While we have all that exciting news, I have also had some hard personal things occur.
My Grandma died in April and, due to Covid-19, I couldn’t get to her funeral. That being said, she had a long life; she was 105 when she died. Just imagine what she saw in her lifetime!!!!
I thought with that and all the uncertainty this year has been generous enough to offer for me to learn patience and flexibility, nothing more could happen…. Well how wrong was I!!!
On June 21st my brother died by suicide. I know that I know lots of people die by suicide and in my line of work I have known quite a few. I am realistic that no matter how good we are in supporting people, there will be times that people choose to take their life.
That being said, when I got that middle of the night call, I could not breathe, I just shook. I had been talking a lot with him since March 1st. We had talked everyday until the last few weeks. At that point, he had moved, and we started talking every few days. I knew he was dealing with having lost his job, not being able to find a new job in this environment and I knew he was struggling with his perceived ability to be the “man”, be the “bread winner”.
We talked about resources that might support him; many different options. I even asked him about training with us and then contracting with us; sharing with other executives about his story and how he was dealing with it.
Truth be told, I even asked him if he had considered suicide. He said yes but that he wasn’t going to and we had a long chat about my attempts, and how I got through those feelings these days.
My brother was my best friend growing up, and he was my buddy when we were older. I got advice from him, he chatted with me. Yes we butted heads and sometimes didn’t talk, other times we spoke everyday for years; just depended on what was going on in life at that time. No matter what, he was my mate and I loved him beyond belief.
Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 and other things, I wasn’t able to attend his funeral either in person or virtually. That was so distressing for me. So for my sanity I decided to do a Facebook live feed at the exact time of his funeral.
That was, for me, about us saying let’s start talking more about The “S” word…. Shhhh suicide! Let’s be open and honest with each other, let’s be passionately curious and if it occurs in our families, let's talk about it. If we can open the conversation up more and be real – maybe we have a shot about changing the statistics.
But let's be real, it's not about statistics, it’s about human beings and their lives and being there in ways that allow people to truly start to share how they feel.
- I have always been committed to making a difference in the lives of others.
- I have always believed in supporting people to see themselves as more than they see themselves to be, to Live Their Truth.
- Now I am even more committed to reaching out to all and saying we are here.
- We, I mean, fellow human beings.
- I want to reach out to all of humanity to say let’s talk about this topic, no longer hide with fear, shame, guilt.
Are you with me? If you are then reach out and let’s put more thoughts as to how we can do this. I have ideas and I want the collective ideas.
Robyn
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