Lemonade Stands

Joining my artistic friends at Studio JRU.

So about a month ago,

I am getting ready for my first booth showing my art

and I am just having a moment.

Like an exploded balloon where all of the

confidence, faith, belief, courage, passion, all of it just blew up.

Trying to put on my makeup, but it's no use, because tears keep coming.
I am annoyed with myself.  Mad.  Frustrated.  Scared.  Vulnerable.

And I was left with this one little voice whispering,

"What are you doing?"

"You are just a little girl with a lemonade stand."
"Just pretending to be a big girl with a business making nickels and dimes."

I get face down on the carpet and pour it out to God.

The fear, the doubt, the little girl feeling, and the anger.

Why am I angry?  At Him?

I am.  So I tell Him.  And I breathe deep.

And be authentic before my God

because He already knows what I am thinking and feeling anyway.

So ~ I call a friend.

She pep-talks me out of the lemonade stand mentality.

I get my make-up on and go

put

my

heart

out

there

for

my

community

to

see.



I talk to Heather

about stepping out in faith and risk

toward the lives we want to live. . .

even though money is oh-so-tight, it seems . . .

but I want to live what is most important. 

Family.  Faith.  Follow the calling in my heart.  Now.

"Yes,"  I think to myself, "that really is what I believe in."



Bob talks to me about my photos

and putting together a calendar.  Really?  A calendar?  Cool!

People look and linger and {gulp} . . . they buy things.

But it is so much more than the purchase

that makes my heart sing.



It is the "Begin one small step at a time" piece

that I loved, yet nobody ever looked at it.

And I wondered "Why?"

Until a mother bought it for her daughter

who had just begun to rebuild

after her home had burned to the ground.

And I knew why nobody looked before.

And a "made in South Dakota" store connection.

Then a woman with tears in her eyes

whose veteran husband suffers from PTSD

has a new home for "Be Real".

Another loves birds, and orders a set like I made in memory of Grandma Marj.

And the man from Montana studying my pieces

that I start a conversation with . . . he, too, is a mixed media artist.

Stepping out, sharing his work.

One is moving to Cody, Wyoming.

She buys prints of my wildflower photos to remember South Dakota.

Connections of the heart

through creativity.

Full circle

fulfillment.

New opportunities that I cannot wait to share.  {SOON!}

Far and exceedingly above all that I could ask or imagine.

From this little girl lemonade stand.

Just putting my heart out there.

"See, look what I made."

That is how I felt. 

Like a little girl hoping somebody would like what I had to offer.

And

some

did.

And

it was good.

Above, beyond, exceeding my imaginations and my askings.

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copyright 2011 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.