Restartistry

Slowly. That's how I found my way into my work, my passion, my calling at REstartistry. I wish I could tell you that it happened all at once and that it's exactly what I had set out to do, but really, it didn't happen that way at all. God had me on a different plan. It was a slow discovery plan and it wasn't until I surrendered my control and gave way to His that I began to taste and see how delicious this journey to REstartistry could really be.

In 2006, I began to feel real discontent, more like a broken-heartedness in my inner-city teaching job, which put me on high alert for the clouds of change that were about to blow in. The needs of the kiddos I had taught for 18 years were increasing dramatically, year after year, day by day, moment by moment, and I felt as if there had to be more I could do to help combat the situation. Simply trying to "teach" them academics wasn't enough anymore; and thus, began my first step out on to the REstartist's journey when I proceeded to get certified as a Women's Life Purpose Coach. With this training, I learned how to help women tap into their passions and talents and discover their life's callings so they could live out the life that God had created them to live.

A few years later came step 2 in the REstartistry journey when I decided to take the plunge and leave my teaching job to pursue Life Purpose Coaching on a full-time basis, hoping to be able to give back to underprivileged women and girls and to make a difference in their lives where I previously wasn't able to do so. Well, that didn't turn out quite as I'd anticipated, and in my new-found downtime, I had abundant opportunities to create and pursue hobbies that I never had time to engage in before. That's also when I began noticing a plethora of doors lying on the sides of the roads as I'd drive through town and I'd think to myself, "It's such a shame that people are throwing away all those doors (amongst other perfectly good items). I wonder if I could make something out of them and help provide some repurposed items to disadvantaged women and kids, perhaps at a local women's shelter?" And with that, I snagged my first door from the curb, and embarked upon step #3 in the REstartistry journey.

Of course I didn't know it at the time, but the snagging of that one door would unleash all kinds of future "junk picking" adventures, to the point where people I knew began calling me to tell me that they had doors, windows, and other kinds of miscellaneous salvage materials that they were getting rid of if I wanted "first grab" at it. And slowly but surely, I found myself tinkering and toiling in the garage into the wee hours of the night coming up with new ideas for what to do with my next door and loving every minute of it! Somehow, I had stumbled upon my true passion and purpose and had found a way to intertwine the techniques of Life Purpose Coaching - unlocking human potential - with a hands-on, creative way to express future hope, hidden beauty, and God's message of transforming love, that all things can become a beautiful new creation!

See, I couldn't have planned it, but when I let go and let God lead me to it, it worked out in such a beautifully creative way, which brought me to today and how REstartistry blossomed into being.

Today, I find myself overjoyed with being able to have an Etsy storefront and the ability to encourage and inspire others to have contagious hope for living a transformed life as a beautiful new creation, and that's why I'm committed to giving back and using a portion of every sale to support REstartistry's work with disadvantaged women and girls, so that they too can come to know how beautiful they truly are.

Thanks for meeting me here and for supporting REstartistry in our beautiful cause to make the world a better place, one new creation at a time! We couldn't do without beautiful YOU!