Episode Details

Diana Frazier - Entrepreneur, mother, story teller, musician, worship leader

We start by checking in with Diana and how she is doing during this time of shelter in place.

She says it’s been crazy.  As she tells her kids let’s “taking one day at a time,” and she takes her own advice by waking up and thinking only of today.

Diana’s business - Poulsbo Elderberry - is the busiest it’s ever been in the year and half that she’s owned it. This comes during a time when she now has her four children at home with her and her husband still working. She says is overwhelming, “How do I keep producing and keep up with the ever increasing demand while also being a mom some how?”

When things first starting amping up she was so busy that one day she realized she hadn’t gone to the bathroom in over six hours. It was because she was working, not stopping to eat or  even to go to the bathroom all the while her “house was exploding around her” with kids running around.

We asked her why is her business booming so much? She started Poulsbo Elderberry back in 2018. It’s a pre-made Elderberry syrup with herbs that used as an antiviral immune support. Diana said even just 5 years ago people didn’t really even know about Elderberry. The added herbs like echinacea, hibiscus, ginger and other things that help boost the immune system. It’s been growing in popularity since 2018 but with the Coronavirus she says that even people who “wouldn’t believe in that stuff” are even thinking they should try it.

Winter cold and flu season is usually her busy time of year of but she has seen her business increase by 500%!! Which is insane. She said it really would be more but she actually runs out and can not meet the demand! Like a lot of businesses right now she is stuck waiting on the supply chain. Diana always tries to buy locally and support other business in the Seattle area but when the Coronavirus hit it was sudden and hard she found herself unable to get the bottles she used and even some of the herbs. She has to order from 7 or 8 places and hope that one of them will be able to fulfill her order and actually show up.

It’s said all over media that this is “unprecedented,” we are living in a time when nothing like this has ever happened. It reminds Danielle about trauma and how it has all these tentacles reaching so many different parts.

Diana reiterates that trauma is a place of powerlessness and right now none of us have control over what’s happening or will happen. She said she can feel like she is in control by placing orders to her suppliers, but she doesn’t have any control over whether they will be filled.

She and her husband have a long history of significant medical trauma and so to experience COVID-19 right now she is coming from a perspective of “I’ve already sat vigil while he was dying three times…. I don’t want to do that again.”  She finds her herself busy with work and wondering if she is busy because she doesn’t want to think about or experience the trauma they are in. Everything is amplified for a lot of people because of trauma that we carry with us.

The fact that this is a medical trauma feels very personal for her.

There is this sense of triggering; we’ve done this before, while also having nuances that are different and how our responses can be different. Most of the time when someone is triggered they are having feelings from the past come up in the present but their present self is actually safe. Diana says what we’re experiencing now is a trigger but with a real sense of danger to our present self.

Danielle said many people are struggling to just validate their reality. There’s this attack against our reality. “In this moment I may be safe, but I don’t know.” That is legitimate fear.  COVID lives in the air for three hours so the air we breathe could be toxic even when there is no one around. So ev