Simple

Gosh, if losing someone you love dearly doesn't shift your priorities…

God pushed the pause button on my life. Including our family’s business. As personally heartbreaking as the past few weeks have been, I have come out the other side changed forever. You see, this business, this vision, this mission we have at The Rooted Market wasn’t mine, but His. And because it is His, I have to do it His way. At a pace like a perfectly flowing creek (a vision he showed me). And with the purest authenticity.

I personally live life with 100% authenticity but struggled to navigate our business's social media the same way. Social media seems to be a necessary tool for small businesses these days. However, I have found it to be a double edge sword. While it helps me reach folks across the country, it also takes up so much of my precious time. A few weeks ago, it was feeling like a never-ending hamster wheel. I was constantly shelling out money for Instagram ads to get around the obvious “shadow-ban” our account had been experiencing. I was also constantly stopping our daily activities to take the perfect photo or “reel”. It was taking away from the daily tasks that used to bring me joy. Trying to keep up with the rules and playing the game of “breaking the algorithm” was a tad stressful and it simply wasn’t working for me (or my family). But the online store wasn’t selling as much as I wanted and I didn’t know what other way to bring customers to our site. Soaring shipping costs and the current recession haven’t helped either. The devil was whispering of failure, of fear, of worry, of doubt. So my unfailing God stepped in to remind me that The Rooted Market’s vision was not mine (or the devil’s) it was His…

While in the midst of grief, I realized I had to do this the right way. His way. I needed to pause and reflect. Take my time. I can see the whole vision and I can see how blessed this business will be not for just my family, but the small businesses and people we support and for our customers. I know what the future holds for The Rooted Market and I only wanted to run as fast as I could to experience the blessings waiting for us in the distance. But I was missing some steps. Some being, time with my family. To focus on them. Just sitting and listening to my little fellas talk and ask questions. Playing and engaging. Spending quality time with my husband. Being thoughtful of him again. Just serving my family. And being present in nature. Taking deep breaths and soaking in sunshine. Giving thanks and meditating in prayer. This is what brings me peace and never-ending joy. These are the things that keep me connected to what's real.

So, what does this all mean? It means we’ll still be on social media for now. Maybe not often. But we’re always here. Maybe not here on the internet. But we’re here in real life. Still running this business. Fulfilling orders with immeasurable gratitude. We’ll be at our pop-up shop getting to meet our customers in person. We’ll be planning, designing and ordering new merchandise. We’ll continue growing our relationships with our incredible vendors. We’ll be using all of our beautiful goods in real life. We may take a photo or “reel” every so often. But we’ll be living life mostly. Cooking and gardening and building and learning and loving and praying and keeping all of our daily moments as simply as possible.