Grab a cup of whatever... let us chat!
Good Morning!
It is dreary and dank but it is also July still and not hot as blazes so there is that!
How are you all getting on with your summers?
Have you been doing some of what you had hoped to do?
I have, no matter what found ways to be grateful for every day.
Summers are short in the Northeast and we have to enjoy every day
that our fingers are not frozen chipping ice out of chicken waterers.
here is your friendly reminder to jot down what is left on your summer list.
Plan for some of it and let the rest just happen...organically.
Gathering around the table, sharing thoughts about mundane things...
That is what is really needed before we start to tackle the hard things.
I can not tell you how many people I have had spur of the moment conversations
where we see eye to eye on so many hard things.
It first started with a , *Hi*.
Then some common situational banter....like the weather
and we organically build upon that.
May be 15 minutes or 2 minutes and we know so much already of what
we share common ground about.
It isn't us vs them or judging people for their clothing or anything like that.
That is silly.
Either you can heal the rift purposely caused in the world now or
you can prolong it.
No-one talks about the shift in population during covid. How people
just up and left many areas to embark upon a new life elsewhere.
For many people it was a deeply personal reason.
For others it was a break in life that one never gets to reset it the way you
may have dreamt about.
That and the cancelation of so many friendships and even close
family relationships displaced people in ways never seen before.
No one talks about it.
And still, when you are waiting in line for the bucket of fries at the country fair
you can chat up new friends just like that.
We have not lost the ability to have tolerance and patience,
no we just need to exorcise the muscle again.
It was never okay to do to one another the things we did.
The damage caused by the situation itself was bad enough.
Then we had the narrative that there were bad people and good people and why.
If you watch any mainstream news you know this.
We were fed garbage & lies.
Still are BTW.
However , when we gather organically we break that narrative and
meet people where they are.
The Village Mercantile is that place.
We do not have to agree on everything, but we can hold conversations
like grown adults and walk away with our characters intact.
We are all not here by accident.
This time, Us and what is happening is not by happenstance.
This is your time.
My goal is to leave behind a better world .
Grace and Peace filled.
I made a list.
A simple one at that.
But today, right now I am here....
the sentence at the end is the nugget for the day I hope that you remember.
Once you lay out your priorities....
EVERYTHING else is static.
Just noise in the background.
You have a choice as to whether you listen in.
What you listen into...what you direct your daily resources to.
Everything else is the static.
Thanks for visiting The Mercantile today.
I pray you all have a happy day filled with unexpected pockets of joy.
XOXO
Raven
🐦⬛
