Mary Jo’s Segment on our Prim Family

Hello Prim Talk Radio Listeners, this is Mary Jo with
FineCountryLivingPrimitives.com. I’m sorry I missed last week’s show. My husband
and I are opening our own brick and mortar store here on our property and we are
doing all the work ourselves to save on start up costs. What we are paying for
is our lack of extra time, and last week the days just got away from me!

I’m glad to be back this week, but I’m here with a bit of sad news. A few
months ago, Angie had a wonderful segment on joining eBay groups and networking.
I’ve been a member of a wonderful eBay group for well over a year now called
APCG A Primitive Country Gathering. Many of our contributors here and on
Primitive Times Magazine are also members, and it is a wonderful gathering of
primitive sisters and we share the love of crafting, art, and sisterhood.

Our wonderful leader since the beginning is Kassy. Kassy passed away just
this week after an illness, and it is devastating news for all of us in our very
close-knit group. She was a wonderful person, and touched each and every person
she ever met with her unending kindness, support and love.

We will miss Kassy greatly, and I want this segment to be in honor of her and
what she has taught me. This segment is going to be about our primitive
community.

Until I entered into this community of primitive lovers and crafters, I never
knew that it existed. It’s not a community located in one place, it consists of
many locations throughout our country and even our world, but brought together
with everyone’s love for primitives and things that remind us of the simpler
times.

This community ranges from the online magazines and craft malls, through to
chat rooms, eBay groups and WAHM forums where people gather to meet and chat
about our work. What ends up happening is you see one person in one forum, then
maybe when you read a great online article or hear a segment on a pod cast such
as Prim Talk Radio, you realize that it’s that person you’ve been chatting with
online for a few months. Many forums do exchanges where you are partnered up
with another member and you exchange something handmade and it’s amazing how
much you get to know a person just from that little gesture!

When I speak of our prim community with what I call “outsiders” such as my
family and my local friends and neighbors, people look at me as if I’m a bit
crazy! I will be laughing and tell them of a story I heard from one of my
friends, and they will say something like “Who?” I then usually reply, “Oh, my
online friend Michele, or Renae”, and they just don’t understand that you really
create a bond with these people.

We all share a common thread with our love of primitives, and many of us are
WAHM’s that are always there for each other when times get crazy or tough. Many
times we bounce new ideas off of each other or ask one another for opinions on
store names, or new doll ideas, because only one of us prim lovers can truly
understand what the other is saying or even thinking.

I guess that what I’m trying to say is that it is a large community online
for us crafters and prim lovers, but it is also so small when we all get to know
each other, support each other, and lend a helping hand when needed.

I encourage all of you to get involved with this little community if you have
not already. And if you have, next time you are online, say thank you to your
friends who always seem to be there when you need them most, those who truly
understand how hard it is to work from home and take care of the kids, cook
dinner and do the chores all at once. Take the time to tell those sisters in
your community that they mean the world to you, because someday, they just may
not be there to hear it.

I truly didn’t want this to be a sad segment, and I’m sorry if it sounded
like it was. I want this segment to be a reminder of how special so many of you
are and to continue to enjoy each other’s company. I know that myself, and many
of us, will miss our dear sister Kassy, but I also know that this community
meant so much to her, and if she could, she would encourage all of us to share
our passions with others as she shared hers with so many of us.

May we all continue our sisterhood in her honor and thank you all for being a
part of this special community!

Fine
Country Living Primitives

http://finecountrylivingprimitives.com/store/Default.asp

Everyday Magic

~*~Living For the Last Time~*~

The Russian poet Anna Akhmatova declared to fate that......"I warn you, I am living for the last time." How does that sound to you? Can you stand up right now and say to yourself that this is your one and only life and that by all means necessary you are going to enjoy it?

I don't know if you believe in past lives, that we are destined to continue to live the same mistakes, the same regrets, over and over again until we get it right. I don't even know if you need a speech like this. But, I know I do. I am at a point in my life where the road forks and I'm standing in the middle, looking from left to right, wondering which way will lead me to my authentic self.

If I've learned anything from my mistakes, from my regrets, it's to be happy. To "seize the day" with everything I have and not let one second go by without acknowledging that it very well could be my last. Do I adhere to this as often as I should? Probably not. Do I have moments where I just feel like quitting and giving into my doubts and fears? Certainly. But to know these things, these miniscule delays in my journey to happiness, makes me even stronger. Helps me carry on, helps me to pick up the pieces and put them back together.

It also helps me to know when those pieces need to stay apart. When some things just can't and don't need to be mended. Because, let's face it, sometimes destiny gets in the way of our plans. Much like the old saying....."God laughs at your plans." When something does fall apart, I've learned that sometimes it's the universe's way of forcing you to come into the light. You go kicking and screaming every inch of the way, but when you finally get there you understand why you're there instead of where you "planned" to be. And as much as I'd like to say that I'm a planner, I am not. Although a year ago I had a very different picture in my head of where I would be right now.

But, guess what.....I understand why I'm here instead of where I thought I would be and I'm happy. Life can throw you lemons but you don't always have to make lemonade. Sometimes it's more fun to throw them away.


"The past is not only that which happened but also that which could have happened but did not." ~Tess Gallagher~

*written by Missy Sue of Whisper Moon