Its been 2 years 7 months and 2 days since we opened the 20x20 four wall room that displayed the new Rosa Lee jewelry and a few other various jewelry pieces. It was going to be a small place where people could come and shop for the Rosa Lee hand made jewelry and maybe some friendly fellowship. That room, at that time, was a dream come true. But my dreams were bigger and were buried in the depths of my soul…and I knew that my God was far bigger than anything I could ever imagine. And I could feel it…
And so it began.
Now, today I sit and write this first blog to the thousands of customers who support and communicate and frequent the 5000 sq ft Rosa Lee store and website 2 years, 7 months, and 2 days later. It is quite overwhelming and still leaves me in disbelief at times. But then I step back and just look…in awe…not at the size of the store I stand in, but in the size of the God who has laid it before me.
I am here as a servant, a real happy one.
As my blogs continue in the future, I will bring to the pages the many stories that unfold into making Rosa Lee what it is today…but for today, I want to focus on just the name…ROSA LEE. What does it mean? Who is she? And Why? Every day I am still searching for the answer to these simple questions…and every day I find a new one…and I think the answers will always be changing…into new meaning, new light, new reasons.
Rosa Lee was a homeless lady who chose to sit down beside me one cold day in the middle of a crowded coffee shop in NYC. I truly believe with my whole heart, that her choice was of divine appointment…she was placed there. She made a life long impact on me for the almost 2 hours we talked together that day. Her story is the first thing you see on the homepage of our website. You can read about her, our meeting, her life, and maybe catch a glimpse into why it changed my perspective on so many things in life.
I sat down with Madelynn, director of the website, this afternoon, and told her about that meeting… here’s what I told her…
I firmly believe that God placed Rosa Lee beside me because He knew what was going to take place from that meeting. He knew I loved Him and wanted to serve Him. And He knew my passion for women and for jewelry and for creating. He brought all these things together and started a sisterhood…the ROSA LEE SISTERHOOD. It’s a place to come…whether its coming to the physical store, the live facebook shows, the Instagram pictures, the website, or the blog…we come together. We all have something in common…just like Rosa Lee did with all of us…we are all on a life journey. Some journeys are bumpy right now, some are smooth sailing…some are in the midst of a storm, and some are above the clouds…but along all of these roads, whatever they are…we all want to be loved…we want to find joy…and peace…and happiness. In the end of whatever road we are on right this moment, we all want to just …be able to smile. We want to look in the mirror and say, “yes. I love me today. And I feel loved”. We want to laugh with friends and we want to feel pretty. It just…matters.
But, where do we find all of these things? These feelings. Is it through clothing and jewelry and shoes? Well they sure can help but…..we all know, it starts deeper than that. It starts in the heart. And somehow along the way we must find truth, truth in how to come to real happiness. That’s what ROSA LEE is all about. TRUTH. Finding peace, and hope, and love…in ourselves…through the only truth there really is.
The last few words we said to one another were these:
(As I slipped the white crystal bracelet on her ragged and worn hand, she stared at me. Deep into my eyes. She just stared, almost in tears. I could see the depth of her soul in her yellowed, weary eyes…and I just stared back into hers. Then, after minutes of silence, she laughed, and covered her toothless laughter with her whithered hand…)
“What is it Rosa Lee”
“I like your RED lipstick!” she said
“Well okay? Thank you…it’s kind of a trademark really…funny thing you noticed”
“Oh I like it! They don’t let us fluff at the shelter…they wake us at 4am and send us on our way”
I chuckled and thought, she wants to feel pretty too. She’s just like the rest of us…
and after a few gracious chuckles, I said: “Rosa Lee? Do you need anything? It’s cold outside?”
“No ma’am…I have everything I need” and she held up her tattered bible. “It’s all in here…this is all I need…He’s with me everywhere I go”
and that was it…that was the last thing she said…then she pulled up the handle of her one rolling suitcase and began walking away…everything she had in life was rolling along side her…but the tattered book she held under her arm was what I saw last.
She had it figured out. And now…so did I.
Thanks ROSA LEE. You really don’t know what you started. Or…..
Maybe, just maybe…
you do.