risk

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Are You Sure, God?

I sold eleven greeting cards last week.

I realize this isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, but it was a significant milestone for me. You see, last week was the “grand opening” of my new business, Mountain Plover.

I am offering my services as a writer and speaker, and am working hard as a photographer of God’s fingerprints in nature. I finally have some pictures I’m pretty pleased with, and I had a dozen of them made into 5 x 7 photo greeting cards, blank inside, with blurbs about the subject and about me on the back. Paired with an envelope and stuffed into a plastic sleeve, these are for sale at $4 each. (See my “Card Store” page above.)

Last week a friend and I presented a program on native plants to the Colorado Springs Garden Club. I took the photos and put together the PowerPoint while she researched the plants and did most of the talking. The Garden Club graciously allowed me to offer my cards—pictures of flowers and birds—neatly arranged on a table in the back of the room, with my logo (thanks, Teri!) and pricing displayed on some stand-up signs. Twelve people attended the meeting. And I actually sold eleven cards!

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Life is Fatal

Life is fatal.

Just by being born, we know that one day we are going to die. And while none of us knows the exact number of our days, there are some things we can do, or not do, that might affect when we succumb to our mortality.

More specifically, some of us are risk takers, while others of us prefer to be more conservative with our lives.

One of our daughters works at a small design company. The owner is pretty much fearless. He travels to parts of the world most of us would be happy to avoid. And once there, it seems that he looks for trouble. While he has some pretty amazing stories, he’s not the travel companion most parents would wish for their 28-year-old daughter.

However, since this is a design firm, creativity is a requirement. To get his designers thinking outside the box,  the owner likes to shake these mostly young and single artists out of their comfort zones. Recently, this email was distributed to a number of employees:

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Bearing Fruit: Garden Musings

We’re taking a break from talking about food and budgets. I’m an avid gardener, and it’s time to start this year’s vegetable garden. A “blessed event” this morning inspired the following thoughts:

My lettuce seedlings are coming up! Seeing those tiny cotyledons spread under the plant lights always gives me a thrill. This year is no different. After months of stark leafless branches and brown fields, anything green is a treat. Plus, there’s the promise of salad in those tiny leaves.

In a strange way, this is my favorite time to garden. In my tiny indoor plot of germinating plants, there are no bugs. No hail comes to flatten the fragile seedlings. No dry winds, or freezing temperatures. My growing conditions are as close to perfect as I can make them. This is a great place to be if you’re a baby plant.

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