Rena Reads: June

Rooted Wildflower, my new business, is a collaboration of all the things I love. It’s a new and used bookstore that also carries local Michigan products, artisan goods, gourmet infused olive oils, and spices.

And somehow, we have already made it to the six-week mark!

If you are a parent to a child, a pet, or even a business baby of your own, you may resonate with this: time goes extremely fast, and yet somehow it also feels like they have been part of your life forever.

This is a dream I didn’t know I had, and yet it feels strangely familiar — like maybe I have wanted this forever.

One thing I have been so overwhelmed by, and so grateful for, is the way people in my life have shown up on this journey with me. I have made so many new friends in this short time and connected with so many new people that my heart is bursting with joy and gratitude.

Something else I am feeling, too, is gratitude for my “old” friends.

The ones who are gold. 💛

These are the people who have known me through all of my growing pains, the moments I wish I could take back, my “wild 20s,” my broken hearts, spending my entire 30s in the new-parent baby stage, and now watching me find myself again in my 40s

I have always felt like I’m “too much.”

I make quick decisions. I make a million mistakes. I am the child, the friend, the girl who DOES things.

I have a thought, and I act.

I meet a boy and just know he’s the one. I marry him after seeing him three times in person, and within ten months.

I decide to get my first tattoo, and then somehow have six within two years — all without what may look like a lot of thought from the outside.

New business idea? Open within a matter of months.

I am on my SIXTH business at 44 years old, and currently still run two. So that alone tells you there have been pivots, ideas that didn’t work, and seasons that simply changed.

I could list this “too much” stuff forever.

But here is where my golden people come in.

They love me through my too much. Through my mistakes. Through my “I have an idea” moments. I know sometimes the choices I make even scare them, and I feel that. But they love me. They support me. And when something doesn’t go right, they never make me feel like I shouldn’t have tried in the first place.

I have been collecting my golden people since childhood. Some since my teens. Some from my 20s, when I was learning who I was as a young adult. Some I met in the challenges of motherhood and parenting.

And this golden crew of mine has shown up again.

In less than two years, I moved from my home of 12 years — the home my husband and I purchased together, the home I brought my babies home to, and the home where I made some of my golden friends from my 30s.

But I did this to return to my roots.

My hometown.

The place I feel I belong.

Hence the birth of Rooted Wildflower.

I sold my first baby business, which also gave me some of my golden people. I started a new business in my hometown and felt like, “This is it.”

But alas, in less than six months, I am living a new and another “this is it.”

It’s a wild ride being my parent, my sibling, and my friend. My golden people support me, but they also show concern through conversations that sound like, “You take on too much,” and “I’m worried about you.”

But my golden people also say, “I’m not surprised,” “This is so you,” and “If anyone can make this happen, it’s you.” ❤️

June kicked off the first book club of Rooted Wildflower. The book choice was The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Wow. Does this story ever fit my current season of life.

The story makes you think about the choices you could have made and where they might have taken you. The smallest decision can change your track forever. I always have thoughts about this, but right now it especially feels like I am living through it. This story gives the character, Nora, a chance to see where different choices in her life could have taken her.

Don’t we all wish we could see that? To experience the “what ifs,” while knowing they aren’t your current life?

We can only live the “here is where my choices have brought me.” But the story gets you thinking about how different your life could be — and whether it would be better or worse.

This is the kind of book that will be a different experience for every single reader. It will make you recall and question choices within your own life that have already taken up space in your mind with questions or regrets. Nora also gets to see how the paths she could have taken affect her own golden people, and how her choices change the relationships around her.

Reading this book felt like a daydream, but in reverse. You aren’t thinking about your future. You are wondering about your past.

With all the changes I have recently made, I have already been wondering how this will affect the story of my own relationships and my own golden people. Some friends it has brought me closer to, and some it has naturally created distance with. But I am okay with that.

They’re golden, so we will still be there for each other, regardless of where our relationship is currently.

Having this story not just chosen by me, but as a group, feels like a little God-wink — a reminder that He can always weave everyone together.

Ultimately, the story I have chosen as my root life, like Nora, is the path God has given me. And if at some point it’s not right, it will still be okay.

I am ending this blog with one of my favorite and well-known quotes. It is a beautiful sentiment because it reminds us that difficult seasons are temporary — the story isn’t finished until it reaches its ending.

“It will all be ok in the end, and if it’s not ok, it’s not the end.”— source widely debated 🥰

~ Serena