As you know, here at Country Roads we have a bit of everything. Which it makes it really nice for Christmas shopping. . .
I just thought I would share some of our sweet vintage stuff today with you which includes our holiday decor as well! I love coming to work at Country Roads this time of year. It is filled with such great stuff, and a wonderful place to Christmas shop. Also. . . with Thankgiving just a week away, I thought I would include a little story I wrote a few years back. In a time of rushing around, and always being in hurry, and trying to buy the perfect Christmas gifts, I hope we can all take some time to help those that life isn't treating to well. I think of Mary often. Although her illness evenually prevented her from shopping at Country Roads, she was always a cheerleader for me, sending me encouraging poems and thoughts! She also was an animal lover and big on animal rescues. I believe she is the one that sent me two pictures of these cute little dogs that were in the Orange County Shelter. And because of Mary, Bill and Cyndy Finch have two special members of their family! They made a trip to the shelter and adopted the two little dogs that needed home. I will always be grateful for Mary's positivity! She was a wonderful, caring person!
“What a Wonderful World”
I know, many of you
are thinking that our world today just isn’t that “wonderful” but it can be if
you look for it! The first time I really
fell in love with Louis Armstrong’s song was, ironically at a funeral with my
son Bryce. It was one of Bryce’s friend’s dad that had just passed away. The
boys were in junior high school. The mom spoke so elegantly and so beautifully,
and then they played, “What a Wonderful World”. I have moments, things, and
events that always stay with me in life and the above was one of them. The past
couple of years the change in our economy has been really hard for so many
people. We’ve seen things that we never imagined we would see and heard all the
horrific stories that accompany these sad situations people are forced to face
in life. It’s not easy. And I always say if you are one of those that have
sailed through these past couple of years and done well, I at least hope you
have been willing to reach out to others that have really been through hard
times.
Owning Country Roads
has always been one of the things that I the proudest of! I get to work with my
family and so many of our customers over these past eighteen years or so have
become a part of our Country Roads family. I’m surrounded by history daily with
all the great antiques that sit in our store just wishing they could tell their
story! Sadly, I also hear some stories
that break my heart. A little over a year ago, I had a customer named Mary that
use to shop in my store with her son Jake, who was about two years old. Mary
had MS and has she got worse she was unable to shop but always emailed me, and
always let me know when some event was coming up for our “furry friends”. In
fact, one of my dealers, Cindy Finch, ended up adopting a dog from the shelter
because of an event Mary had told us about. Mary was like me, always loving
animals and wanting to help them. Little did I know though that Mary was not
only struggling with her own MS, but her son Jake’s, as well. And her boyfriend
had just lost his job. They were about to be evicted, but you know, when I
would read Mary’s emails, I had no idea. Then, one morning not long after the
last email I received from Mary, I read about a murder/suicide in Orange. And
when I saw that it was Mary and her son that were the victims, along with her
boyfriend taking his own life after killing them I was stunned and greatly
saddened. This small family was gone, just like that, because they had no place
to turn. Things like this shouldn’t be happening in our world, it really
shouldn’t. We all need to help when we can.
But the point of my
little story here is that Mary stayed positive, she stayed happy and so in love
with her little boy right up until the end. Not only business, but life too is
how we choose to live it. I have customers that come up to me daily and are
filled with nothing but gloom and doom.
They share the horrible stories that we all know, but don’t really want
to hear. When you work with the public,
it truly, truly is an adventure! It’s fascinating. But along with every “BSC”
customer you deal with, there are many more Mary’s in my life that choose the
positive and choose hope over everything else. I see so much good in the world today, those
out there helping others daily when they themselves have so little. And I too
try to do my part when I can, and view the world the way Louis Armstrong did
when he wrote “What a Wonderful World”. Life is about choice, and even in the
darkest of days if you “choose” to be positive and look for the good in our
days, you will be a better person for it.
I’m grateful for
having known Mary for the short time I did. And here I am today, a year after
her death being reminded of the importance of reaching out to people and our
“furry friends”. People come into our lives for a reason. We may not know the
reason at the time, but I’m sure it’s there. At the end of each of Mary’s email
she included this quote:
"Just
when the caterpillar thought her world was over. . .SHE became a
butterfly"!!
As I
mentioned above, life is about choice. I hope that when you are able to make a
difference in someone’s life, you choose to do that. And when I think of Mary
now, I think of the words Louis Armstrong wrote so many years ago, “I think to
myself what a wonderful world it is”.
