How far would YOU go?

How far would you go to support someone you love?  What would you sacrifice?  What would you change in your life because someone you cherish needs you to be their advocate?  Would you give up alcohol or drugs if your spouse needed to stop drinking or drugging?  Would you move to another city if your child or a dear friend were sick?

Tough questions…easy answers (at least for me).

When my children were very young, each of them were diagnosed with fatal peanut/nut allergies.  I should tell you that I love nuts and peanuts…but, from that point on, nuts and peanuts were not allowed in my kitchen (or in my house) in order to show support for my children’s lifestyle.

My sister has celiac disease….her boyfriend completely, and lovingly, supported her in having an entirely gluten-free lifestyle (he is not sensitive to gluten).  They share a gluten free kitchen.

I will tell you that from personal experience, supporting and sacrificing for people that I love is easy…very easy.  It is what I do.  It is what should be done as providing loving support is a joy in life.  There is no other way to describe it.  It is fundamental.  It goes to the core of who we are as human beings.

What human beings should not do is say to someone they love “well, that is your problem…not mine”.  Unfortunately, I have had this happen to me….fortunately that experience makes me a better person, a more supportive person….because I can understand what needing support really feels like.

Okay…I have written enough of these Blogs that I know my readers are trying to see how I will tie this theme to The Barn Antiques and Specialty Shops.  As I have learned over the past few years, most day to day stuff in our lives is easily tied back to some part of The Barn.  In this case, the connection might seem a bit more elusive….but that is the wonder of your magical Barn.

What I am going to discuss here is the love that your Barnie Merchants have for each other.  Honest to goodness ‘love’.

I’ve seen the love and the sacrifices over and over again.  The Barnie merchants are a family and family supports each other….even if it means giving up something valuable in order to help another.

The Barn is made up of almost 30 independent merchants. Many have been in the Barn for years. Each of these wonderful people have come to recognize the power of our team…our family.  When a Barnie is sick, others give up days with their families to cover necessary work shifts. I’ve seen Barnies work in other merchant’s stores because a fellow Barnie is out of town or physically unable to rearrange/receive shipments of inventory.  Sometimes it is as simple has a work shift being covered because of snowy driving conditions….other times it has meant running someone else’s shop for months while they recuperate from surgery.

What these Barnies understand is that we are stronger as a whole than we are individually.  We are a family and we love and care about each other.  When you have love like that, you can provide support and sacrifice very easily….and it feels good when you do it.

Catherine