When The Dust Finally Settles
It's been a few weeks since one of the biggest moves of my life. I can't begin to describe the magnitude of it in one blog post, so I won't try. What I will do is share a few thoughts about beginning again as a business the third time over and what that looks like.
I decided to go back to an interview that I gave to WLEA, an association established by female law students at Ryerson University aimed at identifying how the law impacts women in society. The first out of five parts of the interview was titled "words of wisdom." I think this was the most difficult to answer as I really didn't believe I had advice worth sharing. I spent hours pondering what those words would look like as most days in my small business, I felt like I was flying by the "seat of my pants." One evening I had a heart-to-heart with my husband, my biggest fan and support system who took a look at what I wrote and asked me flat out, "do you believe this?" I automatically got my back up, thinking to myself "of course I do, it looks good, sounds good and it follows the mainstream narrative of what I should be saying." Quickly, seeing my frustration, my husband pivoted with his question, "If you could go back to the woman you were at the beginning of all of this, what would you tell yourself"? Tears welling up in my eyes, I thought back to the great joy I felt when the deal was finally done, the elation of my younger children who were so excited that Mom bought the shop at the mall, and the dreams I had that night of where I could go with all of it. I didn't want to quash any of those hopes for anyone else with words that could serve to do more harm than good. He was right, I had to go back and choose my words according to that moment. The following is what I wrote:
"I love the idea of persevering despite the obstacles you face. The best ideas are born out of adversity and my business is living proof of that. If you have a vision to create anything, you can be pretty sure that it's something within you prompting you, telling you to pay attention, be open and follow that as far as you can."
The last part of the quote hits home for me as much today as it did the day I wrote it. I have had to revisit "the prompting of my vision" for this business daily; connecting to that "inner voice" which I believe is "God's call." I knew that with each day we face unforeseen challenges that require adapting quickly and being resilient. Often what is most important seems less important when you put it all into perspective. I realized that people and their needs come before gift shows, web sites, inventory and so on. You will have days when you feel you accomplish nothing but in actual fact accomplish everything by merely being present in that moment with that individual no matter how small their request may be.
This is where I am today, listening, reflecting and full of such joy that I am able to have this opportunity. With each passing day, I encourage my customers to do the same; support one another, dream big about "next steps" with whatever they are doing. Pray for insight and then move forward in faith as though it is already happening. This is what we propose to our children and this is how we need to live!