Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Table at the Mall where Miracles Happen


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The Table at the Mall where Miracles Happen
“Does it really pay you to sit at this Table all day?” asked my friend who stopped to talk to me yesterday.

Each week on Wednesday I set up my Table in the Peterborough Square in front of the Crop Circles Store – (lower level). I am there between 10 AM and 4 PM working with Crop Circles.

On my Table I have my wood carving, my lace making and whatever seasonal item that I am featuring at the time. Yesterday my new feature was my newly Carved Golf Balls. Each item on the Table has a  story behind it and each item is for sale or can be specially ordered by my potential client.

Now why would I expect anyone to purchase a Carved Golf Ball?  Not everyone Golfs, do they? Nope. But at times there are dozens of people that know someone that Golfs – and they buy these crazy critters that I have created.  They are great gifts for daughters to buy for their dad or mom.  They are also purchased by fellow golf buddies for their friend they golf with each week.  At $4 these are an ideal gift that brings smiles to someone’s face.

One the Table are also the Carved Feathers and Carved Leaves – which both are the higher end of my carving at the present time. These carvings are paper thin… and sell for about $150 each – at the larger size and down to $20 for the smaller size that are made for necklaces.

Besides the high end carving are the Celtic Love Spoons which range in price from around $45 each up to $150.  The love spoons are purchased by people going to a wedding or an anniversary. After carving the item I then burn the memorable dates into the spoon with the names of the couple on it.

Good question - “Does it really pay you to sit at this Table all day?”
Yesterday I didn’t sell a lot of things but I met a whack of people.  And on top of the new people that I met, repeat people returned to speak with me.  Then on top of the repeat customers were the every Wednesday People that always stop by to speak with me – catching me up on their lives and what is happening each week.

The Wednesday People are perhaps the most important at any given moment. They have few friends and likely the loneliest people I have ever met. 

One lady only has a cat and the cat can’t speak… but every week she tells me what the cat has done in the past week.  This lady is very heavy, uses a walker and struggles to walk. Yesterday when she stopped to speak with me she was very upset. She had been sitting on a bench and while there she was munching on a small chocolate bar.

A man stopped in front of her and told her that she shouldn’t be eating a chocolate bar because she was so fat. She had tears in her eyes as she described what had just happened. I simply listened.

It was a good day yesterday at the Table.  I have two more weddings to conduct after meeting brides that just needed to talk with someone.  They stopped to look at one of the things on my Table and then we began to talk.  They had been wondering around the mall on time off from their jobs in a building nearby… and simply wanted to talk.

A third potential bride and potential wedding ceremony for me stated with a giggle, “You should me a Wedding Planner!”  We had spoken about her plans that were indefinite as of yet. She and her boyfriend had two kids now and wanted to get married but couldn’t find a place that was just right. There were internal family struggles as to what they should or shouldn’t be doing.

Soooo… with my thirty five years of experience in doing weddings I shared with her all the different kinds of possible weddings that I have attended. I told her of the great places in our area where weddings can be conducted.

I truly think she was my happiest “customer” yesterday.  She took a woodcarving pamphlet and promised she would call

Lots happens at the Table.  And after yesterday’s whole day at the Table I may well have booked $600 in wedding ceremonies, a few $100 more in Golf Balls and woodcarvings.

Does it pay to sit from 10 AM to 4 PM each Wednesday?  Yep in ways that I cannot imagine. It is a Table of miracles where I meet the world… well maybe not the whole world but only about 100 a day.

I can’t stop thinking of the lady with her walker and the stories of her cat. The tears in her eyes were real… and she just needed someone to listen.  That story alone was worth $1,000,000 alone.

“Does it really pay you to sit at this Table all day?” Yes it does… yes it does.

~ Murray Lincoln ~

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