Bulls, Boys, and Blessings
Self Checkout
Julia Jacobsen customer service customers Rural Revival self checkout shop small small small town
I grab the items I need and see the only available check out is self-checkout. I despise self-checkout. We run a few small businesses and even if a wish granting fairy gave me free self-checkout kiosks with all the money, space and training to operate them I would kindly say “no thank you”. In a world where many of us are burning the wicks until they meet in the middle, I desperately need those moments in a checkout line to just breath. It gives me a tiny space where decisions are not being made. It can literally be where I let my shoulders down, roll my neck and take a deep breath.
Flame Sparkers and Flame Snuffers
Julia Jacobsen Growing Small Towns Hungry Canyon Rural Revival
I thanked them for the comment, and it struck me that I don’t FEEL inspirational BUT I do look for inspiration like it’s a second job. I feel inspired by others often because I ACTIVELY seek inspiration. I do this to counter the opposite feelings of being uninspired, dull, lacking, depressing. Those are all valid feelings and there is a time and place for them, but you can’t linger there for long.
Creating Space for Daydreams
Julia Jacobsen
It takes special people to have the desire to make a checklist of to do’s so long your sheet of paper could roll out the door and wrap around the block. That is exactly what the Allen’s have done with this space. They just keep whittling away at that check list. The list may still be long but it doesn’t wrap around the block any longer. If you look real close you can see the end of the list way down the street. If you have spent any time in this building you will eventually be asked to take a seat at their table that has been the holder of blueprints, sack lunches and note pads with lists and dreams. You have listened to them daydream and you have let yourself daydream a little about the possibilities of what having something like this in our town could really mean.
Is this what momentum feels like?
Julia Jacobsen Harrington Locals revival rural small changes small town
This little farming community that I’m from is experiencing momentum in a wave that we haven’t had in quite some time. The 80’s were rough on rural areas. As a kid growing up here I had no clue about the business’s that closed their doors or the impact that would have on my community in the decades ahead. I have memories of getting out of school and heading down to the drugstore to buy candy. That big heavy door with the large bell on the front that would let the shop owner know he had a customer.
Sharing the things ranchers don’t talk about.
Julia Jacobsen barn date night loss rancher
As I was preparing this story I shared it with Luke to make sure I got the details of that evening correct. This happened over a year ago and sometimes it takes a year to soften losses. It would have felt odd to share any sooner but I think there is value in sharing the things ranchers don’t talk about.