An Excerpt from Chapter One of Flashes of Light: How to reboot your life, your business or both when chaos strikes by Ann M. Babiarz, as told to Michael A. Babiarz
Creative Consultant: K. Lee — Editor: Annamaria Farbizio
©2015 by Ann M. Babiarz and Michael A. Babiarz, J.D., all rights reserved (see notice below)
Chapter 1: In the Beginning (part 4)
Don’t get sick or you will go broke.
Those words, or some version of them, were burned into my brain from an early age. Whether from well-meaning family members, my own observations about the world around me, or some form of educational indoctrination, this belief rooted itself deep within my soul. A serious or chronic illness is a profound threat that can derail the best laid plans of any man (or woman).
My husband and I began splitting our time between Florida and Illinois in 2011. Our goal was permanent relocation to the Naples area, which we finalized in due time. This was a bold stroke (no pun intended!), and I am sure that many of our friends and family thought we were a bit nuts. My husband was an estate planning attorney with a successful private practice of many years. He made plans to transition his business to a successor, and then to retire from the law. Our dream was both of us working together, building my coaching business to new heights, while making our home in paradise.
After a few hits and misses, and a lot of long hours, the train was on the track and things were rolling along. The month before my emergency room visit for garbled speech tallied the highest gross revenue my business had ever achieved.
And I was on a high in my personal life as well. My daughter Britanni had recently married Dustin and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Shaylynn. My relationship with my daughter, rocky at times in the past, was never better, and the love and warmth I enjoyed with her, Dustin and my new granddaughter was truly divine. I had a great marriage, solid ties with my mom and all my siblings, as well as extended family and friends too numerous to even count. I felt blessed.
The week immediately preceding my ER jaunt, my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter traveled from their home in Illinois to stay with us for a lengthy visit. We had a great time relaxing, playing, and enjoying each other’s company. One of the highlights was the local children’s museum, which had tons of interactive exhibits for kids from toddler to twelve. Judging from the fun Dustin and Michael had, the stuff entertained adult “children” of any age. Watching them poke around the various venues within the museum made me realize that the term “adult male” may indeed be an oxymoron.
Not all was rainbows and lollipops during that week however. One of our trips was to the zoo, where we walked the paths between the various animal enclosures. Over the past several weeks I experienced what I believed to be plantar fasciitis in both of my feet and legs. The pain seemed especially acute during the visit to the zoo, as I struggled to keep up with the others. This from a woman who worked out regularly, and in the past thought nothing of teaching five or six aerobics classes a day.
It was not plantar fasciitis, but rather an ominous foreshadowing of things yet to come.
Read more of Chapter One in our next posting — blog posts entered Mondays and Thursdays. For information on the book, please visit: Flashes of Light.
©2015 by Ann M. Babiarz and Michael A. Babiarz, J.D., all rights reserved
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