Pursuing Your Passion

 

  Isn't it funny how we grow and change throughout our lives?  Just when we get comfortable in a routine, it seems that circumstances conspire to force us out of that place into something new.  At the time, change can be daunting, perhaps terrifying.  However, I have found that in looking back we often see a divine string leading us into new territory---  territory that is rewarding and that quickly becomes "familiar."

  When I was in my 20's and 30's, teaching was my passion.  I taught high school students about history, English, and geography.  I loved going to work.  I loved them.  Sixteen years later, I had lost my passion for teaching.  I continued to go to work, but I didn't love it anymore.  My identity was so caught up in being a teacher, that I couldn't imagine myself being or doing anything else.  I spent an entire school year being miserable and questioning where God was leading me.  It was terrifying!

 Finally, because I felt like I had no choice, I quit my teaching job.  I had no firm plan for the future, but I took that step.  Each step that I took led me further into the world of quilting. 

I began by making samples and working in my mom's quilt shop.  The more time I spent there, the more I enjoyed it.  The atmosphere was wonderful, and the people I met were so much fun.  I met a machine quilter, and admired her work, secretly wishing that I could afford to buy a machine to finish all of the samples that I had made!  Eventually, with encouragement from my husband, I bought that machine.  In order to find a new career path, and to help pay for my machine, I decided to start a business.  Lone Tree Designs was born!  Again---terrifying! 

  Three years later, I love my work.  Each day, whether I go to work at the quilt shop or fire up the longarm, I love what I am doing.  I pursue my work with renewed energy and passion.  I look forward to the new quilts that customers send my way, and I "listen" to those quilts when they tell me how they want to be quilted. 

  I still have a passion for teaching, but instead of World War II or the finer points of grammar instruction, I teach women how to sew an accurate quarter inch seam.  I show them how to use exciting and innovative new tools to make heirlooms that will be around after they are gone.  If I am lucky, they trust me to put the finishing artwork on their masterpieces before they give them away to those who are very fortunate to receive them.