Danielle Rosellison
CEO
Trail Blazin’ Productions
Bellingham, WA
The media wants you to think that a new year brings new opportunities and a fresh start. And we all buy into it, planning and manifesting the best.
What a load of hogwash.
On January 4, our family was skiing like we do every weekend in the winter. It is our way of leaving work behind us and spending the day in nature with our family. No phones. No screens. No distractions. To us, it’s church.
In our 18-year relationship, I can count on one hand how many times my husband, who is also my best friend, has fallen. But as we were skiing a run we’ve done more times than I can remember, he caught a lip and couldn’t eject out of his ski. He spiral-fractured his tibia, which means he has rods and screws in his leg and we should now carry a laminated picture of his X-ray in our passports.
I have a lot of empathy, but if one more person asks me, “How is Juddy?” I’m going to scream. How is he doing?!? How is HE doing? He’s substantially drugged, lying on the couch with his leg up, watching TV and napping. What about me? I’ve got to run all our businesses without my business partner, take care of our littles and nurse him to health. And of course, it’s his driving leg, so he lovingly jokes I’ve been upgraded from secretary to chauffeur. #funnynotfunny
The first thing I did was make sure to explain to our team at Trail Blazin’ that while I have been accused of being too direct in my communication style, they can expect my directness to exponentially increase for the foreseeable future. It doesn’t come from a place of “meanness” but rather bandwidth; I simply don’t have the capacity to “smart words” whatever comes out of my mouth. I made sure to communicate in writing that if the team needs me, email is the best way to get a hold of me so that I could process their request and respond appropriately. Plus, fair warning, if they stop me in the hallway, they better be short and sweet and expect the same from me. It was full survival mode.
But it didn’t end there.
On January 24, I planned to take a day for myself complete with a workout and a massage, which as a business owner, is monumental in itself to schedule. But The Universe had other plans for me. After clearing my schedule for the day, the massage was double-booked and the therapist canceled. Then, 15 minutes before my workout, my son got a head injury at school that was serious enough for me to go and get him so he could be monitored. Got it, Universe: You don’t really want me to take care of myself; you just wanted to see if I would try.
I’m not done.
On February 6 at 1:47 a.m., the security company called to let us know that an alarm was triggered. This is not the first time it’s happened, but this time felt different than the others.
My husband looked at me longingly.
“Do you need me to go and check it out?” I asked.
“Yup,” he morosely responded.
“And what, pray tell me, am I supposed to do when I get there?”
I mean seriously … what if we were robbed? What if we’re still being robbed? What am I going to do? Yell and shake my finger at them in my nightie? I put on clothes, but within minutes of being notified, our least favorite option materialized. Trail Blazin’ Productions was robbed.
I’m a silver lining kind of gal, so I am convinced it was really the best of a bad situation.
No one was hurt, and now reanalyzing our security has been moved up our priority list. I would consider that a win. I am also super thankful that our farm isn’t at our home, with our family sleeping next door.
We’ve known since we applied for our license that it wasn’t a matter of “if” but “when.” Everyone we know has been robbed, some multiple times in a week. Heck, there is a super scary video online of a store robbed in Washington, the same week, during work hours, at gun point.
Until cannabis is legalized on a national level and banking is an option at the retail level, we will continue to see heightened theft since the rewards appear to outweigh the risk.
I realize this may sound a little “woe is me” but that’s not my intent. With the injury, I am reminded of our fabulous support structure. With the robbery, I am thankful that safety has always been our first priority at work and, regardless of what you do to make yourself a hard target, theft is going to happen. And finally, I will continue to take care of myself because if I don’t, no one will.
I am more convinced than ever that no matter what The Universe throws as us, we will double down on kindness, gratitude and grace.