Mari Johnson invited me to Austin to speak at her Back Home Store.
I never met Mari before, nor did I know anything about her, except that she seemed like a kindred spirit from the email she sent me. Last Friday evening Mari drove to Marburger, and at the end of the day I hopped in her car and drove with her to Austin.
An hour and a half later we were fast friends, it was as if we had been separated at birth and found each other… we could not stop talking.
Then I asked her the serious question to my purpose of being with her, "What am I to talk about and what is your shop like?"
I usually jump and ask questions after wards.. miraculously, ninety four percent of the time it works out better than if I had planned it.
Mari had me stay overnight in her lovely home, the next morning I woke up to a homemade Tex-Mex breakfast… Mari knew that I craved Tex Mex food. How many strangers do you take home, and feed them their heart's desire? It was renewing to find someone like Mari…
Open heart generosity.
Mari has been in the home furnishing business for twenty nine years, most of the people working for her have been with her nearly as long. Her business feels more like a family and her shops are more like a well loved home. Mari offers affordable, hand picked reproduction furnishing with an French antique flair. If you enjoy French Home style you might want to take a peek into Mari's Back Home shops in Austin.
Mari invited her customers to come and meet me share about living in France… It dawned on me that she was serious when I saw people gathering in her shop…. The reality struck me, –Oh I am going to talk, not just gawk at all the pretty things in her shop, not just hang out with Mari and eat Tex Mex…. Oh I am actually here to share something about France– When Mari introduced me panic settled nicely under my skin. The first words out of my mouth were:
" Mari, I cannot talk I have gum in my mouth."
Mari handed me her business card for me to stick my gum on… and I took the gum from my mouth and stuck it on the back side of the business card. The moment I did so, in front of the group of people gathered there, I thought is this really happening? How I wished I had said nothing and swallowed my gum instead.
Surprisingly I didn't embarrass myself much after the gum incident.
Mari who has a love affair with France has been there over twenty times, I followed her lead in the conversation, answering questions from my perspective on everything from… Are the French rude? Where are some of the best places to stay? How to ship purchases home? Secret places of beauty?…
Thank you Mari for showing me your world, for inviting me into your home and most importantly for showing me that I too have a love affair with France…. a place that took me so long to adapt to, a place that I willingly after all these years abroad call home.
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Note:
This Thursday from 6pm to 8pm I will be in Chico, California at NANTUCKET sharing about Living in France. I hope you can join me…. I promise not to be chewing gum.
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