7 Comments

"Eating well, drinking little, exercising, and maintaining meaningful relationships is hard to fit into a busy life of work, family, and competing priorities"

It’s interesting how these aspects are often the ones most overlooked by many people. Especially nowadays, with long-term goals in mind, we must recognize that we can’t handle everything. Instead, we should use the leftover time—after covering basic habits and needs—to work on creating whatever we want in the long term.

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Thanks Carilu for this timely post as my father passed away during the holidays. I was lucky to have spent the week before with him and again by his bedside when he passed. Taking the time to see my parents throughout the years while I’ve lived on the west coast and they’ve been back on the east coast has been the best decision ever. I’m thankful for the time I’ve spent with them over the years … many visits driven by an extra few days on my business travel. I’ll never regret the meeting I missed in person vs taking via a zoom to be there with them in person instead.

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Beautifully written, so touching and heartfelt. Thank you for sharing this!

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These events are opportunities to take stock and reflect on the emotions they generate. It is impossible to know how you are going to react to the death of a parent, a sibling, a friend, etc. I have found it to be constructive to act like your own observer, be in the moment, feel all that you feel, and experience these emotions to their fullest, all the while storing all these experiences away for the meta-analysis later when you have gained some distance from the discontinuity.

Having a support system along the way will amplify what you can derive from the experience as it can guide some of the grief, disbelief, anger, or sadness. And your post is another beautiful example of a support system. It provides an articulation of another human being's experience that might shed some light on unidentified or unexpressed emotions.

It is unmistakable that these experiences transform you and give you a broader base to interpret and digest the madness of the world. Thank you for sharing.

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Love this Theodore - couldn't agree more: the need to let the feels be felt, finding the support system to be with you, finding stories to give you grace and space. Thank you for this thoughtful and poetic comment.

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I love your writing and to go from business into personal so seamlessly is impressive. Thank you for writing this. Having lost my mom in February, this stretch of time has been difficult. I'm employing a lot of your advice, which helps. Finding others dealing with similar grief has also been helpful and allowed me to serve others. Wishing you an incredible 2025.

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I'm I'm so sorry to hear about your Mom. It IS helpful to connect with others. In some ways, I appreciate my loss because it has opened my heart to being a much better friend. Thanks for the kind notes on the blog. I felt like I shouldn't write it and should get back to business, but I couldn't focus on much else yesterday.

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