The other week I was generously invited to give a little talk about our business at the Art Centre in Chester. Julien’s Bakery is celebrating or bemoaning – depending on the day, its thirtieth year in business this spring.
What surprised me was not the number of folks who must lead desperately boring lives, willing to pay to hear me ramble on, though I confess I was stunned , but when I talked about moving to Bridgewater in 1989 with no plan , no research , no clue whatsoever. I was 25, the Frenchman 30- no cellphones, no internet, I’d been to Bridgewater maybe once in my life, yet without much thought or even trepidation, off we ventured.
And thirty years later we are still here on this gorgeous and sometimes enigmatic South Shore of Nova Scotia. A pal of mine, far more savvy in business than me, once said, “ to your own detriment, Laura, you always seem to save yourself from the brink”. I am still not quite sure if he meant that as a compliment or a reprimand but let’s go with the former. Some days are hard, we could have given up a thousand times but we didn’t and we are proud of that and I like to think our customers are also happy about this.
I wonder, do folks still possess spontaneity and pursue seemingly foolish dreams? It’s a new world full of data, research , information and knowledge and there seems to be little room for surprise and uncalculated risk. If we had waited til the numbers lined up as they should have we’d still be working at real jobs with real salaries and real days off. Ha, maybe these kids are onto something. Ah, but think about what we would have missed.
As we all know there are no guarantees in life, even with the best planning, things can go to hell pretty fast. So I implore you don’t keep waiting, don’t think too hard just get out there and do it. Failing is not the worst thing that can happen, but never knowing, just might be.
You can read more of Laura’s Bread is Life series here…
Chapter 1
Welcome Simple Local Life’s Newest Contributor: Laura Mulrooney
