Five years ago today the world lost a beautiful soul. As I was preparing for my bridal shower and wedding that was a couple of weeks away I was happy and excited. I didn’t know that the following day I’d see a facebook post that would change my life. I had just moved into a new condo that I had bought with my now husband in preparation of starting our new life together. It was a Sunday and I was finally getting around to unpacking my new place. I’ll never forget the feeling of having the wind knocked out of me and falling against the wall sliding myself down to the floor as I read a Facebook post that said, “RIP Shelly” I didn’t believe it. I furiously called mutual friends as I choked my way through tears and struggled to breath. Shelly was my best friend and only 24 years old. She was starting her final year of nursing school and had the entire world ahead of her. In what I can only imagine was a furry of emotional pain – she had violently ended her life and unknowingly ended mine. I cried and laid in bed for days. I had only just seen her. She had asked me to walk the pier with her one more time but I had to go and couldn’t … what if I had just walked with her one more time. Would she have told me she was struggling with the will to live? Thoughts like that swirled through my mind. The following weekend was supposed to be my bridal shower which she had RSVP’d to and was driving down for and we were going to have so much fun. Instead I attended her funeral out of town and drove back just in time to arrive to my bridal shower. I could barely keep it together. The women I worked with got together and made a plan to have one of them stand up for me at my wedding so there wouldn’t be an empty spot at the altar at my wedding. There was discussion of cancelling our wedding but over 100 people were coming and had already made plans and we had already spent so much money on it. So I got married. It took nerves of steel and a lot of alcohol to get through it. On my honeymoon I walked out into the ocean and went deep with my clothes on and considered drowning myself. Instead I walked out of the water and drank myself to sleep. I became a relentless alcoholic and my disconnection from those around me increased. Until I read about mushroom therapy. After I began a regimen of mushrooms I no longer wanted alcohol and I’d also had the troubling realization that if I had known about mushrooms my friend would still be alive. I made it my mission to share this medicine with as many people as I could and here we are today. This community literally exists because of a life lost. On this day I ask that you reach out to a few people that you love and don’t talk to often enough and ask them how they are doing. Please do it for me and do it for Shelly and do it for you. There is no worse feeling in the world than losing someone to suicide and being completely broadsided by it. I had no clue. If you reach out to a friend or two today that you haven’t spoken to in awhile I am offering 20% of your order from Friday at 6pm EST until Monday at 11:59pm EST. The coupon code is: ICANSAVEALIFE and it will grant 20% off of your entire order. This is obviously an honor system.  Please make it a part of your journey to connect with the people you care about. You truly can save a life.