4 minute read
Thoughts from the Editor
Thoughts from the Editor
This past month, I've learned a lot from my kids about how to grieve when life changes.
For the past year, my wife has mentored a group of young adults interning at our church. Some of these kids have become like family to us. They’ve spent hours at our house, eating with us, swimming, playing games, sharing their stories. Over time, we grew to know and love each other. So, as their year-long internships ended in May and the time came for them to pack up and move back to Tennessee and Missouri, we faced the loss of some very dear, special people.
As we hosted going-away parties and shared our final meals together, I was confronted again with the fact that losing things you love is terribly hard. Seeing this loss through the eyes of my kids also shed some light on my past few months.
Since April, the team here at Topograph/Lifestyle Magazine has been experiencing similar feelings of grief and loss.
For those who don’t know, Topograph and Lifestyle Magazine are part of a larger family of local companies, with 4Creeks and 4CG Construction being the largest and most recognized. As our companies have grown, dedicated marketing support needs grew, too. So, in April, we made the difficult decision to wind down the external marketing services of Topograph by the end of July, in order to refocus our efforts on the growth of our core services in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries.
This decision was made after many challenging conversations, tears, and disappointment. No matter the phase or size of the business, it’s tough to draw things to a close, especially when you love what you’re doing and taste some success. Compounding this difficulty is its impact on our employees, clients, and the communities we serve.
So, as I watched my kids weep saying goodbye to their recently “adopted brother and sister” I realized I needed to grieve some of the change I’m facing.
Losing things you care deeply about is really hard.
I'm bad at grieving.
I hate when a dream ends.
I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
During the past few weeks I've watched my son bravely confront his sadness and disappointment. Through my wife's gentle admonishment, he learned “it's okay to feel sad; it means you loved really well.” She encouraged him, “You don't need to hide when you feel sad. When you love someone, it can be really hard to say goodbye, but it's right.”
Like my son, I hate feeling sad. I want to hide when I’m upset or disappointed. I don't like saying goodbye, but it’s right to.
This will be my last letter as the Editor of Lifestyle Magazine, so I want to say goodbye. Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for encouraging me and our entire team during this venture. I have loved the past three years of serving and caring for our community through Lifestyle Magazine. It has been an incredible honor to have people stop me in town to say how much they appreciate Lifestyle or to have local businesses share stories of how an article or advertisement has helped their business grow.
It’s been worth the struggle and challenge and I'll miss all of it.
As we wind down Topograph this month, our hope is that Lifestyle will go on and continue to serve this community through the leadership and care of a new owner. Lifestyle has become a staple publication in our community for the past 20 years, and we would love for someone with like-minded values and a passion for Tulare County to carry on the legacy. Please reach out to me to help Lifestyle continue to flourish.
