Sunday Best – September 1, 2024
It’s always wonderful to return home after some time away, and yet a teensy bit of me is always wondering what has gone astray in my absence. This time, all seemed well, until I came upon a weird folded-up leaf on one of my bushes. Usually this is not the best discovery, as it means something creepy has decided to make the leaf its home.
I gently peeked inside the folds, and found a nut! My very first hazelnut, to be precise. Everyone knows the old saying that you plant nuts not for the next generation, but for the one after that. Let’s just say, between the deer and the winters and my own laissez-faire approach to caretaking, these nuts have been a long time coming.
I’ve been noticing a lot of nuts lately – from scientists to analysts to business leaders, people who have worked towards a worthy vision for years, refusing to compromise the integrity and beauty of their work even as all around them others were taking shortcuts in the name of efficiency or user-friendliness or monetization. Whether it’s compute power or economic alignment or social ethos or mystical wherewithal, the stars are finally aligning.
Somehow, slowly but suddenly, nuts are everywhere.
Long may we flourish.
Sunday Best – August 25, 2024
Lots of people pass in and out of our lives, but if we are very lucky a few good ones stick.
My mentor, colleague, and friend Budd was one of these good ones, to my everlasting good fortune. When we first visited the High Point Furniture Market together, over thirty years ago, he generously showed me the ropes, touring every showroom and meeting every executive. (Truly, every executive! Sixteen hour days were commonplace on those trips.) Though the industry is full of prickly personalities, and I was then completely inexperienced, after those visits each of them gave me a chance, because I’d come with Budd.
He taught me to learn about the individuals who were leading companies, their backgrounds and temperaments and inter-relationships. He taught me about analyzing returns on capital in cyclical businesses. He taught me to ask about the dealings that are buried in the smallest footnotes of !0-Q’s.
More than all of that, in a business that can seem intensely impersonal, Budd taught me that we can be whole humans at work. In the early days of my career, senior colleagues rarely mentioned life outside the office, and there was sometimes a weird sense that p/e’s and gross margins were the only possible topics of conversation. But Budd talked about his family every single time we ever met, with whole-hearted love and pride, beaming from ear to ear. His joy was contagious.
What a privilege, to learn so much from someone for so long.
May his memory be a blessing.
Sunday Best – August 18, 2024
As I was strolling down the street this week, a flash of color caught my eye. Tucked into a cone of brown paper, a lovely little nosegay was abandoned by a lamppost.
When I picked it up to see if there was a clue as to the owner, a little card proclaimed “finders keepers”! The local flower shop had placed bouquets around town to be discovered as a happy Friday surprise, and all they asked in return was that we pass the kindness along.
Friends, sometimes it feels like an accomplishment to be merely civil. Sometimes it is victory to just get through the day. But most times, if we’re willing, there is a chance for kindness. Generosity. Joy.
May we offer with whole hearts.
May we receive with full spirits.
May the ripples expand across our whole world.
With thanks to the wonderful Middlemist florist for this delightful surprise!
Sunday Best – August 11, 2024
After a short stretch away, I was excited to return to harvest the last of this season’s blueberries, and the little peaches that have been developing on my brand-new trees.
Alas, the neighborhood critters had been busy in my absence – the berries gobbled up by the turkeys and bear, and the peaches claimed by the deer. As I was stomping back to the house, trying not to resent my fellow residents, my ankle twisted on the path. Glancing down, I saw an apple so round and unblemished that it would have fetched a premium even at the snootiest city grocer — far superior to the missing peaches and berries.
Friends, sometimes others swoop in on our plans. Sometimes our careful tending turns into another’s gain.
And sometimes, even as we’re mourning what’s missing, an unexpected prize falls right at our feet.
Sunday Best – August 4, 2023
During a happily unplugged stretch in the mountains this week, I ventured out for a small hike. Though the trail was steep, it was short, and the views from above promised to be terrific.
The trouble was, the very first steps were across a quick moving creek – not a dangerous river, but for a non-swimming, not-super-graceful hiker like me, the space between the rocks looked too daunting to hop.
Eventually I found a path through a marshy area and worked my way through a delightful thicket of wildflowers to get back to the trail. Indeed, the views were worth the effort.
On the return trip, I missed the cutoff for my improvised swampy path and found myself back on the banks of the stream. Lo and behold, from the other side, the stepping stones were perfectly easy to navigate, big and steady and no leaps required.
Dear ones, what can we do when our first steps are full of adversity?
Sometimes turning around is wise.
Sometimes a new path can be found.
And sometimes, the challenges are not as great as they first appear.
We might just need a different vantage point.
