TRUSTING THE UNIVERSE
MODEL: UNCREDITED, 1980s. BACKGROUND: Y.B.D. TEXT: YOGI TEA BAG.
With just two more Sunday markets and two special Saturday night markets next month, the end of YBD’s pop-up shop season is quickly approaching.
Some days I think the end of market season can’t come soon enough! That’s because setting up the YBD pop-up shop is a HUGE time investment that yields questionable financial returns. And some weeks, the market isn’t even that much fun, honestly. But I also worry that without the market, there won’t be anywhere to publicize YBD, or anything for me to do with my postcards, until next summer.
That’s bullshit, though. There’s a lot I can do with YBD, outside of market season, to make people happy.
For one thing, I just joined this service called PostCrossing, where you can send and receive postcards to and from people all over the world. So I sent YBD cards to Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Chicago just this week! While I was writing them, I was also reminded that I have a number of family members I could send cards to on a more regular basis.
(Funny how the shoemaker’s children go without shoes, right? Because I have sent literally zero YBD cards this summer to anyone I know!)
And then there’s the whole other side to YBD that doesn’t get much press on this website… the fulfillment part of “POSTCARDS & FULFILLMENT CO.”
To that end, I have a resale fashion business where I include fun YBD freebies with every purchase I send out to people. I haven’t listed any items in over a month, because I’ve been burned out from all my market-related efforts this summer. But that will change, when the market’s over.
I’m also in the process of brainstorming how to package and customize my YBD goody bags for sale on this website. Because if my blind-bag-goody-giveaway-extravaganza a few weeks ago was any indication, there are plenty of grown-ups who love a good, colorful surprise inside a heart-patterned cellophane bag.
I could go on about all the other fun and interesting rabbit holes YBD could go down over the next 6-8 months, after the market is over. But I probably don’t need any more reasons to crawl back into my introvert-shaped hole and retreat from voluntary social interaction.
My point is, I don’t have to figure it all out today. I don’t even have to figure out how I’m going to summon the energy and the social skills to get me through another four YBD pop-up shop markets!
I just have to trust that the Universe will see me through, if my aim is true. And that aim is more clear to me than ever.
The whole point of YBD is to make people feel understood, accepted, and loved… just for being exactly who they are. ❤️🔥—Y.B.D.
