BrightWingTrail

A long time ago (longer than I'd like to admit) there lived a little girl whose hero in everything was her dad. She thought he was the smartest, funniest, kindest, most gentle and most handsome man alive. He was a quiet, thoughtful man, so when he spoke the little girl always listened intently.

Sometimes in the quiet of the evening he would tell her to listen and she would hear the birds singing their families to sleep. Sometimes he would tell funny or poignant stories of when he was young, like the time his sister woke up to find a mouse sitting on her chest staring her in the eye or how another sister chased him around the dining room with a broom because he got mud on her freshly scrubbed floor.

But other times he taught her life lessons. He told her when she was having scary thoughts at bedtime, she should think about squirrels scampering in the grass and playing in the trees. He taught her to count the time between each lightening strike and thunderclap, so she could tell when the storm was almost over. And he told her that she could be anything in life that she wanted to be...

As you must have guessed by now, that little girl was me, and as corny as the story is, it demonstrates that I believe I truly had the best Dad in the world. I lost him over 20 years ago, but we still talk often in my dreams, and that brings me an immeasurable amount of comfort. I will always carry his many, many life lessons with me in my heart, but as I have grown older I have learned to interpret them from an adult perspective.

For example, as I said Dad always told me I could become anything I wanted to be as long as I wanted it bad enough. Realistically, I now know that every person needs to have some strengths to develop as a basis to build their dream upon. But what I didn't figure out until recently is that a person's mind can trick them into following the wrong dream because that person believes it is the dream that is more easily achievable, or it's the dream that they think everyone believes is right for them, or (insert your own self-limiting phrase here.) The reasons to take the wrong path are never-ending.

My Dad also always told me that he didn't care what I did or achieved in life as long as I am happy. I'm sure he is proud to know that I am very happy now in my personal life. I am blessed with a wonderful husband, two outstanding (adult) children, and two sweet puppies that all conspire to bring joy to me daily.

This Etsy Shop is my attempt to take a new direction and bring happiness to my professional life. For whatever reason, I have squashed my creative side for a very long time, and now I am bringing it out to play...and having a ball in the process.

So why the name Bright Wing Trail? My dad was an avid backyard bird watcher. He fed the birds religiously and enjoyed identifying them by their appearance and their songs. One year a one-legged red-winged blackbird showed up at his feeders, and despite the bird's limitations it kept coming back for more than 2 years. (Red-winged blackbirds typically only live for a little over two years, so I'd like to think Dad played a part in keeping the little guy going.) We enjoyed seeing the bird so much. It was like rooting for the underdog watching the plucky little bright-winged bird make it in the world month after month, season after season.

So Bright Wing Trail seems a very fitting tribute to my dad and what he taught me, and it also symbolizes not taking the easy path because it's less scary, but daring to blaze a trail towards what I want to be.