the longer that you had it, arthritis, diabetes, um cancer, which just didn't develop, they've been there for decades.
00:14:47
Speaker
Because you earn your disease, you also have to earn your health. Nothing starts overnight and nothing gets better. So and you have to believe that you're already healed now.
00:15:01
Speaker
God requests three things. You have to ask, believe that you already have it, and be ready to receive. The Bible says you have not because you ask not.
00:15:14
Speaker
God, why didn't you give me this? You didn't tell me what you wanted. But you know what I wanted. I wanted this. But you didn't say from your mouth, and you have to talk it out into the universe. You have to talk it out to God.
00:15:29
Speaker
And you also have to talk it out to yourself in mirror images. Because if you you say it to somebody else, like if I'm talking to you, my energy goes to you. But when I say it in mirror affirmations to what I want from my inner God, it comes back to me.
00:15:47
Speaker
And it's more powerful. Thank you, God, for my healing. I look into the mirror like in my cell phone or cell phone. selfie and say, thank you, God, for my healing.
00:15:58
Speaker
He said, your wish is my command. Okay. Yes. Thank you. So thank you so much for for sharing that and then that aspect of your of how you met your wife. So then your brother was in, then in Chicago, you were here.
00:16:16
Speaker
ah Give us, your brother ah passed away or transcended or how would you transcend it? Transcended or ascended, which which word do you like to use? Either one of those, but not passed away or died. Either one, any way that you pronounce it. Anyway, we yeah I know everybody has different ways in which they like. And so I and ah end up you know asking then my guests. So when your brother then ah transcended, it was it in August of 2022, just a month after you both had your last birthday month together. So in in what I read in one of your blogs that you shared with me,
00:17:02
Speaker
So when your, when your brother transcended, then what, where were you in your life that it was hard to, x you know, so accept starting to grieve or yeah. Where was, where was he Dr. Jenkins at that moment?
00:17:21
Speaker
I was down here in Texas because my niece that lived in California, she, she, moved to Chicago to be my brother's caretaker for the last year or so of his life.
00:17:34
Speaker
I said, oh, you're living here in Chicago? He said, no, I don't live here. I live in California. That's my home. But I'm taking care of my father now because that's God's assignment for me.
00:17:47
Speaker
I said, oh, you're such a spiritual, grateful woman, child of God and child of your father. So August...
00:17:59
Speaker
twenty six plenty 26, 2022, my brother ascended. She calls us up and say, Uncle Tony, daddy died. No, dad daddy ascended. I forget what the exact word most like that most people say, daddy died.
00:18:15
Speaker
You know, at 1026, I said, how do you know at the exact same time? She said, well, somebody was here with me. We went to check on him and he took his last breath and, you know,
00:18:28
Speaker
it's It's really something. Some people give me, i was with a massage therapist this week, and she was telling me about her father ascending.
00:18:40
Speaker
And she fell asleep because it's like dead at night. And she felt her father touch her and call her name. And her sister came into the room and said, Treyva, daddy's gone, daddy's gone. No, daddy can't be gone. He just touched me. Daddy's been gone for about an hour.
00:19:00
Speaker
She said, oh my God, how did he, how did he touch me? It's not the physical touch. The most
00:19:11
Speaker
feeling that you get is that spiritual, emotional touch from love. So that happened with me, ah not when he ascended, when they were planning his celebration of life in October.
Philanthropy and Service
00:19:29
Speaker
So the week before that happened, I'm here in Texas. It's bedtime. I've got my pajamas on. Getting ready for bed is like 10, 30, 11, whatever. I don't remember the exact time and I don't remember the exact day, but I do remember that week beforehand.
00:19:46
Speaker
God said, I have somebody to talk to you. He didn't say my brother's name. So he he says, go out and you we need he needs to talk with you. I put my clothes on, go out on the porch.
00:20:02
Speaker
I'm sitting there looking at a starry guy. And he said, here he is. It was my brother. He said, Tony, I'm here to give you the spirit of philanthropy.
00:20:18
Speaker
You know, most of us think about philanthropy with all this money. We're coming from the inner city of Chicago, but God has blessed us well to be prosperous people.
00:20:29
Speaker
What I realized, and he shared that with me, he says, it's not about money, Tony, it's about service. My brother did many, many years of community service for many different communities.
00:20:46
Speaker
One of them placed in Chicago called the Kroc Center, which is a community center where, you know, innocent people, oh people on welfare, et cetera, et cetera, many different walks of life in the black community are allowed to come either free or a minimum charge.
00:21:06
Speaker
What he did, his philanthropy service is that for three years, you know, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, he served and being a master photographer, he taught photography. for three years in the Kroc Center.
00:21:24
Speaker
And they said, we can't continue doing this. We have to pay you. God told us we have to pay you, bless you back for the tithings you gave him.
00:21:36
Speaker
So from there, and then many other things. So it was like, oh my God. He said, I'm sitting at that spirit of philanthropy. I felt it come in me.
00:21:47
Speaker
I said, oh Thank you, God. Father God and brother DJ. David Jenkins, we called him DJ. We had many different nicknames, but I called him DJ.
00:22:03
Speaker
And so I realized that night that I also did philanthropy. You know, being a doctor, I'm not the richest doctor in the world, million something dollars, because that's not important because I gave back to the community, the mind. So Nugrum, my patients, long-term patients, even now Chicago patients, part of my family.
00:22:27
Speaker
So I give them service the service that God says, give them. Give and you shall be given, you know, blessing back in this and the other. So you give and 10 times more it comes back, which I've been blessed with.
00:22:40
Speaker
So ah it was like people came to me and Down here, I joined a church called One Community Church that was in the past.
Mission Trip and Healing Journey
00:22:56
Speaker
And the pastor said, well, I want you to do everybody in the church to go on a mission trip within five few years. I said like, oh, okay, mission trip. Never thought about that in my life.
00:23:06
Speaker
They said we're going on a medical mission trip. Being in the medical ministry, like, yes, I can do that. But the thing that really kicked it up a notch is that we're going on a medical mission trip Jamaica.
00:23:20
Speaker
I said, yeah, man, that's my mother's ah ah ah um my motherland motherland mother my my mother's motherland. I'm glad you know mother. And my ears picked up and said, yeah, I'm going, man, I'm going.
00:23:35
Speaker
So I prepared for that and all the rest of that. And and we were down there early 2020 before COVID, January 2020. Went down there. went down there And they said, everybody changes more than the people you service.
00:23:51
Speaker
I've, because of the mental imbalances and stresses and and grief I've had, I've had some medication. I took the medication, even though I'm in the chair path, the doctor, integrate natural healing and drug healing together.
00:24:06
Speaker
I took it. I put it on the counter in the bathroom. And because God blessed me so well in servicing people and What I put out there, I got 10 times full. So what I put out there, because that's what I was doing, my part of servicing the people, but they would their last part of their treatment was come to me and I did emotional healing.
00:24:30
Speaker
So I helped them with their emotions and that came back to me and I never needed the meds whatsoever. I saw them every time I went into the bathroom,
00:24:43
Speaker
God said, you don't have to reach for them because I, being the master healer, have the medicine for you and it's within sight.
00:24:58
Speaker
Hi, I just wanted to take a quick pause and ask that if this episode is speaking to you, I'd love for you to subscribe to my newsletter.
Life Events and Book Release
00:25:08
Speaker
Just go to my web website, Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray in Between, and you will be receiving some of my newsletters I send every probably couple of weeks.
00:25:20
Speaker
Also, if someone has popped into your mind and you feel that this is something that would resonate with, please send them this episode right now because it may just be what they needed to hear.
00:25:36
Speaker
Now let's get back to the show.
00:25:45
Speaker
Thank you for sharing. so So this was ah before your brother ascended or transcended is that you did the trip to Jamaica. Your brother, ah you already realized when you received then this gift of philanthropy philanthropy that you already had that in you because you had already done medical missions and so forth. So at that moment is also when you decided to release your're your book. Is that correct? Is that when because you've been writing your book on fasting and prayer.
00:26:15
Speaker
Prior to that, is that it was it after you saw your brother that you released your book of ah fasting and prayer? That's another blessing of God.
00:26:27
Speaker
I was in the process of two-year journey of writing the book. So when I was down in Jamaica, and every time I talk to folks about my book, I said I was in the process of writing my number one bestselling book on fasting and prayer every time. So I put it out there. And God said, ask, believe, and receive. So I did that. And that month of my brother ascending, so did a book was published and it ascended too.
00:26:53
Speaker
My book was published on August 23rd, 2022. So it ascended. brother, the 26th of August 22, the month of his... my brother ah twenty sixth of august twenty two the month of his ah
00:27:13
Speaker
Celebration of life is also a celebration of my book and celebration of my youngest son's wedding. So I told folks a week ahead of that, after my brother gave me philanthropy, that I'm going home for a ebony and ivory celebration.
00:27:30
Speaker
Ebony, my son, getting married, wearing black. Ivory, my brother's celebration of life, and we're wearing and
Celebrations of Life and Spiritual Practices
00:27:39
Speaker
white. Not knowing when I get there,
00:27:43
Speaker
that so that was columbus day that's saturday sunday monday saturday i'll tell you about that because that would answer your question sunday my son's uh marriage and monday in columbus day ah my brother's celebration of life that saturday i was told and didn't realize that till a few years back now this is 2022 thought that There was another celebration of life.
00:28:14
Speaker
My book became a bestseller that Saturday, okay, the eighth, ninth marriage, tenth celebration of life.
00:28:27
Speaker
I was so had more happiness and grace and peace and love in my brother's celebration life than my son's marriage. Because wearing in the white, you know, that's the color of this crown chakra gets you connected to God.
00:28:46
Speaker
I saw more friends, even from high school way back, you know, that looked awesome. I could go on forever. So I know. we i know i love I love that you're sharing that aspect of his celebration of life being such a joyful time because i there's something I share with people when i'm you know when somebody is going through the grief and they're about to have, let's say the funeral of their of their loved one, always say one of the emotions that you feel most, you've aside from the maybe sadness that may come, is this immense amount of love in these celebrations and in these funerals. You feel so much love because everybody that is present is there because they loved the person that
00:29:37
Speaker
is transcending. And so that has transcended. And so that is probably the most, at least what I've experienced in all the grief journey of I've gone and the funerals is that love. So you sharing that it was so joyous and that you were seeing all these people that you hadn't seen and just all this love really surrounding your brother's celebration of life. I can i can absolutely relate. And just, yeah, what a beautiful ah weekend then that you had, a busy weekend of celebrations that in in October. This was 2022, and your journey then has can continued, and your relationship with your brother continues. In your in your communication with him, how do you feel
00:30:27
Speaker
that you mostly connect with him? Is it in nature? Is it in prayer? Is it when you fast? What are the ways that you feel that you feel the most connected with your brother?
00:30:40
Speaker
I've had, since I'm connected with God and the universe, mind, body, spirit, and emotions, everybody that I've talked with that have had relatives that have ascended, they come back as one of God's creatures.
00:30:57
Speaker
Okay. So mine is dragon fly. Oh, that's mine. That's mine. when i can fly I see that too. when too i Yeah. I see that for my mom. I see dragon flies. ah Okay. So my dragon fly is his name is, is D'Artagnan from the the three musketeers.
00:31:23
Speaker
Okay. And so I have to, I have to, ah it's interesting. He came to me ah when I was at work or he came to me when I was at, no, I was at my daughter-in-law's, not daughter, stepdaughter's house, my wife's daughter from another marriage.
00:31:45
Speaker
And I'm sitting out on the porch and I'm eating some healthy food. My wife is a whole food chef, organic chef, plant-based chef, et cetera, et cetera. And so I'm eating it and this butterfly comes by. I'm out there for about 20, 30 minutes. He's constantly coming back or she's constantly coming by and stops in mainly in their lawn because it went to other areas like that, but it constantly came back and it's talking to me, you know,
00:32:19
Speaker
with thought because, oh like that butterfly doesn't speak English and speak human but blood. No, they don't. But we all communicate with body language. So I'm connecting with that. And it's interesting when I go to work, he's there in front of me, you know, surrounding the car. I said, okay, Tony, this is your path, your safely path to work. And I said, okay.
00:32:43
Speaker
Thank you, God, for my healing and ah safe travels. So I said, what am I going to call this butterfly? you know And I said, it's a dragonfly. His name's got to start with a D and something that's been around for a long time.
00:33:01
Speaker
And fan of you know ah the french the black French man who created the Three Musketeers. Oh, wow. name is d'artagnan so since i was working at a high school mentoring and tutoring science students i i saw a number of students when they're finished with their their school work their their classwork they're doing things and i met a number of master female artists one of them was a junior last year and i said this is a picture of a dragonfly that was
00:33:36
Speaker
in my garage. And it was soon after we moved into this new home, we've been here a year. It's been, and so I dragged, so I know that he's here to come visit me inside my house, because he'd been visiting outside. He wanted to say, well, Tony, what's it look like inside of your castle?
00:33:54
Speaker
So I did that. I said, I love the way that you draw, you know, animals and people. Can you draw this for me? She said, sure. Now I'm expecting this a drawing, right? I said, I,
00:34:05
Speaker
Well, you're going be through with it soon. No, no, no. I got a lot of work to do, right? She said, I'm going paint it for you. So a week later, I said, she said, I ran out of paint. I said, well, can I give you the money for the paint? She said, no, you can't do that. This is it. She goes out and buys some, I don't know what paint it is. I didn't ask her if it's this, and made this fantastic drawing of D'Artagnan. I wish I had it in the room. It's out in the living room.
00:34:33
Speaker
And It's oh, my God. So she had a little stand on there and she said, this is yours. I said, how much do I owe you? She said, you owe me nothing.
00:34:45
Speaker
This is your gift to you for me and God. I said, thank you, God. my Thank you for these swings. What a beautiful dream.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yes. And I've got it on. the He's in front of all the other pictures of family members that have ascended. It's like, yes, yes.
00:35:07
Speaker
That's so Again, this was a a dragonfly. I know sometimes like i interchangeably sometimes we say butterfly. It was a dragonfly that was the one that was guiding your way, and this was D'Artagnan. So um that's beautiful. And then she gave you this this gift. So now you have the dragonfly, not just outside your home when you see it, but you have one inside your home. Thank you, Tony, for sharing that way and how you connect.
00:35:34
Speaker
Tony, is there anything you'd like to share with the audience before we wrap up? And also we'll just make sure to let them know where they can find your book and I'll make sure to add that in the show notes. But is there one more thing you'd like to add regarding grief and gratitude?
Shifting to Gratitude Perspective
00:35:50
Speaker
it to this conversation?
00:35:54
Speaker
was a three-year journey of grief. It's one thing that really has been in my life. Three has been coming up for me for the last two years, the number three.
00:36:07
Speaker
okay i retired so uh the last and i retired from school system in august first day of august but the last uh day of of the month may i was uh had so many days and other issues going on that they said okay oh then you know you know down here in Texas, you don't get paid for your extra days. They cut it off and they give you $5 a day, which is crap for you doing all that slave work.
00:36:41
Speaker
Slave labor, it doesn't make a difference if you're white, black, anything in the school system. It's slave labor. So I had three days and three weeks. I said, oh my God, there's the three again.
00:36:55
Speaker
So what I did, and there was another thing about the grief is that Three years from the time my brother ascended to now, I talked about and had the opportunity to get grief counseling from the school system, from the church, from the community.
00:37:15
Speaker
And I've had a had past tense. The devil's had me locked into procrastination. Now, God's got me into a state of ah progress from the little P in procrastination to the big P in progress.
00:37:32
Speaker
And so I never did get that grief counseling. And then I realized it was not supposed to be grief that I was concentrating on.
00:37:45
Speaker
So one day out meditating, grounding and connecting with Mother Earth and Father God and talk, hanging out with D'Artagnan. It came to me to release the little G in grief and make it a big G in gratitude.
00:38:05
Speaker
you know And it starts out, it says, I got this plaque on the wall above the window so I can see out in the garden. It says, start your day with a grateful heart.
00:38:20
Speaker
Gratitude. okay? And gratitude is rich, is riches, wealth, and complaining is poverty. So all these folks that chronically to complain have a poverty mindset, no matter how much money they make, okay?
00:38:37
Speaker
So I said, thank you, God. And so I've got, I wrote the story with the pictures that I sent you about a picture my brother, my sister, and I on my half century birthday, I'm going to say how old I is, how young I am as as a senior in the community, assigning my golden years, is that I wrote that story, you know, and a lot of people responded to it that I've known now has And multiple store people in the present could relate to their grief story to gratitude.
00:39:16
Speaker
And share that. And I would love for you to share that to other folks because that helps you to go from sadness to gladness. It helps to go from...
00:39:27
Speaker
a funeral where people are all depressed to a celebration of life where people are so happy with joy. Okay. That's wonderful. Thank you so much for, for sharing that. Yeah. There's a, it's a shift in perspective in things. And that's, if anything that I've taken from this conversation with you is that in your life, all these shifts in perspective shifts in how you view health shifts in how you view death And I'll say as as an ascending shifts in how you view view grief and may make it it more the focus on gratitude shifts in how you view ah procrastination to.
00:40:09
Speaker
But what is the word? Progress. So all these shifts, if we shift our mindset, if we shift the way we live our life, if we shift our perspective in life, everything can also just start shifting. So thank you so much, Dr. Hugh Jenkins. And for those of you that have been listening, if you're interested in his book, Fasting and Prayer, the link will be in the show notes and you could find it on Amazon, correct? On Amazon, right? On Amazon, yes. And my son, my youngest son, who's a global marketer, is going to help daddy to redo his website. One last thing, my brother's favorite chant was,
00:40:54
Speaker
Hugh. I thought he was honoring me. He said, no, no, Tony, that's not Hugh. It's about God because the word Hugh is is chanting to God, and okay?
00:41:10
Speaker
And God's in your heart. And the vibration of the heart is huge.
00:41:17
Speaker
It's like the om. It's like the om. Right? Yes. It's a vibration. It vibrates in that way that connects to that frequency of God. Well, thank you again, Hugh. Have a blessed day. Thank you again. Thank you for honoring me, Hugh. Thank you.
00:41:47
Speaker
thank you again so much for choosing to listen today. I hope that you can take away a few nuggets from today's episode that can bring you comfort in your times of grief.
00:42:00
Speaker
If so, it would mean so much to me if you would rate and comment on this episode. And if you feel inspired in some way to share it with someone who may need to hear this, please do so.
00:42:16
Speaker
Also, if you or someone you know has a story of grief and gratitude that should be shared so that others can be inspired as well, please reach out to me.
00:42:29
Speaker
And thanks once again for tuning in to Grief, Gratitude, and the Gray In Between podcast. Have a beautiful day.