Overflow
If you live in Winston-Salem or the Piedmont Triad area, you've experienced the overflow of rain that has been happening this past week. It's hard to believe it could rain this much! Earlier this week, I was talking with a new-found friend about the rain and she mentioned that she purchased a 64 gallon rain barrel and placed it on the ground beneath where her roof ran off. The barrel was full in TWO hours!! Crazy!
I love the rain. I love the smell of it, the rhythm it creates against the roof, the different variances of sound as it hits the leaves or a pond, the lush growth it instigates and, in the Spring, the fact that it washes away the pollen. I have to say my absolute favorite rain is a warm, muggy, summer downpour.
All the rain that has been pouring down has been the perfect parallel to the blessings that have come into my life - and the blessings that have been brought to the table for Jasper & Fern. I have hit walls, personal struggles, business struggles and occasionally hit detours that seemed to come at (seemingly) the worst time. I've had my own doubts about whether I can make this happen. Repeatedly, though, I am shown how the detours God put along my path are not obstacles but, truly, a tender guide towards the right opportunity. The right people have said "no" only to open a door at the precise time another person is ready to say "yes;" delays achieving a goal have given me time to realize a better more efficient way to operate; financial strain has allowed for my support system to bless me in ways I could never have asked for; friends and family have offered their services to lighten my task load; people have connected me to contractors, electricians, painters, you name it - and it has made this journey incredible. In all, the struggles I have been through to make Jasper & Fern work have produced the most abundant overflow of blessings.
It is very apparent to me that Jasper & Fern is much more of a community than I had even envisioned. I thought that those of us who worked there and our clients and customers would be the community. How wrong and how blessed I am for being wrong! A community has formed around the Jasper & Fern heart that is testament to the power of what we do. Jasper & Fern could not exist without each and every person who has reached out. I am absolutely elated at what is being built! I am incapable of expressing just how incredible Jasper & Fern will be. It is a vision that has taken on a life and heart of its own and I cannot wait until we open our doors for you!
Come and be a part of something powerful. Come and be replenished with us.