Your Life Calling by Jane Pauley

Author:Jane Pauley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Chapter Fifteen

Inspiration Is Everywhere

I asked Garry, “What’s a word to describe someone who likes crossword puzzles?” He said, “Ross.” I had been looking for a word to describe our son Ross’s affinity for crossword puzzles. It’s his favorite section of the newspaper. I don’t care for the puzzles, but we subscribe to three papers. I love newspapers; they’re filled with ideas. When Garry comes down for breakfast, he finds them filled with holes. I clip articles, like one with this headline: “Inspiration Is Everywhere but You Have to Be Looking.” If there’s a core message to be found in these pages, that’s probably it.

There’s no better illustration of what “looking” means than Thomas Betts. He was actively looking for that elusive something people have described to me so often. Remember how Tripp Hanson spoke of putting up a periscope and just looking around and if something interests you, pay attention to that? Here’s how that worked for Thomas Betts.

Racing sailboats was his passion, and he’d spent many happy hours fixing up a forty-one-foot sailboat. He and his wife, Connie, had talked about sailing it around the world some day. He’d made his living designing and manufacturing equipment for sailboats. Then he sold his business. After a while, Connie suggested he needed to go back to work. He took a part-time job in sales with a company that had carried his products, and he was pretty good at it. When he was offered a management position, he took it. And he was good at that, too. He liked the people and the company and the benefits, but he didn’t enjoy the stress. He was under constant pressure “to make the numbers.” He heard that inner voice yearning for “something different,” but that inner voice didn’t say what it was.

Thomas and Connie had begun exploring the “sunny side” of the Cascade Mountains near Portland, Oregon. On weekend rambles they discovered the Fruit Loop, a thirty-five-mile stretch of country roads in the Hood River Valley. Chances are you’ve enjoyed cherries or apples from the valley. It’s dotted with orchards and farms and ranches.

Meanwhile, back at the store one day, a customer came in to buy dock line. A lot of it. Thomas said to him, “You must have a lot of boats.”

The customer said, “I don’t have boats. I raise alpacas.”

He can’t explain why, but Thomas just had a powerful feeling that this could be “it.” That night he went home and asked Connie, “What’s an alpaca?”

Connie, who knitted and crocheted, knew that alpacas were bred for fiber. Alpaca yarn is some of the finest fiber in the world—very soft and warm. She had a question for Thomas: “Does he make any money at it?” They were both intrigued and began researching the alpaca business. They attended a seminar where they were told, “If you can raise a cat, you can raise an alpaca.” They had cats. Good sign.

They began to think about buying property. The customer who introduced them to alpacas knew the Hood River area pretty well and found a piece of property he thought would work for them.

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