There are things you do because they feel right and they may make no sense and they may make no money and it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other and to eat each other’s cooking and say it was good.
This quote began a recent email to me from Craftmonkey customer Marsha Gaspari. Marsha briefly explained that there was a box of things headed my son’s way and they were all very interesting but most of all, there was a live swallowtail chrysalis packed in cotton in and it needed to be treated very carefully if it was to hatch. She warned that the travel may prove to be too much, that the butterfly could hatch deformed or not have survived the journey at all.
My son Cole has long been a collector and lover of nature and all its creatures. The only contact I’ve had with Marsha has been through email, when she wrote in with a technical question about her Craftmonkey account and it lead me to her Etsy shop. Through our brief correspondence, I told her of Cole’s love of owls and chrysalis. And I thanked her for being a customer of my company’s just-launched product, when we are just starting out and it matters most.
A few weeks later, we received Marsha’s mysterious email, which set off a flurry of mailbox-checking and speculation. Cole and his little sister ran home from school to peek in the mailbox every day.
This past weekend, they were rewarded. As promised, we received a beautiful box containing all manner of treasures from the natural world. There were photos and charms, seedpods and feathers, and nestled among it all, a translucent chrysalis through which folded, spotted wings could just barely be seen. We thought we saw it move, so set it up carefully as instructed and hoped for the best.
May marks the year anniversary of many life-changing events for my family. My grandmother passed away just a week after my husband and I had our professional lives abruptly upended. We moved across the country, switching the kids’ schools and leaving our former home and friends. Although we’re now happily back in our hometown of Seattle, we’re glad to have that particular year of unkindnesses behind us.
Every day, I’m thankful for the beauty of the city where we now make our home; where owls hoot from trees in our backyard and whales play just a few hundred yards off the shore. I’m grateful for the friends and family who support and surround us and whose love sustained us in difficult times. And I’m so happy for people like Marsha, who remind us that there’s an abundance of both strength and grace in the world in spite of its fragility.
More often than not, change is good.
