For Me Running A Store Like Gardening

For me running a wine store is sort of similar to gardening. That is to say that I take the same basic approach to both of them. I look at the big picture as often as I can but I often get caught up in the small parts and as I go the length of the store or my garden I often get side-stepped. That does not bother me. I'm absorbed into the fabric of either plant life and soil and all the surrounding sights and sounds and animals and insects : or the various shelves, stacks of wines, tasting table and all the walls to put pictures, the display window up front, etcetera.

I think I've always lived a large part of my life " green ". I love the outdoors, I love old things and I do recycle many things. I am wasteful and for that I am eternally mad at myself. I'm trying to be better about that. At the store I get so many things and I often look at the periodically. There are times when I have to throw things out to find free counter spaces to work from. I often look things over carefully and if there's a good quote or a picture I will cut it out and find a space to place it so that it may be discovered. I love the idea of discovering things! I love the serendipitous quality of that : tumbling, stumbling, falling, running right into something - slam/ bam that you ma'am! I will place things in the garden as well as in the store so that people may later discover them : sort of like hiding Easter eggs to be found later. It's all good fun. I often put these pictures on the backs of the shelves along our walls behind the bottles of wine. The idea is that at some point someone will discover them and see the images, the colors, the contrasts, the discovery of something unexpected.

Most people never comment on these things. It's true both in the store and in the garden here at home. I don't mind. I hope that when they discover them that they like them. I do have people more and more discovering things. I think they are/ have been trained to as they get to know our store Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits better. I like that. I don't often hear it but occasionally I do and that's nice. Often I'll be talking to a customer and one of these photos, pictures or quotes will come up and someone will speak about them, having noticed them. I like that.

I do all this because I enjoy it and I want the store to be a fun and exciting place to shop. Some of the quotes, pictures and photos have nothing to do with wine at all. I don't care. They have to do with life and enjoyment and sharing and receiving and creating good vibes. They are human things and I like to scatter them around - leaves, nuts, earth , dried old vines and grapes from the vineyards, memorable wines remembered through the corks, sea shells like those I dubbed the Heath Ledger shells, etcetera. I do the same thing at home in the garden. I recycle things that have broken and put them into the garden, the ground, the flower beds - like shells, bricks, found stones, broken vases, painted pots, whatever . They add spots of color and contrasts in the ground as the eyes sweep over them.

I have one customer that I must mention. His name is Don. He used to buy a whole lot of wine from me and Mike. He used to come into the store and spend a lot of time looking over the store. He used to really make me feel great as he'd return to me smiling broadly, with a grin and a sheepish look of discovery drawn all across his face. He'd say : " Tony did you ... what were you thinking ... what was the inspiration behind ?!?!? " He'd take me over to the spots that he'd just discovered and show me and we'd examine and discuss and he'd be very appreciative and congratulatory. It always was a spirit-booster to listen and be around Don. He knew just how to flatter and puff-up my artistic side. I loved him, still do for that. He doesn't do it as much anymore. But in fairness to Don I have to say that I as well do not do it as much anymore.

I do many more things now that are both more visible and obvious to everybody. I want my work to be discovered more now, more immediately if you get my drift. I guess I've been growing more impatient and don't want to have to wait any longer than I have to. That of course saddens me. I may have to put more things up both in the garden and in the store that take longer to find? Thanks Don for having been there for me so many times to elevate and uplift me and my artistic temperament and artist spirits. You were and still are the best.

I may have to hide more things and make it more difficult for customers to discovery my buried/hidden treasures ? Like making it harder to find the Easter eggs because the children looking for them are older and better at looking/ finding / seeing ? I love these challenges ; I love recycling good pictures that I cut-out from magazines and share with everyone. There are so many ; they stimulate and evoke and draw forth from us so many hidden and exciting emotions/responses. That's key. We all should be stimulated and pleased and moved by our environments. It's after all where we are!

After having owned our home now for eleven years and been at Cleveland Park Wines and Spirits now for eight I feel that I have a greater control over both. I've already done a lot and there's always more to do and accomplish. But I've got a good background now from which to work, to pull, to tweak, to fine-tune. It's exciting. Just as my palate of wines is almost infinite so is my sources of inspiration, glee and warmth and fulfillment. I just have to look around, have my eyes scan the garden or the store and I land somewhere and I'm off again. Catch me if you can, I'm the gingerbread man ...

Thanks to all of you over the years that I have been able to share all this with. It's too much for me, too much for Don. We're enjoying a marvelous voyage together cemented/ grounded in part for our love for wine, beer and spirits. It's been stimulating to share with you all and I look forward to many more days of sharing and drawing you closer to this or that wine, to this or that grape, this or that taste .... whatever works or may work for you. After all, it's one big experiment, one big question, one big step.

Don taught me to come to love the word serendipitous. He used it all the time. He drew me in with this word that just kept rolling from his lips. Let's all of us do something serendipitous right now : no looking, no peeking, no planning. Cheers, and enjoy this beautiful Monday, June 23rd, 2008. TONY