hope – Little Gift Shop OH

I have answered my own question.

Big Magic may simply happen to some degree, but for the most part, the love and the magic you receive are what you get in return for what you contribute by just being who you are.

Letting your soul take the lead instead of your ego brings magic into your life.

My daughters missed each other when my oldest daughter went off to the university. My older daughter discovered a paint-your-own pottery studio on campus. It ended up being the perfect place for them to go together on visits to enjoy each other’s company and stay connected.

Fast forward to when we moved to our country home almost two years ago. I had to rent office space because my job required a faster home internet connection than we have at our new house (our download speed is <1). Over time “one thing led to another” and we ended up buying a very small office building nearby. In the meantime, I had quit the job that needed faster internet access.

Last year our gift shop had a vendor booth outdoors at a nearby flea market. The vendor next to us sold concrete statues and was liquidating his business because he had been doing it a while and wanted to try something new. “One thing led to another” and I bought some of his smaller molds. My parents added to those giving my younger daughter some more fun concrete molds for Christmas this past year.

So now we are in the midst of figuring out what to do with the building and having a little fun with it. In Big Magic there is a story Gilbert tells of a playwright who had a flop of a play with bad reviews. He then spent a summer painting stars on his daughter’s bicycle and her neighborhood friends’ bikes and got his mojo back.

Because of my work (or maybe it’s just in my nature) my mojo wears thin at times. We are doing some painting projects just for fun and some with purpose at the new building. The painting is helping with my mojo and I’m excited because I can feel the magic working.

The magic swirled into my car one day as I was on my way to work. There was a radio show discussing the recent Youth in Iceland program. That topic has been in the back of my mind for a few months percolating. I’m afraid to say it out loud or commit to the idea in writing. I mentioned it briefly to my dad a month or so ago and we haven’t talked about it since.

If you haven’t heard, Ohio has a drug problem (and alcohol). It is one of the main reasons I don’t want to go back to working at the bedside in a hospital. I really don’t have it in me (at least not at this time in my life). In Ohio this problem is not exclusive to youths… it’s across generations.

I created my other blog so that I wouldn’t have “scope creep” or bring my depressing topics into the wonderful area of gift shops. But there is a little bit of overlap here so I’m going to let it creep in a tiny bit.

At this point you are wondering how that connects to my story? It’s a tiny thread (that maybe only I can see) holding it together.

We have hosted a couple of events that were to paint-your-own concrete pieces at the new building. For instance, one day we painted stepping-stones, another day we painted gnomes. It was a low turnout which was fine because we didn’t advertise it much and we were just experimenting to see if there was any interest.

I believe that some of the behavioral problems and drug problems I am seeing can be treated with stronger communities, beauty, and a little more joy, love, & hope.

The end of the second quarter has arrived. A few 2017 goals are being met sooner than expected. We are building on some of those and setting new goals.

We will continue to work on our previous goals and share gift giving ideas and products we enjoy or carry.

Also, going forward in 2017 I would like to set a goal to bring some magic my community. Obviously that is not a SMART goal. Here are three SMART goals I came up with that I hesitate to say out loud because they might be a bit of work and I’m going to feel a little exposed:

In 2017 I will host 8 or more events inviting the community to create with us.
I will going to further research starting a meet-up and/or book club to use to host regular events in 2018.
I will organize a fall and/or Christmas “gift shop hop” with other area businesses to promote community.

This post may seem a little abstract, but that’s the way magic and ideas work for me. This post has already gotten a little lengthy for my tastes so coming up I will show you our painting projects I’ve been referring to, I’ll tell you about other books we’ve read that have added to the magic, and I’ll share our the tiny doors & fairy gardens we’ve been creating.

We’d love to hear if you have ever had a time when you “painted stars on bicycles” just because you could?

Feature photo is the cupcake that started some of this magic and our dog Copper wondering why in the world I’m taking a picture of the cupcake instead of him 😀

Here’s the link again to buy the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.

A couple of weeks ago I didn’t even know who or what LuLaRoe was. Now I do. I was invited to a party on Facebook by a friend I haven’t seen since grade school and thought- why not?

From what I gather, LuLaRoe is a clothing line including some crazy printed leggings that must be totally comfy because everyone seemed to be buying them. I am not a big wearer of leggings so breaking one of my own rules, I bought a dress named Nicole. Apparently all the dress styles have names.

The rule is: Don’t buy clothing online. If I can’t try it on inevitably it won’t fit. With all the vanity sizing that goes on these days who knows what size I really am? I decided to hope for the best and get a small which sounded like it wouldn’t fit because I’m not generally a small. It was supposed to fit a size 6-8 so and the last dress I bought was a 6 so….

Naturally I get it and – surprise!- it doesn’t fit. I don’t think I have gained any weight because all my other clothes seem to fit. Never the less, it leads me to an evaluation of my current diet and activity and I see that I have been a bit of a sloth recently. So I make the pledge to myself that I’ll exercise everyday. Right? That lasted about a day. Then I decided okay, I’ll exercise every other day then.

I was texting the story to my daughter and I said, “So I think we know where this is heading.” Her response, “Not necessarily!”

Awwww. That is one of the things that I love, love, love, best about my kids. They are so hopeful and they always know how to bring me up when I am spiraling downward.

We all need people in our lives who do that for us. Unfortunately not everyone has that luxury. I know this may be what some people would call a petty example of hope. The fact that it is small is the exact reason that it’s a good example.

Hope needs to be woven into our lives in everything we do – big and small.

When it is, it makes it easier to share the gift of hope with others. I want hope to flow out of me the same way I see it flowing out of my kids.

We all get judged everyday for a variety of reasons: what we wear, how we move, ethnicity, the car we drive, our voice, our size, our hair color etcetera. Etcetera. The list goes on and on and on. At the same time, we all pass judgment on the people we interact with daily without even thinking about it. Our actions reflect those judgments.

Our judgments change when we take the time to get to know someone. Maybe that man in Walmart who looks like someone you wouldn’t want to say hello to is really in need of a smile today. Maybe the woman over there all decked out in her finery without a hair out-of-place is actually someone who goes deep and is not just all about the superficial. Maybe that business man isn’t just an empty suit. Maybe that forklift driver has a degree in physics. Maybe that lawn care technician is really a pro golfer.

The key to finding out is engaging with others.

I think part of the reason hope can be lost is due to everyone being tied up in their own lives. When we move beyond our own little world into someone else’s it not only allows us to bring them hope, but they might surprise us and give some hope back to us too.

I could go on and on about this and maybe I will another day. Right now I don’t have time because I have to go get my exercise in. I am happy to say I’m still on my every other day program and the medium LuLaRoe I exchanged the small for fits just fine.

via Discover Challenge: Hope Gone Viral

Little Gift Shop OH

Tag: hope

Magic of Love Part 2

LuLaRoe Nicole & Hope