The Test of Time

One of the hardest, yet most rewarding, things that I’ve ever done is being married.  Josh and I have been married 11 years this coming October and are going on 17 years of knowing each other on the same day (October 19). Last year, our 10 year wedding anniversary caught us both by surprise. We couldn’t believe that we had been married a decade, and now I’m looking at the fact that we’ve been together a few years shy of 20 years and it blows my mind. A testament of our marriage kind of hit me tonight when one of our friends gave us the biggest compliment I could’ve imagined. She told me that we basically radiate the passion and affection we feel for each other through to others.  She told me that when she met us, she told herself: “Here’s a couple with a marriage that has endured trials and has sustained the test of time.” Or something to that affect. And we have endured many trials in our marriage. It’s not easy and some days, it can be hell on earth. 

That same friend helped me see how much we share our spouse's emotional ups and downs. I carry a burden that Josh has with himself, but it affects me as much as it does him.  Josh desperately wants/needs success in his life. I want that for him more than anything else because I know how much happier he would be in general with that success. That’s not a bad goal by any means. I think it’s natural that people want success, but it’s a burden at times to us because of how much emotional energy it takes up. And starting Brass Hammer Designs was a huge risk for us to take because we feared it wouldn’t be successful. Josh has put so much pressure on himself to be successful that daily he struggles with the potential failures as well. I try to be an encouraging wife to the best of my ability and I hope he feels the love and pride that I have for him because I truly believe he is more successful than he knows. In our society, unfortunately, the buck stops here though. Success is defined oftentimes by the dollar figure that is associated with the action. And to be honest, at this point, since we announced BHD’s start-up, we haven’t earned one penny and that puts even more pressure on the table. We have a few orders that Josh wants to get started on, but we’ve been so focused on getting the equipment, raw materials and marketing tools necessary to make the business successful instead.  We’ve had to do those things in order to make the shop more efficient and conducive to filling those orders. And to free up some of the creative juices that Josh has that originally gave us the idea to start the business anyway….. 

So, I leave you with the honest truth of this commercial because it’s the most accurate way I can present what we’re feeling right now. We're looking for that easy button right now to start bringing in the success. Too bad Staples can't give us that..... http://youtu.be/MXO46Jbtzuk