Apr 16, 2019
At the
age of eight, Mary Bell Cassle's father handed her a carburetor and
it's schematic and said, "Put this back together." And she
did. Now Mary finds herself in her second semester of the
Automotive program at Copper Mountain College, with the goal of
adding to the female ranks of the automotive industry.
Mary was twelve when her mother
passed away and her life didn't stabilize until a few years later
when she was adopted by last week's guest Annelise Kuiper.
At the age of 18, Mary graduated high
school and immediately joined the Army, but was discharged nine
months later having sustained a knee injury during basic training.
After months of therapy, the Army deemed Mary's injury a
pre-existing condition, eliminating her eligibility for continued
benefits.
Mary was looking for work and met
someone who was a truck driver - driving a truck sounded like great
work. The relationship eventually became romantic and within five
years, Mary found herself a mother to four children and in an
emotionally and physically abusive situation. In this
episode, Mary courageously shares her struggle
through this period in her life sharing that after 16 years she
finally got back to the desert to heal.
Living in the desert with an amazing
night sky, astronomy plays a big part in Mary's life. She
collaborates with her adoptive mother, Annelies, on a weekly
neighborhood column in the local newspaper. Mary's portion of the
column directs our attention to the upcoming happenings in the
night and early morning skies over our desert and says, "The way I
look at it is, as big as the Universe is, there's got to be
somebody out there besides us and I want be the first one to find
them or see them or talk to them at least."
We also talk about meditation and the
benefits of quieting down to listen to our own thoughts, coming
full circle to the notion of treating ourselves with the same
concern, caring and compassion we have for others.