Cookie Crumbs

The Bottom of the Cookie Jar

There’s only one cookie left in the bottom of the cookie jar. Two days ago, cookies completely filled the jar-soft, chewy, and chocolaty. Everyone in the house enjoyed those cookies, hands reaching in at the end of the school day, running out the door to baseball, and before bedtime. Now only one cookie and a few crumbs lie in the bottom of the jar, one cookie and crumbs.

Running a small business and a farm is similar to that cookie jar sitting on my counter top. Money comes in, and I put it in my bank account. There it sits until an expense comes along. Everyone pulls cash from my account, the feed store, the vet, my web designer, bank fees, the fiber mill, the post office, sales departments, food store, garden supply…. This morning, I sat at my desk, opening bills which had come in the mail, with my check book open. The bank register relives the events of the past few months, the sick ewe, the difficult labor, the medicine needed, the vet in the barn until 1 in the morning, the new marketing plan to reach more people, advertisements online and in print, the consultant fee to help me figure out book keeping puzzles, the shearing season and new yarn. It is all there-all those hands in my cookie jar, pulling one cookie out at a time until all I have left are the crumbs.

A good friend tells me to step out in faith and forge ahead, so I write the checks, put them in the envelopes and carry them to the mailbox, hoping and praying that my cookie jar will be replenished.

All that is left are the crumbs.