our song
Welcome to As Goodness Follows story time, where I remind you just how cool and crazy life can be. You know how things come up in your life and you can either take them by the horns and run, or you can stay benched, waiting for a later date- maybe a time when you will be ‘more’ ready? Well, I am one hundred thousand percent the type of person to choose practice time over game time. My body was notorious for becoming a ball of nerves before a swim meet or a basketball game. In fact, it was a family rule that we play a sport each season of school (so three per year) and I chose golf instead of cross country as my fall sport. Bless you runners, I could never do what you can. Anyways, just to illustrate how much being “water girl” is in my blood, I took private lessons to become good enough to make the golf team and then I let my performance be as lackluster as possible so that I never had to go to a school golf tournament. I successfully stayed on the practice team all four years… sorry mom and dad.
All that to say, this tendency to quit before I fail has followed me well into adulthood and it really was never challenged until I left my job in architecture and started this business. Becoming a full time artist requires constant practice AND constant game time. I’m not just the artist- I am now the marketing team, the financial advisor, the vision coordinator, the packaging department, the head of socials, etc. etc. I never would have guessed that being my own boss would challenge a song that I tuned my whole life to. But God is pretty cool like that, isn’t he? He sees the patterns that we lose ourselves in and uses disruptions to re-orchestrate our lives so that it goes from my song to our song to His song.
So, come December of 2023, I am faced with one of the craziest disruptions that I’ve had since doing art full time. It’s peak commission season and obviously the holidays require a lot of time and effort from our personal lives- I just felt like I had stretched myself as far as I could go. Which is the exact point that the coolest opportunity made itself known. A good friend let me know that her interior design firm was hosting a maker’s market in a couple of days and they had a vendor drop out at the last minute. I was immediately faced with my song vs His song. Do I sit back on the bench and wait for a time when I feel better prepared? Or do I dive in with what I have and entrust the rest to Him? Filled with some other-worldly courage, I went for it and in two days I had made ten new pieces and prepped a ton of old work to sell as prints. My ball of nerves returned but I still made it to game time, I took His hand and left the bench. Let me tell you, the relationships that have come from it are just, chef’s kiss.
I have now had my first successful market because of a relationship that came out of that time and I have met with an interior designer twice since she found me through that market’s socials in December. I can view these things as baby wins or minor coincidences, but if I do that, I am negating the ways my God loves me. He moved me past a pattern that held my life in a choke-hold and THEN he produced fruits that proved his faithfulness. He could have stopped at the first but he just keeps going, his blessings come in abundance and they always seem to start inside of us. Not because of anything I did or can do, but because of how much he loves me. If you are stuck in a pattern or a way of thinking- maybe it’s a combination of the two like mine -God sees you and he sees the way out. There’s no maze too complicated for Him, just take him by the hand and learn His song.
-M
where to find me
ig/ pinterest/ shop @ asgoodnessfollows