What if we’ve all been thinking too small, too limiting? What if you really can have it all--the old, the new and the next?
The gate was open today. And while I was here alone, the doorbell rang.
I figured there was a company here to do maintenance, so I cracked the door open and began to deduce what the man standing on my porch needed. Once he began speaking I realized he was soliciting a service.
He asked if the “man of the house” was here and I told him, no, he is not. He asked when the “man” would be back, and I made up some time, some name and gave him our business phone number.
When I shut the door what resounded in my head was that for eight years women have run this property.
Women.
Women have kept the lights on, the grass cut, the business running.
Women have lived through pain, loss and grief.
Women have believed in a future, a purpose and kept marching forward, sometimes dragging each other along.
Women have admitted weakness, allowed mending of wounds and have held on tightly to dreams.
What I should have said is “there is no man of the house” or, “I’m one of the ‘men’ of the house.”
But I didn’t.
I smiled, nodded and went back to work, knowing, seeing, that by merely living our lives the last eight years we’ve defied the odds.
Not just because we’re women keeping up a 12-acre property, but because we created a business that carries weight in its name.
We’ve watched hundreds of couples say “yes” to forever and welcomed thousands through our doors.
We’ve defied the odds on what tradition, home and life look like.
And we’ve kept on running even while taking a break from booking events at Tuscan Hill.
We’ve kept on running in the face of uncertainty about how to find the right people for Tuscan Hill so that we could move forward with our new business ventures.
“Put it on the market,” some of our friends say.
“Lower the price and just let it wash so you can get out and onto the next.”
“Sell it as a residence and forget the business.”
On and on.
So many well-intentioned people trying to help, trying to help us solve the dilemma of “how do we move forward?”
What if we’ve all been thinking too small, too limiting? What if you really can have it all--the old, the new and the next?
To be continued.
