That’s Right. Sometimes It Doesn’t Make Any Sense
You won’t believe this.
I don’t believe it. And yet, it happened to me!
Last Saturday started as a reasonably ordinary, well, you know… Saturday.
Yes, our youngest daughter, Briony, was down for Mum’s Birthday Weekend.
And yes, she seemed just a tad on edge.
I mean, who gets “absolutely ready for lunch in yer posh clothes” at 11:00 am on Saturday?!
And she was engaging us in the most intense, searching conversations.
“What on earth is wrong with her?” Wendy whispered, as we passed each other.
Then the doorbell rang.
And we were barged out of the way by a rocket-fuelled Briony.
When the door was flung open, we were greeted by a grinning Catherine.
Now, you have to realise that Catherine has been our eldest daughter’s closest friend for 20 years.
So close that we ‘adopted’ her.
To us she’s just “Catherine Scarlett”. Another daughter.
She even received her own ‘Scarlett Christmas Pyjamas’ every year…
In case she wanted to spend another Christmas morn in our home.
Grinning wider than The immortalised Cheshire… she said:
”I was just passing by, and…”
“Whatdya mean passing by?” Thinks I.
”You live in the Outer Wilds of Ancient Essex.
We’re in West Sussex!”
Anyway…
”Come and say hello to my little Maddie.” says she.
”Oh, alright” Says I. (Shrugging a little)
Except I can’t see Little Maddie anywhere.
Just an empty street.
And Grinning Catherine.
Then – suddenly – beside me, Wendy starts sobbing and laughing.
(Yep, it is possible to do both. Well, I can’t. But this is Wendy.)
Then I look to my right, down the road.
And I’m a little bemused.
Because striding down the road is this rather exotically beautiful lady.
Who I kind of recognise. But can’t really place.
Doesn’t live around here, anyway.
Then I glance at Catherine Scarlett.
And she’s grinning wider (not really possible), and she’s pointing at this ‘Lady’.
By this time, the video shows, I have my mouth wide, wide, WIDE open.
Jaw-dropping, eye-boggling Me is caught on camera.
Because this stunning Lady looks a little like that eldest daughter, Lauren.
She’s even got a boldly sticky-out tummy, which suggests she’s pregnant.
And I recall that my Lauren is pregnant.
Except she lives 12,000 miles away in Australia.
And that’s a heck-of-a-walk from East Grinstead, West Sussex, Olde Englande.
Even when she came up to me, kissed me and threw her arms around me…
I was still trying to work out who she was.
Apparently, my voice was captured saying something profound like “How Does That Work?”
Because none of it made any sense…
My mind was refusing to believe it.
And I had no idea how to act or respond.
Not that different to what I see in the behaviour of many small-business leaders today.
These are exciting, breathless and confusing times.
The weeks ahead (let alone the months and years) loom as Uncharted Territory.
Everything seems to be thundering towards us with the speed of a runaway train.
Everything is even more noisy than that.
Politics, economies, markets, consumer attitudes and expectations, technology, legislation and regulation.
Mind you, navigating the Speed of Change is not difficult. Is it?
As long as you’re highly-trained in White-Water-Rapids Rafting.
What I then observe is the sight of leader after leader frozen in utter disbelief.
Because “The World Is Not Suppose To Move This Fast.
It’s Not Natural. It’s Just Not British!”
So, they don’t move at all.
Because they’re making a handsome amount of dosh, thank-you-very-much.
And, surely, it’ll continue just like that. Long enough for me to make my wedge.
Won’t it?
Lauren will be going home soon.
Meanwhile, my befuddled mind is gradually catching up with reality.
Thankfully, my heart is already there.
So my mind has time.
But only just.
