Ep. 106-The Interview: Wendi Schuller

Wendi is an intrepid world traveler who has had more than her share of miracles. There was that almost plane crash, that one time. And then a bomb on a plane that other time...it's clear the Universe has plans for her!

Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of Bite-sized Blessings,

The podcast.

I need to start this week off by telling everyone how excited I am.

My Patreon has its first subscriber.

And for those of you who don't know what Patreon is,

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I have three levels at which you can subscribe to help me make my podcast.

$3,

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And $10.

With each level you get goodies and sweet rewards.

And you'll also know that you're helping me put good things out into the world.

There will be a link to the Patreon below the episode's notes.

Now with that I can talk to you about my larger than life guest this week,

Wendy.

This human has done it all.

Not only is she an intrepid world traveler.

She was a trauma nurse.

She's a dating coach.

She's written several books.

She flies to London all the time to help people,

To talk to them,

To work with people.

She's just this really astounding human being who has so many stories.

I mean this interview was so rollicking and hilarious and I kind of just gave control over to Wendy because she has so many more stories to tell and we only fit about two or three into this episode.

But I am going to provide links to her LinkedIn and then when she publishes some of her books I'm going to provide them on my website.

At any rate this interview was a joy to have.

I hope you appreciate and love Wendy as much as I do after listening to this episode.

And so now episode 106 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

Okay,

I was getting ready to board an airplane.

I was going with my mother on a nurse's trip to Ireland and our plane was in JFK.

So I'm second to board.

They're looking at our tickets and all of a sudden they evacuate the terminal in JFK and they kept saying this is not a drill.

This is not a drill.

So they kept our group sequestered from the other gates which was kind of odd.

So I had been talking to the agent while I was in line and he and I chatted.

So after an hour and a half when they opened up the terminal again and he was unscrewing every cap,

Pulling out my mascara wand,

I mean thorough,

Thorough security search.

I said hey what's going on?

And I saw security guys and talks.

He said intelligence report came in at the last second before we boarded.

That there was a live bomb on our airplane set to go off in the middle of the Atlantic.

How do I self-describe?

I made this decision the summer between first and second grade how to describe myself and it stuck.

I heard the Stone Song,

Ruby Tuesday.

She changes with every new day.

And I decided I'm that girl.

So I,

My whole life,

I keep growing.

I keep moving.

I keep going in different directions.

I keep evolving.

And I try new things.

I did that then and I continue now.

For example,

Something I always wanted to do as a kid was skydiving and I thought I couldn't because I ruptured my eardrum earlier.

So I thought you know I'm going to give it a go.

I'm constantly doing new things.

Talked to a skydiving group here and now I'm just jumping out of planes at 13,

000 feet.

So my message to everyone,

Change that keeps you fresh.

It expands your spirituality,

Your human beingness,

Whatever you want to say it.

And that's just been my motto.

Oh my God,

I would never skydive.

You are crazy.

You can change it a different way.

Okay,

Okay.

Thank God because just the thought of,

I mean,

I don't like enclosed spaces and heights anyway.

And I mean,

I know once you jump out of the plane,

It's you're in the open air,

But still that falling component has me a little,

There's a little bit of fear there,

I guess,

With me.

Wow.

Kudos to you.

And also,

Can I ask,

You know,

What was the scariest thing for you?

Scariest new thing you've ever attempted?

Okay,

New thing,

I would have to go back to that.

I am kind of a newbie with skydiving.

And so we get up in the plane and there's seasoned jumpers too.

One has jumped over 31,

000 feet.

And he turns to me goes,

Wendy,

Did you know the wind is 49 knots now?

And they opened the door and I could barely get out.

And so I thought,

I'm either going to live or die.

It's out of my hands.

And that is my most recent scary thing.

Do you want to know another one?

Sure.

This is kind of like a life lesson.

Your life is in God's hands,

The universe,

Whatever your belief system is.

And I guess I really faced life and decided that I could really live each day more fully.

I was on an airplane going,

It was nighttime,

Started going over the Atlantic.

And the pilot said,

The captain,

We are an engine failure,

We're going down.

We're going to do a water landing.

So she said that the boats in the area have been notified and we,

You know,

This is it,

We're going down.

So I'm watching the moonlight dancing off the waves as we get going down in the Atlantic.

And for a sec,

Everyone was really calm.

We were going to die or not die.

It was not in our hands.

So anyways,

The plane leveled off.

That was a miracle,

A miracle and a blessing,

A miracle.

The captain said,

Unbelievably,

We may make it back to land.

Might be a freeway,

But we're going to land.

So they closed the Boston airport and she said,

When we land,

Now we can land in the Boston airport,

But the plane will be engulfed in flames because of the heat and the heaviness.

But we still have a couple minutes to evacuate the emergency personnel there and we'll be okay.

So we slam on the ground and there's no flames,

Another miracle.

We're watching the emergency crew watching us through the window.

We made it.

We made it against all odds.

That was a miracle,

Two miracles.

We didn't land in the water.

We didn't burst into flame.

So I felt like all of us really had,

We hadn't finished our purpose in life.

Our life is not always in our hands.

So that was a big lesson I learned.

I was going to ask,

Just ask you,

Did you grow up in a religious household?

Kind of.

Converts are the young hope people on the planet,

In my opinion.

And my mother converted to Catholicism,

So I called her Saint Anne.

I don't know.

I would say more spiritual,

Not real world religious.

I mean,

We went to mass and everything.

So kind of hard question.

I took a lot of,

I was into Buddhism in college and took advanced courses in Eastern religion.

So that's kind of a hard question to answer.

Yes and no.

Okay.

That's fair.

So it wasn't indoctrinated in you when you were a child.

It wasn't like forced upon you.

It kind of was,

But my personal philosophy as a child is you take what works for you and what doesn't,

You don't take.

And that's how I lived my life from probably first grade.

Okay.

Gosh,

A lot happened to you in first grade,

Between first and second grade.

All of these ways of being that you're in the world now seem to have happened at such an early age.

I love it.

Well,

I'll tell you why.

I went to,

And it sounds restrictive,

It sounds religious,

But it wasn't.

I went to the most fantastic girls school,

First through eighth grade.

And the women there wanted us to be mathematicians,

Astronauts,

Said girls can do anything.

And then respect your body.

I mean,

This is in grade school.

They're telling us about,

You know,

If a guy wants,

He didn't exactly say have sex with you,

But they're saying your temple's your body.

Don't share it with someone that doesn't appreciate you.

These women were so fantastic that I made,

And I made the other girls life decisions at such an early age because the women were so phenomenal.

They were like,

They were really strong role models,

It sounds like.

Fabulous,

Fabulous human beings.

Probably the best group I've ever met.

Wow.

What a huge blessing.

And ironically,

They were nuns,

But they didn't let that stop them from talking about sex and stuff,

You know,

To help us.

A lot of the nuns I've met are some of the fiercest,

Fiercest social justice warriors I've ever encountered.

So I understand.

These were like personally,

I mean,

They didn't say you couldn't be a housewife because that's the decision some people want to be,

But they really wanted to open the doors so that we had opportunities to be any single job on the planet and nothing would stop us.

That's amazing.

Hence the skydiving.

Yeah.

I was sure the nuns were like,

Go,

Go Wendy,

Yay.

Well,

I would love to hear,

I know you have so many stories and I would love to hear each and every one just about of magical or miraculous moments in your life.

I've had so many.

I think one of the most spiritual ones,

I was pregnant.

Probably walking around Nepal when you're pregnant is not the best pregnancy choice,

But hey,

This is me.

I'm walking in the foothills and we go to the,

It's a Buddhist shrine.

You've seen a lot of posters and travel ones.

They has the eye and the flags that's in Nepal.

Well,

Anyways,

I went there and I could feel the fetus move inside me.

Then it was like,

I was only three months,

So there's no way I really could feel it.

But anyways,

It was the spirituality was so,

I can't even say,

It permeated the air.

It permeated every cell in my body and that's probably the most spiritual,

Religious experience in my life.

And it affected my child who became Buddhist later.

Oh my goodness.

So,

So you were basically,

You were basically walking through this space,

Through this place in the world and you could profoundly feel,

Profoundly feel the sacredness in the air.

It kind of was intoxicating,

It sounds like.

Exactly.

And other people have said the same thing.

I think that's why it's on so many photos.

So basically,

It sounds like this place in Nepal was just so profoundly charged by all the spiritual energy of the probably tens of thousands,

If not hundreds of thousands of people who had visited there before.

And it just created this kind of,

Almost it sounds like this liminal space where,

You know,

Spirit and humans can connect in a way that's really profound.

It is.

It's just,

You know,

Just telling you about it,

It's hard because it's almost like you have to experience it yourself.

I'm one of those,

I have to experience places.

And there's two other places on the planet I felt the same way.

I don't know if you've heard about the Black Madonna in Poland.

Oh yes,

Absolutely.

Okay,

Did you know that was the only place on this planet where Hitler absolutely forbade any of his men to touch or take anything out of there?

Did you know that?

I didn't know that,

No.

Because what happened,

Sometimes in religious places they put like a flat screen in front of a painting and then they decorate it or put jewels or put different ones up.

Well,

They had that and a man was trying to steal it.

This is before World War II.

It was gold and lightning struck him in that chapel and killed him.

So then another man tried to remove it and the same thing,

He was struck dead.

And Hitler did not want to lose his troops.

So he said,

You can look at things,

But no touching,

No nothing.

Oh,

Wow.

I could feel that power.

And then the other place was in Bethlehem when I went to Israel.

And you could just feel where the nativity church is.

You could just feel this tremendous amount of energy.

I mean,

I think also from these stories you're telling me is you are an intrepid worldwide traveler.

Yes,

Yes.

I like to meet people in new cultures and that's part of staying fresh.

You talked about changing with every new day and meeting new people,

Seeing the world from their perspectives.

That helps people stay fresh.

That's what I do.

Other people might try new sports or get into food and try all these different things.

There's no right or wrong.

It's keeping yourself fresh.

Absolutely.

I think it's a beautiful process,

Putting yourself out somewhere where you're not comfortable,

Where you don't know the culture,

Where you don't know anyone.

And it opens the door for so much adventure and with really beautiful encounters.

It does.

That's a good way to put it.

Again,

Keep in mind I'm not real maternal.

I see my sons as like little people.

I don't baby them.

I thought I would,

After 9-11,

Take them to a Muslim country.

I thought it would never be safer.

I know 99.

9% of people would disagree,

But they checked everything.

I felt the safest airplane trip I ever took.

We went to a moderate Muslim country,

Morocco.

The boys,

One was a toddler and my air guide was carrying him.

And the other one,

I was holding his hand,

Walking through the marketplace to souk.

Men came running out of the stores,

Grabbed the baby,

Hugged him,

Picked up the other preschooler kid and said,

Isn't it a shame what happened in New York?

And the love of these Muslim people to my children after 9-11 stuck with them their whole lives.

Yes,

It is profound.

I grew up in,

I'm sure you and I have discussed it,

I grew up in Pakistan.

When I was over there,

This was decades ago admittedly,

But I never felt scared over there.

I was a child,

But I never felt scared.

I felt loved and taken care of.

People,

When we'd go out walking,

Would come out of their stores and sweetly pinch my cheeks.

I was white blonde at that point.

There was enchantment on both sides.

They were enchanted by the fact that I was so little and I had the kind of hair that you find in fairy tales.

And I was enchanted by how astonishing their world was and how colorful and artistic and beautiful.

I know so many people who have never gone to a different country.

They've just stayed in the U.

S.

And I think,

What a sad thing,

Because there are so many beautiful,

Generous,

Kind,

Loving people in the world.

And I think we lose sight of that with all the news articles and everything that we're being shown with what's going on in the world.

So I think your story is,

I mean,

It's an absolutely beautiful one.

I just feel like experiencing different viewpoints,

I don't have to agree with them.

But then I know where they're coming from.

And I think that's important with getting along,

Whether you're negotiating peace between two countries or your husband and wife trying to settle a dispute.

Just look at their viewpoint.

You know,

I'm a dating coach.

And part of what coaching is,

Helping people look at different perspectives,

Not agreeing,

But just understanding.

And I think what you're saying,

Too,

If more people could look at other perspectives to try to get a handle on what people are thinking,

We would all get along better.

That's a whole thing.

I mean,

I talked on several podcasts about walking the Camino in France and taking a route that was isolated and kind of very physically arduous.

I did not take the main route.

I decided to do one that was more isolated so I could have that kind of spiritual journey.

And it just so happened that France had the worst weather they'd had in 90 years.

And so most of the pilgrims that year quit.

But I had come so far and been planning this for so long.

I thought,

I am not quitting this.

So most days I was alone walking through this really isolated French countryside,

Covered in mud up to my knees,

By the way,

Because the weather was so miserable.

It was miserable.

And I've never felt,

You know,

Keep in mind,

I've never been to France before.

Don't really speak French.

And I've never been loved more or or hugged up or given gifts more or.

I mean,

It was just astonishing,

The love that I felt from the French people.

They took care of me in ways that were really profound.

You know,

Some some trips are really just some trips are meant to be.

Some encounters are meant to be.

And,

You know,

There's such huge gifts in our life.

But if you don't put yourself out there,

If you don't put yourself out there,

You never allow yourself to be in the position to receive those gifts.

And then,

Too,

Don't you find that you can take that experience when you're going through a tough time like maybe now and you can say,

Hey,

I persevered through all odds.

I made it through muddy France.

I can do anything.

Don't you?

You know,

Like it's like a life lesson that you can do or anyone that has gone through something like that can just pull it up again and say,

Hey,

I can do this thing.

Oh,

My gosh.

Yes.

When I moved to Santa Fe,

You know,

I knew no one.

I didn't have a job.

I just moved here because I felt like that was what I was supposed to do.

I was here for three months,

Maybe got like three sicknesses,

Including whooping cough.

And,

You know,

By the third month,

I was feeling so depressed.

And I thought,

Am I just going to end up being sick here all the time?

And I thought,

I don't know why I did this.

I have no idea why I did this.

And then,

You know,

Some time passed and I thought to myself,

Hold on,

Kirsten,

You literally walked across France by yourself,

Not speaking the language in the worst weather they'd had in 90 years.

No one does that.

If you did that and survived,

You can survive this.

So you're totally right.

I do.

I use that experience to remind myself that I can do difficult things.

Okay.

I was getting ready to board an airplane.

I was going with my mother on a nurse's trip to Ireland and our plane was in JFK.

So I'm second to board.

They're looking at our tickets.

And all of a sudden,

They evacuate the terminal in JFK.

And they kept saying,

This is not a drill.

This is not a drill.

So they kept our group sequestered from the other gates,

Which was kind of odd.

So I had been talking to the agent while I was in line and he and I chatted.

So after an hour and a half when they opened up the terminal again and he was unscrewing every cap,

Pulling out my mascara wand,

I mean,

Thorough,

Thorough security search,

I said,

Hey,

What's going on?

And I saw security guys and talks.

He said,

Intelligence report came in at the last second before we boarded.

There was a live bomb on our airplane set to go off in the middle of the Atlantic.

So I said,

Well,

Was it true?

And he said,

Yes.

And they found the live bomb.

They got it off and searched to make sure there were no other bombs.

And so you're not going to want to fly.

I know you're not going to want to fly.

But anyways,

If that intelligence report had come in any later,

I would have been blown to bits over the Atlantic.

So that's another miracle where a report came in,

Accurate one.

The people listened to it.

That's the other thing.

Took action,

Got that bomb off the airplane.

And I made it with my mother and the other nurses to Shannon.

So I do have friends.

I want to warn you that said if they ever see me on an airplane,

They will get off immediately.

I was just thinking that all of your airplanes,

It's all around airplanes.

Oh,

My God.

Now I was on a cruise ship where there was a murder.

What?

That's a whole other story.

There was a murder on the QE2,

A British ship when I was on it.

So there are people that won't ever travel with me.

And there are other ones that want to because they like adventure.

Oh,

My God.

You know,

I took the Queen Mary when I came back from England.

But I've never been on that.

It's an astonishing.

I'm like ruined forever.

It's like the only way I want to travel now.

But there was a murder on the QE2.

Right.

Were you just going?

Was it a transatlantic voyage?

No,

We had done the Mediterranean.

And what happened is a woman went missing.

And she's an avid birch player.

And people that have a game scheduled in the afternoon don't kill themselves before the game because they want to play birch.

So they knew it was a suicide.

We went into lockdown.

And everything went to the cabin,

Under the beds.

Everything was searched.

And it's a small ship.

You can search it pretty easily.

She was not on.

So it was the day before we went back.

And I got friendly with this dude on board the ship who happened to be a priest living in Rome.

And he said,

Isn't it funny that the husband wants to fly right back to Germany and says he can't miss this flight and he doesn't have time to talk to the authorities.

So six months later,

We were on the QE2 again for a Christmas cruise.

And I knew the cruise director from other cruises.

And she thought she could say something to me.

And she said the way it was done,

It was right at dawn.

So the husband had enough light to see what he was doing.

But the other passengers did not have enough light to see what he was doing.

And he pushed his wife overboard where the propellers were.

So she was chopped up immediately.

And there was no body.

Oh,

My God.

I am writing a book about all these.

I have a travel book I'm writing.

I could go on and on.

I was not kidnapped.

And I did not have to become a third wife in a Muslim country.

That's a whole other story.

Yeah,

I do have a lot of adventure in my life.

But that's what I want.

I'm maybe thinking that you might be the female example of Indiana Jones.

That's a good,

I think so.

I hadn't thought about that.

But,

Yeah,

There are a few similarities.

My philosophy is live every day to the fullest.

Because you don't know when it could be shut off.

I'm a nurse.

I was a trauma nurse at Ohio State University Hospital,

One of the top trauma centers in the country.

And very,

Very healthy people.

One got a girl in college,

A friend's foster in a pond for a joke.

And she broke her neck and was paralyzed for life.

And her neck down,

Like a cheerleader or everything going for her type of girl.

So you just don't know what's going to happen.

And so my advice to all your listeners is to live life to the utmost.

Every day.

Every day.

Thanks everyone for listening to this episode of Bite-Sized Blessings.

I need to thank my guest,

The hilarious and enchanting Wendy.

Without her,

This world would be a much more boring place.

I'd like to thank the creators of the music used in this episode.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite-Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to artists,

Books,

Changemakers,

And music I think will lift and inspire you.

I'm also going to include a link to that black Madonna in Poland.

Under this link,

On the treasures page of the website,

You'll discover all the stories,

Myths,

And legends around this fascinating icon.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Wendy.

Live life to the utmost.

Live it loudly.

Subscribe to this podcast.

No,

That's cheating.

I shouldn't have said that.

But live life loudly.

Be brave.

If you want to jump out of an airplane,

Jump out of an airplane.

Live it to the utmost,

Knowing that at the end of each day,

There are only more adventures to follow.