Heroes and Helpers #1 - Faith, Hope, and Love with Eddie Garcia

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Everyday Heroes and Helpers.

A new series on the Courageous Life Podcast that has been a dream  since we first launched back in 2018.

Part of the mission of the show has always been to share inspiring stories of everyday heroes. 

Ordinary people like our neighbors, friends, colleagues, and members of our communities who find the courage to rise up and meet challenges, and adversity. 

Ordinary people who are navigating the messy middle parts of life with hope, love, and resilience.

Ordinary people who are doing extraordinary and yet innately human things. 

Today and going forward this series will be showcasing these powerfully moving stories in a dedicated way. 

And I  couldn’t be more excited. 

In crafting this series my longtime collaborator, friend, and executive producer Matthew Donner and I took a lot of inspiration from the work of Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey.

In the hero's journey, the hero or heroine is called to adventure, often in the form of a quest, a challenge, or an adversity.

What's interesting is that shortly after the call, a helper enters the picture. 

This may be a mentor, sage, or guide who helps the hero to navigate the adventure, as they strengthen themselves and ultimately transform in ways that allow them to meet their life from a wiser, more skillful, and often more responsive (vs. reactive) place. 

As we looked at this arc of the hero's journey I couldn’t help but think the series would be incomplete if we didn’t include episodes featuring helpers. 

So today we are embarking on a new adventure as we will be sharing conversations featuring inspiring stories from everyday heroes and the helpers who walk beside them. 

We’re kicking things off with our first everyday hero, Eddie Garcia.

Eddie is a heart attack and heart transplant survivor.

In 2010, a massive blockage in an artery referred to as the “widow maker” led to a decade of living with congestive heart failure.

A successful heart transplant in 2020 inspired him to tell his story in his beautiful memoir: Summer in the Waiting Room: Faith, Hope, and Love.

During our conversation Eddie will share more about his own journey, and how he navigated the immense challenges that arose with faith, hope, love, and community,

He’ll also talk about personal transformation, growth, and how he is meeting his life now.

If you want to find out more about Eddie pick up a copy of his book wherever books are sold, and check out his blog ESEReport.com, where he writes about his experiences as a working-class kid, public servant, corporate executive, and heart attack survivor. 

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