Day 75 of the Apocalypse, Gerton, NC

I practiced being a normal human being today.

My friend and colleague Angie Mattson Stegall and I got together at the Biltmore Estate for a mastermind session to talk about business goals and projects for 2025.

I paused my business after Hurricane Helene on September 27th. My client contracts are on hold until January. I’m not sending out marketing messages or making sales right now. I am recalibrating and reorienting.

This is the longest break I’ve had from my business in over a decade.

Today was my first full day working strategically on my business in two months. It felt really lovely to think about how to best share my gifts next year.

Plus this was my first time at Biltmore since the hurricane. Part of the Estate is along the French Broad River, which surged to 31 feet above normal water height. Biltmore lost a building by the River and had plant, crop, and tree damage. The road next to the River is still closed.

There were very few people on the Estate. Christmas at Biltmore normally brings record crowds.

So many businesses in Asheville are suffering or closing. Biltmore too is feeling the impact of the hurricane.

Hurricane Helene also had a huge impact on me, and the legacy I want to leave in the world.

There will be more revealed in January, but for now, I’ll say that I’ll be drawing on my background as a minister and trauma chaplain even more in my private practice with leaders and business owners.

I have learned through living in this apocalypse that it is possible to process trauma as you are going through it.

This feels like our most important work at this time - to understand how to deal with trauma in real-time. Catastrophic events are becoming more frequent now.

We experienced both a global pandemic event and Hurricane Helene - a 30,000-year geological event - in the last four years. What else will we face in our lifetime?

We have lost the luxury of time to figure out how to prepare for catastrophe and how to recover from it.