Have you ever had a time in your life that everything around you seemed to indicate it was time to do something? Last Thanksgiving, it seemed that God was simply putting one of my hometown’s, Camden, Arkansas on my mind. We moved to Camden when I was eleven. My doctor was a small town doctor and worked entirely too much growing up. He believed in being fully present through births, deaths, and walked life out with patients. Small town doctors are beloved, but often over worked and under the gun to make strong decisions with little rest. An opportunity came to move our boys, then in high school, to a bigger town, and perhaps give my father a chance to have less “on call” time and more family time. In an instant, our family moved while I was at camp. (they probably considered not leaving a forwarding address for the hyper child that was me)
My second hometown of Camden has a lovely annual event named the Daffodil Festival. This year I chose to come home, as I often do, to see the beautiful blooms and to get a bit of work done on family property and businesses. Who knew that I’d choose that weekend to hear God’s promptings and four weeks later we’d be setting up our business and our life to live at least part time in this town again.
The adventure begins as we continue to work on the tacky brown house but have now added Redbird Cottage to our perches. I love this little house, it is where I met and married Feller. It is where our families became one and the children learned how to be brothers and sisters. It is a childhood neighborhood where I have many beloved memories of the next door neighbors who took time for a little girl and taught me much about life. I hope you’ll come along as we live this adventure…for it’s going to be one.
My dear friend who left us not long ago, Virginia Turner Smith, had “Marvelous Mondays” in Stephens, Arkansas, a way of creating events on that day that made a difference in the lives of children and townfolks. My salute to her “Ambassador of the Capital of the World” Stephen, Arkansas is to create her well being practices where ever I go..one such process is our #15MinuteMiracle where we focus for 15 minutes at a time to do what we can, with energy, where ever we are to effect outcomes that matter.
This week’s #15MinuteMiracle will be based in before and afters of hanging pictures in Redbird Cottage. We’ve been buying furniture at auctions and loving every.single.minute of reacquainting ourselves with the charming folks and practices of our little town. A #15MinuteMiracle is simply that. A focused time of deciding what you will fully engage to get “off your list” for the day. We join together on Facebook at http://facebook.com/sweetieland and share the celebration of before and afters! Join us!
