Note from LauraJo: This is Part 2 of an introduction I recorded back in May 2026.
In Part 1, I shared a little about my family, my career, and what led me to begin rediscovering myself at 58.
In this second part, I share more about the unexpected turns my life has taken, including losing my husband, Don, and what has been stirring within me as I’ve begun imagining a different kind of next chapter.
As I mentioned in Part 1, quite a bit has changed since I recorded this. But these reflections are part of the story of how SheAwakens began, and I want to share them as they unfolded.
Morning Reflections with LauraJo | Episode 04 - Part 2 of 2
Welcome to Part 2 of this longer-than-normal episode about me.
And if you missed Part 1, I know you’ll definitely want to go back and listen to it, especially if Part 2 feels incomplete.
As life has occurred over these last five years, my husband, Don, who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2017, was stage four in 2020 during COVID, when he had to go in and have a liver resection.
Then, in November 2024, the tumors were growing on his liver again. He ended up in the hospital very jaundiced because the tumors were putting pressure on his bile ducts, and his liver wasn’t functioning properly. He needed to have some stents placed.
That was a palliative care procedure that had to be repeated every eight weeks.
So we knew in November 2024 that he would pass at some point in 2025.
And that was a very dramatic shift from having his cancer diagnosis in 2017. He almost died from his first chemo treatment, which is another story.
My oldest daughter was surprised that we had not had these deep conversations about his passing. And I know for me, I didn’t want to have those conversations. I didn’t want to bring his passing about any faster than it was already going to occur.
We look back over those years from 2017 to 2025, and he was here for the birth of six grandchildren. Three boys who, at the time of his passing, were pretty much eight, six, and four.
And he was here for the first birthday of the triplets in March of 2025.
Those triplets brought us so much joy. And in the dark, they were a light.
I laughingly told my youngest daughter, who is the parent of these three kids, that it couldn’t have just been one baby to offset the sorrow. It took three!
And so, yeah, what a blessing. They were in our life and continue to be in my life. The joy they bring is just so beautiful.
So when they say joy and sorrow can coexist, that is truth.
But my husband did pass away in May of 2025, and one of my recent posts/recording was some reflections about the last year and my personal growth after his passing—Peace Is Not the Absence of Grief.
I’ll mention again here this visual image of his passing that came to me, and it has been, I think the right word is, such a solace for my heart.
The image is of us walking, holding hands, down this road. And then, at this point, our paths diverged.
There’s nothing right, wrong, good, or bad. It was just that our paths diverged.
And I love the thought that at some point in the future, our paths will come back together again.
But I don’t know.
He is on his path. He is on his new adventure as I continue on my own adventure in a way that I did not expect to be living this part of my life.
That image has been such a blessing for me. I don’t know where it came from, but it’s the image in my mind and in my heart, and it really does give me comfort.
So here I am, standing in a very different chapter than I anticipated at this point.
Not broken, not destroyed, and not lost.
Instead, I feel very much awake. Reflective, as you can probably tell. And this whole thing is about reflection and rebuilding a life with intention and leaning into living in the unknown.
I think we, and I want to say all humans, just want this step-by-step guide.
You know, hey, you want a good life? Here’s the things you need to do. Ba bum, ba bum, ba bum, ba bum.
But that’s not the case.
I remember Brian Tracy sharing a thought with my husband and me when we went to dinner with him one time years ago.
He talked about standing at the end of a hall and looking at the door at the other end. And we’re headed down this hall toward that door because it’s the only thing we can see.
As we’re on this path, headed toward this door, as our perspective changes, as we’re moving forward, all of a sudden, over here on the left, oh, there’s a door!
And over here on the right, there’s this hallway to another place.
And oh, here are these other doors and halls that we couldn’t see from the other end.
But once we got moving in a direction, we could now see these other opportunities, these other experiences.
And that had such a great impact on me.
It’s what is meant when they say you can’t steer a parked car, or you’ve got to take the mooring lines off the boat and start going, because you can’t make change and discover new things if you’re just standing still.
And I think what’s coming to mind—you’ll learn this about me—I’m not really good at remembering phrases and stuff.
It’s so funny because I always remember what the words start with or what the initials of the person are, but I can’t remember the rest.
But I’m working on that.
And so they say...
Oh, now I just lost my train of thought!
Oh well, isn’t it nice that I don’t edit these?
Anyway, I have found myself learning to live in the unknown and really leaning into trusting that I’ll know what the next right step to take is.
I’ve got my house on the market. I don’t know when it will sell. I don’t know where I’m moving to. I have a general idea, but all of it is the unknown.
But I go back and look at how we found this wonderful home that I live in, that we’ve lived in since 2014.
It was a dot-to-dot.
I could not have gone from where we were to this house in that way. It was this whole dot-to-dot series of events that I totally followed my intuition on.
From the moment I was sitting at my desk in January 2014, and this thought came to mind: “You need to move in nine months.”
Really?
The words were so clear. And so I knew we needed to move in nine months.
And that’s another podcast episode. I’m not going to go there now, but that’s a really cool story.
All of this comes down to me exploring ideas, finding clarity through movement.
And I don’t just mean physical movement, but taking action.
Which is kind of funny. My word this year is “Execute.”
And it’s execute in the way of stop thinking about it and go start doing it!
You’ve got ideas. You have things you want to do. You have a community you want to build with women having these deeper conversations.
I have a really cool name for it, but I need to execute on it.
I need to put myself out there. I need to connect with other women who are seeking this same experience of community, deep conversation, showing up authentically.
But back to what I believe now.
We don’t have to already know stuff, right?
I think that the becoming is ongoing. We don’t ever get there. We continue to grow and evolve and learn new things, have new awarenesses.
And being in the in-between isn’t a failure, but it can often be dark and lonely.
And I really feel that women need spaces to exhale. To let the breath out. To just relax and be themselves.
After Don passed, just a couple of weeks ago, I heard somebody say that in grief, it’s not that we just miss the person, but that we miss who we were when we were with that person.
And that has sat with me because I could be truly myself with Don.
And I miss that.
Because, you know, I could truly be myself with him.
And I believe that women need spaces to be themselves. To not be performative, to not be doing, to be honest, and to feel safe.
We’re not meant to do this transition alone.
But I also believe that we need to surround ourselves with the right people, with the right energy.
And a lot of times that doesn’t happen with the people who are currently in our lives, who are worried about us, who have sincere concerns, who are judging us.
And so this, I believe, is my actual soapbox and my mission.
And really, I’m going to end with that because I’ve got a lot more to say, but now isn’t the time to say it.
That’s a little bit about LauraJo.
I’m looking forward to offering Reflection Sessions, one-on-one with other women, and starting to meet these incredible women who have found themselves with these same yearnings, these same stirrings happening within themselves, who want to be a part of my next adventure.
So, as I usually end my recordings:
What’s stirring in you today?
What heartfelt yearning is happening?
Maybe what part of your life no longer fits?
And what conversations might change everything if you could finally talk about what’s happening within?
You could finally put those feelings into words and put them out there to hear for yourself.
How powerful could that be for you?
And what would shift if you stopped waiting to have it all figured out? To have the full plan in place before taking the next step?
So when I say Reflection Sessions, it’s not about me reflecting back to you.
I guess it kind of is.
But it’s me, the Permission Giver, allowing you to share honestly with yourself. To add to your own personal awareness, to allow you to have your own personal aha.
So think about that.
Maybe slow down enough to acknowledge that there is something niggling within.
Because I’m almost positive, with the shifts that are coming in our world—and I mean energy shifts—each one of us has a purpose. And each one of us has so much power within ourselves that it’s time for us to wake up.
We have so much to give.
And that’s where SheAwakens comes from. I felt like I was asleep, and I put myself on this path where I have become awakened within.
And I want my next step to be to shine. To share and to shine to others.
What is it? The Marianne Williamson quote about when we hide our light, the fear we have of putting ourselves out there and shining bright.
But that is what the world needs from us. And more importantly, it’s what our soul needs us to do—to shine. Not to hide and close ourselves off, or be in denial, or make it about us.
Well, it is about us!
It’s more important about what we bring to the conversation.
I have my areas that I think about, and I have my perspectives. But when I’m with other women who bring their perspectives and their life experiences, we make powerful conversations.
And I have been in rooms where I’ve brought three or four women together, and I get the conversation started. And then I get to, for the most part, sit back and watch them teach and coach each other.
No one being further ahead or the guru of anything. It’s more of life experience, thoughts, training.
It’s just so beautiful, and that’s what I’m looking to create.
So anyway, you can be checking out here.
I will be posting a link soon to offer Reflection Sessions—90 minutes to sit with me and talk about “What’s Next.”
I’m not a coach, and I’m not going to coach you. I’m on this path, and I hope to be a guide. And I’m not giving myself a title because I’m not a guru.
Like I said, I kind of call myself The Permission Giver.
My mom was my permission giver.
I would express thoughts to her that I never knew I was really thinking. And she would just say, “So why don’t you do that?”
And it was like, yeah, why don’t I?
And she was my permission giver. Such a blessing in my life. I miss her often.
And so, yeah.
With that, I’m going to sign off. Make it a great day.
Find the good things. Find the joy. Find the things that are going right in your life. Find the things to be grateful for.
Because in sorrow, there is joy.
And we have it. We have so much.
So anyway, thanks for listening. If you got to the end, thank you!
Make it a great day.
Thank you for spending a few minutes of your day here with me. I value that time, and I hope you found something to connect with in my words.