What My Grandpa Taught Me About Living Fully

[00:00:00] jamie–she-her-_1_04-29-2025_154854: Welcome back to the podcast. I am so happy to have you here. Today’s episode I would like to dedicate to my amazing grandpa, Mike Dola, who I am. So grateful to have had in my life. My grandpa recently passed after many years of dealing with a degenerative disease called myasthenia gravis. And I am filled with love and grief and all the feels of losing my grandpa.

[00:00:36] Of course. He was an amazing human being, one of a kind, that’s for sure. He was definitely a character. I’m excited to tell you a little bit about him on this episode. But yeah, I’ve just been reflecting on him these past couple days as he. Has been in the process of passing and at this point I am relieved for him.

[00:01:03] I know that he was someone who was not afraid of death. He was someone who is. Excited to go to heaven and be reunited with his parents and his brother and probably many of his friends. He wasn’t scared of it, and it’s something that he actually talked about often. He talked about death often and was excited, uh, for the transition so.

[00:01:26] When he finally did pass after years of being in pain, I felt relief for him and I felt nothing but excitement. And the first thing I thought was, grandpa, you did it. You did it. You’ve been waiting to go there to this new realm where you are pain-free. And it’s. Like an ending of one chapter and a beginning of the next is the way that I see it, right?

[00:01:49] It’s the next realm for him, and I know that he is gonna be with me for the rest of my life for infinity. He’s my guardian angel. I got to say goodbye to him. In fact, it was one of the most beautiful experiences ever. Before he passed. He was going through a time where he was just shut down and was losing consciousness was in and out.

[00:02:15] He was having a lot of delusions, right? And thinking that he wasn’t home, saying, I’m going home, I’m going home. And, I’m hearing this from the phone ’cause my mom was there. Which, I know what he was talking about when he was saying, I’m going home. And my mom kept saying, no, you’re home, dad.

[00:02:31] You’re home. Don’t you know we can’t get up. You’re home. Let’s just sit here. And he was in these delusions and she said, here, come talk to Jamie. Jamie’s on the phone. You know your granddaughter, Jamie. And he immediately snapped out of it and remembered me and said, Jamie off Jamie. And the last thing he said to me was the sweetest, sweetest.

[00:02:53] He said, oh my gosh, Jamie, I’m praying for you. Have a beautiful life in Hawaii. And he remembered that me and Josh are moving there, and that was the last thing he said was, just have a beautiful life in Hawaii. And oh, I broke down. It brought me to serious. Tears and just a feeling of so much gratitude and love and how beautiful that, that was his final message to me, and I got to tell him how much he meant to me and how much he love.

[00:03:24] I loved him and am just so grateful that I got to experience my grandpa, since I was little. He’s the one male. Figure who has been in my life since I was little. Kind of, he was a grandpa figure, but I didn’t, I haven’t had a father figure my whole life. So he’s like that one masculine energy that’s been there since I was a baby.

[00:03:46] And who has. Been there for me and been supportive and I’m just so grateful that I had him. And it’s so beautiful that Josh got to experience having a grandpa as well when, we met and he came into my family. My grandparents took Josh and as well as a grandson because Josh never got to experience having a grand, grandparents.

[00:04:07] His grandparents passed at a very young age. So there’s so much, I’m just. So grateful for. And with his transition, I’ve been reflecting a lot and just thinking about how much he meant to me, what lessons he brought into my life. And, my grandpa really lived a rich life. He lived a rich life.

[00:04:32] And when I say rich, I don’t mean monetarily. He didn’t have tons of money. That’s not what I mean by that. I mean, he always had enough and just enough and they got by and it was great. But he really lived a rich life in terms of it was a really well lived life that was very much in alignment with him and in alignment with his. Soul. And when I say that, I just know it because when you think of Grandpa Dola, you have certain things that come to mind immediately.

[00:05:04] And these were the things that he lived out. When you thought of grandpa, you thought of Santa Claus because my grandpa. Was Santa Claus. He literally went to Santa school in Frankenmuth, Michigan, went to school to learn how to become Santa. And he had all of these amazing Santa suits. He even had like a St.

[00:05:25] Nicholas of robe and all different ones. It was amazing. And he was the town Santa for probably. 40, 50 years. He started when he was like in his early twenties and did it for, until he was no longer able to. So that’s one of the first things you think of when you think of Mike Doak as Santa, because he was the jolliest.

[00:05:48] He loved Christmas. All of Christmas, he would dress up as Santa and he would go to different places in the community. He would go visit homes, he would bring gifts to kids. In fact, when I was young, I was the elf. So I got to dress in the Elf costume and I would go with him and we’d go on all these adventures all around Cadillac, Michigan, which is where he’s from.

[00:06:11] So that was one thing that, it’s just. Such a vivid memory for me, and you can’t think of Christmas without thinking of him. For me and for my family he also was a man of faith. He was very devout Catholic and really felt connected to God, connected to Jesus, connected to the saints, and that was such a huge part of his life was his faith.

[00:06:38] And that’s why I know his transition. Was graceful because like I said, he wasn’t afraid of death. He knew that there was something on the other side, and he had a connection that was beyond just the ego or the little human. 

[00:06:54] And that’s why I know that he is in a better place because he had that faith. And I know that really helped with the end of life process for him and has helped with so much of his life because he had that trust in something in God. And yeah. Amazing. He also was a sweet tooth. He loved ice cream and loved chocolate.

[00:07:20] And I mean, from the time I was little, every single day we were offered ice cream and sundaes and he wanted all the sweets on it, and we would go downtown to the sweet shop. If you thought of Grandpa Dola, you thought of sweet. And he just loved people. He loved community. He was so welcoming. He had this mantra that was, oh, my door’s unlocked.

[00:07:43] My door’s unlocked. I’m like, grandpa, this day and age, you can’t be saying that to everyone anymore. Like, in fact, you should probably lock your doors. But he did not believe in that. So. He left his car doors unlocked. He left his house doors unlocked. They were never locked, and he was so welcoming and loved having people, show up, come over.

[00:08:03] He loved to entertain, he loved to go visit people. He was a very big presence in his community, and that is his rich life, right? That was him living a well lived life. That was like the most. Mike, do lack life. You could ever think, and I wanted to pose this to you because I think. It’s in these times where you reflect on life, where you experience loss and grief, that you start reflecting on your own life, and it really gives you an opportunity to ask yourself, am I living the most me life I possibly could?

[00:08:42] Am I really living in alignment with my soul and what my soul loves and what lights me up and the things that I most value? What’s in alignment, what’s not in alignment? And in fact, I wanted to read this beautiful piece that my grandpa saved. He loved reading all kinds of articles, read newspaper, and he would save articles.

[00:09:07] And one of the things that he really loved to do, another thing that you think of when you think of him is mail. He loved to send snail mail. He would send clippings from articles, he would send pictures, and one of the things that he took out and saved was this beautiful piece, and my mom actually asked me to read it at his funeral.

[00:09:28] That’s coming up, and I wanna read it to you because I think it is the most incredible lesson and most beautiful thing to reflect on. So here it is. It’s called the Dash and it’s this poem. I wish I could say who it was by. It’s literally a picture of it from a clipping my grandpa took. So, I wish I could say who wrote it, but this is what I’m gonna be reading at his funeral.

[00:09:55] The dash. I read of a man who stood to speak at a funeral for a friend.

[00:10:00] He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning to the end. He noted that first came the date of his birth and spoke of the following date with tears. But he said that what mattered most of all was the dash between those years for that dash represents all the time that they spent alive on Earth and now only those who love them know what that line was worth for. It matters not how much we own the cars, the house, the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash. So think about this long and hard, and. Are there things you’d like to change for? You never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged if we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and what’s real and always try to understand the way that other people feel and to be less quick to anger and to show appreciation more and love the people in our lives.

[00:11:12] Like we’ve never loved before. If we treat each other with respect and more often, wear a smile. Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while. So when your eulogy is being read with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they’d say about how you spent your dash?

[00:11:36] Oh my gosh. That I loved, and when I read that, it was such a beautiful and eye-opening, inquiry because I think it is very helpful to think about your dash. Are you living your life in alignment? And honestly, one of the things that I love about manifestation most, it’s not really about manifesting all the things for me.

[00:12:06] My favorite way to use manifestation is to manifest. The things that I most want to experience in this lifetime, and I always say money can be something that supports that, right? So the reason to manifest money isn’t just to hoard a bunch of money, it’s to circulate it and express and really live your life to the fullest.

[00:12:33] So with that, what this made me think about were questions that I wanted to ask myself. In fact, these are questions I do often ask myself, but it brought me back to them because it made me think, okay. Where am I in alignment? Where am I maybe not in alignment? How do I wanna spend my dash? How do I wanna spend my life?

[00:12:55] What do I want to be read at my eulogy, right? Am I living in alignment with that? And it’s really great to ask ourselves these questions because we can calibrate to that, right? We can adjust and we can say, oh, I want more of this. I want less of this. I need to say yes to more of this. I should stop waiting on this because the truth.

[00:13:15] Is time here on Earth in this realm is our only limited resource, right? Money is not a limited resource, and I always talk about that, but time is so one of the most precious things is time and of course how we think about time totally impacts our ability to expand it or contract it. I’ll do another episode on that, right?

[00:13:40] That’s a topic for another episode. But I do think it’s so important that we soak in life as if it is limited, right? Where we don’t wait, we don’t hold ourselves back. And I think sometimes it’s in loss that we reflect on how short life really is right, and not in a way of holding it as. Scarcity or as something that is scarce and we have to take as urgent or panic around it, but more so like.

[00:14:12] Really getting yourself into alignment and re recognizing that, maybe waiting isn’t the best option. Maybe stressing about certain things isn’t really worth your time anymore. Maybe there’s something you’re focused on that you really don’t wanna be. So I have a couple of questions for you to reflect on and think about so that you can live the richest life for you.

[00:14:39] You can get in alignment with your rich life. And here’s the thing, like I said, that doesn’t even take a monetary value. You don’t have to make more money. To live a rich life. In fact, what’s very interesting is once you get in alignment with your rich life, you will probably be an energetic match to more abundance, right?

[00:15:01] But it’s not by trying to force it, it’s by being an energetic match to richness. What is your rich life? What is the newest expression? What is the newest life? And I say the U. ’cause I always think, what’s the Jamous life I could live? And then I go towards that and y’all have been on this journey with me.

[00:15:19] You see it, me doing it. It’s not always easy. It’s not always the most comfortable. It can be very scary to do these things. It can feel like, ah, there’s some uncertainty there. There’s some fear, but also. I don’t wanna live my life without going for it, without living out my dreams. So I’m willing to take leaps of faith.

[00:15:40] I’m willing to trust, I’m willing to lean into the things that scare me and go for it anyways, because the worst that can happen. Is that it doesn’t work out best that can happen is it does, but if you don’t go for it, it for sure won’t happen. So you see me doing that with moving to Maui and starting my business and marrying Josh and the manifestation that I had around our wedding and creating that.

[00:16:08] There’s so many things that I just went for and I let myself manifest and dream and not tell myself I couldn’t have it. That. Self-talk matters. I really decided I am worthy of living the life of my dreams. Do I know how it’s gonna all unfold? No, but I don’t have to in order to dream it and decide it and to claim it and to go for it.

[00:16:33] So here are some questions that I want to ask you just to help you get in alignment with your precious. Life. So number one is what are the things that you are waiting on? If you knew time was limited, what would you say yes to? Is there anything that you feel like you are supposed to do here on Earth or you are supposed to experience or you’re supposed to live out, or some desire that is in your heart and soul and maybe it feels scary.

[00:17:05] Maybe there’s a part of you that says, I have no idea how I’m gonna do that. It doesn’t make logical sense right now. Well, guess what? I encourage you to be delusional because you don’t have to be logical. That’s what manifestation is all about, is claiming what you want, deciding you’re worthy of it, speak it into existence.

[00:17:25] Start you know, telling yourself that this is happening, this is what you’re on your way towards, and use the manifestation techniques to live that out. And so you don’t have to live in so much fear and so much smallness. So what is it that you want to say yes to? Maybe that’s hosting a retreat.

[00:17:47] Maybe it’s a certain trip that you’re ready to go on and you wanna go on that you’ve been waiting on or telling yourself Once this has happened, then I can do it. Or maybe it’s something you wanna do in your business. Maybe it’s an experience you wanna have with a family member or a friend. What is something that you’ve had a desire for?

[00:18:05] And when I say desire, like something in your heart that just feels lit up about that thing, and I want to encourage you to stretch yourself to say yes, right? Because desires are not placed in our heart if we cannot. Manifest them, right? I always say this like desires are there because they are meant to go after.

[00:18:29] That is the thing that’s gonna help your soul expand, right? That’s gonna help you grow into the next version of you. It may not be comfortable, right? Because if you go after your desires, sometimes you have to grow. You have to let go of some of your limiting beliefs. You have to stretch yourself a little bit, but.

[00:18:46] That is the journey. That’s why that desire was placed in your heart. It was meant to make manifest and or right. If that exact thing doesn’t manifest, it leads you somewhere else, right? There might be a lesson along the way that you were meant to learn that’s gonna guide you towards something else. But those desires are meant to go for.

[00:19:08] You are not supposed to just hold them and wait on them. So what is a desire that you have that you are ready to courageously go for? And I’ll tell you every time I’ve done this process and ask myself these questions, oh my gosh, does it feel scary? I’m like, oh, I don’t know if that’s gonna work. This could happen, this could flop.

[00:19:30] But I’ll tell you what, I’ve never regretted it. I’ve never regretted going after one of my dreams. Even if it didn’t work out exactly in the way that I had hoped. It’s always directed me somewhere, or it has provided a lesson that I needed to learn to take me on my journey, to the next place or to whatever you know, was happening after that, wherever I was meant to actually go.

[00:19:56] So think about that. Another question that I have for you is. If you recognize the time was limited, what would you let go of? What would you stop spending your time on and worrying about? What is something you know you are ready to release? And this could be a limiting belief. It could be a way of like holding the way that you think about yourself.

[00:20:21] It could be. Something you worry about often that you’re like, I’m just done worrying about this. Worrying isn’t getting me anywhere. It could be a habit, it could be a physical thing, it could be a relationship. What do you know is not in alignment with your highest self, your fullest expression, the U you.

[00:20:42] And I would encourage you to take the steps to release that, and that might be letting it go. It might be breaking up, it might be going to therapy to work on releasing a pattern that you know is no longer serving you or maybe it’s getting some coaching. What is it? What action do you need to take to release that?

[00:21:03] And sometimes it really is truly just having a tough conversation. Sometimes it is just letting it go. Sometimes it’s making the move and letting go of your comfort. What is ready to be released? And again, that’s where courage comes in and that’s where that lesson from my grandpa of having faith is so powerful because in order to go for things and manifest your desires or to let go of things that are no longer serving you.

[00:21:33] You need faith because you really do have to trust that things are gonna fall into place and it’s actually gonna work itself out. The reason we don’t do those things is because of fear. Fear holds us back, and if you want to overcome fear, you have to trust in something. Trust in something higher beyond your logical brain, right?

[00:21:54] That’s the key to it. So there is something to developing faith and building a relationship with something greater than you. And it doesn’t matter what that is. It doesn’t matter what you call it. Just some kind of higher source and having faith in that I guarantee will definitely help this journey, and that can be an intention.

[00:22:20] You said I’ve had years where I wanted to grow spiritually and I wanted to grow in my faith and in trust. And I set that as a goal for myself. I set it as an intention that I wanted to grow spiritually and I really made an effort to do it and to develop that relationship more and more. So that’s gonna really help with both of those and with you getting into greater alignment.

[00:22:44] My last question for you, along this journey of what do you want that dash to be, your life to be is, who do you want to be? I. Are you living in alignment with who you want to be? Who are you being towards yourself? How do you treat yourself? How do you treat others? How do you show up in this life? Are you in alignment with that?

[00:23:13] And what would you want people to say at your eulogy, right? If you had a funeral, what do you, what would you want? People to say about you. What are the characteristics that would stand out? What are the things that they would mention? And are you living in alignment with that desire of who you most want to be?

[00:23:34] That’s a beautiful North star, A beautiful guide, if you can think about that or even write it down, my goodness is that powerful, right? When I talk about manifestation, I always say get crystal clear. That’s like step one. It’s get crystal clear on what you want or claim what it is. Claim what the vision is, and that is a beautiful vision, is to start actually claiming who you wanna be, deciding on purpose and starting to live in alignment.

[00:24:01] With that. And of course, forgiving yourself when go into old patterns, get triggered, go into old ways of being, you’re gonna be gentle with this approach, right? And let yourself evolve. Let yourself grow. Even if it’s 1% each day, closer to that version of you, of who you wanna be, that’s the opportunity, right?

[00:24:24] ’cause you can’t do more than that, right? So. That’s what I have for you this week as I’ve really just been reflecting on life and how precious life is and knowing that one of my greatest values is growth, and it’s really living into my dreams and not regretting anything, right? I want to give that gift to my life, give that gift to my future self.

[00:24:51] I want. My future self was laying on her death bed to think back and think, oh my gosh, I lived like, that was the jams life you could have lived. I lived out my dreams. I went for things. I experienced what I wanted to, and I really feel like I lived in alignment with my truth and with what I came here to do.

[00:25:17] So that is what I want to propose to you, and I’m thinking of my Grandpa Dola, who I believe is in no, I won’t say, I believe I know is in a better place, and he is one of my guardian angels, and I wanna dedicate this to him because I am for ever grateful for my grandpa Dola, sending lots of love and blessings.