Spring! March 20th! I got to say, I am beginning to feel a little excited. Are we allowed to do that yet? Let’s do it anyway. Maybe it’s just the spring fever talking, but this rather hellish last year has made me even more determined to make this year the best year ever, and no better time to start than now!
I love this time of year. I am a gardener at heart, so I tend to look at the world through that rose-colored lens. Gardeners are generally an optimistic lot. We have to be, or we would never plant that first seed. In our souls we believe things will ultimately be okay. Not every seed will germinate and not every sapling will bear fruit, but enough will thrive to make the success far outweigh the mishaps. I don’t think there is any other undertaking so fraught with chance, yet driven by expectation – except maybe logistics.
Really, there is not that much difference between gardening and freight. You begin with gathering all the knowledge available, formulate a plan to get from point A to B, keep careful watch to avoid damage and loss and adjust and change course when necessary. You start and end your day knowing sometimes things happen that are totally out of your control, but you never give up. It makes us, gardeners and logistics professionals alike, hopeful, agile and uniquely qualified to tackle whatever is thrown our way. Heck, we deal with a ‘new normal’ every day!
I look around and see things are beginning to perk up – and I don’t just mean the daffodils. Here at the office, phones are ringing, the number of shipments in the system is on the rise, there is even serious talk of a for real Fall tradeshow season. If you aren’t quite feeling my level of spring induced enthusiasm yet, these are all observable, quantifiable, reasons to be optimistic and excited.
Winter is finally beginning to subside. It is time to break the dormancy, get busy tending to everything that made it through the cold, find the seeds we are going to plant this year and even cultivate new ground to expand the garden. We got this! ~ Jamie Reed, Assistant Security Coordinator