About 17 years ago I was living in Texas with my mom and step-dad, Peter. I was young and in the clouds about life, chasing my heart toward the West Coast in following my heart and then current passion. I don’t remember exactly what I was telling Peter, I am sure it was a litany of plans for what I thought would happen when I left Texas and made my way to New Mexico and onward to whatever. After spewing forth my tempest of ideas, thoughts, desires and wishes, Peter’ ever responds ever so simply: “Well, SOMETHING is gonna happen…” I wish I could insert the sound of his voice into that quote so you could completely get the ultimate zen simplicity with which he delivered this quintessential message that I would return to over and over again in my life.
Peter got involved with my mom when I was around 9 years old, I am sure he didn’t have a clue what he was getting into, the tempest that is the energy of my mom followed by the whirling dervishes that are her children. Something tells me that Peter either knew in some cache of infinite wisdom the power of his catch phrase or this was when he was beginning to discover it. Either way “something happened” for all of us.
One might ask what the hell this has to do with business or business philosophy? Well, everything. How I have interpreted this saying over and over again in life is that it is critical to take some action, to go live life, take care of business and then beyond the simple actions we take all we can do is sit back and see what happens. This is something I have NEVER been good at. I often have a clear idea of what I want to happen so it has often been a struggle for me to sit back and accept what life brings. What I am learning from that phrase these days is that rather than being a period on the end of the sentence that phrase is actually a rolling dialogue: I take some steps, the universe responds, as much as I would like to know what the universes response is going to be (and I often try to pretend to know this) I don’t know, so what there is to do is to respond to what is in front of me.
For example, this weekend my mom and step-dad are in town and I was so looking forward to sharing the Saturday Market with them, after all they have played the largest part in getting this crafty business up and running. They paved the way with their craft business, Flowers in Glass. Their choice to lead a funkier than normal lifestyle and choose work that supports their lifestyle is the source of my inspiration. When I think I am making crazy choices about starting this business or wonder if it will ever amount to putting food on the table I look to their life, take a deep breath and a few steps in the direction of success confident in the knowledge that…”something is going to happen…”
No matter how prepared I might have been to give it a go this weekend I couldn’t control that the Market would be canceled due to major storms passing over. I believe that because of my commitment to practicing principles in this business such as trust, faith, open-mindedness it was so easy to let the cancellation roll off my back and open up space to enjoy their company. I trust that I have done and continue to do the work to create a successful and honorable business so when something happens that I didn’t foresee I can roll with it and enjoy the “something” that shows up.
wildbulldesigns 