Livin' it up before layin' it down

This has been a very eventful past week or two here on the corner. For the past two Saturdays, you may have missed us in the store because we've been graduating two of our kids from college, our son from MTSU - budding microbiologist and jazz saxophonist extraordinaire. A third gets his Master's in December and he is home for the summer to help disassemble barns and learn to build with reclaimed wood before returning to academia and the world of teaching literature and writing. We've also welcomed a new grandbaby to the family in the past few weeks. I was inducted into Worldwide Who's Who, and Corner House has the honor of being in Country Living Magazine online this month. I've also decided to delve into the world of painting barn quilts and hopefully get Cross Plains on the map for agritourism in the state of TN. However, today I want to focus on one thing, living it up before you lay it down. Saturday, after Olivia graduated at Western with her degree in interior design, she hosted a wonderful party in Cross Plains at her grandparents' house. True to her personal style it was a great party and we saw people from the other side of the family we haven't seen since her high school graduation four years ago. One of those was her grandmother, Dottie Forewright, a short blonde-headed fireball of a woman, who has never hesitated to speak her mind. Upon greeting each other Dottie said "I hear you have started a new adventure and are working hard". Yes, I agreed, we had opened the store, and I am finally doing what I absolutely love, working more hours, and making less money than ever, but it really doesn't seem to matter. And to this Dottie said "do what you love as much as you can because there will come a day your body won't let you and you won't be able to do it any longer". Even at that moment, it struck a chord in me, maybe because this year is a milestone birthday for me and that realization has been staring me in the face and reminding me of its truth with both vague and blatant aches here and there more often than I care to admit. The day went well, we all sat around talked, ate and enjoyed the day. Even the coolness and rain wasn't a problem as the day went on, as we mingled in the covered areas outdoors and ignored the weather. One by one, people said their good-byes, scurrying to their cars in the then pouring rain. We, too, decided it was time to leave, and headed home just one mile down the road. As we pulled into our driveway, the cell phone rang and it was my mother-in-law telling us they had just received word that Dottie and her son were in a car accident. We headed back over. The car had hydroplaned minutes after leaving the party, and Dottie's life as we know it here, ended in that crash. It was shocking and surreal, those moments you just sit passing in and out of reality with all the news and the unknowns. And her words to me were all I could hear. It resonated when she first said them, but absolutely nothing like those same words were now deafeningly loud in my mind and heart. "Do what you love as much as you can because there will come a day..." Who would have ever imagined those words to be so prophetic that Dottie spoke, and that only a few hours later, the truth of that statement would be so strongly echoing in me? It took me a while - almost half a century - but I found a life I live with passion here on this little Corner of this little town. Maybe because it took me so long, I always said it to my kids over and over, and over, while they were young. Don't do what's safe, don't do what pays the most, don't follow the rest of the people... find what YOU love and do it. Savor your life, savor the moments, savor your authentic self. In a book I have recently begun called Simple Abundance, I'm learning more than ever how to do that, to live the authentic life I was created to live. And I am more than slightly fulfilled at seeing each of my children do the same. There is a verse from the Bible I love that says "Lead a life worthy of your calling". Think about the two profound things that verse says. First, LEAD your life. I like to picture leading a Labrador Retriever, well trained, on a leash. And I also remember the not-so-well trained Lab I actually took out on a leash (once and only once!). I wasn't the one doing the leading!! Nothing good came of it, but he did pull my shoulder out and I ended up landing hard on my fanny and being pulled down the hill in embarrassment. Isn't that the picture of too many of our lives? We let our life LEAD us, instead of US leading our LIFE. Or maybe we never engage in life, because we are waiting for somebody to lead us. But the imperative "lead" implies action and personal choice. The second thing is YOUR CALLING. Not "if you have a calling". Rather, it assumes the obvious - you do have one and it is up to you to recognize it, embrace it, and live it out. What is keeping you from finding the authentic calling you have and doing it. My calling is to write sometimes, teach others, study, paint most days, sew, grow herbs, love my babies, tend my little store, adore colors and textures, and the list goes on. You know, I tried sooo very hard to have the Pottery Barn look. In fact, when we moved, I had determined we would have Perry's beautiful real-deal barnwood furniture and white - linen, burlap, you get the picture. Well, try as I might in my decor adventures, I always end up with a room full of color, color, color everywhere. Yes, definitely barn wood, but also, velvet covered fainting couches, a few whimsical paintings, pieces from my mother and grandmother, a chandelier, and other odds and ends ... So NOT "Pottery Barn" trendy. And I absolutely love my special room at home. But realize this - fashion is seasonal, style is forever. My style is not your style. And yours is not mine and that is perfectly wonderful and actually preferable. Your home is your haven and I enjoy helping people make it so in some small way. And so, I lead this life until there comes a day... And as I do, I hear the voices of countless others who come in the store, dreaming of doing the same thing - leading an authentic life - trying something their heart has always wanted to do - taking a chance living the dream, LEADING. Unfortunately most of them never will. So I guess my question to you is, "who is holding the leash"? You or circumstance, you or another person, you or others' expectations, you or defeat, martyrdom, and victimization, you or fear? Here's to living it up... Teresa