I Hope You Dance...

I love this song... I direct it to my children, friends and family...But, today, I direct it towards myself.... The verse that says, "When you come close to 'selling out', reconsider..." I was working in the Shop, last night, til late, late... moving everything...taring everything Peg, and I had so beautifully constructed, just a few weeks ago, completely apart. There is truly nothing recognizable.... Why? So I can add new things, give the Store a new look, and hopefully bring more folks in the door. While reorganizing, and finding lost treasures, and struggling with an early 1800's Secretary, that I had bought, just after I opened the store, 13 years ago, and attempted to use as my 'check out', to no avail, I decided to put it in the house, and use it for my computer, and printer. I stopped struggling, threw myself over the old Secretary, and wept...{ my mind was racing... I had just had 4 girls stop by, and tho they were very nice, I could see the disappointment in their eyes... the shop is a disaster...}Why does everything have to be sooo hard... The shows have been a little down, all year. Mostly because there have been too many of them. It doesn't seem to matter, at the time, a little down, but at the end of the year, it really ads up. The one we just did in Indiana, had two shows within an hour radius, of this one... Had I known that, I wouldn't have gone. The show was tuff,{ crazy, busy the first 2 and a half hours, then it died...} the sad thing is, we did better than 90% of the dealers... The good thing is, I found some wonderful things, that never would have happened, if I had stayed home. So the total, on that show, remains to be seen. My friend, Steph just called, and we visited about my concerns. She said, "Barb, look what you have done, you have built that shop, out of nothing... and carried your entire family, for years, how many people can say that... it just gives me goosebumps..." I know, it amazes me too. I said that to my little store, last night... A building, that is really, only a three stall garage, with a couple of old greenhouses, on each end, that were headed for the scrap yard... has truly carried us. { God had a plan, I just can't figure out what He wants me to do now...} It breaks my heart, to think about what may lay ahead... Frankly, I'm getting tired. I remember a time, when I went to work,{ at a real job...} and had two days off in a row, and wondered what I would do with them... I left my work, at work, never gave it another thought, until I punched in. Steph also reminded me, of all the other businesses I have helped, over the years... Maybe that was a mistake... Tho I love them all, it kept me from making my own little store, the way it deserves to be...But without their mass purchases, would we have stayed alive? I remember seeing buyers, roll through, with treasures loaded on their trucks, that had been on my truck, just a few days earlier... I was glad... Glad that my customers had made a little money, and I had helped them survive too. I believe we must help one another. Steph told me to go down to that store, and pour my soul into it, treat myself to a 'Starbucks', and make it happen... for me, and no one else... I am going to. About the 'selling out' part, I don't know... I guess that's my problem...I don't know. For today...I'll Dance... 'til next time, Barb C.