Spring Forth

"Once in the midst of a seemingly endless winter, I discovered within myself an invincible spring."

I'm doing a wedding cake, of sorts, for the auction (tonight) that raises funds for my niece and nephew's school. They go to a private, Christian school that I find to be so transformational. It's a beautiful school, but not as one would perceive beauty (in the physical sense). Beautiful as in what "it" teaches kids and how they are challenged and how they are given expectations beyond the normal compass of "acceptable". They are taught to "reach higher" and not just in a biblical sense (as in towards God & Jesus higher) but within themselves and within their family and communities. Reach Higher. Wouldn't that be great if all of us were taught that at a young age to "Reach Higher"! Imagine what would spring forth from more of us?!

The cake is a simple, spring-like, fresh, pure kind of cake. White, soft green, lemon...you get it - refreshing. When I am planning a cake (a menu, a bathroom, a kitchen, an anything) for someone, I like to ask questions that find out the authentic FEEL of the event or end result. I like to find out what makes someone tick about something. Really tick. I think that people should stop asking "Will that be all today" (because, for the record, I'm going to start saying - "Isn't it enough?"). And instead ask your customer what motivated them to do business with you today. Something like this..."Have we fulfilled your needs today?" or how about "Thank you for supporting our business today. What made you choose us today?". Real questions that get to the heart of why people "do" what they do. "Will that be all today" - seriously, what an ungracious, unhelpful, unsatisfying, undeserving, and unfulfilling question to ask.

Instead, I asked the lady organizing the auction: what her theme was, what I could do to make the cake special for the event, what did she need from me to know that I would not fail to deliver the cake on time and with no extra effort or worry on her part. And I will be leaving here shortly to do just that. Deliver a lovely, simple, lemon cake with white frosting and fresh flowers on it that bring in a bit of the muted green color she has chosen for tonight. And while it is an honor for me to do anything that helps my niece and nephew's school, I will also thank my "customer" for choosing me to do this. Because it's enough.

It's going to be 40 degrees here today. That combined with my lovely spring cake and an event that my daughter and I get to play dress up to go to tonight reminds me that this long winter is nearly over and that the robins will be waking us again soon. That spring has sprung and God has given us another chance to create new possibilities for greatness.