The Purple Velvet Cushion

One of my friends recently made some beautiful earrings and posted a picture on Facebook and I offered to buy them.  We were chatting today about it and it all reminded me of a purple velvet cushion my Dad made for me when I was about 8 or 10.  My aunt used to sell beautiful antique lace at antique shows and bring my cousin and I along sometimes.  We would often collect beautiful beads and things and I loved going to the "bead store" to see what treasures I could find.  I started getting into making jewelry, earrings mostly and my Dad thought I should try selling them.  He wanted to teach me about being and entrepreneur; a concept that was beyond me at the time and sort of lame, but something I can appreciate now.  He made me this beautiful cushion and covered it with purple crushed velvet so I could pin the earrings on it and go to the bank or neighbors houses and sell my creations.  My Dad was and is very different, not the typical football watching, carpooling, super involved guy that my friends had for a Dad.  He didn't go to college, in fact he didn't even graduate high school.  He wasn't necessarily "ready" to become a Dad when he found out I was coming.  When it came down to it though, he definitely cared and wanted me to learn some good life lessons.  Real stuff, like how to work hard and earn a living.  How to be kind to people even if they're different, in fact especially when they are.  Maybe I don't have a ton of amazing memories from my childhood, but this is a good one.  Now that I think about it more, it feels like just yesterday that I was shyly asking ladies if they wanted to buy my earrings.  I used my hands, I worked hard to make something beautiful and a couple times I even sold them!  Maybe as parents, we can't afford to get our kids everything they want...(is that so bad?)...but even a small and thoughtful gesture like this will stick with them forever.  Sure as a kid I didn't really appreciate it or understand what he was doing, but I definitely do now.  So today when I talked with my friend about buying her beautiful green earrings made with antique glass beads, I was transported back to my childhood to a wonderful memory and reminded of one of many, many things I have learned from my father.

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