If you do nothing....

I have a strong belief that we receive messages when we need them.  I don't know if it's some greater force at work, or if it's simply like advertising -- even though the rug store always has a 70% off! sign in the window, we don't really notice it until we're looking for a rug.

Have you ever played the "What if only" game?  What if I had(n't) done X?  What if only I had done Y?  Then of course, life would be perfect.  I've been playing it the last few weeks. It's a really stupid and pointless game that took me far down a rabbit hole and wasted a lot of my energy and time.

Several years ago, I owned a retail store in downtown Annapolis that included products made by local artists who were ready to make that next leap -- usually they had been selling at craft fairs or on Etsy but weren't in a retail store.  Part of my goal was to give them a safe place to dip their toe in the water, to give them the confidence to do great things with their vision.  I closed the store in the middle of 2012, and lost touch with many of the people I met during that time.  I lurked on some of their Facebook pages, or stalked some of their websites on occasion to see what happened to them.  Some disappeared completely, and a few took the experience and continued to grow.

Two designers, Karen Grenalde of Kalai Kai and Cat Reinheimer, sold their work in the shop and have gone on to bigger and better things. Their talent and vision was clear and their success easy to predict, but I like to think that what they learned from our joint experience helped a little too.  Another artist, Suzi, launched Annapolis Brands, focusing first on children's clothing, but now selling  adult clothes and accessories.  By coincidence, she and I reconnected last week.

Whether it was that greater force at work, or simply coincidence, she told me that being carried in my store was the launching pad for her current business and vision.  Right then, the rules of the "What if only" game changed.   Instead of being a negative question, "What if" became a positive.  What if I had never opened the store, had never met Suzi at that time and place?  I'm sure she would have worked out her dream on her own; she's that kind of person, and her products are that good. That simple validation, however, forced me to change my perspective.

I'm back out of the rabbit hole, enjoying a clear and crisp new day, and moving forward.  As Gandhi said, we may not know what happens, but if we stay in the rabbit hole there will definitely be no results.