APRIL 2025: At the Crossroads
"You're never ready for what you have to do.
You just do it. That makes you ready."
(Flora Rheta Schreiber)
The vast expanse stretches, seemingly unending before you. Its emptiness and quiet makes you uneasy but... it's familiar. As you stand in the middle of the dirt path staring at where it splits into two before you, you turn your head and take a glance back over your shoulder. As you breathe in the stale air, you turn your eyes back towards the crossroads.
Even if you could go back, things would not be the same as before. You're past the point of no return and your only option is to move forward.
But which way?
In folklore, the crossroads are a space between worlds; a place of change, of facing our fears, and of meeting our destinies. Through life, you’ll encounter more than one crossroads. Each path taken will break and define you, should you have the courage to walk it.
For years I was pestered with questions of why I don’t just start my own business, why don’t I make this, why do that for other people when I could work for myself – and these questions always irritated me. I liked where I was and I liked what I was doing. And it took so long for me to get to that point.
I was comfortable.
But the winds of change blustered. It was time for a new chapter to be written.
Before starting BabaYeeHaw Crafts, I was an artist (and just about whatever else I needed to be) at a small tech company called CherryTree Inc. for about 7 years. If you’re a Star Trek fan – or if you watched that one Linus Tech Tips video – you might’ve heard about their popular Borg Cube PCs.
For me, this was a place of unbridled imagination, where impossible things were put together and brought to life. Creativity flourished there and I tried to pour everything that I could of myself into it.
But all systems have their limits.
While there is strength in repetition, there’s also the risk of burnout. And everyone saw it coming from a mile away. I still liked being there, and I still liked what I was able to do there everyday – but was I also staying because I was comfortable? If I could do it on my own, for myself, would I?
One who I watched face his crossroads and walk his paths over the years – whether taking off running on one, or trudging through another – is Martin Roth, CherryTree’s president & CEO. While that title many times gives the impression of a distant figure just sitting behind the big desk while everyone else toils away, make no mistake: he shatters that stereotype – and was the one to give me the proverbial knapsack to start my own journey.
When there were successes, he made sure we all celebrated to the fullest. At times of hardship, things down to the wire and no one else around, he drudged through the long days and weekends to build orders to make sure they would all get home. Most importantly, I saw that he cared for the people around him. Those I worked with weren’t just employees to him, they were people who had families, lives, and ambitions. He made sure we were all taken care of.
Did you ever read the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? It’s still one of my favorites, and if I could I’d write one giving accounts of all I learned from Martin. He let me look over his shoulder to learn how things worked, put the tools in my hands assuring me that I could create things I never dreamed, and showed me that even the small human that I am is powerful enough to become whoever I want to be. And that making the things I love is worth it - through all the ups and downs, to keep trying.
He breathed life back into my dormant dream. My hope is that one day I’ll be able to inspire someone in the same way.
I still don’t know much about all of this, running a small business on my own. But I know my heart will never feel as full as it does when I create things that I love, especially if it’s things that others can also enjoy.
I’ve stopped digging my heels into the dirt. These are my small steps forward on a new path.