Various

It's ages since my last post. I feel as if the month has fast forwarded in an alarming way. I haven't even finished The Life of Pi yet, which is surprising considering my usual reading speed.
It is a curiously compelling book. The stage upon which the story is built is so bare. There is so little that one might consider of sufficient interest to keep coming back, and yet it does keep drawing me back! It is certainly very well written.
It is many decades since I suffered "The old man and the sea" by Ernest Hemingway as an A level text. I truly dispised it at the time and remember little of it, and yet there have been some stirrings of memory as I have read "The life of Pi", so maybe I need to go back and give it another chance.Maybe I am more cultured now!  ;-)

The past 4 weeks have truly been weeks in which I needed to listen to my own advice about difficult people. Oh my goodness, how cranky and self-centred people can be! I am glad to say that these comments are not directed at family members or close friends. Unfortunately, I have to work fairly closely with people who think more about their own egos than about the good of the community, who will disagree with an idea simply because it wasn't theirs and who cling to the status quo so strongly that its amazing that they managed to grow up and leave home! Lord, give me wisdom and patience!

Enough of that or I will blow a gasket!

At present, I am preparing to go to a conference called Spring Harvest with my trade stand, so "real life" will be on hold for 2 weeks. I have been meeting with a business mentor who has been helping me to think about my business and I have been finding that really helpful. Working alone means that it's easy to lose perspective and I have been finding this lady's input very useful. She is a sounding board for ideas and asks searching questions. I pay for her time, which seems a crazy way to use money when the company isn't really making a profit, but somehow it feels worthwhile. If business is tough, it's tempting to close in and become more insular, like a person riding out a hurricane in a bunker, but I find that I get very discouraged in my bunker at times. The mentor is like a breath of fresh air and helps me to see issues more clearly.

I will probably not write again until mid April, so wish you all a very happy Easter.