Ep. 94 - Dr. C - Grace And Grit

A candid journey from collapsed plans to renewed purpose, guided by grace, grit, and a fierce commitment to mental health advocacy. Dr. C shares how faith, family, and self-acceptance shaped her leadership and her resolve to stop dimming her light.

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Chapters

• 0:05 Welcome And Guest Introduction
• 1:44 Opening Prayer And Origin Story
• 3:46 Early Education And Boarding School
• 8:22 Nursing Career And Calling To Mental Health
• 10:08 The Move To North America And Collapse
• 12:30 Wrestling With Faith And Isolation
• 16:56 Grace And Grit: Mother’s Sacrifice
• 19:15 Provision, Pride, And Learning To Receive
• 22:36 Letting Go Of Dependence On People
• 25:29 Finishing The Master’s And Doctorate
• 27:25 The Cost Of Dimming Your Light
• 30:05 Racism, Misunderstanding, And Belonging
• 34:24 Choosing Self-Acceptance Over Shrinking
• 36:58 Standing Up To Bullying With Grace
• 39:11 What Brings Joy: Family And Quiet Ministry
• 41:20 Sensing A Shift: Excited And Afraid
• 44:34 Closing, Connect With Dr. C, And CTAs

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to the Leader Impact Podcast. We are a community of leaders with a network in over 350 cities around the world dedicated to optimizing our personal, professional, and spiritual lives to have impact. This show is where we have a chance to listen and engage with leaders who are living this out. We love talking with leaders, so if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to make this show even better, please let us know. The best way to stay connected in Canada is to our newsletter at LeaderImpact.ca or on social media at Leader Impact. And if you're listening from outside of Canada, check out our website at leaderimpact.com. I'm your host, Lisa Peters, and our guest today is Comfort Payne, otherwise known as Dr. C. She calls herself a viciously private, imperfect lady of elegance, a woman whose strength was shaped not in comfort but through the courage, faith, and grace. With over a decade of experience in mental and public health, Dr. C has made it her mission to challenge stigma and breaking barriers surrounding mental well-being in marginalized and vulnerable communities. Guided by her natural gift of empathy and discernment, she creates spaces where honesty replaces silence, where the conversations we often avoid become the ones that heal, inspire, and ignite change. Poised, warm, and unapologetically herself, with a quiet strength and a flair for fashion that speaks as boldly as her purpose. Please welcome Dr. C to the Leader Impact Podcast. Welcome to the show. Hello.

Speaker: 1:36

How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm fine. Can I do something really unorthodox? Yes, yes. Could I say a short prayer for us? Would that be okay? Is that allowed? That is allowed, Dr. Okay, okay. Father, I just want to say thank you for this wonderful opportunity to just be present here and to be in the presence of Miss Lisa Peters. I thank you because I feel so humbled to have a space to share my story and hopefully I will touch some hearts. I ask for you to speak through me and I ask for this to be such a warm and lovely conversation in Jesus' name. Amen.

Speaker 1: 2:24

Amen.

Speaker: 2:24

Okay.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Thanks, Dr. C.

unknown: 2:27

Okay.

Speaker 1: 2:28

I just love listening to you. I have to ask, can you can you tell us where's the accent from?

Speaker: 2:33

Yes, I'll put on my glasses so I can see you a little better. Um I forgot to wear my contact lenses, so forgive me. So I'm I'm originally from the United Kingdom.

unknown: 2:45

Okay.

Speaker: 2:45

That's where the accent's from. I'm from the United Kingdom. I'm from Southeast London to be precise. I'm from a little town called Bellingham. Bellingham. Yes, which is not too far from Kent.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Okay. Yes. Have to look that up on a map. And your name, Comfort Payne. Like, I'm not going anywhere until I know how Comfort Pain.

Speaker: 3:07

Yeah, yeah. I think I you know, I won't say my parents were humorous, they weren't. Um, it meant something special to them, the name Comfort. So Pain's my family name, and um Comfort was a name that later on in life it seemed to be of uh great um importance to them. There was some tragedy in the family, and my name seemed to be a breath of fresh air. Um, once that happened, I think I filled that void with regards to bringing comfort to the family. So that's that's where the name comes from.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Thank you for sharing that. That was wonderful. Yeah. Well, I am looking forward to talking with you today. I know a little bit more about you, more than what I've said, and I I'm I have loved uh reading about you, but um, I'd like you to tell us a little bit more about your professional journey and how you got from where you are to where you are today, what you're doing. But more importantly, that those pivotal that pivotal moment that really um got you along the journey.

Speaker: 4:10

Do you have one that you could share? Yeah, so like I mentioned, I'm originally from the United Kingdom. And my journey, I'll often say, isn't a straight line, it's um a tapestry of woven, unexpected detours, some unfortunate circumstances, and I'd say a dash of divine intervention. So that's that's how I would sum up my journey. Um, so I'll start off by telling you a bit about my um educational background. So I started education at the age of two. So I say that because I just want you to understand the um just the background of education to me as an individual. So I started at the age of two. My parents um I was quite blessed, sent me to private school for most of my um um educational life from preschool, um just before post-secondary, and I also had the opportunity to go to boarding school. I went to boarding school in two different continents, and um, I think that that experience was very important to me because um it allowed me to build resilience um independent and also uh an understanding of the fact that there are different cultures out there, we're very different, but we also have linings of similarity. So I think I was very fortunate to be able to do that, to um have been in boarding school, and um on the other hand, it it did seem a bit odd. I was about nine and ten when I went to boarding school for the first time, and so it it was unusual for me within the community that I was raised, for um a child to have gone to boarding school at such a young age. But I'm sure that my parents had, you know, my best interests at heart, and I'm sure they would have a reason if you asked them why they done that. But raising myself and my siblings, one of the things that my parents would always instill onto us is the fact that we were to see ourselves as heads and not the tails, and to see ourselves as leaders and not followers, and most importantly, for us to be mindful when we interacted with people, they would mention to us that you never know who people are, so be mindful and respectful of who people are, and being the eldest as well. One of the other things was that I should carry myself in a way that um I paid attention to my younger ones, my cousins, and so um emulating whatever it is that I did. So that kind of helped to shape the way I carried myself, um, and it was a bit of a burden at times because in spaces where I may have wanted to contradict something or maybe behave slightly out of the box, I was always mindful because I remembered what my parents would tell me about the fact that I had people behind me that paying attention to what I did and how I behaved, and so that's something that I felt moulded my fascination with human beings and human behaviour. And so, like I stated before, I went to boarding school in two different continents, and with that traveling bug at the age of 16, I um got my passport and I registered myself with a project called Camp America, and I became a camp counselor at the age of 16. And my parents they were very um okay with it because they felt I was quite mature enough to do so, but I wasn't scared, I was brave, and I you know I was very fascinated with North America and everything to do with North America, and um doing that made me um value why do people do the things that they do and and why do we behave the way that we behave? I think that was where the bug of that um keenness within me developed. So, fast forward a little bit, I then found myself, I stumbled into um a profession in healthcare. So I um became a registered psychiatric nurse in the in the UK, and um my I then became a nurse manager for a very pivotal private health um hospital at the time. However, nursing was not my dream. I had no interest in nursing whatsoever. I always envisioned myself being an advocate or lawyer or someone in entertainment, that was my dream. So nursing I fell into as I stay, but nursing, I think, was the school that taught me to hone more into my empathy and hone more into compassion, hone more into being a non-judgmental person, and um it really did stand as a basis for what I then decided to pursue later on in life, and that led me to um an opportunity I had probably half a decade ago to um go to North America and to um expand my career, and um at the time I was going through quite a traumatic season, so it was almost an escapism for me as well. And so um this wonderful experience got prevented and presented to me, and that I'll say was um the pivotal change within my um both my career and my personal life in both positives and negative ways. Um I think also with regards to that transition, that transition within about 30, 36 to 72 hours of me arriving, everything just fell apart. It was devastating, and this was something that I had planned for over two years, and within 72 hours, everything fell apart, and I felt completely stripped of my identity. I felt lost and very alone because I'd left my family, I'd left a comfortable life, I'd left a profession that um I was doing very well in. And um at the time when people started encouraging, my family started encouraging me to perhaps come back to the UK, COVID hit. And so that decision was taken away from me. And I look back at that and I and I and I sense that the brokenness and the solitude all seemed to be God's plan in what he was aiming to do in my life. And I kept keep remembering a verse that came from the Bible, which is Jeremiah 29, 11, which stated that, for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, and plans to prosper you and plans to not harm you. But at the time I didn't feel that way. I I felt that God was against me.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Yeah, I can I can understand that. And I think people, when we're in it, we're in the pain, we are struggling to understand why we are here, and and um what at what point you when you were in it, at what you know, did you start seeing the light and go, okay? Um, because I'm sure you were questioning your faith at that point.

Speaker: 12:00

I did. I questioned my faith a lot, and the reason being because it just didn't make sense how everything had just fallen apart, and I was left in a situation whereby I just I it it was just it it's one of those situations when you just can't explain. There was no logical reason behind why the plans that had been had been made weren't going the way they were supposed to. And I think what was scary was that I even though I was keen to travel, even though um I could speak English, and I felt that all the things that I needed, so if I go back a little bit, in the hope of moving to a different country, I was very resistant of having to walk the immigrant path. And I'm saying that because I had known a friend, a family who have immigrated to a different country and have have gone through a struggle because of that. So I'd always said to myself, if I'm ever going to move somewhere, I'll ensure that I go as a professional and I'll go with all my all my um um ducks in line, so to say. And so, with all those plans, that wasn't the case. Although I had all my ducks in line, the rug was just pulled out beneath me, and um it was hard because I had gone with trust, I had gone and I had faced um betrayal, and I had gone and I had faced find myself in a situation where I was both financially and um professionally crippled because I wasn't able to work within my profession at the time. And part of the stipulation of me moving to North America was um to do a master's, and so my sponsor had pulled out of um sponsoring me, and I'd sold everything. I'd sold everything to the UK, and I was waiting for my personal belongings to come through cargo, and so I just felt completely alone and I questioned and I cried and I questioned and I I asked God why, and it just didn't it just did not make sense. It was very traumatic for me that experience.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Um, but you ultimately did get your masters of um because I I wrote it down, like you I got a master's of nurse, and that's what I got, yes. And then you got your doctor of public health, like you the story ends well, right?

Speaker: 14:52

The story does end well, however, the processes to that story was it was not a smooth pathway.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Yeah, I think sometimes yeah, people look at you and and they look at your your fabulousness look and they go, she has it all together, you know? And so I thank you for just sharing that it's not always easy. Um yeah. Um I'm wondering if you can share through all this or or now and where you're working, what your best principle of success is, and if you have a story that illustrates that.

Speaker: 15:27

Absolutely. So I could say my best principle of success would be don't judge book by its cover. I could say um when God has a plan for you, what is yours is yours. I I have so many that I could provide for you, but I think the one that has been my um anchor through this season is something that I refer to as grace and grit. So two contrasting things. So grace to trust God when things don't make sense, and grit to keep moving even when you can't see the finishing line. So those are my two principles, and I'll expand a little for you. So, first regarding the grit to keep moving, and um that would reflect the series of events that that took place following when my sponsor pulled pulled the plug, so to say, and after I arrived over less than three days, and I had every reason to quit. And I remember calling my mother, devastated, and I stated to her, I said, What are we going to do? I can't afford a master's, and um I can't even work, I wasn't even able to work within my profession at the time. And one of the stipulations of a student visa is you have you can work a maximum of 20 hours. So um, and I had loved ones dependent on me. So just imagine that scenario where I have a qualification, I have um a ticket, so to say, to open doorways of employment for me, but I can't utilize them. So um she she, my mother at the time was about to retire, and she said, Don't worry, Comfort, you will complete this master's. And I said, How's that going to happen? And some few years back for her birthday, we brought her a luxury car for her birthday. She had a great milestone that she had um celebrated, and she sold the car. My mum sold her car to pay for my master's, and I can't tell you how much of a lifeline that was for me at the time, and um within months following that, um, God just started showing me different ways to remind me that He loved me and He was in this journey with me. So, from the onset, um, there were so many divine encounters. If I was to reel them off, you will tell me that I'm telling fibs, and this is a Hollywood story that I'm telling you. But I had things from people would just say to me, Um, comfort, how much is your rent? And I would be like, Um, okay, and I'll tell them, and they'll say, Well, God asked me to pay for your rent, and they'll pay my entire rent for the month, and it would be something like someone would say to me, They were on the way on the way to do groceries, and my my name came into their mind, and they would bring me bags of groceries, so I wasn't lacking with regards to that, and um it was extremely difficult for me though to receive help. And the reason being was two things. One in the UK before I left, my family and I had this project called Project H25, which stands for homeless at Christmas, and we weren't sponsored, we just set money aside during the year, and um the week of Christmas, we'll go to Marks and Spencer's and buy food packages and buy um sleeping bags and different kinds of useful things, and we'll wrap them up, wrap the sleeping bags into presents so they looked like presents, and then Christmas Day, my sister and I would go round on Christmas morning and look for homeless people to give that to, and the sense of joy that that brings you because they felt like they were opening a present. And so now I was on the other side, and I'm not comparing myself to someone that's homeless, but on the other side of being in need, and I felt that I sh I didn't I wasn't deserving of it because I felt I was educated, I could work, I wasn't addicted to any substances, I didn't have a mental health issue, so I didn't feel that I that the provision that was given to me was something that I should have. I felt there were people less fortunate than me that deserved the provision. So it was very challenging for me at the time to receive help. But saying that, um, the interesting thing with that was in the same breath that all those wonderful things was taking place and God was comforting me, because um I'm a very loyal person, I'm loyal to a fault, and I say that in the sense that if someone does something kind to me, I I keep it to heart. The gratitude that I'll show that person is immense, and I feel that God wanted me to know that human beings were flawed, that no one was perfect, and that people that he put in my life were vessels, and I should see them as only but that vessels. And I say that because in the same breath that all the wonderful things was happening, a season shortly after, everything just crumbled. So people that I had grown close to and became vulnerable to and trusted, one by one, they started to disappear. People that had um pledged to walk with me through this journey, one by one, they started to fall along the wayside, and um I became estranged from quite a few family members in the UK, and I felt extremely isolated at the time. And um I think it it was God trying to teach me that he was taking me into a season that he wanted me to rely solely on him, he didn't want anyone to be able to say, Oh, it's because of me that comfort is where she's at, or this or that. I think God wanted me to solely rely on him and only him, and that was hard for me because um the same year all that was happening, I I had um an accident, two accidents, one at the beginning of the year, one at the end of the year, and so they were tragic accidents, and so I felt my external life was crumbling, and then my internal life began to crumble. I was diagnosed with some unfortunate health um situations, um, a couple of autoimmune conditions. So I said, God, what's going on? My my support system has gone and my body's betraying me. And it it was such a dark time for me. Um, but the only thing that I do remember is that he would remind me of um a Bible verse that states that I know the plans that I have for you. He kept on it, that just kept on being a ringing thing. Trust in me with all your heart and lead not on lean on to not onto your own understanding. That was those Bible verses just kept on becoming more and more uh audible in my ear, and so I had to learn to just surrender in the solitude that he was taking me. And so that's the grit. And so I'll talk quickly about the grace. With regards to the grace, once I'd completed my master's, as you mentioned, um it would have probably been sensible for me to move back to the UK then, um, knowing what I was going through. And I called my mother, and I I think I I I felt quite confident in the achievement, and I said to her, Oh, I've done this, and that was a breeze, and this is half-hearted humour, by the way. And and we we we had this conversation, and I said, Oh, I feel like I can do anything right now, and um, perhaps I should go ahead and go and do doctoral studies or or a PhD. It was a joke. I wasn't intending for her to take me serious, and my mum said, Well, if if you want to, then why not? And I said to her, I don't think you understand how expensive this is, and we've just gone through this whole season. And she said, Well, I believe that if that's what you want to do, God will allow there to be a way for this to happen. And so I and she said, I'll support you in every way that I can. And what should have been five years for me to complete, this this spring gone, I completed it shy of three and a half years. And I cannot tell you how. I'm not going to brag and say I'm the most smartest person in the world, no, not at all. But what I can tell you is looking back at what it is, I know that it was it was about honoring my mother's faith in me and God's faithfulness through me to her. And God reminded me that my thoughts are not his thoughts and his ways, and my ways are not his ways, and and that was something that um allowed me to understand what grace and grace really meant. Wow.

Speaker 1: 25:45

I feel there's um, you know, you you talk about going to school at grade two, or you started your education, not that you said school. You you and you talked about you got into nursing and you thought you wanted to be the lawyer, the advocate, and there was sort of a um like a disconnect there. Um what I know of you now, you are an advocate in in mental health, in in public health. Um where we talk, and so I I want to ask you about like fears and failures, because you know, you talk about um the failures, there has been some setbacks, yeah, but we know that sometimes that's our like those failures and mistakes can be our greatest successes. So, you know, do you have I mean we will learn more from those failures and mistakes than our own successes? And comfort, I think you've done a lot of learning. Um I don't know if you have any more to share, just a failure or mistake that you just you learn so much. Yeah, but listening to you, I feel like I've learned a lot.

Speaker: 26:55

Yeah. I I would say my greatest mistake was dimming my light to make others feel comfortable. I think that was my greatest mistake, and that came about through vulnerability of the season that I was in at the time. So I felt a lot of I'd say embarrassment because of where I'd found myself in the position that I'd found myself. And so because of that, for a very long time, um I felt like I wanted to fade into the wall. Um, I didn't necessarily want to fit in, but um I wanted to just disappear, you know, um, but still be accepted, and that if I believe, if I blended quietly, maybe people won't notice me. Um and that was that was uh I don't know what I was thinking to be honest, and uh and so there's a series of events that I'll I'll walk us through with regards to that. So in in the UK, I won't say that I wasn't aware of racism um as a woman of colour or a black woman, whichever politically correct way you want to um pitch it to be. I I was fully aware of it, but the the thing is I I don't think it was glaring to me um in the sense that the UK is very multicultural, and um I've never felt that I couldn't uh um fill a space or be part of a space that I was in. I didn't feel awkward at all in any way. Um but in the climate that I found myself in the environments that I was in, I felt very different. Um, it was something that was made known to me for me to be aware of that I was different, my accent, the way I dressed, my confidence, my achievement. There were sometimes even ridiculed, should I say, the fact that I had all these achievements, but I wasn't working within a role that mirrored the achievements. I was working in roles that I was probably way overqualified for. And so um I I remember a question that that um someone asked me, and they asked me, where was I from? And I opened my mouth and they were shocked because they were probably expecting an accent from somewhere else than than than a British accent. And then I said, I'm from the UK, and they said, No, where are you from? Where are you from? And I was confused. I didn't really understand what they meant by that question, and they were referring to my ancestral origins because I'm I'm black, and I found it quite ignorant at the time, um, because I thought you wouldn't ask a white Canadian or white South African person where you're from, where are you from, which would obviously mean somewhere in Europe their their ancestral origin, and um I've since spoken. To other ethnic minorities, and they've told me that they've they've found similar questions being asked of them. And so then I started to, when I get asked that question, I would ask the same question and I'd say, and where are you from? And if I get told wherever, I was like, no, where are you from? Where are you from? And it would always come back with um a sense of embarrassment. They'll blush and it would help them to think about what they've just asked. And and uh, you know, that was something that I I started to do when I realized that I couldn't continue to try and fade into the background, and um I was mistaken for for for thinking that I could in in in a sense like that. And then I think another um example that I would give which which kind of like navigated me into feeling insecure about who I was was um when I realized that I was being misunderstood a lot, um, and all I wanted to do was to belong. Um and what was dubbed by someone as a community, they they said to me, Comfort, you're looking for your community, and to me, my community was the church. That that was my community, and it was interesting that even within then other people felt that my community that I would identify with had to do with my race or my ancestral origin, so I almost felt like I was being pushed towards that rather than being accepted for the community that I was trying to integrate myself in, and I think that succumbed to a lot of stereotypes and preconceptions. Um, I had Pearsons, I was dressed differently in the same way that I love listening to Yclef and Mary J. Blige is the same way that I love listening to Christian rock and um rap Christian rappers like Dax and songs like Carrie Underwood. So I feel like I'm a mix of so many different things. And I just feel that people didn't know where to put me, and and and they misunderstood me because they couldn't quite understand where to put comfort, what box should we put comfort in? And I couldn't can recollect that. Um I started to then recognize the hostility that I I would get sometimes because of that, and even within what was deemed to be my community, my very first recollection of racism, so to say, was from someone that looked exactly like me, and that was hard for me to understand. And um, a a doctor that I knew at the time that had come from the UK referred to as implicit racism, and it was a word that I'd never understood before, but I I started to see it to be when people are unable to um make sense of something new to them, they it's almost like a fight or flight, so they'll either embrace it or they will react to it with hostility, and I found that most people reacted with hostility towards not knowing where to put my varied boxes, so to say. With regards to that, that astonished me, and I began to shrink and withdraw even more, doubting who I was. I was just very broken, I was very broken at the time. Um, but then I realized that playing small, it didn't protect me. Um, it only erased who I was, and that wasn't what God wanted for me, and he reminded me so often that um his plans for me were good and not for evil. And I remember verses like, Come on to me, or who are burdened and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And I felt that he wanted to give me rest with all the conflicts that I was feeling at the time. And I'll give you two stories of how that started to shift. One poignant story was um during the early season, I was befriended by this um couple, this um senior couple, and they were very nice, and they invited me to lunch. And the wife, she um she was very insecure about how she looked. And I remember on my way there, not too far from their house, um, one of my church sisters was driving me there, and I asked her to park up, and I started to take off my earrings, I took off my high heels, and um I started to put on some joggers because I was wearing a modest summer dress, but I knew it made me look more petite than usual. And this lady I was aware was insecure because she was um she was overweight, and I I my my church sister was looking, she was like, Comfort, what are you doing? And I said, Well, I don't want her to feel bad, you know. And she said, But that's not your responsibility, and I said, Uh yeah, it's not, and I knew it wasn't something that I should do, um, because I was changing who I was to try and make someone else feel more comfortable, and I think I was doing a disservice to God by doing that, and following that recently um that realization taught me self-acceptance, and that self-acceptance isn't arrogance, that it's just about gratitude, it's gratitude on how God has made you and the courage to live in your truth, even when it's uncomfortable. And that follows through to um a close a close colleague of mine made me aware of um a workplace bully that I had, which I hadn't noticed or thought of it to be bullying. So this individual would always make comments that comfort you always dress so fancy, don't you own a pair of jeans and don't you wear joggers? And it's something that you could, you know, think of it to be harmless banter, but then I realized that no, that I she was targeting me for this, and so I remembered what I did about changing how I appear to make someone feel comfortable. So, what I did was on my birthday, usually on my birthdays, I try and schedule it to have it off so I can spend some time with God. It's a sacred time for me, and on my birthday, I um ordered a dainty tiara from Amazon and I wore it to work with a dress, almost to say, is this fancy enough for you? And I think she was shocked because of the boldness doing that, but that began that began my turning point, and it truly started me accepting me, accepting my voice, accepting my presence, um, accepting that I could walk into a room with grace and strength and still be humble, and that my light didn't have to be dim for someone else. So learning that mistake, coming out of it in that sense, has strengthened me to be who I am, striving to become more and more each day.

unknown: 37:49

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:49

Oh, I love that example because I think so many people dim themselves because other people don't like their shine. Yes. And um, I I think you know, like I'm a six-foot woman and um I wear heels, comfort. Good. And I wear big heels.

Speaker: 38:07

I love it.

Speaker 1: 38:09

But I get that um that kind of comments, like that it's it's it's not a it's like a bullying comment. It's like, look, I'm wearing them because they look really nice, they make dresses look nice. Yes, absolutely. And I but I'm six foot three with but I I you know what I'm gonna just listening to you. I'm I'm gonna work at shining more.

Speaker: 38:31

Yes, yeah, like I think you should, and I I don't think it's about being proud and being prideful, it's not. I think in in changing who you are, it I think it does God a disservice because he's made you wonderful in the way you are, he's made you perfect, and you are a reflection of God, and I think in trying to tone ourselves down and behave in ways that it doesn't dignify who God is in us, and so I think we need to be as truthful to ourselves as much as we can in the spaces that we can.

Speaker 1: 39:11

Yeah, oh, I love it. Um, I'm gonna skip right to our last question. Uh, you you have talked, you've given so many great stories. Um, I'm loving it. Uh uh, and just you know know that you are a very busy woman, but want to know what brings you the greatest joy? Ooh.

Speaker: 39:30

What brings me the greatest joy? I would say the love of family. I'll definitely say the love of family. There'll always be ups and downs with family, and that kind of stands through distance and disappointments and and and and time, it does, and that's unmeasurable. Um, apart from my immediate family who have grounded me and undoubtedly have been my greatest cheerleader through my journey. Um, I'm very private and I'm viciously protective of them because they're sacred to me. Um, my mother, my sister, and my cousins. Um, I thank them so much. They mean the world to me. Um, I've also adopted some family here. Um, Nana Gail, as I call her, Uncle Glenn and Dr. Andy, and um, those few angels of God that God has sent around my way. Um, I've stubbornly decided not to let go of them. And seeing transformation in others also brings me immense joy, whether it's um a patient recovering, a colleague rediscovering their voice, um, or simply remembering their worth. And something that I hold close dearly to me, Lisa, is that God has given me um I don't I don't know whether it's a skill, I just think he's blessed me in being able to provide a safe space for others. Um, I can't quite explain what it is, but I even have strangers who will walk up to me and pour out their life, they'll pour out their traumas, pour out their concerns, and um for them to be able to trust me with those vulnerable parts of their life, I'm so humbled by it. And um, it's what I call my quiet ministry. And um, I think mine is just to be able to listen in that way, and um on a personal level at the moment, uh, what brings me joy is I I found being able to spend some quiet time with God in the morning. Um, I'm I'm not quite there with the 4 a.m. wake and reading the Bible for hours on end at the moment. Mine is more playing songs and dancing around and screaming and shouting and praising his name, and and that has brought me such tremendous joy. And so that's the kind of joy that doesn't depend on circumstances but on the presence, or knowing that even in the silent, silent moment I'm I'm exactly where I'm meant to be.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Yeah. Yeah. Do you listening to you um and God putting uh people coming to you and and do you do you think something is changing for you? Are you are you just excited to see in the opportunities? I just I feel like there's things changing for you.

Speaker: 42:28

Do you I agree with you? I agree with you, and it frightens me. Oh yeah. I shared I shared with you before I came on the podcast, and and so I must admit that that Lisa's been trying to get me on the podcast for a while, and I don't know whether it's because of the season of me um shying away and hiding myself that it's made me feel very vulnerable in that way. But each time I I think about the space that I'm um occupying at the moment, it excites me because I know that I I will be that voice for those people that don't have that voice, but it frightens me as well because I know I'm imperfect and um I just don't know where God's taking me. I know it's going to be a whirlwind, and and so it it does frighten me at times as well. Um but I I am excited, I I can feel that there's a shift, and I feel that something is brewing, and I know it's going to be something really great. Um but it it's frightening, it is frightening. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:41

I can I can agree with the frightening and exciting all at the same time because I you don't know where you're going, but it's like I'm gonna put my trust and I'm gonna I'm gonna show up every day, I'm gonna continue to work hard and I don't you know and and thank God for every moment and and where are we going?

Speaker: 43:59

It is all that, Lisa, and and my journey, like I said, I feel I at the moment I feel that if my journey can make just one person feel seen or encouraged, then it's been worthwhile. Um when I leave this world in many, many, many years to come. Um, I hope that people just don't remember me for what I've achieved, um, but how I've made them feel, you know, made them feel valued, made them feel understood and loved. Yeah. Um that that's that's what I really want.

Speaker 1: 44:34

Oh comfort, it has been an uh awesome 45 minutes with you. I have just sat there and my cheeks hurt from smiling and my heart is full. I want to just thank you for just joining us. And I'm glad you finally said yes. I'm like, Comfort, it's just gonna be fun. He did say so. And you just you did excellent. Um, if people want to connect with you, find you, um, how can they do that? What is the best way?

Speaker: 44:57

They can find me on LinkedIn at the moment, just DrC, Doctor Doc C. Or they can find me on the handle on X or Instagram at Dr C underscore O T C W D R C. O T C W D R C. And um, that's just a snippet of things to come, so it may not make sense what that handle means just now, but it will make sense in times to come. That's awesome. Thank you, Dr. C, for joining us. Thank you so much for having me, Lisa. I really appreciated this time that we've had together. Oh, you're welcome.

Speaker 1: 45:38

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