I never have been one where the rules all fit nicely.
As I sat here trying to get my bearings after the
past week of fog, I started thumbing through the
comments in last weeks survey about the Divine
Market. There's a big split among even our friends
here between those who were open to new ideas
and those who expressed concern that we were
embracing eastern mysticism, that we couldn't
possibly be christian, that they wouldn't do
business with us if we "believed in yoga", and so
forth.
Rather than bury my head in the sand and pretend
that we all agree on everything, I feel compelled
to let you know that this was one of my big reasons
to want to do the Divine Market was to promote understanding and tolerance among people but I
guess I wasn't really being totally honest up front.
It sounds much safer and more marketable to be
simply natural and organic than spiritual. But the
double entendre is there on purpose. The Divine
Market itself is a good name for us because it can
cover such a spectrum, from our brick and mortar
storefront of a downtown fresh gourmet market to
our online presence with natural products directed
toward healing. As far as the religious connotation,
I do envision also offering daily living type spiritual
tools of different faith backgrounds, sort of like a
"beliefnet" marketplace.
As the daughter of a jewish mother who attended
a catholic boarding school and a methodist dad
who was raised during the depression in the south,
I've always been exposed to multiple faiths and
therefore just have always had sort of a built in
respect for different beliefs and cultures. My path
has led me to a personal blend of many religions
and presently am most comfortable with my family
as an anglo-catholic. However, being a christian
doesn't stop me from acknowledging that practicing
hindus have fewer sinus/allergy problems than we westerners do because of their cleansing rituals such
as the neti pot.... my jesus would be fine with the
fact that my little chinese doctor in hong kong does
more good for my pain than the pharmaceutical
companies do.... and it doesn't offend our priest
that yoga classes are held in our church.... Our hope
is that the crosses that we "carry" in the Divine
Market won't offend our non christian friends and
likewise that our christian friends might want to try
using incense on the altar... I could go on and on.
The "social conscience" evolving in our company
with clear conscience beads and the divine market
is to promote the understanding, respect, and
tolerance of all the diverse people inhabiting
our world. We believe that tolerance and
understanding are the touchstones of and
pathway to real peace in our world. That's the
challenge now, how to sum it up in a mission
statement....
with the beads and Doris is ready to be
overwhelmed with orders. In the spirit of the
ponderings above and the innate power of the
stones we stock, we are offering all
(for acceptance and to assist in making
necessary changes) to all for a limited time at
HALF PRICE! There's no promo code needed,
your 50% savings will be automatically calculated
during checkout. One of the concerns that came
through loud and clear in the survey is that you
depend on us for your gemstone bead needs
and just to be clear on that issue, we're not
going anywhere!
Important announcement - Since we are an
internet based company, we are cutting costs
by using cable for our telephone needs. Our
old system was frustrating for both our
customers and us in that this is much simpler
and less expensive. Our new number is
931.542.2895, we're still at the same
address, just a new phone number, FYI!
Hi Dede
Have you closed the rocknrocks website? All I get from any link is some google group. Was trying to see if you had any obsidian beads or nuggets. Thanks
Donna
Posted by: donna john | October 19, 2009 at 02:52 PM