Finding Fertile Ground: Stories of Grit, Resilience, and Fertile Ground
Society & Culture
Today I share my own life’s grit and resilience story, for it is my birthday. Resilience is my life’s motto, and that’s the reason for this podcast subtitle. Read more here.
It’s also one of my superpowers and one day, when the pandemic finally ends, it will be my next tattoo.
It started when I was born. My mom had German measles when she was pregnant, and I was born with a cleft lip, cleft palate, and club foot. My childhood was full of doctor visits and surgeries.
I was the victim of bullying in junior high. Then I experienced a deeply traumatic event at age 13 when I was sexually assaulted.
After graduating from college, I wanted an adventure. I applied for a job in Japan and told myself, “If I get hired, I’m going.”
Best of all about Japan was meeting my husband Mike. After leaving Japan, we embarked on a three-month journey through Asia. And in the exotic city of Udaipur, Mike asked me to marry him.
Mike wanted to be a writer, so I told him I’d support him for a year. I realized I liked going out to work, and Mike liked staying home...a true extrovert and introvert. Our marriage has only grown stronger through the storms we have faced together.
My life changed completely when I gave birth to my first child at just 24 weeks.
Listen to the podcast to learn the details of his premature birth, 117 difficult days in the NICU, and the most terrifying moments. I still have some trauma about our NICU experience, evident because I got emotional as I was telling this story on the podcast!
Even though I would never wish the NICU experience on ANYONE, through the experience we learned to value life and miracles and we also made some of the best friends of our lives in other NICU parents. We were invited to join the hospital’s NICU Family Advisory Board to advise the NICU on how to be more family centered. In 2000, we cofounded a nonprofit, Precious Beginnings: Parents Supporting Parents of Critically Ill Newborns.
I never found it easy to get pregnant or stay pregnant, even though I liked being pregnant. I experienced four miscarriages before we had another son, Kieran. Then we were shocked to discover I was pregnant at age 41. I tell all three of our boys that each one of them was a miracle.
In 2012, I discovered that I had a rare ear tumor called a cholesteatoma. Over the next 5 years I had to have four ear surgeries, one of those also being a brain surgery. Ear surgeries are incredibly painful to recover from, and the brain surgery was the worst. On the podcast I share how I discovered my natural resilience.
I share on the podcast what happened and how I started Fertile Ground Communications. I wanted to create a company where I could find my fertile ground, after working in toxic work environments.
We know that sharing our vulnerability strengthens our resilience. And sharing our flaws and foibles helps us to show up as our true selves. That's what I tried to do in this episode.
I’m building the kind of company I’ve always wanted to work for, centered in strong values of justice, respect, and authenticity.
I ended this episode with a message to all who have endured difficult journeys in their own lives.
Hearing my own resilience story will help you understand why I am so fascinated by grit and resilience stories! If you have a grit and resilience story you’d like to share, please drop me a line!
Next week I interview my friend April Brenden-Locke and Miguel Ochoa Castellanos about a wonderful school in Chiapas, Mexico, called Hogar Infantil. They will share how Hogar Infantil changed both of their lives.
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