Travel along with us to some gorgeous beaches with sparkling blue water and powdery sand. Relax in a hammock under gracefully bowing palm trees. Watch a summer storm rolling over the beach, clouds building and seagrasses swaying. Hunt for seashells and build sandcastles.
Love mermaids? You’ll find those here, too. Maybe looking at mermaids isn’t your thing. You’re awesome and fabulous! YOU are a mermaid! Find mermaid seashell bras and tricks for the latest in mermaid-inspired makeup. Create your gorgeous tail and top off your whole ensemble with a fanciful seashell tiara.
There is but one place to find such amazing treasures, and that’s on myPinterest boards. That’s not all you’ll find! I feature our incredible soaps with some on-location product pictures. (Those are soooo much fun to take!) You’ll also be able to grab some inspiration for living our healthy coastal lifestyle with yummy recipes and workout tips.
Coming soon, I’ll be adding recipes that are quick, easy, healthy, and family-friendly. We’re busy people, and no way do we want healthy, delicious meals to rob us of precious family time. (Hint: The first one is for an absolutely delicious slow cooker tomato soup that’s welcome after a late soccer practice or a long day at work.)
Cruise on over to my Pinterest boards and follow us to get the latest updates on all sorts of fun, creative, yummy, and inspirational ideas. Got a board you’re proud of? Share your link below in the comments so we can check it out!
It has been called “the beautiful game,” and when you watch it, it’s easy to see how this can be so. Twenty-two players on the pitch, running, blocking, passing, and kicking, their only protection a pair of shin guards. They don shorts and jerseys, cleats and socks. No matter the weather, the uniform is always the same. Watching soccer played well affords viewers with examples of a clean – though physical – game, good sportsmanship, and the sense that rivals on the field are rivals only for the ninety minutes of regulation game time. Otherwise, they bond over the beautiful game. I have often watched professional or college games and enjoyed the play of muscles under skin as they bunched and released, the contour of a thigh as a player kicks the ball, the elongation of the back and neck when heading it.
As you likely know, our family is big into soccer. My husband played as a child, coached our older daughter, and still loves teaching the sport to younger players. We often see former players he coached, and parents and players smile and call him, “Coach Peter.” I’ve been coaching younger children for quite a few seasons now, even though I didn’t play as a kid. For me, I get to teach them to love the game and play it with joy. Our daughters both have played several seasons each, and our older now referees and will help coach my teams at every opportunity.
When I coach, I have three rules for my team, and we go over these weekly: Have fun. Do your best. Be good sports (both within our team and towards other teams’ players). I was reflecting on these rules over the weekend after watching them play so beautifully in Saturday’s game, and it dawned on me that these same rules can apply to business as well.
Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides opportunities to nurture social interaction skills. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(1) Have fun. If you’re not having fun, what’s the point? It can’t be all fun and games all the time. In soccer, I have yet to meet anyone who loves running wind sprints (though I did have a player last season who smiled through three disciplinary laps at the end of practice). There has to be work. Likewise in business, sometimes it’s a lot of fun. For me, creating the soaps and engaging with customers are what makes running my business most enjoyable. Those are the things that make it fun and that see me through hours of creating content and bookkeeping.
(2) Do your best. There’s an unofficial family motto in my family: “If you’re going to do it, might as well do it right the first time.” Yes, there are times when we make mistakes; that’s not what Grandpa – and probably his Grandpa before him – meant by “doing it right.” We don’t take shortcuts. We invest the time and attention into doing a good job from the start. For example, when building a shelving unit, it’s easy to suspend boards between other boards and screw them into place. However, you’re going to be left with a unit where the boards sag in the middle, the wood splinters around the nails, and the entire thing falls apart. Sure, it may have only taken half an hour to construct, but it won’t be long before you’re having to tear it apart and start over. Alternatively, you could take a little bit more time, adding supports and changing the construction to make it stronger. It might take four hours to build, but it will last through anything but fire.
That’s the same in running my business or any business. I want to invest the extra time and care into making something strong and long-lasting. I could go about it half-assed, but whatever business endeavor I’m tackling won’t last very long at all. It’ll be sloppy and careless, and in addition to being structurally weak, it’ll be unpleasant for people to see. When I’m perusing businesses’ social media offerings or websites and see poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation, I wonder how much care they give their products if their presentation to the world is that sloppy and shows that great a lack in care and proofreading. In this, too, I have the mindset of, “If I’m not doing my best, why bother doing it at all?”
(3) Be good sports. On my teams, good sportsmanship involves how players treat each other and how my players treat opposing players. Even in practice, I don’t allow players to criticize each other or to harp on each other’s mistakes. In play, this means not only watching elbows, pushing, and tripping (all illegal fouls), but also not saying things like, “You suck!” or “You call that a kick?” Taking this a little further, I also encourage them to at least recognize when the other team does something well. Praise such as “Good hustle!” and “Nice save.” demonstrates that they have the best attitude for success on the field and off.
In business – and life – raising others up costs us nothing. In the maker community, we often praise each other’s efforts, and we laugh together on mistakes. It’s nearly impossible not to laugh in commiseration when one’s young child strews black oxide powder all over one’s work space. And kitchen. And powder room. And living room. Then, because they’ve walked through it, they leave little black footprints up the stairs and down the hall. (Can you tell I have firsthand experience with this situation?) It takes more effort to follow a maker in order to point out their mistakes and to slam them publicly than it does to follow that same maker and give them “likes” and affirmations on their work. My business requires all the time and energy I can give it, so finding time to insult another maker is pointless to me. However, seeing their picture on IG or FB and clicking the “heart” or the “thumbs up” takes no discernible time out of my day.
My goal with the kids on the team is not only to give them skills to be tremendous soccer players, but also to give them skills for life. The rules I created and enforce will help them be better students, better workers, and better citizens.
What rules can you think of that would benefit both players in youth-league sports and in life?
You’ve heard me say before that we’re an entrepreneurial family, with my husband, our older daughter, and I all having our own businesses. Our daughter’s mowing business has all but died this year, with many people taking care of their own lawns, a customer moving, and so forth – despite her serious hustle to drive new business. That’s meant she’s had to find other ways to earn money.
My husband’s business continues to grow with requests for some light landscaping and organic fertilization treatments. The girls go out to work with him on those days and take care of those jobs so he can focus on applying the inorganic chemicals. They get to engage with the customers and get paid for the work they do.
Suddenly this summer, mermaid soaps have taken off like crazy! The older daughter is the “Mermaid Diva,” crafting gorgeous mermaid soaps, each one beautifully unique. I pay her for each one. Between making soaps and working with her dad, my daughter has made up about half of her usual summer income. She’s driven, because she is earning the money she needs to complete her soccer referee’s certification course; this will enable her to make even more money over the next year. She’s saving up for next summer’s mission trip, next year’s sports (soccer, dance, or both), and next year’s awesome Language Arts class, should she decide to take it.
Sparkly mermaid soaps in Crystal Coast Morning. They are beautiful!
Yesterday evening, my husband told me about his former employer – now independent – offering customers a discount on their first treatment if they sign up. It’s similar to what a major corporate competitor does, though on a larger scale. Thanks to what I’ve learned throughout the time of my business and the years I’ve been a part of IBN and under the mentorship of Donna Maria, I was able to help him reframe how he thinks about driving his business. The conversation went something like this:
Me: “Big box stores have gotten customers trained to think they must always get a discount. Big Company XYZ (the corporate competitor) probably averages about $50 per lawn, accounting for both postage stamp-size and high-end neighborhoods. The local office may get $10-$20 of that for their operating costs and to pay their employees. Where does the rest go? It keeps the CEO in boats and vacation homes. The techs are like worker drones. That’s it.”
Him: “No company I’ve ever worked for has ever given customers a discount for signing up.”
Me: “OK. And for good reason. Why do you think that is?”
Him: “They didn’t need to. They were selling quality.”
Me: “Exactly. How closely do you pay attention to car commercials?”
Him: “I really don’t.”
Me: “Think about Chevy, Ford, and Honda commercials. What do they focus on?”
Him: “Their features.”
Me: “No. Their affordability. Every single one sells their cars on ‘4000 off MSRP or ‘Just 249 per month.’ They’re selling on price. Now, think about Mercedes or BMW. You know the Lincoln commercials with Matthew McConaughey? What are they selling?”
Me: “Right. And how often do you ever see prices on commercials for high-end vehicles?”
Him: “You don’t.”
Me: “Because those car manufacturers are selling quality vehicles, and their customers don’t care about the price when they’re getting quality. What are you selling to your customers?”
Him: “My brand.”
Me (smiling): “Wrong. Try again.”
He looked at me with a smile, not quite sure what I was looking for. I smiled back and said, “Let me know when you’ve figured it out.”
As indie business owners, we have to be aware of our motivation and even more aware of what we’re selling. We’re not selling a product or a service; we’re selling ourselves. I’ve often privately thought that being a business owner is like legalized prostitution without the sex. We’re selling bits of ourselves to our customers, hoping fervently that they’ll come back for more. Packed in with every soap or every lawn treatment, we’re selling ourselves, our back stories, our experience, and our knowledge.
We’re selling to build our hopes and dreams, to leave a legacy for the next generation, whether that’s the next generation in our families or in the larger entrepreneurial community.
Why do you do what you do? What are you selling to people?
No secret… I walk a few times a week. I’ve walked in pretty-chilly temps and I’ve walked in weather where I begin pouring sweat as soon as I step out of the house – like walking through the sauna that is North Carolina in the summer. I don’t walk because I like freezing my butt off or sweating out two pounds of liquid in under an hour. In fact, if I could get the same benefits from not-walking, I would in a heartbeat, but the truth is, I can’t, and walking really does have a whole lot of benefits – psychological, holistically physical, emotional, and even spiritual.
When I start my walks, within the first quarter mile, I mentally plan my route and start thinking of the very end – that last quarter mile when I can start slowing it down, check my pulse, log in the time and calorie burn, and get more comfortable. I think about which route I’ll follow. It’s always the same four streets, but depending on how I walk them, it can be 2.5 miles or 2.8 miles. It may seem silly to think about finishing my walk before I have barely begun, but envisioning the end helps motivate me through every step and prevents me from taking short-cuts – skipping that little bit of .2 mile or not going down that short street.
Similarly, thinking about the end of a business venture from the outset helps a business owner work towards that goal, that completion, that teleos. As we celebrate 15 years of soapy business, I reflect back on those early days, and I did not have an end-game in sight. It wasn’t until several – SEVERAL! – years down the road that I began to think about things like having a brick-and-mortar store and passing my business down to my children. That particular route requires certain steps and a certain amount of time, just like when I opt for “route A” of my walking choices. Going the B&M route means striving to build up the revenue to sustain such a venture, taking into account overhead, staffing needs, retail traffic ebbs and flows, and so forth. Passing the business down to my daughters requires teaching them every aspect of the business, not just the technical aspects, but also the passion and the why.
Last year in the midst of the rebrand, the brick-and-mortar suddenly became less important to me, and the girls have no desire to run a soapmaking business, though they love making soap. They love the creativity and the design aspects, and the chemistry of it fascinates them, but that’s as far as their enthusiasm goes. So, it’s become time to work with another end-game in mind.
To be honest, I haven’t entirely worked that out, yet. Part of the rebrand involved an increased focus on wholesale and private label, though retail is still a very strong part of my business. At this point, though, I’d more love to have a separate work shop than a full-blown B&M. I’d enjoy the space separate from the house to make, wrap, and store my products. The completion of my business now would be having a strong business to sell off in – ideally – one huge chunk to someone who’d love and nurture it as I do. Again, this route requires a certain path, a certain set of steps, a particular journey to traverse.
Without the finish in sight, I could just meander along, making this product or that product, selling whenever, pushing for sales when I felt like it and ignoring my business when I didn’t. Similarly, when I walk for my health, having a defined time frame and route ensures I do at least as much as I need to, and it also restricts me from following whims that could take me on long treks – not that that would necessarily be a bad thing, but when the family is expecting me to be gone a certain amount of time, being gone for 2-3 times that would cause them to worry.
Goals are essential, but goals without a defined end are just nebulous scratchings on a dry-erase board, the result of moments or hours of brainstorming. As you set your goals, whether fitness, business, or lifestyle, determine to look at the end. It’s likely not the end, but it is an end, often that of a chapter before the next beginning.
I didn’t want to do it. Despite knowing I must get some much-needed exercise today, it was a struggle getting out there. My legs were still feeling remnants of the abuse from earlier in the week, it’s less-than-warm outside, and I have some business-related computer-based matters that need my attention in addition to planning tomorrow evening’s soccer practice. Yeah, I put it off. Even after my older daughter “helped” me out by grabbing my sneakers and workout clothes for me (without my asking her to), I still found another ten minutes’ worth of reasons not to strike out.
But finally, I could put it off no more. Though the sun was out and the sky was a vibrant, cloudless blue, the wind stabbed through my top like knives and stung my cheeks. The muscles in my legs were still a bit tight. I was cold. All I wanted was to be inside in my warm, fleecy bumwear in front of my computer with a mug of hot chocolate getting work done. For about fifteen seconds, I gave serious consideration to turning around and going back home. But sheer determination and nothing short of stubbornness kept me going.
I did it. I did it for 47 minutes and almost 3 miles. I did it despite the bitter wind and my desire to be warm inside. I warmed up and kicked my heart rate up to my perfect target rate. Best yet, I had that time for my brain to be free of distractions, which gave it room to plan my soccer practice, formulate a new direction in my business, and mentally draft this blog post.
Business requires us to push through sometimes, too. I’m facing hours of website work this weekend, which is my absolute least favorite thing to do for my business. It has to get done, though. Other business owners may love that type of stuff but hate dealing with the public (my favorite). Regardless of what your least favorite task is or how much you may not be feeling one of your more enjoyable ones, as business owners, we have to push through and get things done.
The past month has stymied my drive and creativity, and in the evolution of my business, especially over against changing technologies, I have to push through yet again with a new angle and a new way of connecting with my customers. I love my customers, talking to them and hearing their stories, but that is one thing I really miss about not doing as many events – I just don’t get to connect with them like I used to. Sure, blog posts and emails are great, but it all too often feels like a one-sided conversation.
To that end, I am going to be launching a brand new Facebook group just for Coastal Carolina Soap Company’s customers, whether you have bought from us or you just love our brand story and want to stay connected. The link will be going out very soon, so be on the lookout for that. Maybe my blog posts come right to your inbox, or perhaps you see them on Facebook, Twitter, or some other social media outlet. You can find out about this incredible new group by subscribing to this blog or also by signing up to receive our emails (one of which handily contains links to each blog post for the month).
We hope you will join us, and we look forward to connecting with you in new and exciting ways beginning next week!
I went out last Friday for a wonderful trike ride. The weather was in the 70s – shorts and t-shirt warm – and being out pushing it felt awesome! I was tearing through the neighborhood, coasting through the large puddle in the cul de sac behind our house, enjoying the day and saying “hi” to neighbors. Friday was my day to push it, to nip that third mile. I was in the far cul de sac, and it happened. That cul de sac isn’t a constant-radius turn, and I lost control and began to tip. In fighting to stay upright and regain control of my trike, the pedals beat the devil out of the backs of my legs.
“Ouch ouch ouch! Shit shit shit!” Exactly what I was saying as this was happening.And the left leg. It only hurts when anything touches it.
My trike survived with nary a scratch or ding, and except for that cut (which looks worse than it is) and my legs’ 50 shades of purple, I fared well enough. But now I had a choice. I could walk my trike home, where my older daughter was waiting to ride it, or I could ride it home. Walking was safe enough, though painful as all get-out as bruised and swollen as my legs were.
A little back-story… I never learned how to ride a bike. I tried, but I fell too many times, and one time, I got the wind knocked out of me. That experience scared me as I heard my fourth grade teacher’s voice in my head talking about broken ribs and punctured lungs. That was it for me.
So here I was a vast number of years later facing a choice – walk or ride; it was going to hurt either way. After walking around twenty feet or so, I hopped on my trike and rode home, and not straight home; while I didn’t do the route I had planned, I did add a bit extra to the ride before reaching home and getting cozy with two ibuprofen and an ice pack.
Like many entrepreneurs, I’ve fallen in business, too. I’ve been banged up and bruised, even shed a little O-positive. There have been some failures that made me ultra-sensitive, not wanting anything to touch the disappointment, frustration, discouragement, and/or anger boiling inside me. I wanted to give up, just walk the business back to its settled position, liquidate everything, and find something else to do. The thing is, I visited with that idea. I pulled it out, entertained it, and debated it. I dug deep underneath why I was thinking about quitting, and the answer always came back to frustration or something going on outside of my business.
Regardless of how banged up I was or how bad the business bruises were, I hopped right back in the fray. I didn’t quit nor did I give up. I did give myself permission to whimper and whine, to grab the figurative ice pack and pain killer (usually my favorite cozy pajamas and dark chocolate). After my little pout session – little being the operative word here – I reformed my plan and attacked my business from a different perspective. Without the moments of failure, I would have maintained the status quo, keeping on doing business the same exact way. Sometimes, in fact, those moments of failure are exactly what we need to keep us from taking our progress for granted and to shake us out of old mindsets. Often after a major failure, I reframe my thinking in huge ways and my business experiences significant growth.
Saturday, my family and I went to the beach (you can check out that video on my Facebook page), and my youngest and I took a 2 1/2 mile walk on the beach, banged up legs and everything. Today I was back on the trike for a glorious half-hour ride. There are three cul de sacs in our neighborhood, two of them not having constant-radius curves. I didn’t avoid them; I just slowed down and created a constant-radius response with my trike. I learned how to do it different, just as I do in business.
In business, as in life, there are failures and falls. The important thing is, “Never give up. Never, ever give up” (Winston Churchill).
In the business seminar my husband and I attended a couple of weeks ago, the presenter said that exercise is key to developing the right mindset for business success. However, when you’re juggling home life, family life, and running a growing business, how in the world are you supposed to find time to exercise? Are you one of those who joined a gym in January? How many times have you made it? Driving to the gym, working out, showering, then driving on to work or home equals a huge time commitment each day; and it’s so easy to subtract that from your busy schedule.
What if, though, you found an exercise that takes less time but still has good benefits? The presenter shared that he runs a mile almost every day. It takes him about 10-15 minutes, but then he’s done. (He also shared that, when he was in the Corps, he could run three miles in 18 minutes.) Slow is okay; it’s far better to be slow than not to exercise at all, and the slow mover is still making more progress than the couch potato.
I spend 30-60 minutes a morning, five days a week, doing stretches, resistance work, and toning; there’s absolutely no shortcut to that. Then I spent another 45 minutes 4 days a week walking almost three miles. That was before last Thursday. My trike showed up, all sleek bright yellow, 24″ wheels, six speeds, and a seat perfectly suited to my tushy.
Me on my new trike. The reflectors aren’t the only thing making this visible! It’s bright! Those jeans are getting baggy on me!
Now I can bike those three miles in 20 minutes (I’m still building up speed), getting the heart rate up there, pushing the legs to firm up and get stronger. The calorie burn is roughly the same as walking, but it takes half the time. Pretty sweet, huh? On top of that, my knees have been feeling much more amazing, and on the weekends, I have time to add a walk onto that bike ride. Another benefit is, I feel exhilarated for a substantial period afterwards, but then I start feeling really draggy around 9:00, which means I crash into sleep quickly and sleep soundly through the night.
This week’s business take-away is, get out and exercise, even if it’s just for a few minutes a day. It’ll help renew and recharge your mind and body, making it easier to give focus to your business life. That time also allows ideas to fall out of the ether, which can spark some amazingly outside-the-box creative processes! Make it happen!
Last Thursday, my husband and I attended a businessseminar for small business owners on the “Mindsets, Habits, and Actions of Successful Business Owners.” There were a bunch of delicious nuggets I took out of the seminar – I had five pages full of notes! – and I’ll be sharing some of them with you in the weeks ahead. These aren’t in any particular order.
The first thing that comes to mind as I reflect on this seminar is the idea of “quality in, quality out.” If you’re a bit older, you might remember in the early days of computer programming the acronym GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. Both concepts are similar – you will put out what you take in. The seminar leader said he never listens to nor watches the news; he gets daily papers and can pick and choose what he reads. He replaces the constant news flow with listening to podcasts about business.
This is something I have to think about every day with intention. I don’t listen to the news nor do I watch it. There is no news that will be important to my life in six months, so how much less important is it now. There are other temptations on our time, though, aren’t there? Social media is a big one! That time on Facebook catching up with friends and trends is time that’s not going to my business. On top of that, it can easily suck the joy out of a morning before my day has even had a chance to start.
So with what do I replace this time and brain drain? I check email, which helps me begin to put together my agenda for the next day. I cruise through a set of problems at brilliant.org and exercise my math and physics skills. Also, I read business blogs and articles. If I want to be successful in business, then I must make it a point to read what successful people do and emulate those disciplines for myself.
When I put quality input into my brain, then my day gets off to a jazzed up, high quality start. Solving math problems gives me a sense of achievement to begin my day (especially considering math is far from my strongest subject), and reading business blogs inspires me, giving me food for thought as I take care of that day’s tasks. By contrast, scrolling through Facebook first thing often leaves me feeling disgusted or inundated by negative energy – just too much fearmongering, intolerance, and hate. It’s like having the choice between a filling, healthy breakfast or a doughnut. The calorie count might be the same, but only one of those will leave me feeling good about what I took in and nourish my body well.
What’s it going to be for you today? With what will you fill your mind as your day begins, as you get ready to roll up your sleeves and tackle the little-and-growing empire that is all yours? Will you fill it with high quality things so that your output will reflect quality, or are you going for the junk? Choose wisely, for we only get one “today.”
In the days and weeks ahead, I am going to be sharing some incredible business insights I gained at a seminar last week, but first, I want to talk about measuring the intangibles. “Huh?” you may be asking yourself, “How can you measure something you can’t see or touch?” We can measure these by the reaction.
When I add x amount of lye mixture to y amount of oils, there is a noticeable reaction: They emulsify and thicken, their temperature increases, and the chemical reaction produces soap and glycerin. But what about those reactions we are unable to measure?
Today at church, an elderly lady who usually sings in the choir sat behind me. While her voice is “wobbly” in her opinion, I thought she had the loveliest soprano voice, clear as a bell, and that tiny little bit of “wobble” it may have reminded me of my grandma when she sang. After church, I shared with Carolyn what I thought of her singing. She was pleased, but other than that, I have no way of knowing how my words affected her.
After church and after lunch had settled, I donned shorts and sneakers and set out for my Sunday afternoon walk. The weather was decidedly spring-like, and no way was I staying in on such an unseasonably gorgeous day! I fired up the fitness app on my phone to track my time, pace, and distance; tucked it in my back pocket; and started pounding pavement. There was a rather brisk breeze that felt wonderful against that sun beating down, and as I started on the first leg of my walk, everything was great. Then I rounded the cul de sac and went the other way and… Holy crap! That headwind was brutal! I had to work to keep pace against it. My fitness app has no way of measuring quantitatively the extra work my muscles did in battling that wind (twice), or the way my muscles had to work when that same wind was coming at me from the side. While my fitness app won’t reflect the extra work my body did, my body knows what it did: It knows how much energy it used in doing so, as well as the energy it’ll use in the coming hours to repair and rebuild the muscles following that extra workout.
When I send my customers a hand-written note of some sort, I never have any idea how it feels for them to receive it. I hope it makes them feel good; I want them to have positive associations with my brand. I just never know, though. My note could arrive in the midst of a stressful day and their minds are so cluttered, it doesn’t actually register. My note could also arrive when this person is feeling “blah,” so the extra warm touch enriches her day and brings a smile. I still don’t know of a way to measure that quantitatively, and I’m not sure it’s necessary to do so.
These are three examples of actions with intangible results, yet they are not immeasurable. Perhaps we can’t weigh them or quantify them in any way, but the results do still exist. I encourage you this week, do something that yields intangible results, at least one thing that will brighten someone’s day. When’s the last time you said, “Those are some awesome shoes!” or “Your nails are lovely!” Spread some sunshine around. Throw out some good vibes. And, business owners, send some of that love to your customers as well.
It’s almost here! Soooo exciting! What’s the big deal? WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL!?!?! Free shipping day! That’s the big deal!
I’m not just talking this up for promotional purposes (though we are participating again). This truly is my favorite online shopping day of the year from a retailer’s standpoint.
So what makes Free Shipping Day such a highlight for me? Because I get to ship smiles. I’ve been participating in this one-day-a-year event for the past few years, and of all the orders I receive, most are going to other people, which means we’re shipping Christmas presents. The recipients open their packages, bust open the package, read the name on the tag, and they know someone was thinking of them. Then they open the wrapped goodies inside and get to experience our amazing products (if I do say so myself).
A little personal story… I was in graduate school the first time around back in the days when the internet was infantile and online shopping wasn’t really a thing. I certainly didn’t have internet or email myself. I’d get mail order catalogs and thumb through them at night while I was unwinding, choosing gifts for people that I thought they’d love, mailing my check and order form, and waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Finally I’d get the little salmon slip in my mailbox announcing a package had arrived for me, and I’d schlep it back to my apartment, barely heeding the envious looks of other students (“Package! I like packages!” I felt the same way when someone else got one.). Once back in my apartment, I ripped into the box, rifled through all the packing material, and pulled out my order, oohing and ahhing over the items, imagining how much this person or that person would (hopefully) love this gift. Then, I’d wrap the gift and place it under the tree, delightedly expectant of the joy of giving it and watching the recipient unwrap it.
I feel that same sense of expectant joy when I’m wrapping these packages to ship on Free Shipping Day. While I don’t get to see the recipients’ faces, it still excites me knowing that I have some small part in the love they might feel in this holiday season.
