Secrets to Feelings of Well-Being for Art Fair Vendors
by James Stephen Du Bois
“I am Going to Need Some Help”
So, I have had a recurring obsession throughout my life to see the world through a drop of water, and in my past I used to spend weeks working on the idea before pausing to earn a living and seek more inspiration. It has occurred to me that the roots and dying material clouding a clear view through the first Du Drops represent what I had to overcome in my personal life before I could benefit from the wonderful gift of this idea. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out, The History of Oregon Du Drops Part I. A cleansing process was needed before I could see through to any future, let alone a bright one. Maybe there is something in your life holding you back that needs to be cleared away.
There came a time though that I had to make the choice between two options, to continue pursuing unsatisfactory employment, unsatisfactory for my spirit as well as my wallet, or to dedicate myself to the development and sharing of my idea with the world. If I chose the Du Drop path my spirit would be fed, but would my belly? This is where my mid-life crisis came. I believed in my idea. I needed the courage to act on my belief. Calling on the spiritual powers that be, my conception of such grandeur anyway, I prayed, “If I have this idea because I am supposed to pursue it I am going to need some help.”
A Gift from a Subtler Space
I have often repeated that the idea for the Du Drops was a gift from a subtler space than the one we commonly live in, given to me in order that Oregon Du Drops serve people in this world. I supply my will to the process in order to translate into the physical, visible, touchable realm an impulse which has its origin in the non-physical. When I finally invoked my will, the assistance for which I had petitioned came, and in most unexpected ways.
So many motivational books will tell you at this point that doors open and the path lies clear ahead. Doors need to be knocked on and knocked on, sometimes pushed on, and often, even the right path is littered with obstructions. The world would be saturated with your idea if it was easy to create. This is another significant place your will is required. Sprinkle a little patience in there too to keep you from obsession and obscenity. Any serious attempt at achieving your goal will result in leaps and lulls in your progress. As you move forward you will do a lot more leaping than pausing.
Once the alcohol was gone from my life and I began trusting my inner knowing, and using my will to follow it, I could clearly see what I needed to do: to go wherever these little globes of light led. This progress took time, but in 1999 my friends convinced me that it was finally the right moment to present my Oregon Du Drops at the Saturday Market in downtown Eugene, Oregon. That is where I learned about craft fairs and all of the nit picky rules of administrators and the unspoken rules of etiquette observed among the vendors. It was also there that someone asked if any of the Du Drops had rain from a date a few months in the past and I had to tell her no. But the idea intrigued me.
I decided from then on to identify just what rain each Du Drop contained. Then it stopped raining. For over eighty days, almost the whole of Summer and the beginning of Autumn 1999, the sky was dry. I vowed that I wouldn’t run out of Oregon rain again and would, in fact start collecting and storing it as some people store their wine in a wine cellar. That’s how The Oregon Rain Cellar was born. You can read more about The Oregon Rain Cellar in,The Oregon Rain Cellar, Time in Bottles.
On October 5th the clouds came back and delivered a drenching to the Willamette Valley and I saved a gallon of it. At this writing, I have a quart of it left. As people took to my Oregon Du Drops I became convinced that my prayer had been answered, “Just let me make enough to pay my bills and I’ll be happy and able to keep making them.”
The Promised Secrets
It was also in Eugene that I learned to deal with the frustration of going through all of the effort to get my Du Drops to the Fair and set up my display and stay there all day for no sales. It was especially wearing when I had pressing bills to pay and promises to keep. What sustained me in my darkest times were three core beliefs and the two coping mechanisms that were inspired by them.
The three core beliefs are as follows. I believe, as I believed then, that making, distributing and talking about Oregon Du Drops is what I am supposed to be doing with my life. I believe, as I believed then, that I am getting the help I requested from a universal source, albeit, not all at once. And, thirdly, I believe, as I learned from the start, that everything would work out fine. Following are the two coping mechanisms I developed for myself, and have shared with many to good effect for them. They helped soften the goal-questioning discontent that a day at the fair with no sales can spawn and are explained below.
The “It’s Just Not Payday Today” Concept
My first indispensable psychological tool is the, “It’s Not Payday Today,” concept. This calls for some of the required patience referenced above. I put myself through hell fretting and worrying about when I was going to make a sale before I reasoned this out. I had worked many different jobs for many different people and, except tips, as a waiter, I never got paid on the day I earned the money. Sometimes I would have to wait up to two weeks after I earned the money to see a check. So the idea occurred to me, It’s just not payday today. You hadn’t gotten agitated or stopped working when I knew my paycheck was weeks away. No need to do so now. I decided that I was in this for the long haul and was willing to wait. I can’t count the number of times that phrase has saved my psychological aspect. It’s a rough road, but can be oh, so satisfying, for the spirit. Below I’ll explain how you can extract a little real value out of a day with no sales.
Valuing and Accepting Non-Monetary Compensation
My second invaluable aid is the concept of, valuing and accepting non-monetary compensation. You may have gotten a hint as to what it means by its title. I’ll elaborate. Even on days when a fair didn’t result in a payday there would inevitably be at least one or two people that would demonstrate stunned appreciation in their own unique way. Some would stand silently with their mouth wide open. Others couldn’t stop talking about what they saw within the drop. Others would say, “What are these? I was drawn from clear over there,” as they pointed to the other side of the venue. For some reason, all of these people have felt, have experienced something special to them.
“It doesn’t cost anything to appreciate them.”
After experiencing Oregon Du Drops’ effect on so many people at fair after fair I evolved an understanding that Oregon Du Drops are for everyone who appreciates them whether they buy one or not. When I let myself accept the appreciation in peoples eyes and let myself actually hear the compliments in their words my spirit would be lifted, my physical body would keep working and I was content with what I had. My body has always followed my Spirit, even to the top of Mt. Shasta a dozen times or more.
So, I used my reasoning faculties again to deduce that, if even a small percentage of the people that love Oregon Du Drops eventually buy them, I can happily show them to everyone. Over time my attitude transformed into a phrase that I would use when someone would sigh, “I love them, but oh, I could never afford one,”––“It doesn’t cost anything to appreciate them.” This is our attitude in our gallery in Rockaway Beach.
My three core beliefs and the two coping mechanisms I developed from them have kept me on the path of Oregon Du Drops. Maybe they can help you on your way. I invite you to continue reading about the history of Oregon Du Drops, Cat’s and my adventures with them and several corollaries to my psychological coping mechanisms. You can find all that in the next installment of our story, History of Oregon Du Drops, Part III: Living on Answered Prayers.