Lighting Our Path With Gratitude

Like everyone else walking this crazy journey called Life, I've experienced many dark and scary times. Just being a small woman-owned business owner that has somehow managed to still be around after 25 years, has been a journey punctuated by many dark and scary times. Remember Y2K? Well, that's the year we decided to start selling Shepard Moon products to retail stores rather than just my practitioner friends. For those of you too young to remember Y2K, that was when our entire technological infrastructure was going to collapse at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 2000. It all sounds a little silly now, but we were distraught with worry. For well over a year! I remember drinking a little too much champagne and holding our collective breath watching one time zone after another around the globe not collapse. Whew! What a relief! -----Well, for everyone except my partner who was seriously hoping that all of our debt would be magically wiped out and we would soon be growing vegetables alongside Bill and Melinda Gates at Marymoor Park. You know, after we all came together to live in our newly created, gorgeous commune where all people were equal, free of all possessions, and helpful to one another.  That would have been so cool!

Then as Shepard Moon opened more accounts and got our footing, we somehow managed to get a meeting to show our products to Whole Foods West Coast division. This was the REAL Whole Foods Market. Not Whole Foods 2.0 and not Whole Foods Amazon style. Nope, this was the ORIGINAL Whole Foods Market 3 ownership groups ago!  What a score! This was amazing!  That's when 9/11 happened along with the Anthrax Scare. It was not a great time to be shipping a white, powdery product at a time when the world was holding its collective breath financially once again.

Fast forwarding a few years, there was the financial collapse of 2008 when I was calling my business line from my "landline" to see if our phone and "fax" machine were working. (Yes, and we had a good ol' plug-into-the-wall landline, fax machine, 800 number, and an answering machine complete with miniature cassette tapes when we first started Shepard Moon!).  Business literally stopped. It felt like forever since we heard the phone ring with an order coming in. 

As 'big' as all of these global crises were, none of them prepared us for the pandemic.  Or did they?  That mad adventure was an endurance of faith, surrender, trust, and flat-out grit.  What all of these times have in common is that somehow along the way, we were lucky enough ---- or perhaps intuitive enough --- to have learned to lean in.  We know what our north star is and that becomes our one-pointed focus.  We look around to see where we might be helpful and become equally perceptive to see and acknowledge where we are being supported daily.   

Why am I even talking about any of this?  For many of us, this is another worrisome and fearful time.  And like rugged veterans on any sports team, at Shepard Moon, we're leaning into what has helped to get us through previous times.  Lighting our path with Gratitude is one of our tried and true superpowers.  Practicing compassion and generosity keeps our fears in check.  These are worrisome times for many like-minded people.  But becoming paralyzed with fear and ruminating on the same unhelpful thoughts does nothing positive for us or anyone else.  

So like always, we look toward our North Star.  (To be helpful and healing in all we do). We turn our efforts into finding ways to become even more of a healthy support---- a beacon of light and inspiration for those who are feeling lost, angry, or hopeless.  It's a time to lean in and take care of ourselves so we can become more supportive of others.  We're not trying to capitalize on these circumstances when we say, "It's a great time to take a lot of baths!"  A great time to "keep it simple".  A great time to find someone to be helpful to.  And a great time to be more of the qualities you love about yourselves.  More helpful.  More kind.  More calm.  More loving.  Relaxing and stepping away from the news and the endless commentary stream on your Facebook page is a great beginning.  Taking long, hot baths more frequently will do a lot to calm your mind and spirit so you can bring more of your grounded self to each moment. 

Like you, I don't know what all lies before us but whatever it is, we will meet it better by looking each day for all the things we are grateful for.  By taking really good care of ourselves.  And by finding ways to help those who are struggling more than we are.  Hang in there everyone.  Just like Y2K, 9/11, 2008, and the pandemic, we will find a way to get through this challenge as well.