On the Back of the
Book
Be ye strong
therefore,
and let not your hands
be weak:
for your work shall be
rewarded.
— 2 Chronicles 15:7
I'm settling into a real job after
over 20 years of slackin' stay-at-home motherhood. I'm a magazine editor now,
covering rural lifestyles, horses, country music, agriculture and all sorts of
things. Paperwork is piling up all over my desk. Little Post-It's line the
walls. Got my BlackBerry, got a new planner, resurrected a big old bulletin
board to try to keep some semblance of order, and overall, I'm happier'n a clam.
(Shameless plug: www.rfdtv.com)
A big change is having to plow
through a big mailbag every day, processing both email and letters. I'm also in
charge of a recipe contest for an RFD-TV cookbook and three 2008 calendars with
pictures sent in by RFD-TV viewers. Thousands of entries are pouring in. It's a
lot of reading. So oy! My eyeballs!
The other day, I got a treat,
though. I received a big envelope full of goodies: review copies of books. I
just love books, and this is a dream job for a book addict. Publicists want to
get their books into editors' hands for some possible free publicity. Hence,
mega-freebies.
With gusto, I dove into the pile.
Hmm: farmhouse design. Neat! Chicken coops? Egg-citing! Horse training. Raising
rabbits. Here's a gardening title I like: Down
& Dirty!
The last book in the bunch was Fun With the Family in Colorado: Hundreds of
Ideas for Day Trips With the Kids. Whitewater kayakers were on the cover.
Oooh! This looks fun!
I turned the book over.
AND MY EYEBALLS POPPED OUT OF MY
HEAD!!!!!
There, on the back, were my three
little cousinettes from Colorado - Haley, Ellery and Merritt!!!!
That's Haley in the hat, with Merritt at
left and Ellery at right. The horse, Arwen, was rescued from neglect by the
photographer's wife, Trisha, who runs a therapeutic rescue operation for horses
and humans.
© Chase Swift/Corbis. Used with permission.
Contact:
Chase Swift
Swift Photography,
8012 N County Road
11
Wellington, CO
80549;
(970) 226-6101
chaseswift@mac.com
www.chaseswift.com/
Represented by
Corbis Images
/www.corbis.com/
My beloved cousin Michael and his
wonderful wife Kendra live on the Front Range of Colorado. They're strong
Christians, raising their three daughters in a beautiful way, exposing them to
a wide range of interesting experiences. One of those is modeling. A family
friend is a professional photographer, and he asked them to come out and spend
a morning hanging out with some horses.
I knew they'd had the shoot. I just
never expected the result to wind up in my hands that morning. I mean, how many
millions of books are out there?
Their mother says photos of the
girls have also turned up in a brochure advertising Vail, and you can find
Merritt on the front of a box of horse treats sold at PetSmart. She quipped, "How
many beauty queens can make these claims!?!"
It just made me so happy and
refreshed in my job, with one more little item of confirmation that I was right
where I was supposed to be, doing the work I was designed to do. I hope you get
that feeling sometimes, too. It was the perfect Labor Day gift, and no doubt
I'll come back to it when the stress-o-meter goes TILT! in the weeks and months
to come.
Luckily for me and my co-workers, we
have a steady stream of feedback from our TV viewers and magazine readers that
remind us daily of the impact of our jobs on people's lives . . . and keep us
focused on our main product, which is communication, connection, contact,
relationship.
When you get right down to it,
that's all anybody's job is all about, really.
I've been so touched by messages
from our customers in that daily mailbag, I've started collecting them in a
"kudo file" on my computer. I already have over 100. Samples:
We love RFD-TV. On Tuesday
night, we have to eat with the tractor pull. The other stations -- most of
it is not worth the electricity, in my mind.
Jane V.
Morrison, IL
We had to get your magazines because
he (2½-year-old son) loves them so. Every night my son and my husband watch
your channel all of the time; that is the only station he will sit for at least
30 minutes or so to watch his "Bop Bops" - that is what he calls tractors.
Believe it or not, he usually watches it until he falls asleep. Thank you for
the RFD-TV channel. It sure helps us with him.
Darron & Memory C.
Jonesville, LA
Two years ago we started
listening. Our daughter gave us a subscription to the RFD-TV guide so we
knew what was going on. They sent us a free RFD-TV hat. Well, my sister in
law's brother lived down the road from us. Brought up as a farmer and all
his children were interested in farming and tractors. Well, this man, 65
and just retired, came down with a brain tumor. Towards the end he didn't leave
the house except to go out and see his two oxen. He too found RFD-TV and never
missed a show in the evening or days when he was bedridden. I had the
bright idea of bringing him up the RFD-TV hat. Our daughter gave it to
him. He looked at it, tears came to his eyes, and he thanked us. He kept
that hat on his bedpost 'til the day he passed away a few months ago.
Shirley Ann W.
Woodstock, CT
These little connections: they add
up to something I'm proud to be part of.
Like the photo of my cousin's
daughters, these little non-monetary paychecks will keep me going when the
going gets rough. †
