Lola's Legacy: Balance and Resilience for Business Owners

Losing a beloved companion is never easy. In this heartfelt episode of The Water Trough, I share personal reflections on grief and moving forward. Hear how it can inspire your own journey. #Grief #Podcast #Inspiration 

Transcript

Ed Drozda: 0:10

Welcome to The Water Trough where we can't make you drink, but we will make you think. My name is Ed Drozda The Small Business Doctor, and I'm really excited you chose to join me here as we discuss topics that are important for small business folks just like you. If you're looking for ideas, inspiration, and possibility, you've come to the right place. Join us as we take steps to help you create the healthy business that you've all. Always wanted. Folks, this is Ed Drozda The Small Business Doctor. I wanna welcome you back to The Water Trough. Over this weekend we experienced the loss of our beloved parakeet, Lola. For the past 12 plus years, Lola has been lighting up our lives as well as the lives of everyone that meets her or sees her social media posts or whatever. It's just, she's everywhere, and she's very well loved. Unfortunately today, I'm without my little companion. She would often accompany me when I do my episodes here with or without a guest. And, um, her absence is felt tremendously. I know perhaps you think, geez, a parakeet 45 grams. Um, it doesn't sound like a lot, but the littlest of beings can have the greatest, most profound impact on our lives, as she did on my life, and Debbie's my wife's and everyone again that met her. I don't want to, um, spend this episode dwelling on the loss of Lola, although I admit I can't get myself out of the head space that I'm in. But I do realize there are some lessons and inspiration that can come from her passing that I thought would be worthwhile for you to hear as well. Each and every one of us has experienced loss in our lives, and each and every one of us will experience loss yet again. Sometimes that loss will be paralyzing. Sometimes that loss will be stunning, but we'll be able to move on with comfort. But in any case, in the instant moment, loss can put us in a position where we are at the very least distracted. Um. Maybe more vulnerable and uh, certainly less able to clearly, uh, execute the things that we need to do in our daily business lives. Naturally, we can't hide behind the loss of a loved one and use that as an excuse to fail. We can't use that as an excuse to not make an effort. We have to first, I believe, first and foremost, embrace the joy and the beauty of what we have experienced with this being, and we have to recognize that sadly, death is part of living and that it's meant to be. The question for me and the source of my belief there's some inspiration to have from this experience is then what do I do and how do I get myself back on track? And I know this, there is simply no value whatsoever in trying to mask the pain that I'm feeling right now. It can't be, um, taken away. It can't be ignored. I can't simply say that it takes time either. I need to openly and firmly embrace the fact of just how much this really does hurt me. It hurts me beyond my ability to comprehend. In so doing, by embracing that, I'm hoping to find that I can be at peace with the fact that I am human, that these emotions are completely appropriate and that they are, that this is the right way to feel, the right way to be. Wherever possible and to the extent possible it's really important, I believe to rely upon those that can support us in times like this. I'm not, and I have not, I do not openly ask people for support. I merely let them know that I'm grieving and accept what comes my way from them, be it condolences, offers for assistance, that quite frankly, I'll probably never take or pursue. Whatever it might be. By first embracing these emotions, and secondly, allowing people to be there for me are parts of the healing process that I believe are important. It'd be easy to just kind of curl up in a ball, sob until I had no tears left and um, and then exhausted, maybe fall asleep, wake up and start the whole routine all over again. And in some measure I do find myself doing things like that, but it's also important not to lose sight of that well-known fact that life does go on. And again, you might be thinking a parakeet, how can this guy be so devastated like this? Let me merely say that Lola is our youngest child. Firmly, intricately, and intimately woven into the fabric of our lives. Her death has taken our breath away, but we have to be able to breathe. We have to be able to go forward. We have to recognize that we can't undo what happened. We can't change what occurred. It is what it is. So my hope for you from this episode, this conversation, is that you'll find peace in your own situations where a loss has occurred. I hope you'll find that it is not expected to be easy, but that it's okay to hurt. It's okay to grieve. It's okay to take the time you need to take to get to where you need to go. To walk away from your business activities, your personal and your life responsibilities is not a viable option, but there certainly is a degree, there certainly is a period of time perhaps where a little bit of that is needed. I wish you well and I want to thank you for listening to me because this time it's more personal than, well, it's always personal, but this is personal in a whole new way. This is Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor. I wanna wish you peace of mind. I wanna wish you always, a healthy business. Thank you.