Sam Elliott

“Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well, he eats you.”

It’s true in many walks of life that we spend a lot of time chasing or being chased. We chase our dreams, we get chased by doubt. We chase new shiny objects, we get chased by creditors. We chase deer, we get chased by bears.

Bears take many shapes. They could be an oncoming deadline, a mismanaged creditor or just the sheer bulk of a projects. We get done running from one, and just as we sit down to catch our breath, another explodes out of the woods, very cross at us for making off with its picnic basket.

I may seem like I’m rambling a little bit here, but suffice it to say that things are going on in my life that are both exciting and terrifying, both stimulating and crushing, both good and bad. And I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to outrun the bears that are after me as I chase down my dragons.

When it comes to this sort of thing, however, it counts to have family and friends willing to hear you out. Being alone when dealing with major sources of stress compared to having people you can rely on to at least lend an ear is the difference between running from the bear in your bare feet and running from the bear in a well-laced pair of shoes. My first patron put it this way: “You’re only as alone as you choose to be.”

Not much to say beyond that good gold nugget of advice, I suppose. Though I do find myself thirsty for sasparilla all of a sudden.