Season 4 EP. 104 Dead, Dormant, or Rotten? (C2TC8 H.E.R. Circle)

Season 4 EP. 104 Dead, Dormant, or Rotten? (C2TC8 H.E.R. Circle)

What if the challenge isn’t making a decision…

What if the challenge is understanding what the situation actually requires?

As we continue Season 4: Walking the Garden, Madison Samone Chase invites listeners into a conversation about wisdom, timing, perspective, and the importance of responding appropriately to the season you’re in.

In a world that often encourages quick decisions, immediate action, and constant movement, this episode challenges us to consider whether clarity sometimes comes from slowing down long enough to truly assess what is in front of us.

Through the lens of faith, personal growth, wellness, and intentional living, Madison explores why understanding the nature of a situation is often just as important as knowing what to do next.

This episode is for high-performing women, mothers, aunties, godmothers, single moms, dog moms, entrepreneurs, caregivers, and anyone navigating a season of growth, transition, healing, stewardship, and becoming.

As always, C2TC8 offers a PPT Audit, a SAC Challenge (Spontaneous Authentically Assertive Communication), 3 Keys 🔑, and 1 Reflection Question ❓ to help you pause for a cause, reflect, and carry the lesson with you long after listening.

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If this episode pricked your heart or lit a spark, please follow, share it with someone you care about, leave a comment so this becomes a dialogue and not a monologue, and leave a five-star review.

And remember, there’s always grace in this space.
Blessings to You & Yours! Until tomorrow.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Season four. This episode is entitled Dead, Dormant, or Rotten. Have you ever found yourself holding on to something because you weren't exactly sure whether to keep nurturing it or just simply let it go? Maybe it was a relationship, a romantic relationship, or a friendship, or a co-working friendship, a goal, a business idea, a habit, a dream, or a season of life. One of the hardest parts of growth isn't deciding what we want, it's correctly identifying what we are dealing with. Because not everything that looks dead is actually dead. Some things are dormant, waiting, sleeping, processing, developing, preparing for the right season. And not everything that remains in our lives is healthy. Some things are rotten, rotten to the core, decaying, spreading damage, preventing healthy growth. And it made me wonder how often we are misdiagnosing a situation because we don't know the difference. So as we continue walking the garden, today we're talking about discernment and learning to recognize the difference between what is dead, the difference between what is dormant and what is rotten. Hey y'all, I am Madison Simone Chase, also known as Miss Chase. I was raised in church and my great-grandmother played the piano in church, and I sang in the choir, believe it or not. I made a joyful noise then, and that's what I do now, if you were to ask me to sing. And my faith journey has always been at the center of who I am, and I am incredibly thankful to have been raised by a hardworking, sacrificial, high-functioning, high-performing single mother who remains my biggest fan and my forever bestie best friend, my BFF. And honoring God through service and making my mama proud has always been the core of who I am and using my gifts. Those are the things that have been deeply important to me. And over the last several seasons of Cut to the Chase at 8, C2TC8, Her Circle, which stands for high-performing, empowered women who are ready to thrive, we've talked about awareness, detox, discernment, boundaries, and the No More Nice series, and knowing the difference between being kind and being nice, rebuilding and becoming. Because before a gardener plants for the next season, the gardener walks the garden, like physically walking the garden and examining and looking at everything in the garden. The gardener takes inventory. The gardener notices what flourished this season. The gardener notices what struggled this season. The gardener notices what actually produced fruit. The gardener notices what never took root. The gardener notices what needs pruning. And the gardener notices what has completed its purpose. And that for me is what season four is all about walking the garden and taking an honest look at the people, places, and things in our lives, not with judgment and not with shame, but with wisdom. Because every person, every place, and everything produces fruit. And before we ask for a bigger harvest, we may need to take a closer look at the root. Really examine the root with honesty and no judgment. So whether you're a mother, a single mother, a father, a single father, a caretaker, an entrepreneur, aspiring entrepreneur, working a nine-to-five, juggling two or three jobs, quietly rebuilding, or simply trying to grow through life one season, one day at a time. This space and this circle, it's for you, it's for me, it's for us. So if you're listening and or watching, pull up a real chair or a digital chair and grab yourself a cup of hot or cold herbal tea and welcome to my cozy home of Cut to the Chase at 8, a 15-minute micro-learning moment for macro living transformations. And I am truly overjoyed that you are here. So let's start this episode by taking a breath together. We're gonna inhale for three, two, one, exhale for five, four, three, two, one. One of the greatest responsibilities of a gardener, whether you're a seasoned gardener or a new gardener like myself, is observation, noticing, paying attention, not with judgment, but just paying attention and learning what requires water, what requires pruning, what requires patience, and what requires removal, and really having no attachment to any of it. And so the challenge for us in life, like many things, is that it can look similar from a distance. A dormant plant can look dead, a struggling plant can look hopeless, a rotten plant can look like it simply needs more attention. But the response required for each situation is very different. Dormant things need patience. Dormant things are sleeping, and dormant things need time to process. Dead things need grieving, rotten things need removal. And sometimes the problem begins when we apply the wrong response. We abandon dormant sleeping things too soon, and we keep trying to revive what has already completed its purpose. We continue watering what is actively decaying and rotten, and then we wonder why we're exhausted. Discernment helps us recognize what season we're in and what response is needed. Because wisdom isn't just knowing what to do, wisdom is knowing when to do it. One of the lessons I learned through my lemon tree journey was not that everything struggling is experienced the same thing. So that struggling lemon tree, and then the tree that was actually rotten, they were experiencing different things. And it looked like it was the same thing. One tree looked barren, but it was still alive. Another tree was beyond recovery. And from a distance they appeared similar, but they required different responses. And sometimes the same is often true in our lives, which brings me to the PPT audit. People, places, and things. Let's start with people. Who in my life may simply need more patience in prayer and understanding? And who in my life has completed their purpose in my life? And who consistently contributes to unhealthy patterns, confusion, chaos, or harm? Places? What environments support my growth? What environments feel stagnant but still have potential? What environments consistently drain my energy, peace, or well-being? Things. What goals, habits, relationships, commitments, or responsibilities am I currently evaluating? And what deserves more patience? And what deserves healthy grieving? Like the nine nonlinear stages of grief. And I think when you are grieving something or someone, it's really important to not allow people who don't necessarily believe that those nonlinear stages exist for them to pour onto you or have an opinion about how or when or how long you grieve something. And then what deserves removal? Which brings me to the SAC challenge. This week's SAC challenge is simple. Practice one act of spontaneous, authentically assertive communication. And maybe it sounds like this. I need to give this, insert whatever that is, more time. Or I need to accept that this season is over. Or I've outgrown this and it's okay. It's important to not judge yourself in your communication, in your spontaneously authentic, assertive communication. Or this is no longer healthy for me. Or perhaps I need more information before I make a decision. Because discernment often begins with honesty. Which brings me to the three keys. Key number one: dormant things need patience. Not every quiet season is a dead season. Dormant things mean that they're simply sleeping and they're going through a growing process. Key number two, dead things need grieving. And not every ending is a failure. Some seasons simply complete their purpose. And I think that's important to not attach negative or not even allowing negativity or toxic things to be placed on things that are dead. Key number three: rotten things need removal. Because what is unhealthy can eventually affect what is healthy. And our one reflection question: What in my life needs patience? What in my life needs grieving?

SPEAKER_00 11:59

And what in my life needs removal?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

So today we explore one of the most important skills a gardener develops: discernment. And not just discernment, but honest discernment and then being willing to take action. It's one thing to discern it, but it's another thing to make a decision and then take action on that decision. Because not everything that looks dead is dead, not everything quiet is dormant, and not everything that remains should stay. And growth often depends on our ability to correctly identify what we're dealing with. So this week, pay attention to the people, the places, and things, and notice what comes up for you in deciding if something is dead, if something is dormant, or if it's rotten, and then making a decision on what exactly needs to be done, and then executing. So this week, that's what I want you to pay attention to, or that's my encouraging word to you is to pay attention without judgment, and then make a decision, and then notice where we're applying pressure when patience is actually needed, and then notice where you're holding on, where grieving is needed, and then notice where you're nurturing something that may actually need removal, and wisdom often begins with seeing clearly and honestly. So before we go, let's revisit today's three keys. Key number one, dormant things need patience. Key number two, dead things need grieving, the nine nonlinear stages of grief. Rotten things need removal, and our reflection question. What in my life needs patience? What in my life needs grieving? And what in my life needs removal? So sit with that question, and my encouragement is for you to take that question with you this week and pray about it, journal about it, and see what rises to the surface for you. And remember that growth isn't just about planting and watering, growth is also about discernment, knowing what to nurture, knowing what to release, and knowing the difference. And then continuing to give yourself real grace in this space, in this season. And let's take one closing breath together. We're gonna inhale for three, two, one. We're gonna exhale for five, four, three, two, one. If this episode pricked your heart or lit a spark, please subscribe and share this episode with someone you care about. And leave a comment so that this becomes a dialogue and not a monologue. And if you feel led, please leave a five-star rating so that this space can continue to grow and serve others. Until next time, I am Madison Simone Chase, and this has been another episode of Cut to the Chase at 8 now C2TC8, her circle, high performing, empowered women who are ready to thrive. A 15 minute micro learning moment for macro living transformations. Blessings to you and yours until tomorrow. And remember, not everything that looks dead is dead, and not everything that remains is healthy, and wisdom is learning the difference.