January’s back.  The month of reconciling and reevaluating. Bob’s and my fingers touch every piece of meat on the farm, examining condition, tallying stock, physically assessing what has been damaged, what has sold, what isn’t moving….And why.  

It’s the month when we pour over the numbers with mom, dad and the crew, celebrating the things we improved upon, but also assiduously looking for the mistakes.  

And there are so many mistakes — scattered stewardship, poor communication, digital detritus, unacknowledged  changes in market forces…. They will all show up one way or another in the numbers: the stock of cuts unsold, the volume of waste, the financials.  It all stings.  It’s all so very very January.

It would be easy to hate this month.  Instead, I’ve learned to soak in it.  I’ve stopped trying to do anything else:  I don’t work on my novel.  I don’t run the cafe.  I just count, shudder, think, count, shudder, think, repeat.

Januarys past have taught me not to fear this, but to embrace it.  Because when we do, we move to forgiving ourselves for just being humans trying to run a family business.  On the heels of forgiveness come innovation and inspiration.  That’s when a plan comes together for the coming year, where we figure out how to solve problems, how to make things better.  The new plans fill us with excitement.  And once more,  we move forward joyfully into the year ahead.