Homegrown Hospitality

Permission Granted - Part Three

So long story short. within a three week time period in January a simple outpatient procedure turned into a bigger inpatient surgery that typically takes about 6 weeks to recover from.  Three weeks off of work and three weeks of slow moving and well, ya know the best and easiest way to explain things is to say when you see a commercial for a pharmaceutical and it takes 99% of the airtime to talk about the warnings and side effects for 1 -2 % of patients?

yep,

It was like one thing lead to another and it did.

I had to be still, be quiet, I had to rest, I needed to heal and most importantly, I had to be patient. I pride myself in being a good patient, but not so much when it comes to being patient. Being patient was easy for the first 10 days or so because I pretty much slept through them but 10 days turned into 10 more days which lead to 10 more days and so on and so on.  I can look back now and see that the only way to get me to stop so that I could pay attention was apparently to have me completely stop, so that I could pay attention and learn to be patient.

So sorry to leave you hanging again but I am headed to the airport in 23 minutes and will continue this in a few days,..Maybe we are all learning to be patient.  Speaking of patience, it is the word for July in Documented Faith and if you are not following along, consider going here.  Here is a printable for you to Download Week28 and use in your planner, binder or whatever sort of system you are using to document you faith and life.

 

Permission Granted Spoiler Alert

I will continue my story on Monday but wanted to jump in here because I have gotten so many comments, likes, followers, texts and emails in response to my Permission Granted Blog Mini Series.The positive response and "cliffhanger" feelings started to make me feel like I was misleading you about the whole thing. 

SPOILER ALERT: No, I did not meet them BUT honestly, and this has been my thought from the very beginning (and the answer to every single person that has asked "Do you get to meet them???")

"I don't want to meet them, I want to know them"

That might sound sassy, but it is the truth.  This is where I would drop the mic and walk away BUT I will tell you that we met, spent a lot of time with and now consider Rob & Marianne our friends. Ya know when we meet someone and ya just know you would be friends, yep this is what Rob & Marianne are. THEY are a gift to everyone who visits The Magnolia House whether you are inside the house or outside the gate.  You will meet them later in my posts... 

P.S. Don't let the fact that I did not meet Chip & Jo detour you from coming back.  There are lots of twists, turns and a happy,exciting ending (even if I don't know all the details to it yet.)

P.S.S THIS is how and WHY I document my faith.

Permission Granted, Part Two

I felt like it was a wild idea to even think about having a workshop at The Magnolia House but hey, that is how God works.  He is one wild and crazy guy and gives us these ideas (light bulb moments) to put into motion that is, if we listen.

#shhhhhh

I thought dreamed about the possibility the entire way home from our family trip to the mountains (where I had revealed the surprise to my family) totally visualizing the day similar to a 5 page spread that you would see in a summer issue of Better Homes & Gardens. Long farm tables draped with canvas and muslin cloths, big white and cream umbrellas covering what areas were not already shaded by big trees, mason jars overflowing with white and cream flowers, coordinating colors of paint brushes filling more mason jars of clear water, galvanized buckets full of ice and more mason jars ready to be filled with tea and lemonade. There, a small group of us would gather and we would all sit, create, laugh, smile, eat, create more, take pictures of our new friends...pretty much creative bliss.  Can you see it??? I KNOW, me too!!! BUT, really, I was daydreaming about the details and not the WHY. 

I found myself trying to figure out HOW I could have a workshop there, I mean, I could not just open it up to everyone because

1. I knew that everyone and their brother, mother, neighbor, cousin, Pediatrician's office nurse and mailman's sister would want to come and I wouldn't want to be responsible for that.  
2. The reservations were registered in my name and I was the responsible party and geez louise, I mean I know that I don't have crazy people in my creative tribe, but ya just never know...so I couldn't do that.
3. Really, I could not do anything until I asked, and before I asked, I decided to check my registration/rental agreement. 

Nope.

It said something to the effect of "no special events can be held without permission or prior consent"

Dang it.

That was also about the time that I realized it would not work out anyways because we were going to get into Dallas late on Friday afternoon, drive to McGregor (which is about and hour 1/2 away) and then we were leaving on Sunday. The Magnolia Market and Silos are CLOSED on Sunday so even if I was able to have a workshop, I would have had to hold it on Saturday which would have meant that we would have had NO TIME for anything else and well, this was an Anniversary trip so I stopped thinking about it for a while.

Here is what I am really good at, and yes I am totally bragging!!!! I really am a simple person but I over complicate it. Sometimes in a positive way, and sometimes, not. That is where I got my self proclaimed title "Simply Complicated." I overthink and overstimulate my brain VERY QUICKLY.  I clog it up with too much junk thinking about this, that and the other, over thinking, trying to create perfect scenarios, daydreaming about 1001 ways to use Mason jars and what things could be like and completely forget to clear the clutter, pile up the junk and allow any space for God to speak into me so that I can HEAR IT.

Dang it, again.

All of the above was happening as I thought I was recuperating from a fairly simple out-patient procedure when really, I was headed into something completely different than my plan.

duh.

That's because it is not my plan, it is HIS and I was going to need to be REALLY QUIET to be able to see it, hear it and understand it....so that I could do it.

To be continued...