Hello there! I'm so happy you're here. I started writing this blog over a year ago, and I was very consistent, posting once a week. Then, my world kind of flipped upside down in the fall of 2023, and I stopped. It's been something that's been in the back of my mind for many weeks, and it keeps resurfacing. I keep thinking, "What will I write? What will be the first blog post after the fall of 2023?" And here I am this morning, sitting at my desk in my brand new renovated home office, ready. I'm ready to tell the story of why my blog has been on the back burner for so long.
Looking back, my last blog post was on September 10th, 2023. Now, this was a repost of an original blog from June of 2023. Before that, I had posted on September 3rd. September 3rd was fun; it was a back-to-school post about the fun in the Kinlin house. We were spanning the school system with Libby in grade 4, Charlie in grade 11, Frank going into his second year of college, and myself going into my final semester at university. So, as you can see, it was a fun and busy time.
Then, on September 11th, the fall happened. On September 11th, my younger brother had life-saving surgery. Nine days later, which is important because we are the "Zettel 9," my older brother Jon died from stomach cancer. The night he died, I slept on the cold hospital floor so I could be close to my younger brother. It was a terrible time for our family. I am so grateful to my husband Steve for taking care of our kids and our household while I tended to my siblings.
When my brother Jon was dying, he told me, "Don't you dare quit your job, you're going to get a package." One month after his death, my position was eliminated from the company. Jon was right, but I had been through a horrible time with my younger brother, a horrible time with my brother Jon, and now I just lost my job. That's why I will call it the Fall of 2023. But the loss of my job meant that finally I could live out my dream to be a world-renowned speaker, coach, and educator. It was a time of tremendous sorrow and joy. It was the time when I learned you could feel both, and thank God you can feel both because, in all that sorrow, you need joy. You need to know there are brighter days ahead.
So, I spent the rest of 2023 resting. I gave myself all the grace in the world. The excitement for going all in on my business was building, but I knew I needed to rest. Fast forward from January to April, I've been working away building my business. I've spoken at 15 live events to audiences of over 1,000 in total. I'm on my way to a goal of inspiring 10,000 people to live their best damn lives. Because if the fall of 2023 taught me anything, it's that life is short, and we can't spend it doing things we don't want to do. We have to be our own best friend. We have to take care of ourselves first, put our needs first, spend time doing what we want to be doing, and we have to live our best damn lives.
Wow, I did it. I wrote my first blog post since the death of my brother Jon. I'm so grateful for him. He was a professional writer, he was a philosopher, he was an amazing dad, husband, and brother. He was my brother. I will continue writing in his honor, and I'm so grateful to post this blog.
I want to tell you what helped me with the grief. I worked with an amazing grief recovery specialist; her name is Tammy Adams. Reach out to her if you're feeling any kind of grief—grief from any type of loss, divorce, loss of a job, loss of a family member, whatever it is. Even if you've just found out a family member has cancer, reach out to Tammy. She will be kind and gentle and create a safe space for you to process your grief.
Okay, I hope this is the start of something good. I hope you see me back here next week. Have an amazing day.
Note: I wrote this blog on April 23, 2024. After writing it, I went back and saw that my first-ever blog was posted on April 24, 2023. How special is that? The Universe gives us so many signs that we are right where we are supposed to be.❤️