Big Buddha by Jill Q. Weiss
Once upon a time, Jeff and I created a crystal store in Crystal Lake, Illinois. When it first opened, it was the size of a large closet, and located on the main highway where people drove past at 45 mph. Which is, for the most part, what they did…drive PAST.
After a few years we moved to the quaint and elegant downtown into an exquisite 100-year-old building with high, pressed-tin ceilings, an original brick wall, wood floors, and leaded-glass windows. We had space downstairs for classes and an office upstairs for Jeff’s writing. We added more crystals and jewelry, books and music, and created a fairy forest filled with sparkly things, populated by fae and dragon folk, and Zenland, with
statues and signing bowls and incense and all the accouterments of a Buddhist temple.
A New Age store is the genre we inhabited and yes, you may ask – How did that go over in a small town in the conservative Midwest? Aware of this obstacle, Jeff and I were determined to be welcoming to every person who stopped in, but, certainly, there were people who would not enter, who looked askance at our display window because…you know…Buddha statues.
On our one day off each week, we searched resale shops and TJ Maxx for display pieces. Some notable finds were a fake fireplace mantle to place over the radiator, a large, mille fleur-rimmed mirror, Tibetan artifacts,
and discarded bookshelves from Borders Books.
On one outing we discovered a seated Buddha statue. Even seated, he rose to over six feet. Such a bargain – the tag read: Usually $900+, clearance priced at $90! I stood in front of him, looking at him eye to eye and decided - He’s ours!
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Nine-thirty on a Tuesday night. A dark and almost empty parking lot. A small Volvo sedan and a Very Big Buddha sitting high in a shopping cart. No option but to negotiate space for him, his rear end illegally hanging out the back, where he mooned the world on the 45-minute drive back to our shop. Jeff claims he counted twelve police cars along our route, none of which seemed to notice us. Must be Magic!
Big Buddha held a place of honor. Everyone was fond of him and some offered tribute. A regular customer, a wealthy young yogini, irritated us on every visit by endlessly insisting SHE had to have BIG BUDDHA for the entry way of her huge home – AT ANY PRICE!
Big Buddha belonged in the shop. We loved every day we spent there with him, and with our customers. We delighted in finding unique products and cultivated personal relationships with the artists. We shared Glastonbury Well water out of rose quartz goblets with the creators of the Enchanted Fairy Statues and enjoyed an evening in a Kenilworth mansion where our best-selling New Age artist played blues and jazz requests
just for me.
For about a year, we offered free classroom space in our basement to a lady who wished to hold her healing classes there. The next year she opened a shop just like ours at the end of the next block in a two-block downtown. Our store was called – Quintessence, A Peaceful Oasis. She named hers with a very similar name, also calling it a peaceful oasis.
She had a corporate marketing background. She had money. No resale shops for her - She imported a twelve-foot-long antique mantelpiece from Scotland for her main display. She found distributors who supplied her with our favorite products.
Operating our store was not fun anymore. One day I said to Jeff, “I think I am done with the store.” Ever accommodating, he replied, “Well, what would you like to do?” I said, “I have always wanted to live in California.”
*****
One of our most popular classes was on manifesting. For months after, we held our chosen crystals and recited, “I am moving to California.” “I am moving to California.” “I am moving to California.” Even with few resources and no planned destination, it worked! Like Magic!
Six months later, having sold houses, cars, and convincing my elderly parents to join us, we were settled into our new home near the beach.
And what Magic did Big Buddha contribute to our move?
We sold the store. Quickly and easily. I called the wealthy yogini who had wanted Big Buddha for her home. I said, “Alice, you can have Big Buddha now, but you have to buy the whole store to get him.” She said, “Ok.”
The store, now called Evolve for Inner Peace, has had three owners since Jeff and I left, and it continues to thrive.
Big Buddha still sits in the front window, radiating his peaceful countenance out on to the main street, providing a Peaceful Oasis in a small Midwestern town.