A Time of Thanks

It may be a little corny, if not melodramatic, to be talking about giving thanks at Thanksgiving.  But there is a point to all of this.

You know the saying that you don’t know what you had until it is gone.  Well, it works both ways. You don’t know how bad things were . . . until they are better.

I’ve shared openly about the uphill battle to get this ship upright and at sea. I can say, now six months later, that it is full steam ahead. I had lived through about 8 months of extreme stress.  I got to a point where I literally felt sweaty palms each time I opened an e-mail or a real letter. Over and over it was bad news.

The e-mails, from the likes of attorneys, bankers and state licensing boards, seemed to always start with “Mr. Jones, we have a big problem . . . ”

Then came the financial crunch.  I didn’t think it was every going to end.  We are not debt free.  I still have some credit card bills, I still have a bank loan of about 55K and I gave the company a personal loan of 30K. But, the month to month operations are going much smoother.  As of this morning, I will have about $12,000 in the corporate bank account. That is still fragile.  I mean, 1 1/2 payrolls would eat that up. But, it is a new record. Money is coming in almost every day now.

I’ve noticed my emotional energy being returned to patient care rather than money problems or employee problems.  I’m sleeping at night again, without waking up in a cold sweat at 2 AM.

I’m sitting here in my office drinking espresso. There is a cool rain hitting on the metal roof above my head. I’m looking out of my huge window directly onto the harbor. I’m watching crab boats unload their haul and yachts loading up with groceries to carry the rich retirees onward towards California or Mexico for the winter. In about 45 minutes my patients will start to arrive. I have a packed schedule for today. And I can say, for the first time in a long time, unequivocally, that I’m really glad I did this.