There was no business plan.
No grand vision. No carefully mapped-out strategy.
Just a Sunday afternoon, about 8 friends gathered in my living room, and a whole lot of mahjong tiles.
We were playing, laughing and doing what happens when a group of women gets together around a mahjong table: talking about pretty much everything.
Somewhere in the conversation, we started bemoaning the fact that our mahjong league was about to shut down for a month.
A whole month without our regular games?
Well, that simply wasn't going to do.
I am, by nature, a fixer. Give me a problem and my brain immediately starts trying to figure out how to solve it.
So I said something along the lines of, "Well, we can create our own way to play in the in-between time."
And then I did.
The Sunshine Scramble Was Born
What started as a way to keep playing quickly turned into something much bigger and much more fun than I expected.
I created the Sunshine Scramble, organized 40 players, figured out table rotations, worked out scoring, found a place for us to gather, rounded up some wonderful sponsors and started putting the pieces together. Plus, I scratched another "want to do" off my list by raising money for The Sunshine Kids Foundation, an organization my brokerage has supported globally for the last 30 years (did I mention I'm a REALTOR® at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Arkansas Realty?)
And people wanted to play.
Then more people wanted to play.
And somewhere along the way, I realized something.
This isn't really just about mahjong.
It's about having somewhere to go.
It's about seeing the friend you haven't seen in a few weeks and meeting the woman you've never met before.
It's about laughing when someone steals the tile you desperately needed, celebrating a mahjong at the next table and maybe getting just a tiny bit competitive when the leaderboard comes out.
It's about gathering.
And I think we could all use a little more of that.
So, What Is Sunshine Mahj?
That's what this website is about.
Sunshine Mahj is a place for people who love mahjong and everything that happens around the table.
We'll be hosting Sunshine Scrambles, seasonal events, social gatherings and other creative ways to play.
Some will be competitive.
Some will be purely social.
Some might involve Christmas sweaters.
Some may involve costumes.
And I feel fairly certain a cocktail will occasionally find its way onto a mahjong table.
We'll also be curating fun mahjong gifts, apparel and accessories in the shop, sharing ideas here on the blog and creating new ways for this growing community to get together.
And if you don't know how to play yet?
Don't worry. We're going to have something for you, too.
This Is Just the Beginning
The funny thing is, none of this was supposed to become a "thing."
I was simply sitting in my living room with 8 friends on a Sunday afternoon trying to solve a very serious problem:
How were we going to survive a month without mahjong?
Turns out, the answer was Sunshine Mahj.
So pull up a chair.
We love big plays and bold tiles.
Let's Mahj. ☀️🀄