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I was originally going to post a link to this article in the regular Tin Shingle News Round Up blog series, but something in me felt that it deserved to be read and digested it on its own, allowing you to give it the full attention it deserves...Read through to the end, as I'd love for you to be sure to catch Meredith's message to us all which closes this post!
Sunday night, while scouring the web for articles to inspire small businesses owners and entrepreneurs for the Monday's News Round Up I came across an article about the CaringBridge blog of Meredith Israel, a 36 year old mother and executive who is fighting, and at this point dying from, Stage 4 breast cancer that has spread throughout her body. What began as my reading one journal entry turned into an hour of me reading about her three year journey, from diagnosis all the way through these last weeks she is sharing with her family. I will admit that by the second page of entries the tears were flowing.
I'm not sharing this to depress you or fill you with fears about your own health. Instead I wanted to share what I gathered from Meredith's posts (the October 14th post moved me the most) and her blog "bio", which is a message I've heard time and time again from those fighting a terminal disease. It's also a message painted onto the sign I have hanging in my own kitchen. In short: Unless It's Fatal it's No Big Deal. There you have it, short and sweet!
Every day as a small business owner is FILLED with "crisis moments" big and small. A pacakge is missing, a new business offer fell through, we have too many meetings back-to-back, the press turned our story down...I myself spent way too many life moments this week arguing with my email and web server team and by the end of it from my behavior (I'm embarassed to admit this) you'd think I was negotiating a truce between two countries and not a sever migration.
I think the universe sent me Meredith's blog as a lesson. Unless it's fatal it's no big deal! As my mother always says, you cannot strap a U-Haul to your hearse and take everything you earned with you. These things make me realize that we are so blessed and fortunate to be alive and energized and able to fight the small business fights we have! To experience the highs and lows of following our dreams! How luck are we to be putting out minor (even major) business fires, not trying to put down cancer!
Believe me, I'm not saying that what we do and our struggles are not significant, but at the end of the day, they are all things we will get through, and more than likely learn from and grow from. They aren't the life and battle Meredith and so many others are fighting.
I'll stop here and let Meredith finish this post in her own words, as I think they best summarize what I hope you take away from this post:
I've said that during this time I will learn who my friends are and that still holds true, but my advice to all...stop sweating the small stuff. It doesn't really matter. If someone burned you or breaks your heart...it sucks and you can cry and mope about it for a few days, but after facing this I have realized, don't dwell to long as they may throw a much bigger curve ball that you can't just fix by mental healing. So, when I am healthy and if I ever harp on something dumb or little...please tell me to get over it...or if you are sad and confused, think about me and the millions of other men, women and children out there that have this ugly cancer and try to put life into perspective.
Find Meredith's entire journal HERE on CaringBridge!
