While it is currently my "slow" season in real estate, I cannot seem to get a grip on, let alone get ahead of the curve on my paper goods and booth items. I have been lucky enough to be able to offer up my creations in not only my booth at Camas Antiques, but The French Door, and with one of my junk pals in her booth at another shop. (And let's not forget that I still have my etsy shop, which I need to be promoting on social media, as well as adding my new products...)
It's awesome to have so many opportunities!
(It's also incredibly stressful as I am a creative-messy-and-disorganized type of person who tackles every large project like a squirrel in the middle of the road.)
This morning while I was trying to get myself as organized as I am capable of, completely full of anxiety over my time-frame, and wondering how I landed myself in this predicament again, the TV news was on, and of course it was covering our nation's latest hideous, senseless tragedy in Pittsburgh.
This should not be happening.
The faces and stories of each of the victims.
This should not be happening.
Suddenly, paper crafts and glitter seem so beyond trivial. Yes, it is how I make part of my living, but the absolute horror of knowing we have so many troubled people here, living in our communities, and there is no possible way to know exactly who they are, or how to help them is overwhelming. And scary. And so very sad.
I just feel so helpless.
My heart breaks at the state of our world today, and other than praying, I am struggling for what I can do. I do not know all of my neighbors, but I feel compelled to work on that. To get to know them better. To continue to work on making eye contact with strangers I pass, always giving a hello and a smile.
I am not naive enough to think that this would ensure that we can avoid all of these tragedies. I still may not know if someone has an arsenal of weapons in their home, hidden behind their always-closed mini blinds, but maybe, just maybe, getting to know my neighbors, and taking a few more minutes to be kind can be a deciding factor in whether someone takes that big step off the deep end.
I dunno.
I'm not being even a little bit flip when I say this puts my paper crafting deadlines in perspective. We have got to figure this out, my friends.
