Finding the Sacred in the Everyday with Becca Stevens

Well, just ahead up on today's content, intimate partner violence is talked about in this episode, so just one to let y'all know. When I first heard about you, it was through my tour manager at the time Carolyn Snell. Yes. And she said that there are only two people in her phone book that have unidentified numbers, and that's mine and yours. And she said one time you pranked her by calling her and imitating me. Is that right? No. I would never ever do that. Never. Hey, it's Reba. Hey, y'all. Welcome back to Living and Learning. I'm Reba McIntyre. You know, sometimes I meet a person whose passion and dedication just tops me in my tracks. My guest today is one of these people. I feel so lucky to get to talk to. Her work is incredible. Her book is wonderful. And I mean, talk about someone who is really the epitome of Living and Learning. Wow. I'd like to welcome to the show Becca Stevens. Becca is an author, a priest and founder of Thistle Farms. Now, that's an amazing nonprofit here in Nashville. She has a new book out called Practically Divine, which is all about how to find the sacred in the everyday. If you haven't seen it, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend you getting out there and getting it. Please welcome to Living and Learning Becca. Can you just tell our listeners, just give us the history of Thistle Farms? Sure. Thistle Farms started in 1997 with just one house for women wanting to find a safe place to be in a way to heal to come off the streets and out of trafficking and out of prison. We invited five women in Nashville, Tennessee to come live. All of them had criminal histories. And we just said, come find this sanctuary. It's going to be free. You can stay two years and you will never pay a penny. And of course, it filled up. We had to open up another house, another house at about four years in. Reb, I was thinking, oh my gosh, these women are doing this courageous, beautiful work. I mean, because a lot of them, you know, all this stuff started when they're five or six years old. But they were still dirt poor. They didn't have anything on the resume. Didn't have a lot of skills. So that's when we opened a bath and body care company. And we started making products for the body. And that ended up growing into the largest justice enterprise in the United States, you know, run by women's survivors. And then that made other cities get involved. So now we have like 100 sister communities around the country. We have 30 global partners. And it's just grown into a beautiful movement for women's freedom. And I got to say, Reb, but when you came and did a fundraiser for us at the Rhyme, it was getting the stamp of approval, you know, from this iconic, wonderfully talented, but also courageous and brave woman. And I didn't really get to thank you that night. And I just want to say thank you. No, you're very welcome. Fissel farms is not like a safe haven. It's, it's where they come voluntarily to come be a part of a way of rebuilding their lives, correct? Correct. That is exactly right. We're not a shelter. We're not a treatment center. We're not a halfway house. We're not mandated by the courts. This is just a community of women trying to heal together. Great. And how many, how many places in Nashville do you have? We have six places in Nashville. Wow. And the places are, you know, they run the gamut between four and eight women in each house that live for two years. We have more than a hundred employees now at Fissel Farms. But the houses are small with intention, you know, they're very safe, small homes so that women can feel what we all desire, peace and connection. You know, relationships are paramount when people are piecing together their life. And a long time ago, some of the women started saying, we're just going to be sisters for life. And so that's what it's called, sisters for life. Love that. When a woman comes to Fissel Farms, what happens? She's taken in. What happens then? When they come in for the first three months, they don't work at all. They just get themselves together. We just say, take some time to rest, to let that stress and trauma find a resting place in you and begin to get assessments to figure out, you know, what is this? Just day loose of issues that are behind you that you need to start looking at. I mean, your finance is your criminal record, your child support or whatever it could be that keeps you up at night and stressed and keeps you working the streets or whatever it is. And we just take that time. And then at the end of three months, they begin to look at coming to work at Fissel Farms, they begin to think about what life skills classes they need. Do they need to go back to school? Do they need to get treatment for some long-term mental health issues? Whatever the work is that needs to be done, we do that with them. And so women get an intensive outpatient therapy for that first part. They get assessed and they get freedom to start thinking about work. Then they spend the next year and a half just building a new life and getting a really firm foundation so that they can you know, never have to go back to the streets, never have to look over their shoulder again. In the Fissel Farms homes, do they get the money by working their Fissel Farms to go by their groceries and their food? Yes. And when they first get there, they actually get a stipend. It's a small amount of money. While food is supplied and there's obviously no charge to live in these beautiful homes, we also gift women some money every week. So it's enough to go get your nails done. Yeah. Whatever the thing is that gets you, you know, feeling like I'm making some choices in my life. And I don't have to go ask anybody for that money. It's a very small amount of money. But it's enough that you have some choice. And I think choice for women is critical from the very beginning. No one's telling you what to do. Each, you know, each person has their own plan. Each person has their own choice about their goals, freedom. And it's like you make the decisions and we'll support you. It's not about somebody holding somebody else like where you're an authority. If that worked, prison would be great if authority worked. But, you know, authority is a big trigger if somebody's abused you since you were a kid. Oh, that's true. If I am in a situation and I need help, so, and I don't have a computer, I've been kicked out of the house or I'm on the run, how do I get in touch with Thistle Farms? If somebody's in a, you know, a huge emergency, like you're not safe, you should call 911 or 211. That's about trafficking. So, I mean, call for help. For sure, for sure. If you have 24 hours, you can message us, you know, like again, on social media, you can, even if you don't have a computer, you'll have a phone, you know, and you can get on our Facebook page and figure out somebody that's can contact you. We have a safe house and there are other safe houses. There are 800 numbers that people can call. But I would say that if anybody's listening that needs help, you know, first of all, obviously, if you are in trouble, do not ever be afraid to call 911. That's huge to me. You have a right to call 911 if you're in trouble. I never forgot walking into a bathroom at the airport in Las Vegas and there were signs inside the stalls saying, if you are a victim of trafficking, call this number right now. We'll come help you. Yes. And there are those numbers. Polaris has a number that people can call. There are several 1-800 numbers and they do a referral system. And that's basically if you are calling, I mean, if you are direct messaging, Thistle Farms and you're not near a computer, you know, we will get back and touch with you immediately. So if there's anybody out there listening that can say, oh my gosh, I want to be a part of this. What's the simplest way for somebody to get involved with Thistle Farms? So if somebody wants to get involved with Thistle Farms, the easiest thing to do is just you know, go on our website and see all the opportunities. One of the easier things too is we get so much traction just from social media contact. I mean, I check my DMs every day on Instagram. If anybody wants to just Instagram, Becca Stevens direct message me, I will get in touch with you because there might be some people who don't just want to help, but they might want some help. Yeah, that's what I think too is that somebody knows somebody that probably could use something like this. And part of the reason we set up a whole network across this country is we want to help more and more women. We now have, you know, more than 500 beds around the country and programs that are sister programs that follow this model. And so I'm happy if somebody just wants more of a private way of getting in touch to direct message me right on my Instagram. But go on the website at Thistle Farms. Thistle Farms.org. You can see, you know, how to get in touch. You can see some of our stories, some of our missions. and how to get involved, all of those things. We only are in existence because people wanna hope with us. We're only here because people believe in us and have been generous and kind to us. And I know that we're gonna have friends from this podcast. I know it. - I know too. - And it makes me happy. - Mm-hmm. - And like I said, we have women who have come through the program who are now, you know, they run the whole volunteer program. They run the customer service. When you text a message, that's who's answering you. - Wonderful. - And when you receive a soap from us, those were made with love by the hands of someone who was grateful that they got, in my opinion, their first chance at life. - How do you find people to supply clothing and chances for opportunities for them to go to workplaces? Do you have a network? - We do. - That gives those women opportunities. We partner with everybody that we can. I mean, just for success, we partner, you know, when they get their apartments with redesigned Nashville as the stages progress in a woman's recovery. We just try to find people who have those gifts and work with them. About maybe 10 years ago, we really stopped trying to collect clothing or furniture and just said there are other groups that do that really well. So what we'll do is partner with them and support them. And then they help the women who come through our program. - So anybody's listening to they say, "Oh, how can we help?" Other than sending money, if they are cleaning out their closets, they can go to a place like dress for success and donate their clothes to them that you guys will go to when you need to. - Absolutely. You know, we have all kinds of volunteer opportunities. If any of your listeners are in Nashville, we have them in person. But we have them, you know, for people all over the country whether we have this whole team of people that just help support our social media, you know, that they help put things out and try to share this message of hope for women in recovery. That's a great way to help. We have people who host events, you know, with their friends or at their church and they share our story and they invite people to buy products online. That's how we keep going. We sell candles, you know, and say, if you're gonna buy a candle, buy it from Thistle Farms. If you're gonna use soap, which I imagine most of your listeners use soap, I would hope, you know, buy your soap from Thistle Farms. That's an amazing way to put your economic power into something healing and beautiful. I mean, I am talking to you from the place where there are 30 women downstairs, cranking out soaps and candles. - Where do you get your houses for the women? You say you have so many houses right now, is that through donation? - Yes, well, we do capital fundraising drives. We've been given a house before, but right now, even as we are speaking, they are touring a brand new house that's being built from the ground up and it's just the frame of the house. And we were all teary this morning looking at the house. It's so big and beautiful and safe. And we were thinking about, what would it be like to walk out of prison and walk in here and have this here as your home? How happy would you be? - It's very exciting. - Wow, very exciting. - Very exciting times, I love it. I love it. - Big kudos to you if what you guys do. (upbeat music) - How did you deal with the pandemic? When everybody's on lockdown? - One of the first things I heard during the pandemic was one of the women saying, is the first time I'm not stuck at home, I'm safe at home. And I think that was huge for me to think about like the idea of being in a safe home and what that meant for women who weren't in safe homes and how bad the pandemic must have been for them. But I think we're feeling the stress more now than even during the pandemic. I think now that everybody's back up and trying to run around and do everything, people's stress level seem very, very, very hot of me. I don't know if you're experiencing that. I agree, because they don't know where they're safe. Health wise. - Yeah. - Who can they trust if they are vaccinated or not vaccinated, what do we do? - And what does it mean? I mean, when you kept thinking, well, this is gonna be over, this is gonna be over. And I find myself even like I'll be driving to work and I'll be thinking, okay, everything's good. Even though we're now at double pace, trying to keep up with everything that's speeding back up from the pandemic. And then I'll send you here something on the radio. It's like, oh, being meteor almost just hit the earth last night and you go, oh my gosh, stop. (laughing) Politics and pandemics aren't enough. Don't tell me about the meteors. I just don't even want to know. (laughing) - Oh gosh. What is the common struggles you see with women, what they're dealing with across the world, no matter where they're from? - Well, that's a good question, because I've heard some of the same stories in about 20 languages. I just got back from Mojaca, Mexico. And that's the southernmost state in Mexico. And it's near the border with Guatemala and they have all the issues that we're talking about right now. And then this summer I was in Botswana working with another, that's in southern Africa, a group of young women, who were telling the same story. I was raped at 16, then I was kicked out of the house from the hospital because I shamed my family or there was so much dysfunction. And then I hit the streets and then this happened. It's like this red carpet of trauma that gets rolled out for young women who experience sexual violence. And I think the universal issues that individual women bear on their backs is this combination of violence, shame and poverty. So you don't have access to resource. You don't have a safety net. And you don't have kind of hope for things changing. So you just get in survival mode. That's why people are called survivors. They're in survival mode. - Right. - And that's how it becomes generational, right? Because that's what you've seen and that's what happens and it carries it on. There's so many people that I've gotten to serve through this community who it's been generational. You know, my theory is when one woman gets out, a lot of women get out of whatever dehumanizing violence and poverty that have kept them down for so long. Because we have folks and it's, you know, first they come in, then their niece comes in or they come in and their cousin comes in. And what we've learned over the years and all the data shows it is when you rape a woman, you can kill a village that it has a ripple effect too. That's why it's an act of war. This violence on women's bodies. But if you invest in women, if you heal women, you're healing whole communities because they bring their children along with them. They start getting, you know, more interested in education for children and to help people be safe. So when we invest in women, we are helping heal the whole community. - Wow, love that. - And I feel like the main thing women need is community in a safe place just to be able to say, this happened to me and it was horrible. And I don't know what to do. - And when they can talk about it, it makes it a little bit less dark for them that they can share it. And another person says, oh my gosh, the same thing happened to me. And then the camaraderie and the sister who had come into play. - Yes, and it doesn't always have to be, you know, trafficking begins sometimes with violence just within a home, you know, where it's not a stranger, the first person that abuses you, it is someone you know. And you know, they call them Johns, right? Guys that do the tricks and it's like, you know, it's very rarely the first person is an anonymous John. It's almost always past or John, Uncle John, Coach John, teacher John, friend of mom's John, you know, somebody that they knew. And that just, that's true again globally. - Yeah, so I guess you'll have to have somebody like a psychiatrist, a psychologist, somebody on hand all the time, they're at Thistle Farms. - Absolutely, we have some great mental health folks and we have to be just both in our residential program and at our manufacturing community place. We have to have just trauma-informed, trauma-centered work environment. And the way that we start our work is every week, we sit in a circle and we light a candle and we say we light this candle for the woman on the street and the woman trying to find her way home. And we do that, that simple ritual and everybody goes around and just checks in to say, we're gonna be peaceful even as we do this work and we're gonna care for each other and we're gonna be aware that you might be coming in very happy today because you're celebrating maybe eight years without ever doing a drug or turning a trick or anything. Or you might be really sad because someone has died or someone that you loved did relapse. And you know, we try to hold all that in the same space in a way that honors people who are sad and happy at the same time. - The success rate, how many women say, I can't do this anymore, I have to go back to that abuse of situation or I can't deal with this. - You know, it's not as many as you would think, it's an incredible, incredible number. - Good. - We have 85% of the women right now you try. for the last two years who have graduated the whole two-year program. It's unheard of, but they're beautiful places, they're lavish, they're peaceful, people don't want to leave. I mean, some women don't make it, and some women, you know, might relapse years later, and one of the things we've learned over the years at Thistle Farms is women relapse over a relationship before they ever relapse over a drug, you know, they get into really dangerous, scary relationships. Because you look like you're doing well sometimes, and inside it's, you say, like, I'm still dirt, I'm still not worthy of a healthy relationship, or if this guy likes me, then I have to like him back because there might not be anybody else. You know, they get so scared of that stuff, and then pretty soon, they're back in a really bad situation. And I think, for me, what I've learned is that our bodies and our minds and our hearts don't heal at the same pace. And I think that the women's hearts take the longest to heal. Wow, Becca, I'm writing that down. Wow, don't heal at the same pace. Tell me about your book, Practically Divine. Oh my gosh, thank you. That's my pandemic book. You know, when everybody got, I think everybody had something that they're going to take from the pandemic. And this book is mine. It's called Practically Divine. And it is truly about what it means to be almost and just enough. You know, practically divine, somebody will go, "Oh, that's practically divine, meaning it's almost perfect." And it's just enough. You've been just enough. And that's what I think, really, what practically divine is. It's like remembering how beautiful we are and how we still have some room to grow. Always. I hope I have some good old Southern storytelling in there that's entertaining just in and of itself. Yeah. But it's also really about people feeling hopeful and people feeling challenged to say, "You know, what can I see in my life clearly today about where I am and how I can be grow deeper? How can I have justice as a part of my life? How can I feel meaning and purpose in my life?" And it's not a self-help book. I'm over those. Truly I am. But this is like gleaning 25 years of stories. It is using my mother's wisdom. It is using, you know, some of the best wisdom that has come down through the ages to talk about how we can live a practically divine life. Yeah. Yeah. I can remember and learn more from stories than I can. Step one. Oh, gosh. I've gone to so many different conferences and somebody's going to give you this secret code for how you're going to live. And they go, "Here's the four Cs that, you know, will make your life complete." And I go home and I'm like, "Oh my God, what was the fourth C?" And then next week I go like, "Oh my gosh, did it start with C?" I totally agree with you, Reba. There's a lot of things that I have tried to learn in my life and the one thing is advice for my mother, the things she would say for me to do that I passed on to Shelby. When you say you're going to do something, you do it because your word means a lot. When you show up at work, you're prepared, you know your part. Show up on time so you don't waste anybody else's time. But what goes even further than that is when I wake up in the morning, I ask God to plan my day. It has been a huge challenge for me to stay present in the day. And the one that can plan my day the best is the Holy Spirit. I just want to say I love that you have, you know, your mom sayings. That's part of the book, practically divine. It's filled with my mother's sayings that won't leave my head. And I can even repeat them in my head with her tone of voice. Oh yeah. That is like crazy to me that like, she's been dead 25 years. Oh. But when her voice comes in my head, it is actually in her voice. And that brings me joy that's like those sayings were so powerful. So I did every chapter after one of her sayings to me. Oh, I love that. So, you know, I mean, I really do hear you when you're saying like, you know, those lessons that we learned, they are so ingrained in us. And I love that you start your day with the idea of a surrender to where the Spirit is leading you. That is embodying my whole hope for my life. I don't think I do that very well. I want to and I make rituals to make that happen. But for you to be doing that is just a huge testimony and I love it. And, you know, I give God thanks every morning that I get to do this work. I have never, ever gotten tired of hearing a story. I mean, because while there's like a soldier story, each soldier has a story. And for survivors, there is a survivor story. But each woman is carrying such a powerful story. And I get to hear them. And I get to be the story keeper for that person and just treasure it. And honestly, a lot of those stories, you know, and everybody's, you know, different. But the ones, the women that wanted me to share their story, those are in the book. Because I think they're so powerful for people. And it covers a gambit of issues like we just get to figure out like, it doesn't mean that you can't relate just because you were never in prison. It doesn't mean you can't relate just because you were never on the street. Sometimes all of us can relate to times when we were fearful and how we overcame it or how we didn't know where the next meal was coming from. And somehow, you know, somebody handed us a bag of chips and that started a whole new journey for us. That's great. I didn't know that you were in Episcopelian priest. Yeah, I got ordained 30 years ago. Wow. That's wonderful. A lot of people don't know it because, you know, I don't wear collar and I don't talk like one. Yeah, exactly. Well, in what ways are your ministry similar across all the different things you do? Well, I think for me, if you had to ask me what, you know, what, what the crux of what I believe in is love heals. And that is across the board for everything I do. It's my theology condensed down to its most important part, which is, you know, love as in everything in our business, love in our relationships, love in our ethics and our morals, love as something that is not concerned about the dogma of any particular faith, but just dog it. Dog it about saying we have to be hospitable. We have to be practical. We have to be, you know, compassionate and courageous. All those things that love calls us to beyond everything else that wants us to tell something else. And then healing, of course, you know, from birth to death, whatever ministry we do, whatever outreach we do, it has to be about healing. Otherwise, it's, it's too hard of an abroken mean world to not try to be about healing. I totally agree. One thing that I am trying to get better at is when I see someone mad road rage saying something off the top of their head in anger. I just have to think back at Robin Williams what he said when somebody approaches you in there in a bad mood and they say something that's hurtful. Take a step back, take a deep breath and just remember they probably had a real bad day or they're dealing with something that you can't even imagine. So cut them some slack. Absolutely. I think if we all did that and just show a little compassion, I'm not walking in their shoes. I don't have a clue what they're dealing with. So just back off and give them some space. I love that. And I think for me that one of the things I've seen because I've been doing this work for so long is when the language changes, it helps people. So in other words, back in the day, people just called people prostitutes that could be 14, 15 years old on the street and they were called prostitutes or crack addicts or whatever we were calling them. And now the word is trafficking. We see that that is coercive. It's violent. Things have been done. They've been victimized before we criminalize them and just changing that language to saying this person has been traffic. The person has been prostituted. That's not who they are. And then all of a sudden this discuss or outrage or dismissive nature can change and it's like we're given permission to be compassionate like you're saying. So not just strangers, you know, on the road, but sometimes I think we feel like we can't show compassion because someone's a criminal. We can't show compassion because somebody don't believe like us, they're in a different political party or something. And I think sometimes if we can begin while we're taking a step back while we're taking a breath, also think of language that's more compassionate like this is my sister. I'm looking at my sister right now. And then it's harder to be hateful in me. Yeah, that's wonderful. So with the holidays coming up, how do y'all deal with that? The holidays are really fun for us in part because we are a retail business. So we'll do most of our gifts, most of our work because people give gifts of whistle arms for the holidays. So we have geared up. And so it means everybody's working full time over time and we get to, you know, send our candles and soaps and products from around the globe to anybody that orders. It's very, very fun. For the houses and the houses. the residents, we have parties. You know, we'll have a graduate party, we'll have a resident party, we'll have a staff party. You know, everybody gets together and we celebrate. We're gonna close the cafe. We also have a cafe in Nashville, Tennessee, and we'll close that. Wonderful. Y'all have Christmas parties there because it can be a really sad time. Yes, Santa Claus comes. Santa Claus comes. Good for him. Yeah, he is so nice to us. And actually, one of our graduates, her father is a professional Santa Claus, and he comes in full regalia and people who have access to their kids are graduated and they're raising children or they've graduated and had children. Everybody comes back with their kids and we have this beautiful cafe they can come into when we have Santa lunch. It's very, very fun. But the other thing I was gonna say is that for some of the women, you think it is sad and for some of the women, they never really celebrated Christmas before. It's some of their first times. Really? One of the women said a couple years ago, she said to me, she said, you know, I've been in prison for four years straight. It's so wild to see Christmas and color. Becca, how blessed we are. They don't put things in perspective, nothing does. Where do you see fissile farms in the future? Kind of a little bit like you, Reuben, that I try not to put too much into the future and trust or it's gonna lead me with love. And then I'm gonna keep doing this work. But what I see is that if we keep growing the way we're growing, is we're gonna continue to have a really powerful voice for women. And we're gonna keep changing and challenging a culture that still buys and sells women as commodities. We're gonna help keep young girls safe. I think in the future, you know, we are gonna have a lot more programs around the country and around the world. I don't want to do anything different with my days. I want to keep doing this work. And I keep, I mean, maybe I'll write another book. Maybe. There you go. Maybe I'll have a grand baby. That's what I really want. Nice. But, you know, I try not to put too much into it. I try to, I really try to think it's gonna open up and it's gonna be what it is. And I'm, I'm alone for the ride if it's a ride that's called love. Wow, stars in your crown. Oh, thank you. That is too, too cool. Alrighty. We'll be right back after the break. Is that a giraffe behind you? It is. Oh, my gosh. I love giraffes. I took that picture. You took it. Yeah, 13. And what was so funny, all the animals when I'd start take their pictures, they'd turn their butts to me. So I started to do a photo book like, does this tree make my butt look big? I love it. Drugs are my favorite. Back at each of our episodes, our podcast. I like to play little game with my guest. And it helps us kind of learn a little bit more about each other. I already know the answer to this, but do you have a competitive side? Ab so lutely. Kind of thought that. Do you? Oh, yeah, I loved play games and I'm very competitive. When we were growing up, my brother and I, when they would release us from chores, we'd run out of the house saying anything you can do, I can do better. That's awesome. That'd take us a day or two. Well, since we're both from the south, I'm from Oklahoma and you grew up here in Tennessee, we're going to play a game called My Kind of Country, which just happened to be a name of one of my albums way back in the past. Okay, we're going to hold up 10 fingers. And every time we hear one, we haven't done, we put a finger down. This should be a drinking game, shouldn't it? It sure could. Okay, here we go. Whoever has the most fingers left up at the end wins. Okay, so I'm so country I've opened the beer bottle on a bumper. Oh, no. I haven't done that. A belt muckled? Yes. I'm so country I can rope a cow. I have rope to calf before and I didn't get my rope back. I'm so country I could pick poison ivy with my hands. You're down too. I'm down one. I had to go down on that one. I'm so country I've put tobacco on bee stings. Definitely. Definitely. And wasp stings. Now it's hard to find tobacco. I know it. I had to go outside and ask some helpers. Do y'all have cigarette? I'm so country I can drive a tractor. Put my finger down. Okay, all right. I kept mine up. Your head. I'm so country I named my first born after blue jeans. What? My son leave our humming. I was in New York one time back at a fashion show and an interviewer said, uh, oh, Miss McIntyre, what's your favorite designer? And I said, leave us. I didn't know me the designers. Okay. I'm so country. I know how to bet a hook. Definitely. I know how, but I always ask somebody else to do. Okay, then I'll put mine down because I did that too. My husband does it for me. You're tied. Six to six. Yay. I'm so country when I was a kid, I thought rock city was an exotic vacation. I'd never even heard of rock city. So I guess well, that's because of Tennessee when you're in Nashville and you get to go all the way to Chattanooga. Oh, yeah. Yeah, one of these days almost still go to it. Oh my gosh, it's so much fun at Christmas. Oh, good. Good. I'm so country I have a trailer hitch, but no trailer. I don't have a trailer hitch. I got a trailer hitch and I have a trailer too. I'm so country I've got more than two animals at home. Definitely. Definitely. All right. Five. Five. Yay. Perfect. Perfect. We're both country girls. Yes, we didn't lose. Becca, thank you so much for joining me today. I've learned a lot how I can contribute, how I can help. And I know there's tons of our listeners out here who are excited to get to helping also. Is there anything else that you could leave us with words of inspiration or how to help others? Yes. I want to say this. No matter how high you get or how low you get, you are not far away from the love of God. And that Reba, you have demonstrated that for your whole career. And everyone at thisel farms loves you and wishes you well. Thank you, Becca. Tell them all high for me. I won't come see them soon. Yay. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Right after Thanksgiving, we have a movie out called Christmas in tune. It's on lifetime. And lifetime wanted to give back. And so we went to Thistle Farms. And Thistle Farms selected a young lady that was going to be receiving an apartment for two years rent free. And so I got to be a part of that. And thank you so much. Lifetime and Thistle Farms for making that day so special for me and Terria. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence in any form, help is available. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides free confidential support 24/7. So call 1-800-799-Safe. Or visit the hotline.org. We're here to help you. Thanks to our guest, Becca Stevens. Let me know what there was a lesson you learned from Becca. I sure did. I had lots of things that I learned. I was writing down so fast I couldn't hardly stand it. So thanks everyone for listening. This was such an inspiring conversation. And come back here next week for another episode of Living and Learning Only on Spotify. We'll see you next week. Well thanks for listening to Living and Learning with Riva McIntyre, a Spotify original production. Our lead producer is Dylan Rupert with producer Baron Farmer. Our executive producers are Gina Delvack, Yassie Solick, Danny Trebatch, and Justin McIntyre, Editing by Cheryl Crosby, Original Music by Doug Seismore. Special thanks to Leah Edwards, Robert Adler, Casey Simonson, and Kyla Connero. I'm your host, Riva McIntyre. Follow us only on Spotify.