Life in the Village

Someone asked me how life was in our village these days. I don't talk too much about our village too often, but it's a lovely little place that I've lived in for nearly five years now. We attend village meetings (a small but passionate gathering of individuals), there's a wee honesty egg box set up by a local farmer on the main street where you can take a few eggs and leave some coins, a local gardener sells wreaths and bouquets from the end of his drive, and Solomon is friendly with most of our neighbors. These days we don't often see our neighbors and there's no bouquets for sale; the population of our village is less than 300 and these days it feels smaller than that. Quieter than that. There's no sounds of children playing in the park, no neighbors leaning over hedges or stopping their cars in the middle of the road for a chat--we had a sunny, warm day over the weekend and saw barely another soul even though perched in my window seat I have a good view of the main street. We try to get all of our groceries from the wee village store and are grateful that despite having limited options it has what we need. No one is having an easy time these days, but I do think we are fortunate to be where we are with our access to nature and the soothing balm of birdsong on our doorstep.
I hear a lot of people saying "support small businesses" these days, but I don't always see people explain why small businesses matter. But they do matter, they matter in places like our village; they matter because we're all interconnected and when you support one small business, you support several, and have a positive effect on local communities. I'm wearing jewelry from my collaboration with GoodAfterNine today, they're sold out now, but there's other lovely and unique pieces by GoodAfterNine you can order. Like many small businesses GoodAfterNine has been hit hard by this season, and yes, if you've ever considered purchasing one of their lovely, handpainted enamel pieces now would be a good time to support them. Here's why: a brand like GoodAfterNine is more than just the pieces they sell, it's the artisans they employ, the small suppliers they buy their raw materials from, the local companies they print their cards and packages with--every little piece they invest into building and maintaining their business also helps other small businesses. Here's another example: all of the prints and postcards I'm selling will hopefully help support my work, but they also help support my local post counter which is only open for a few hours a week in my village. Even before the lockdown the post counter was struggling to meet its quota--big companies don't care about the needs of our village with its small population, they won't care what it means if that post disappears or how it will affect the village store or the local community. My business is small, but so is my village and I care and can do my best to support our local shop and post so it's available to meet the needs of this community. I also print my photographs in the UK with a company that does editing corrections with experts, not computers (like most larger companies), so that's another job I'm able to support when I can purchase more prints to sell. Sometimes what looks like just a photographic print is more than just that and the enamel ring you treat yourself with helps more than just the company you bought it from. It's hard to see from the outside, but we're all interconnected and I guarantee whatever purchase you make at a small business will help other small businesses too and maybe even small communities.