April 3, 2021 – The tenth official Friday Night BeerBlog

So I’m sitting in my office, slash Ian’s bedroom, on April Fool’s Day, thinking about what poetic to wax this week and glance sideways out the window. What is that? Little flecks of white. Is the wind blowing some early spring petals off the dogwood? I’m looking closer and they are everywhere, these white flecks. It’s April 1st, surely that cannot be, dare I say, snow?? Is this an April Fool’s joke?

I jump out of my chair and run to the window in the front room. NOOOOOO! It is snow, which means the temperature is at least in the thirty degree range. Two days ago it was 75 degrees and today it’s snowing. We’re going backwards. NOOOOO! I can’t go back to February. I won’t make it. I just won’t.

Then the snow stops. Suddenly. I check the ten-day forecast and I’m assured that this is just a blip. Just a momentary weather setback. Warmer days are definitely coming. Oh, thank you baby Jesus!

I wish there was a life forecast app we could check to convince ourselves that we’re still moving forward, even when there’s a setback. It happens to me all the time. I get good feedback on a blog or podcast, then one negative comment totally derails me. I have some work all lined up, then the job disappears sending me scrambling. I’m riding well, then I crash and have to rehab yet again. I’ve mastered my diet, then the pull of late night discount Kroger donuts is more than I can bear so I eat them all. I think I’ve figured out who I am and what I’m doing, then a wave of doubt overtakes me and I have to start all over again.

It’s inevitable. And it’s a test. Is this the moment when I give up? Is quitting the answer for not having to go through these setbacks over and again? I definitely believe there is a force out there that is willing us to stay down when we get knocked down. It rubs our back understandingly and tells us it’s okay. It whispers, “You don’t have to get up, it’s easier to just lie here”. It pretends to care about us, making us think that it has our best interest at heart.

But don’t believe that shit. That force, whatever it’s name is – some call it “The Big Snooze”, some call it “The Devil” – all I know is that it gets off on you giving up. It takes great pleasure in seeing you struggle, fall, and quit. It literally takes all your negative energy and gets a woody from it. I know, nice picture.

If this pisses you off, the most immediate way to take back that energy is to GET. YOUR. ASS. UP. And go again. There is no such thing as a life forecast app. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but for sure NOTHING will happen if you don’t get back up. Giving up is the only sure way to fail.

On the bright side, let us also consider the word setback. In order to have a setback you have to have been making progress to begin with. Two steps forward and one step back is still one step forward. Do that over and over and over and you’ll eventually get somewhere.

Mike and I were watching The Martian last night and one thing the main character Mark Watney said hit me. He had been left for dead on Mars and had to find a way to contact Earth and survive until he could be rescued. SPOILER ALERT: He did survive and at the end is teaching a class of astronaut trainees. He tells them, “At some point, everything’s gonna go south on you and you’re going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin.”

Just begin. Again.

So, while it sucks, we have to accept that sometimes it just snows in April.

Onward!

LLM

To listen to this blog, read by me and Mike:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1594894/8263492