"Can I help you?"

 

Even if you only help one person, and even if that one person is yourself, then what you are doing is worth it.

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Readers are down again, according to statistics and Google analytics.  Well they were always down according to Google analytics...but now I see numbers are ranging below ten a day on my site.  That could simply mean that the Blogger site has reinforced its defensive walls and only the true and loyal readers are now getting through.  That, of course, would also mean  there has always been only a handful of true and loyal readers from the beginning. Thank you good and loyal readers. :) 

Google Analytics tells me ...  that I am not attracting or keeping new readers. It seems that very few are  interested in what I have to say or how I say it.  Most, besides the few readers who find exactly what they were looking for here,  pop in to my obscure and hard to find little shop in the middle of nowhere only becasue they stumbled upon it accidentally on their way to somewhere else or were  directed here by a  little hand painted sign,  with its aging letters fading,  stapled to some post on a back country road. 

Curiously,  readers  open the door.    The bell rings, they step in over the threshold  but before I have a chance to say, "Can I help you?", most visitors just shrug their shoulders, and walk away.  I assume that they are instantly  hit with the musty smell  of "old" as they look around to see surrounding them so many chipped and worn out things in the form of thoughts and ideas that make them feel uncomfortable. They might  choke on the dust or be overwhelmed by the clutter. My eclectic collection is not fresh, and new and modern.  It doesn't distract, it reminds.  It doesn't numb, it  brings up memories and feelings that  they have spent their life times trying to forget.  

My shop is not for everyone.  Only a few will enter, seeking exactly what they are hoping I offer here.  Some will find it, more won't. 

Hmmm!  Should I turn off the lights, flick the switch on the door, and put a "Closed" or "Out of Business" sign in the window?  Without customers, a shop is really not a worthwhile business venture , is it?  Yet, my idea of success differs from that of  other people. 

 I know  if that bell keeps ringing there is hope, isn't there, that at least one person will find what they are looking for?  And if one person finds a little something here that makes their life more bearable, more meaningful in some small little way...then I will consider my shop a success. Besides, I like being here, surrounded by words, old, old thoughts and ideas.  I learn something new everyday.  And that  Light  that streams  in from the front window is perfect, warming me, inspiring me and encouraging me ( whoever this "me" is) to go on. Whatever this shop offers is healing.   For that reason, I will leave the "Come in, We are open" sign in the window and I will continue to ask, "Can I help you?" whenever someone walks in through the door. 

All is well.