How I got myself into this mess
Wait, did I get myself into this?
I couldn't imagine anything else more suited to me (except maybe writing), but what's funny is that I had never really done anything artistic before.. never any woodworking.. never any painting, but here I am turning out cottage style furniture and decor and turning it into something I can do for a living.
It all started around 7 years ago.. around the time my daughter McKenna was born (2nd child, 1st girl). Though it was mostly precautionary, she spent her first few weeks in the NICU and my wife and I spent most all of that time with her. (She's just fine now by the way.. 7 years old, happy and healthy and driving her mother and I crazy as much as possible.) Anyway, its funny how time away from the normal routine will get you thinking... my current job just wasn't cutting it - the hours, the pay, the atmosphere - it wasn't working for any of us.
But what else was there? I hadn't finished college (ADD), hadn't stayed anywhere long enough to gain any experience (ADD), and had trouble staying motivated long enough to forge my way in any new direction (ADD). I had (still have) a great wife (she's fantastic, really) and two small children, and when the jobs available to you would just cover the cost of paying for daycare so you can work, its not worth it. It'd be better to stay home, right?
Somewhere in the midst of this inner turmoil a light began to dawn, and by the very last day of our extended stay at the Brookwood Hospital NICU, I was ready to let it out. 'Lord,' I said, 'I want to get in to decorative woodworking.'
'What?' you say. 'Where did that come from?' you ask. Well, to be honest.. I was not really sure myself, although two straight weeks of HGTV on the Hospital Television must have had something to do with it. Other than that it was as completely random as it sounds.. as I have already stated, I had no prior woodworking experience nor any painting or finishing experience. In fact, I had no leads, no ideas, and no close or distant acquaintances that I new of in the field. I had a prayer, and that was that.
Question. Have you ever prayed a prayer and you just knew there was something more to it? Like something changed when you prayed it? Or like somebody heard it and was doing something about it? And for no other reason than you just knew that you knew.. you were confident that the mostly impossible was about to happen? Well, for me, this was one of those times.
And it did happen.. it took all of about 3 days!! My little (but growing) family and I were spending the evening at my parent's along with my older brother John and his family (his wife Amanda and their 3 boys) when I just felt like I needed to blurt out, 'So I want to get into woodworking.' ...and that's all it took.
I hadn't the slightest idea, but John had been working on an upscale line of shabby chic picture frames for Amanda's booming photography studio, and the work was becoming too much for the spare time he had to put into it.. 'Well, I have a job for you if you want it' he said, and as confident as I had been up until that point, I'll have to admit that I was still completely shocked when it happened. Maybe there isn't anything that ever really prepares you for the miracle of answered prayer.
The rest is History... I spent the next few weeks with my older brother while he taught and trained me and gave me tools and helped me set up my own shop, and it all came pretty easily to me, which I believe to be another gift from the Great Giver. Since then it's been up and down, and I've lost it all and hung it up and come back again with new vision, better than before. And I've been able to spend the past 7 years in the shop (mostly) with Him.
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