Dear Man at Farmers Market, 

Thank you for affirming me on something I have been working on for so long. Every Wednesday, I make an effort to take a trip to see you my school’s farmers market. It’s nothing special, but I always walk away with something and feel so damn happy about it. Sometimes I’ll hold off on going grocery shopping at the store just because I know you are going to be there. Every week I step up to the counter and you ask me how I have been doing and how my classes are going. I always assumed you asked this to everyone because you are so nice or that you just forgot what classes I was taking because you would ask the same questions every week, without fail. Lo and behold, last week my debit card wasn’t working. We did the whole “let me pretend like I’ve had this issue a thousand times and I know exactly what to do” and rubbed my card with our thumbs about a hundred times, all just to fail getting my chip reader to work. I rarely hold cash on me so I grabbed the bag of mushrooms and onion, that I specially picked up, ready to go to the nearest bank and ask them to hurry and fix my card. That’s when you said “just pay me next week”. I looked at you in disbelief, but then you said “I see you here every week, you can just pay me next week. Unless it rains.” 

I had done it, something that I was working on for so long, I had done something so consistently that you trusted me enough to give your money I owed him, the following week. Now others might say you were just being nice or that’s part of the culture at farmers markets, but that just made me so relieved that someone noticed a very small effort of my consistency.

Thank you for noticing and see you next Wednesday.

Thank you for this reminder and thank you for your honeycrisp apples.

Your Biggest Fan,

JLee

*Granted, I realize that it’s easier to be consistent to things you like, but I ask you why are you trying to be consistent in things you don’t like. Analyze why it isn’t bringing you joy. Why is it hard for you to read the Bible consistently? Why is it hard for you to go to the gym consistency? Learn to find joy in things that are hard which will yield consistency.