While being a small business owner can be frustrating, back-breaking work, it has given us rewards that can't be measured with the typical outward signs of success. The Grasshopper Summer is one of those rewards.
Since we started Elsie Green ten years ago, we have worked hard like ants in the spring, fall and winter, then played like grasshoppers all summer long. We have extended our shopping trips to month long European adventures and brought our children along, taking week long weekend road trips, and reading book after book in our backyard hammocks.
And more than that, our grasshopper summers provide us with memories we draw from years later. My children and I often will say out of nowhere
"remember that hotel in Antwerp with the hammam in the basement?"
"remember that time we rented a boat on Lake Lucerne and the gelato shaped like a flower we had after?"
"remember that day we searched for lighthouses all day long on Martha's Vineyard?"
"what was the name of that restaurant in the countryside where we ate our bread out of a dog bowl by accident?"
"how did we get out of that tiny elevator in Crema when it got stuck between floors?"
And through our travels we have learned to be curious about the world and the people in it. When a question arises about a building, a monument or a local custom, we do our research and try to learn something new.
Somehow the Elsie Green team manages the day to day business while we're out (thanks, guys) and we can immerse ourselves in the many small moments that make up a long summer adventure. Then when Labor Day comes, we turn back into ants.
