Busy Bee
I have twenty minutes to write, so that’s what I’m going to do. Life is moving FAST and although I feel two (or five or ten) steps behind at all times these days, I’m squeezing all the little joyful things in wherever I can.
Saturday marked the first real restock of the year - an interesting and unexpected collection of jewels that feel like a shift for me as a maker. But while I fully expected the release of this momentous group to leave me shaky and anxious and generally bent out of shape, it just…didn’t. Like I said, life is moving fast. I guess I maybe just don’t have the time to obsess and beat myself up and live in a state of panic at the moment. I am more than fine with this!
In between doing final checks on listings and adding that last, final polish before pieces landed on the site, I was running in and out of the house, checking progress on the horse sheds that have arrived at the farm! All of last week, the frames sat waiting…and on Saturday, they finally got their steel siding (in classic red and white, of course). As the builders added the finishing touches, it finally became real to me that the horses are coming. We’re doing this crazy thing, we’re on our way. Fences are next - wish me luck!
Yesterday, Easter, began with our traditional family sunrise hike. The past few years, we’ve been cheated out of the experience by clouds or bad weather - but this year was warm and clear and we scrambled up our favorite trail only to find…
That two other large groups of people had already settled themselves in our usual spot.
Now, this might not have been so bad, except that they were LOUD. Even aways down the trail, where we finally stopped, their laughing and shouting and blaring music (yes, that’s right - worship tunes turned all the way up) echoed around us. So that was a bit of a bummer. My people and I are not religious, instead simply using the traditional Christian holidays as markers to gather and be together - but if I was going to look for God I think that I’d look in the stillness that precedes daybreak. I’d shut up and listen. Feel for the charge in the air that peaks right before the first rays of light crest the curve of the earth.
But maybe that’s just me.
One big upside to this hike was that I was able to try out a new pair of barefoot shoes. After doing so much work to eliminate pain in my body, while working and otherwise, it’s become apparent where I still have more to do - and my poor feet were highest on the list.
They are wide. They are long. They do not fit well in modern women’s shoes. As a result, they hurt and ache and have been working on bunions since I was in middle school. I honestly just believed this was my lot in life, believed I’d probably have to have surgery at some point like the other women in my family. Wearing men’s shoes has been my only relief for years now, and even they are barely tolerable.
But after doing some digging and after spending a couple weeks giving my feet and toes a “job” (like picking up objects off of the floor or stretching while we sit in front of the TV at night) I’ve got hope again. And these ridiculously wide shoes, with no absolutely no heel, have me walking with more courage and less pain than I have since I was a kid. How strange it feels to not have my toes crowded. How bizarre to feel my foot expand and take my weight with every step. It’s just another miraculous way in which the body can heal itself if you give it a chance.
Today has found me packing up orders and packing my bags - because tomorrow I’m headed down to Tucson for the gem show. It’s going to be miserably hot (which, for me, is anything over 75 degrees because I’m a weenie) but HOPEFULLY full of turquoise and tamales and more saguaros than I can count. There will beauty to share when I return!!