What are you called to do? (part 4)

On to part 4 of our story…(you can read part 1 here & 2 here & 3 here)

After that yurt building adventure and my time as a bookstore owner, I knew that community needed to be a part of my life.  And not just any community, an intentional, preferably Maker, community.

I started Kinship Handwork from a desire to have retreats, circle up with women, and teach classes so that I could connect to other makers.  

Not only to connect, but also to empower and help other makers to understand how capable they are, and how they can create both the things in their lives they want and the life that they want…with their own two hands.  To remind them that they have the ability and the power to do so.  

I flounder in my own ways, but I have a fearlessness around making mistakes and trying new things and a deep sense that I can do it…whatever it is.    And I understand that this is one of my gifts to share.  (And to be clear, I believe we all have gifts to share, or a purpose if you will.  What’s yours? Seriously, hit reply and tell me!)   

It’s part of why the calling to share, teach, and circle up is so strong for me.  I’m one of those people that the minute I learn to do something, I want to share it.  

You almost got a post today on how to install a chimney instead of this one…I’m working on renovating a small home on wheels and that’s what I’ve been learning about…installing wood stove chimneys.  But alas, here we are.

My intentional living journey really was first fully sparked when reading a book called “Julie and Julia”  (by Julie Powell). When I owned the bookstore we had a book club and we came together, ate lovely potluck snacks, drank wine, and read books!  It was really wonderful!

Anyway, one of the books that we read was Julie and Julia.  I found it simply delightful that she decided in the midst of a sort of depressed and listless life to just give herself a challenge.   Her challenge was to cook each of the recipes in Julia Child’s French cooking book and to give herself a year to do so.  That challenge alone brought so much depth, value, and joy into her life and I found that to be such an amazing thing. 

It astounded me that joy can be so easily within our grasp if we can simply enter into fully living and mindfully choose to make or create or give ourselves a challenge to keep us engaged.

Or, another way to put it, a way to be present.   

Next week… 

Tell me about a pivotal moment in your life.  Simply hit reply, it’s just me back here.

In Kinship,

Tina