For eleven weeks, before restrictions were lifted and we were still supposed to be sheltered in place here in Southern California, I held a daily 30-minute live broadcast on Facebook. Each day, I chose a topic that meant something to me—and that I thought might resonate with others. These daily broadcasts were meant to thoughtfully engage and help connect people in the time of CoVID.
I’ll be honest. Initially, I had hoped the broadcasts would help me build my coaching business. In effect, I started them with hopes of gaining new clients. But that’s not what happened.
What happened was actually much more important and profound. In the second of the eleven weeks I sat daily in front of a camera, I began to sense that it was far more important to engage and connect than it was to try to convince people that I was a good coach and they may want to use my services. I discovered it was easier to talk off the cuff and informally using the range of my knowledge and ability without the pressure of wanting anything in return.
The lessons I learned in that time—by doing a bit of research on the topics I addressed—were important not just to me, but also to so many others (especially to my widowed tribe). It truly felt like I was on device—using those daily broadcasts as a meaningful way for us strangers and friends to connect with a much larger community and feel less lonely during the traumatic isolation of sheltering in place.
Some people have reached out to say how much it helped them to connect in a time when lacking contact was almost debilitating. Others have offered their appreciation in kind words and gestures.
As I covered a range of topics like love, happiness, positivity, kindness, mindsets, trauma, hope, and so many others, I was able to bring people from all over the world together. We were together for a few moments (usually not going longer than 30-minutes) each weekday for 11-weeks. It was pretty amazing as we shared thoughts and ideas, and we also shared grief and love.
My objective changed quite quickly from a desire to promote and develop my coaching practice to that of creating a sincere, and deeply gratifying, feeling of shared space. Over many weeks, I feel I was able to accomplish this. Someday, I hope that those broadcasts will help to serve more people as they find them archived on the internet.
It heartened me to share not only the challenges and difficulties I have been facing since Suzanne died, but also to share ideas around how to live a fulfilling life after such profound loss. With a degree of peace and some sadness, I decided not to continue doing the daily broadcasts. Instead, I am now thinking of doing a weekly zoom call where those who are interested in sharing their wisdom and experience can exchange ideas and help guide each other using perspectives differing from our own.
In a time of such tremendous upheaval and uncertainty—sprinkled with a dash of chaos and social unrest—I think this is an ideal time to start to create a new kind of platform that allows us to share and spread kindness. It’s the kind of thing Suzanne would have inspired me to do.
Suzanne would have encouraged me to reach out to others and to help as much as I can to help alleviate the burdens they bear, and the tribulations they might be facing as a result of their own anxieties and fears around what is happening. She would have encouraged me to spread the ideas of love and kindness as I have tried to do for these last couple of months.
In other words, I’m going to build her a new legacy of love, kindness and hope in the form of a forum where these ideas, and our feelings, can be shared honesty and openly. Where vulnerability and courage are intertwined in a community that offers an open space to share hope. It’s an ideal, but it’s time has come. Suzi would have wanted it this way…