Stay With It!

Stay With It!

Stay with your journey: no matter where you are, no matter your thoughts and doubts. There is every reason to look ahead and see your objectives and plans come to fruition. It is essential to dig deep into resolve and will.

A woman showed me a picture of an empty market and said ‘This is what your positive thinking achieves’. My answer is simple ‘No, this is what negative thinking attained’. A positive thought is not a magic bullet. An optimistic view is an ally and complement to a host of mental assets which help during testing times.

Sometimes we do not listen to what people are saying to us: the messages go ‘over our heads’: Tommy Barnes set up a brewery in France. He decided the French needed a British style beer. Every time it was tasted, the French said: ’It’s too bitter – too hoppy’. He persevered to the brink of bankruptcy. In one last-ditch attempt to save his dream, he brewed a French-style beer: and sold out his stock. He had demands for the ale from shops and locals: within days his vision and business was saved.

The point is: while he was brewing English style beers and also failing to brew good beers: Tommy was learning how to brew well. He learned about extensive cleaning and setting up his small brewery in a better layout. And even though he was working himself to bankruptcy and possible failure of his marriage: and the days were dark. Something hidden was happening: Tommy was learning lessons.

Brewers are an opinionated lot. And one area many see as the worse of worse sins is to use sugar and not high quantities of malt in the brew to increase the alcohol content.. Artisan brewers see sugar as a poor way to increase the strength. In the final capitulation, Tommy chose to brew his beer in the European way and use sugar, to sweeten and strengthen the brew and provide the taste and look the locals desired. His brewery saved, his relationship saved, and his dream became a reality.

You see, we are all learning today. We will all be learning tomorrow. Never have most of us been within a situation which as pushed us beyond all markers of inner strength and fortitude. Yes, there are people in fear, driven by anger, some are compassionate others are not: this is life, nothing has changed in the nature of humans. Only at this time, we have become more aware of the nature of our fellow humankind.

Friends will go their separate ways. New opinions will set deep within the psyche. Trust will be lost and gained. Some damage will never be repaired: like a repointed house: there will always be evidence of prior damage.

Consider one thought: No matter how one is dealing with the present situation. Lessons are being learned, lessons we may not acknowledge. Millions of us will become stronger, even though we are feeling fragile and weak, damaged and scarred, in sorrow and feeling helpless at this time. Listen to what the locals have to say, and remember, sometimes we have to accept we are wrong.

Stay With It!