Balancing the Highs and the Lows

That was what my high school baseball coach would shout out to us at practices. He led our school’s team to 3 state championships in a 10 year period and proved to be an important first role model as I grew through adolescence. However, I don’t think I have truly understood what he meant by that until just recently.

Living life, let alone navigating a small business, during the outbreak of COVID-19 has been anything but steady and predictable. In fact, each day seems as bleak as the prior. Maybe come summertime the spread of the virus will slow, but that seems like an eternity away. So here we are, our lives have entered the “new normal”. This popular new phrase has quickly become part of our collective rhetoric and I can say for sure that it scares a lot of folks.

But I am not scared. I am not scared for me and I am not scared for us. We are a community whether we see it on the day to day or not. That has been such a valuable lesson that I have learned starting Cam’s Kettle on the Ballston VA street corner 3 years ago. The world will be different coming out of this but people will continue to wake up each morning and go to bed at night. The sun will keep rising, the seasons will keep changing, and the rivers will keep flowing. That’s true, isn’t it? So, if the world and our larger communities can so innately find an even balance, then why can we as individuals?

It hasn’t been fun, we’ve had most of our farmers markets delay their spring opening dates, and still a large portion of our revenue comes from those channels. But with a drop in demand out on the streets comes a larger demand for bags of coffee in kitchens throughout the DMV. One window is closed and another opens. That is the way it works. Cam’s Kettle has always found a way to make it through by being flexible and always keeping open every little single opportunity to get our distinctive bean out to coffee lovers in our community. I try to practice simple techniques for staying level headed and focusing on slow but positive progress. I look at the larger picture. If someone cancelled a coffee subscription, it sucks, but I look at the fact that still I am going up. That kind of thing is like the stock market, except with coffee consumption here in the US, there is really no such thing as a recession. That brings me up. When I have a great day and perhaps pick up 5 new subscriptions, I focus on the fact that things always happen and ultimately you are never making as much money and moving as much product as you think you are.

So, what will it take for each and every person to practice balancing their unique highs and lows? Think of life like a river. Lots of twists and turns and dams and pollution, but somehow, most every little drop of water originating high up in trickling mountain streams of the Eastern Rockies will some day reach the mouth of the Mississippi delta. Today was a day where I felt some imposing obstacles, but I know that just like the water up in those streams, I will wake up tomorrow and continue the journey.

Its important to note that many people won’t wake up tomorrow from complications from COVID-19 and the many other deadly diseases that still grip our world today. So, in honor of their lives, I will try my very best to wake up tomorrow and smile at the new day.