Reflections on Learning to Walk Slowly

Guest Post by Blake Morgan, Owner and Chef at Morgan’s Local Flavor in Allentown, PA.

A drip and a gurgle closely followed by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee has been the way my day has started for as long as I can remember. Since the middle of March 2020, that remains the only thing the same and predictable in my life. 

Owning a restaurant for the past 15 years, being married for 31 years, raising a  family  of four daughters for 26 of those years and coaching softball for 20 years really never led to a predictable life. However since March of this year, I think the word ‘predictable,’ as it pertains to my life, has been erased.

I’m sure we could all say the same about our lives. Our worlds have been turned upside down. The pandemic has stolen our schedules, upended our plans, cancelled our holidays  and made us trade the strength we get from gathering together for the sorrow and sadness of separation and isolation. 

My day is no longer business as usual. More than ever owning a business means labor needs to be leveraged. Margins need to be managed. Employees and customers alike need to be daily communicated with, comforted and informed. Health concerns of employees and customers alike now need to be addressed and monitored.  Policies regarding sanitation and safety need daily examination and updating.

The way we once served our customers was prohibited for a time and then severely limited. We had to come up with new and attractive ways to meet their needs. We had to develop new strategies and perfect those strategies continually. All the while experiencing heavy financial losses and an overwhelming sense of fear of the unknown. Each day waiting and hoping things would return to normal. 

Truth be told, I’m not sure any of us really knew for sure what the next moves should be. There aren’t a lot of historical points of reference for operating a business during a pandemic. No manual in the filing cabinet.  The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t know anything. I knew that my normal routine wouldn’t cut it. I knew I would be facing incredibly long hours and tough decisions. 

I made a personal decision to start my day every day with the only thing I knew was bigger than the pandemic. I committed to begin each day in prayer with God. I have done that from day one and continue to this day. I pray first for the safety of my customers and my employees.  I pray for their families. I pray for wisdom and strength, patience and grace and endurance. I pray for my family each one and thank God for their support and willingness to help any way they can.

I thank God for the “Angel Investors” he has sent to me. I don’t mean it in the fiscal terms, but in the personal way God has used others to invest in me as I try to navigate this incredibly difficult pandemic terrain.  I won’t mention names for fear of leaving someone out, but I thank Him for the man who showed up with his family and told me he just wanted to do something to give back.  He and his family then proceeded to landscape my entire business free of charge. Many customers wrote notes and bought gift cards and pivoted along with us and met us at every new offering we presented. They encouraged us with their verbal and financial support. God sent a fellow entrepreneur to stop by just to make sure I was personally okay and to pray for me. Other customers “paid it forward” and purchased meals for those who needed them but couldn’t afford them.  So many “sheltering trees” in human form who provided shade and relief from the scorching heat and pressures of the past few months. “Angel investors” who showed their concern in so many ways.  Their words and deeds were transformed into times of rest and refreshment that were desperately needed. Those times allowed me to regroup and press on and have left an indelible mark on my heart and my life. 

As business owners, we are simply leaders of a group of people trying to achieve a common goal.  We have a plan and we train others in how to implement that plan. Then we monitor and manage the results of our plan. Leading is easier with a good plan. Leading when you are unsure of the plan is extremely difficult. 

Truth be told I think everyone who is or has been in a leadership role knows that leadership is often accompanied by loneliness. That loneliness can be consuming when you’re trying to lead with no certainty of where you’re going or where you might possibly end up. I’ve found that leading through the fog of this pandemic requires certain traits that weren’t prevalent in my previous leadership style. 

  Leading during this pandemic versus leading the way I have always led are as different as walking through your home in the light or in the darkness. The setting is the same. The area is familiar to you. What a difference there is though moving around during the day than at night!  Moving during the day all the obstacles are clearly seen. Just take a quick step to the right or left and avoid that thing on the floor, closed door or anything that might cause you harm. You can see potential problems in your home during the day. A leaky faucet or thermostat not at the right temperature. You may see a child still in bed that should be getting ready to go to school or work. You see the obstacles and problems clearly and correct them.  You are able to avoid the consequence. However, so many potential problems are hidden by the dark and, left unattended, can grow into serious problems. 

Let me ask you. Do you move the same at night in your home? How many times have you stepped on something you couldn’t see, walked into something that you walked around a thousand times, or walked through something you never would have walked through (those of your who have animals know what I mean)?  All that bad stuff happened because you were moving at the same speed with limited vision as you were with the light of day.

Leading through the darkness of our times, I have learned to move more slowly. To consider each decision and attempt to take my time and think through the location of possible problems. To give myself a break when I make a decision in the dark to move in one direction and don’t get great results. No matter how dark it gets, to keep moving forward. Moving slowly, step by step, making course corrections along the way until the light comes on. Then I can again see clearly and with certainty on which direction to go.

No magic formula. No 10 step program. No “Pandemic for Dummies” book to read. Just moving slowly through the darkness waiting for the light. Some days you get the thrill of picking the right direction and the success it brings. Other days bring failure and fear. Some days bring refreshment and glimpse of what once was. Other days  bring discouragement, frustration and, yes, even tears. 

Each day is a new chapter, a new challenge. Each day has the potential to be better or worse than the day before. I try not to keep track of that on a flow chart. I have found it easier to just stay in the day. To challenge myself to remain thankful for my friends, my family, my employees and my customers.  

I can’t end this blog claiming to have come up with a survival guide for pandemics personally or professionally.  I only know that I will continue to walk slowly through the darkness of these days. To walk slowly with the hope that the light will soon come and with gratitude for the strength God has given me. To remain thankful for each day and the blessings that help light the path when I can’t see to take the next step.