LET IT BE

January 11, 2012 by Mel | 0 comments

Email

Happy New Year!

Traditionally many people make a list of several New Year’s resolutions that they believe, if kept, will make their New Year better than the previous one or will make them a better person or at least a skinnier one.  After several emotional roller coaster years and recent introspection, I only made one New Year’s resolution for 2012: Let it be.  (This is where you hear Paul McCartney singing, “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me.  Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.)

I confess, I am a fixer.   I am not a meddler or someone who goes around trying to “fix” people to remake them into what I want them to be.  Believe me I have been on the receiving end of trying to “be fixed” and that is a personal hell I don’t wish for anyone.  If one of my personal relationships is in need of repair, I want to fix it.   Issue a request for help, and I answer, “of course!”

Pomeranian by Dean Russo: My apologies to the artist, but this is what I imagine a family dog would look like after markers (non-toxic, of course) are used to add color to her fur coat. If you haven’t guessed, I speak from experience!

If someone I know and care about calls me in crisis or quandary, I respond immediately with, “how can I help?”  I do not confuse this with someone just asking for a listening ear.  Not like the man, after listening to his wife share with him about her horrid day dealing with an irate client and how their four-year old twins channeled their inner artists using  markers to paint the family dog, promptly proceeds to tell her how she should have handled the client differently and could have prevented the twins from using markers inappropriately.  The woman needs her husband to listen to her and affirm her horrid day; not tell her how to fix it so it won’t happen again.

Family and friends might talk to me about a problem and how to solve it or about a decision they have to make and need to evaluate choices.  After listening, I move into fixer mode.  If I can’t personally help, I will find someone who can help or will track down the information needed to help them move forward. I use similar tactics if any of my relationships need mending.  It is who I am.  If someone I love is in need and I can provide any assistance, I will without hesitation or reservation leap to help.

But, are there instances when you just sit one out?  You have to say to the person asking for help, “I love you and care about you, but I can’t help you this time.”  Or you have an “ah ha” moment and finally know that some relationships or situations are what they are and no amount of help will change the outcome.  That’s when you step back and say, “Let it be.”  Sometimes acceptance of a painful situation may only come after many repeated failures of trying to repair something that is broken.  Sometimes doing nothing takes more courage than tackling the problem head on.

So when do you help and when do you let it be?  That comes with experience, which hopefully leads to wisdom.  I believe that if you are an inherent helper or fixer, you only learn to tell the difference between when to act and when to be still after painful and failed attempts to help a person with a problem, or to repair a relationship, or to change a situation.  I have learned that I cannot help those who cry out for help but never move beyond the crying, and I cannot help repair a relationship or affect a situation when it is only important to one side.  These days I am wiser about choosing when to help. But I choose this option over the alternative; never reaching out to help.

Therefore in 2012, I will choose when, how, and if I will help.  I choose courage, wisdom, and peace.  My New Year’s resolution is to know when to be still and just let it be.  Oh, and to be skinnier!

Love to all!

P.S.  After making and writing my New Year’s Resolution for 2012, I shared some of it with a friend of mine. She pointed me in the direction of one of her very wise friends, Jeanie Miley, (http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/nov/25/jeanie-miley-do-nothing-might-take-a-new/) who wrote an article called, ‘Do nothing’ might take a new attitude.” WOW!  I am not alone.  Thank you, Melinda!

P.P.S.  I enjoy hearing from readers!  If you agree or disagree with what I write, if you have a comment about a blog, if you want to begin a conversation about one of the blogs, this is your invitation.

GIRLFRIENDS MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND

December 17, 2011 by Mel | 0 comments

Email

…from Brothers Bakery, Marble Falls, Texas

 

The Red Banquette Table

Almost every Saturday morning you will find me and four terrific women at Brothers Bakery in Marble Falls, Texas, seated at the red banquette table nearest the scone, cookie, and muffin case.   The five of us have been meeting once a week for years.  We meet to share our week’s stories, to laugh, and occasionally to cry. I have to admit that “having coffee” with these women is the highlight of my week!

 

Martha is the founder of our coffee group.  She is my business partner, cohort in Fortune Finding Fridays™, and my very great friend. Her talents range from expertly recovering upholstered furniture to plumbing repairs and about everything else in between.  Gina is the Special Education Coordinator at our local middle school and plays a mean game of lawn chair tennis.  She lives a life of faith and steadfast calmness that I aspire to but can only admire.  Kathy is an art teacher, expert doll restorer, and fabulous artist in any medium.  She tells the best stories of the five of us.  Rebecca is a retired accountant, a substitute teacher, and a most excellent baker of very tasty cakes.  She keeps us all on track, but she does it with exquisite wit.  These four women may not know it, but they keep me grounded and connected to my community.  Sometimes others join us, and sometimes others stop by to comment on how much fun we have together.  One woman stopped by our table one day to ask if we were sisters or at least cousins.  She said she had been watching us enjoying each other’s company, and she just knew that we were related to each other.   Yes, we are sisters of the heart and of our choosing.

This past summer I attended my high school reunion, Bellaire High School Class of 1971; Still Smoking After All These Years, and I have the t-shirt that says so!  Initially I didn’t intend on going, but a friend I hadn’t seen in almost 20 years called me and insisted I attend.  Thank you Nita for making that phone call!  This isn’t the first time Nita reached out to me when I needed to feel included and wanted.  In the sixth grade (still elementary school back in the “olden days!”), I was the new girl in a school of many children who had known each other since kindergarten.  Add my immense shyness, and you get the ugly picture.   But thanks to Nita, Sherry, and Betty sixth grade turned out great as did my high school reunion!  I reconnected with friends I hadn’t seen in many, many years.  In fact, a group of us women had a girls’ weekend recently.  It was three days packed with shopping, eating, and drinking, but mostly laughing, “remembering when” and making new memories.  When saying our goodbyes, one friend told me never to forget my girlfriends, because “we are forever.”

We women are social beings.   It is in our DNA to seek out other women to talk to, to bond with, and to cling to when we are in crisis.  There is research to affirm what all of us women inherently know; we NEED our girlfriends to successfully survive our life’s journey.  Apparently the power of friendship is just recently catching the attention of social scientists.  Essentially what these researchers are gleaning from their studies according to Rebecca G. Adams, Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, is that “friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well-being than family relationships.”  There is even a bestselling book by Jeffrey Zaslow, The Girls from Ames:  A Story of Women and a 40-Year Friendship that proves the endurance and power of those first, formative friendships.  Girlfriends Rock!

Personally, I could not have survived the collapse of my marriage and the subsequent losses without my coffee friends along with my mother, daughters, and niece.   I am doubly blessed now that I have reestablished communication with my childhood and high school friends.  I am the recipient of the healing power of these special relationships.  Thank you to each of these remarkable women.  You make my world go round.

Go out there and make a friend if you need one or reconnect with old friends.  I promise this is a gift that fits all of us.

Love to all!

P.S.  If you are in Marble Falls, Texas, on a Saturday morning about 9:30, stop by Brothers Bakery and say “hi” to the five women sitting at the red banquette table closest to the scone, cookie, and muffin case or join us for a cup of coffee or glass of tea.  Be prepared to laugh and have a good time.

UPDATE on Our Warrior Heroes:  Please view this video, http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc-tv/45698694/#45698694, about a 10-year-old boy who wrote over 180,000 cards to our overseas troops.  Wow!  He had heard the story of his grandfather while in Vietnam never receiving a card from anyone and made the leap that perhaps some of our deployed troops today might not be receiving cards from home either.  He personally made sure that a card was sent to each one.  One person can make a difference.

 

November 26, 2011
by Mel
1 Comment

WHO MAKES YOU A BETTER PERSON?

Email

 

The other day I had this brain flash, who makes me a better person?  The reason for the brain flash was that I had been feeling and acting very cranky for several days.  I needed to get out of this funk and malaise.  It was so bad that chocolate didn’t even help!  Then I thought, maybe I had to act better for those important people in my life so I could start feeling better.

Most of us strive to be ‘inner-directed’ people rather than ‘outer-directed’ people.  That is, we believe our thoughts, words, and deeds are guided by our personal set of values, and we march to the tune of our own drummer, our conscience, rather than succumbing to the pressures of those around us, thus ‘outer-directed.’  In the words of our mothers, “If Jane jumped off the bridge would you jump too?”  Who wants to be an outer-directed person?  Not me, you say!  Well, most of us do have some ‘outer directedness’ because  “no man (or woman) is an island.”

The answer for me to the question, who makes me a better person, is many people do.  The obvious ones are my daughters, Erin and Courtney.  They are my life and best loves, so why wouldn’t I want to be the best mom, let alone the best person, they know?  Then there are other family members whom I love and want them to think I am the best daughter, aunt, and sister I can be to them.  Then there are my friends, Martha, Gina, Kathy, Rebecca, and Debbie whom I love and want them to think I am one of their best friends they can laugh and cry with and trust with their lives.  Then there are my clients and readers whom I want to think that I am smart, ethical, and always have their best interests in mind.

But these are all humans, as am I.  And because we are all humans, we are not perfect, and we all have our cranky days.  And sometimes I may not be the best person for them when they need me to be, and they may not always be the best person for me when I need them to be.  This is a simple and obvious life truth that a lot of us seem to have trouble understanding.

After thinking about the special people in my life I want to be a better person for, it struck me.  The not-so-obvious choices about who makes me a better person are Blaze, Barney, and Daisy, my three dogs.  Blaze is an almost 18-year-old Border Collie, Springer Spaniel mix my family adopted 17 years ago this Christmas.  Abandoned in a downtown Houston parking garage during a particularly cold winter, she was rescued by a kind stranger and taken to a pet shelter.  We adopted her through Citizens for Animal Protection in West Houston.  She is still the best Christmas gift ever.  Barney is a 13-year-old All American breed, mostly spare parts but all heart.  We adopted him through Highland Lakes SPCA when he was about 18 months old.  We were his third family, but most definitely his forever family.  Then there is Daisy, a four and 1/2 year old yellow Labrador Retriever, a hand-me-down dog from my daughter, Erin.

Courtney, Blaze, and Barney, when all were much younger.

Blaze belongs to Erin and Courtney; she just lives with me now.  She was there to play with and protect the girls as all three of them grew up together.  These days, Blaze loves to sleep where it is warmest and most comfortable for her arthritic legs.  Barney is his own man and is so self-contained he prefers to be outside to alert me to all intruders: squirrels, opossums, deer, and any two-legged creatures. Still he does love hugs, head pats, and the knowledge I will always be there for him.  But Daisy belongs to me or more correctly, I belong to her.

Until Daisy burst into my life four years ago last month, I had never had a dog that was truly mine.  She suffered from separation anxiety as a puppy and would do things like eat Erin’s work clothes!   So with Erin working many long hours at her first job out of college and already the owner of a smart and well-trained older yellow Lab, Daisy came to me with the intention of my finding her a new home.  Daisy took one look at me, decided I was hers, and where I lived that would be her new home.  With age and mostly with the help of a terrific trainer, Chuck, co-owner of Barkingham Palace in Marble Falls, Texas, Daisy has overcome her separation anxiety.  Her love for me is pure.  She only gets exasperated with me when we don’t play as long as she wants, and I don’t go to bed when she is ready to sleep.  However, her exasperation is truly fleeting, and she happily adapts to any situation. She is my constant companion, and she takes great care of me.

How could these dogs not be included in the ones who make me a better person?  Their love and companionship is constant and never failing.  They don’t have bad days, cranky days, or ‘too busy to be bothered’ days.   They are always available for hugging, playing, or just hanging out with me.  They are never irritated with me or angry with me or hold a grudge against me.  They always have a happy and loving disposition and in the case of Daisy, I will always be the one she loves the most.  How can I not be kind and loving and always glad to see them in return?   How can I be cranky and out-of-sorts for more than a few minutes with Blaze, Barney, and Daisy as my role models?  Who makes you a better person?

Daisy patiently waiting for me.

So in the spirit of Thanksgiving and giving thanks for your many blessings, please don’t forget the four-legged members of your family.  Wishing everyone a terrific holiday weekend laughing with and loving the ones who truly make you a better person.

Love to all and your loving pets!

 

November 11, 2011
by Mel
1 Comment

Honoring our Veterans and our Warrior Heroes

Email

I came of age during the Vietnam War. When the United States left Vietnam in 1975, I was watching TV coverage of the last plane out of Saigon from the safety of my college campus.  I naively believed that this was the end of U.S. involvement in a long-lasting, drawn-out guerilla war.  Then came 2001 and the war in Afghanistan and in 2003 the war in Iraq. President Obama announced last month that the United States will leave Iraq at the end of the year and those troops will be coming home.  But the United States is still fighting the longest war in our history, the war in Afghanistan.

Perhaps we haven’t yet learned to make love not war since 1975, but we have learned to keep our soldiers close in our hearts.  With Veteran’s Day on November 11 please help keep all of our military, both veterans and active troops, in our thoughts, words, and deeds.  Find out how your community will honor our veterans and perhaps choose to participate.  At the very least, a personal thank you to veterans you see today is always appreciated.  Please APPRECIATE our veterans and active military members, not just today on Veteran’s Day, the designated national holiday, but every day.

Just some notes on what my community does to honor our military. On September 17, I was a spectator at CrossFit’s Fight Gone Bad 6 fundraiser at Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas, an American national host location for CrossFit athletes from 16 countries including troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait. On this fine Saturday morning in September, Sportsgrants Foundation raised $2.2 million for three charities when 17,000 CrossFitters around the world participated in 17 minutes of three rounds of a grueling five station workout.  The beneficiaries of this year’s multi-million dollar fundraiser are the CrossFit Foundation, Camp Patriot, and Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  All of these charities benefit our military, law enforcement, and first responder communities.  View this Making a Difference video story from NBC news http://www.sportsgrants.org/fgb6/blog/2011/10/fight-gone-bad-7-news/ and you will want to be one of the first to sign up for the FGB7; I guarantee.

On a closer-to-home note, the Burnet County VetRide Program won the 2011 Texas Association of Counties (TAC) Best Practices Award. This program funded by a grant through the Texas Veterans Commission offers free travel assistance to veterans in Burnet, Lampasas, and Llano counties for visits to doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, social-service organizations, and other needs.  The bad news is that due to such a large demand for the transportation service in this area, along with high fuel costs, the grant funds will be depleted before the end of the year. They need more volunteer drivers and other help.  If you wish to offer assistance to this worthwhile program, contact Vet Rides at 1-(877)-851-8VET or 1-(877)-851-8838.

And finally, a word about our active combat troops.  It seems to me that our interest in sending a little bit of home to our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq waxes and wanes.  Please keep your interest alive!  Do you know someone deployed in a combat area or do you know someone who has a loved one deployed?  You may be surprised when you ask, “What can I do?”  It may be as easy as sending letters from home to a bigger commitment such as sending care packages.  Don’t forget that there are those in the military who willingly go to war for our country, but who don’t have friends or family to send those much coveted letters and packages from home.  Want to write letters, send care packages, but don’t know where to begin?  Go to http://www.military.com/spouse/content/military-life/military-resources/how-to-support-our-troops.html for all of the information you will need to get started.

God Bless our Veterans and our Warrior Heroes.

Love to all.

October 12, 2011
by Mel
4 Comments

The Hug Diet

Email

Do you live alone?  What do you miss the most living alone?  I miss hugs; those big hugs where someone who loves you (or at least cares about you) envelops you in arms of affection, your breathing slows and then matches the rhythm of the person holding you.  That’s what I miss and that’s what I want back in my life.

We humans need kind and caring touch to thrive; no we humans require kind and caring touch to live.   When we are born it is mostly through touch that we communicate.  We comfort our babies by holding them and patting them when they are crying or fussing; we even hold our babies when we feed them and play with them.  Touch is crucial to thriving and growing up to be well-adjusted adults.

"Never too old to need a hug." Photo courtesy of Forbes.com online article

We never outgrow both the desire and the need for hugs. Virginia Satir, American Psychologist, famously gave us her prescription, “We need 4 hugs a day for survival.  We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance.  We need 12 hugs a day for growth.”  Additionally, hugs are good for our physical health as well as our mental health.  Hugs can lower your blood pressure and your stress levels.  One study even said that people’s, especially women’s, cortisol levels diminish with frequent hugs.  Lowered cortisol levels mean lower stress which lowers our blood pressure and makes us feel good.  High cortisol levels have also been tied to weight gain.  What do you think about going on a hug diet?  Hugs lower your blood pressure, help foster a good attitude, help you lose weight, and are affordable for all!  I like that, a lot!

If you need a hug but no one is around to give you a hug, there are books about hugs.  In fact, Simon and Schuster currently has a 35 book series about hugs.  You can find specialized hugs for anyone and to fit any circumstance.  The latest in the series is Hugs to Comfort by John William Smith where you can read stories or inspirational words that give you that “huggy” feeling.   Also, there are hugging guides. The Etiquette of Hugging by Irene S. Levine, PhD is an article not only about how to give a hug but the rules for giving hugs.  Finally, you can watch Lauree Ostrofsky’s video, Deconstructing a Hug, analyzing how we hug and how to hug.  A simple hug is now a complex activity in which you must be trained before performing the hug.  No wonder there is a need for books and videos about hugs.

It appears that I am not the only one experiencing hug deprivation.    In fact there is a movement called the Free Hugs Campaign whose motto is, “Sometimes, a hug is all what we need.”  Juan Mann (get it?) was in desperate need of a hug in June 2004 and an international movement was born.  Watch his video and smile through your tears.  I promise you will rush right out and find someone to hug!

The science of hugs and literary works about hugs are educational, fun, and inspirational.  But nothing can replace a real hug where you wrap your arms around me, my breathing slows down, and I know that you care.  That is what my heart wants most.

Love to all!

 

Update on Central Texas Wildfires:  On October 17, 2011 Fire Relief: The Concert for Central Texas at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.  Please go to the link and see the fantastic line-up of Texas recording artists for a night of unforgettable music for a great cause.

 

October 4, 2011
by Mel
0 comments

A Perfect Day

Email

Good morning, all!

I apologize for falling behind in my posts; completing writing assignments all week, just not for my blog.  I have to share my excitement about what I have been doing the past two weeks.  Someone asked me to write the content for her web site.  Her business is social media marketing, and I am truly honored.   Even though the majority of my work experience has been in marketing, I believe I am a newbie to social media marketing. (I guess most everyone is, considering social media is still in its infancy!)  Plus, not being in the ‘correct, more desirable younger age demographic’ as marketing types are fond of saying, makes it even sweeter.   When the web site launches next week, I will let you know!

But, onward.  A week ago Sunday was a blast!  Almost all of my favorite people in the world came to my home for dinner.   Nine of us, both family and friends, came together to celebrate the end of this hellish summer heat and to share conversation and a meal.  It was such a perfect day; I couldn’t have scripted it any better. 

My older daughter, her husband, and their dog, Duke arrived first.  Erin had some “crafting projects” for us to work on for birthday gifts for her boss.  We made, using a ReCherished design, two lamps from vintage minnow traps and fishing lures.  They are for Steve’s lake house.  He loved them and is pleased to put them in his guest bedroom. I couldn’t be more proud how they turned out! What do you think? 

As the rest of the guests arrived, we moved on to more conversations, laughter, and playing games, especially Scrabble Slam and uproarious rounds of Scattergories.  You learn a lot in a short time about people when you play games together!  Dinner was a group project.  Everyone contributed, either bringing food or helping prepare the meal.  As we sat down for dinner, I looked at all of us around the table and knew that we all really wanted to be here and nowhere else. We were relaxed and happy and eating some really great food with really great people who cared about each other.

So different from some other social dinners, when I did all of the work by myself and was anxious about whether or not everyone was enjoying the food and even more important whether everyone was at ease and enjoying each other.  It was a gift to experience the day as it naturally unfolded and to participate fully in the joy of being together. Isn’t life easier when you surround yourself with people you love and like, and they love and like you back?

I read in a book several years ago that at the end of your life when you try to remember your most important and enjoyable days, you can usually just remember snippets from those days, not a complete memory of an entire day. I don’t know if that is true or not, but last Sunday was a full day of memories for me.  I plan on living more of these memorable days.  

Today is October 4th and the beginning of my favorite month in the Texas Hill Country.  The weather is getting cooler.  Thank you, thank you!  After setting records for triple digit heat this summer, today is in the upper 80’s; fabulous weather for enjoying your favorite outdoor activity.  I am on my way outside now.  Wishing all of you a great week.

Love to all!

September 19, 2011
by Mel
0 comments

A Big Life

Email

Good morning!  For the past several years, my social life has ranged from non-existent to very limited.  Living in a small town and having mostly married friends, presents a social challenge.  Outside of family get-togethers , meeting friends for coffee or lunch or an occasional early dinner pretty much defines the extent of my outings.  Recently, I decided that I was in need of a wider variety and busier social life.

What caused this new way of thinking?  My younger daughter’s relationship with a special young man ended a few weeks ago.  Her family and friends encouraged her to continue to do fun things and be socially active, no matter her new ‘single’ status.  I reminded her that boys and men don’t sit around with their friends and analyze and pick apart ‘the what and why it happened’ to the exclusion of going out and having fun.  Why shouldn’t women take a page from men’s way of heart-healing in this one specific way?

I am so proud of Courtney, she caught on very quickly!  Her life expanded exponentially over the past month, not only socially, but professionally.  Check out her new blog, boardgirltravels.com.  After she followed my advice, with her own additions, how could I not at the very least take my own advice and follow her example?  I was in desperate need of a bigger life! I finally launched Good Bounce, and Martha and I launched ReCherished.  The backstory was that I had thought about a blog for several months, and Martha and I had been working on ReCherished for a long time.  It was beyond time to pull the trigger on these two ventures.

Keeping up the momentum, my weekend was also a social milestone.  Friday night was cool (for early September in the Texas Hill Country), so my mom, my niece, and I enjoyed a delicious al fresco dinner and live music at the Tree House Bar & Grill in downtown Marble Falls.  Saturday I received FOUR social invitations!  If it weren’t for time constraints, I would have gone to all four.  However, I was able to make two.  Saturday morning, I went to Camp Mabry where about 200 CrossFit athletes participated in a fundraiser for The Special Operations Warrior Foundation.  This was such an awe-inspiring four hours, that I will have a post later this week dedicated to this event and charity.

Saturday afternoon and night, Courtney and I went to the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Zilker Park.  The two of us, along with about 70,000 other fans, listened to live music on eight outdoor stages in probably the best weather in the ten year history of ACL.  What a way to experience my first ever ACL.  I had my line-up of familiar-to-me artists, Alison Krauss and Stevie Wonder, I wanted to hear.  But Courtney introduced me to two new-to-me bands that ended up being my favorites of the day.  She wanted to hear Fitz and the Tantrums.  Their name alone had me hooked.  The band formed less than two years ago, but their big, soulful Motown sound is from my past.  Picking Up The Pieces  is their song you probably have heard on the radio. Fitz and the Tantrums’ high energy, explosive show had all of us, young, old, and in-between, up and dancing on the Zilker lawn.

The other show was Chromeo.  The electro funk band released their newest album last year with the popular song, Don’t Turn the Lights On.  When they came out on stage with three tall, long-legged female back-up singers/dancers with sleek hair and short black dresses, and the lead singer, Dave 1 in a retro-style suit, I had this deja vu feeling.  When the band played, Don’t Turn the Lights On, I thought they were channeling 1985’s Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love.  You may laugh at me and my musical naiveté, but I just watched the You Tube videos for these two songs; I definitely see similarities.  I rate all of these bands a 98, they have a great beat and their songs are very easy to dance to!

ACL brings together about 70,000 music fans each year.  I noticed an ACL culture on the lawn yesterday; some people wore costumes, many people held banners high to proclaim ‘here I am’, most people danced like no one was looking, but we were all at Zilker to hear the best selection of live music held on 46 acres.  Saturday was my coming out party.  I am not going to let being alone stop me from living a big life.  Courtney, thank you for setting the example.  Erin, thank you for the ACL tickets.

Texas Hill Country Weather:  Marble Falls and Austin had rain over the weekend!  I am so thankful that I didn’t have to do a rain dance after all.  But I am most thankful that it finally rained.

Love to all.

September 16, 2011
by Mel
2 Comments

ReCherished

Email

I am an eclectic. Yes, I turned an adjective into a noun, but it suits me. It is a polite word for saying many things, styles, and ideas fascinate me.  Yes, I “should” focus on just one thing that I really want to collect, study, and sell, but that isn’t me.  Complementary, not matchy-matchy defines my style, both personally and professionally. Did you know that complementary may refer to an addition that produces completeness or perfection in something?  WOW!  And to think in my old life, some people wanted to change that about me?  But not my new business partner, Martha.  We recognize that our separate talents and our common goals meld together to make the perfect business for us.

My good friend and now business partner, Martha, and I love garage sales, estate sales (on ½ price day), thrift stores, and discarded junk.  We began our collecting of used, thrifted, and castoff items separately, but soon recognized our mutual affinity for unappreciated and abandoned treasures.  As both of us were in the throes of redefining our lives and didn’t really want to pay a therapist, we designed Fortune Finding Fridays® as our therapy. 

Initially, we looked for pieces of furniture that had good bones or potential but were in need of our loving attention and a new coat of paint.  Then we started noticing other dusty gems that we just couldn’t leave behind; usually vintage USA.  After filling up our homes and those of our families and friends with our refurbished finds, we started a company, ReCherished.  Today, rather than having a Finding Friday, we are working on cataloging, photographing, and writing descriptions of our recherished  treasures available for sale on Etsy.com here. 

Working in Treasure Cave today. Keep checking in with us.

 We are open for visits!  Please check with us on a regular basis; we will be adding more items almost daily.  Martha’s husband encourages you to PLEASE not only visit our etsy store, ReCherished, but to purchase something, or several somethings, so he can reclaim his porch.  Shhhhhhh… we aren’t telling him that we are still finding great treasures in need of rescue and revival.

Vintage metal-painted, insulated carafe marked Manning-Bowman Co. of Meriden, Conn, USA

Click here to see our items on Etsy.

  Love to all.

 

 

September 14, 2011
by Mel
2 Comments

Welcome to the inauguration of Good Bounce!

Email

Good: a condition superior to the average

Bounce: a movement back from an impact with vivacity, pep and zip!

Good Bounce will be about rebuilding my life as a businesswoman, a single woman, and a divorced mom to grown daughters. Topics may seem diverse for one blog, but rebuilding a life is complex. Topics may appear serious, but will always be written with a dash of humor. Good Bounce will share the zigzag comeback story of a woman.  Hold on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.  When I promised humor, I didn’t say it wouldn’t sometimes be corny.

Bastrop fire as viewed from Austin, Texas September 5, 2011 by Deanna Roy

I have lived in Texas my whole life with the exception of two years in New Orleans, La.  We have wild and “big” weather here, bigger than Texas big hair!  I have lived through hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, hail storms, ice storms, and even an invasion of grasshoppers.  Labor Day weekend, wildfires besieged my beloved Hill Country and they are still not 100% contained.  Friends and neighbors have lost homes, pets, livestock, businesses, and two in Bastrop lost their lives.

As of two days ago, the Insurance Council of Texas estimated losses due to the Labor Day Central Texas wildfires at $250 million. Bastrop County losses, with 60 to 70% fire containment, are currently estimated at $150 million. Other wildfires are being fought in other areas of Texas.  According to the Texas Forest Service as of this morning, they have responded to 149 fires in the past seven days.  If you want to help victims of Central Texas wildfires, please follow this link: http://www.givingcityaustin.com/2011/09/06/how-to-help-victims-of-central-texas-fires/

I pray for the safety of our firefighters, my fellow Texans, their animals, and their property.  The past 11 months have been the driest since 1895, when Texas started keeping rainfall records. We have broken high temperature records for any season for any state.  We broke the previous 1934 Oklahoma record; can you say “Dust Bowl”? This summer has been hellish, Labor Day weekend was hell, and we are not out yet.

Our 10 day weather forecast shows we have a 30% chance of rain beginning Sunday.  I wrote a friend that I would be happy to do a rain dance in the moonlight this week, either fully dressed or even naked.  Perhaps naked would make the clouds laugh so hard that they would cry rain.  I pray for rain.   Good bounce is needed to recover from the fires and the drought.  We are tough, we are survivors, we are Texans!

If you want to help victims of Central Texas wildfires, please follow this link: http://www.givingcityaustin.com/2011/09/06/how-to-help-victims-of-central-texas-fires/

 

Love to all!

August 1, 2011
by Mel
2 Comments

Mel

Email

About me:

Hello, my name is Mel.  I am a 58 year old woman who lives in the Texas Hill Country and am working on getting my bounce back.  Three years ago, my marriage of 28 years ended, I lost my job (we owned our business), I moved from a 100 acre ranch (sold in the divorce), and my younger daughter left for college.  My identity pretty much erased, I either had to start over or just quit.  To add more insults, the U.S. financial crisis erupted in 2008. 

I give thanks each day for my two daughters, my mother, my brother, and my niece believing in me and for the sustained emotional support and laughter of five very special friends.  I must mention my dogs too, who are always “there” for me.  Without my family, friends, and dogs, I would have thrown in the towel!

“Still round the corner there may wait, a new road, or a secret gate (J.R.R. Tolkien).” Tolkien’s words and three years later, I have rounded the corner, traveling an unmapped road with no directional signs.  Now, I have decided to open some gates.