I was talking with one of my regulars today.
He was sharing about his life 
and his experinece running shops. 

I really appreciated hearing what he had to share.
He's done something that many people haven't. 
He's worked away for years.
At one job.
Running stores,
buying/selling products,
having employees,
paying the bills.
He's going to be able to retire soon.
But his work is all he has done.
He's never lived anywhere else.
He doesn't have other work.

I asked him about it.
He said that he wouldn't do it again.

What did it amount to?
And after all his work, how did it end for him?

Ha.
A bit sobering considering what Becky and I are trying to do in life. 

It seems like the only route to go if you are wanting to do something that does not fit into the current system
is to be true and find people who are on the same wavelength.

Huge risks
Guaranteed massive workload
Uncertain payoff

And it's not easy to figure the way forward.

While he shared, the conversation easily entered politics and religion. 
Pretty funny.
Talk about an awesome scene.
Two white guys.
One baby-boomer.
One millennial.
Talking about politics and religion in public.
Yikes.

But as far as I can see it,
we have to start talking.
Everyone.
To each other.

And it needs to be done in public.
No one really knows what it looks like to dialogue out loud, in public, with people who think very differently from yourself.
I know I haven't seen it.
But I do believe it's possible. 

Well, I guess I know it is
because it happened today.

It seems like the answer to all of our problems immediate and perennial is the same:
​Love each other.

It seems like it's time to start drawing together some threads.

It's been 2 years since we moved to the midwest
and have been running a coffee shop.
Our own shop.
Our own roasts.

We moved here suddenly out of circumstance. 
And we showed up and have been working non-stop for two years.

The town we are in,
the people we are around,
are good.
It's a great place to live and raise a family.

We started this website and this idea
several years ago and it has evolved from day one.
It has had to shape itself to the details of life.
And because those parameters are set around it,
it takes a certain shape. 
It has to fill in to the space that life takes and leaves.

Because of this it is a sturdy little thing,
able to make it through the ups and downs.

The idea was to have something set aside in life.
Hence, Tiny House.
I had made a few of them in back yards with the premise that these would be places to escape and retreat for people.
A spot that is set apart from the world.
I put a roaster in mine.
But if someone else were to have one in their back yard
it may be for writing, or painting, or whittling.
It is a space set aside.

Since the beginning we have moved a couple times,
and have lived in a few more places,
working with more people 
and gaining a better understanding of the life we are in.

And now here we are.
Roasting coffee.
Owning/operating a coffee shop.
And in a certain way things are working.
And working better than before.

We have lots to get to.
And the lists are long.
​But we are trying, and we've made it two years.

I'm sitting here.
At my dinner table.
The same one I've had for ever.
My grandmother's 
from her childhood.

Listening to Holy Oak.

And I just keep asking the same question:
Can people be trusted?

Can we?

The more you live trusting others
the more vulnerable you become.
The more precious things you acquire.

And the more precious things I acquire
the more I have to ask if I can entrust them to others.
Will you get them back?

Do people hurt others intentionally?
Can we live with courage and trust?

I just simply want to believe that doing the right thing will work out in the end.
But the more I live the more I have evidenced the opposite.

Maybe the question is:
How much can you bare? How much risk are you willing to have?
If the answer isn't much, then don't acquire much
because you will have to trust people at some point
and people will disappoint each other.

What can we bare?
Are we trustworthy?
How far can we go?

I will continue to believe the answer to all of these is:
Much.
Yes.
Far.

I hope to continue as far as we can go.