Indomitablest!

This is most certainly not the post that I was planning to write today. This post was going to be titled ‘John Lewis X AlaraApothecary’, but that was before the government got up to their usual tricks. I have a slot in a pop-up store in John Lewis in Exeter starting on Monday (3rd floor, come and say hello if you’re around), and plans for some more in London in January. With the lockdown announcement, I’m not even sure if it will be going ahead. This is the second time this has happened: I had gotten a call from Fenwick in Bond Street in March where they had said really nice things about the sample I sent them and Alara being stocked by them was pretty much a done deal. The week after, just after I’d sent in the presentation, price list etc, the first lockdown was announced. So, here we go again.

I’m not upset for myself, I still have a day job and can weather the storm, thank God. I’m just reflecting that in the last week, I’ve made 14 kilos of creams, 80 bottles of body oil, hand wash, facial oils, balms, ordered insanely expensive printed bags (which are coming from Denmark apparently, no sign of them yet), ordered other plain bags in a panic as a substitute for the AWOL bags, spent a fortune on ingredients, hotels, train tickets ete etc, ad nauseaum. Oh, and I worked a 45-hour week, then made products till midnight every day. Now, I’m a minnow, it’s just a tiny business. If you then try to imagine the amount of hard work it’s taken to build up a John Lewis or a Waterstones or whatever, it just makes you want to weep. The team at John Lewis have been so fantastic and helpful even though I’m not exactly Estee Lauder; these people work very hard, everyday. To see the hard work that so many people have put in being reduced to rubble by a bunch of morally-challenged poor excuses for humanity just makes me so angry. I was reading the latest copy of House & Garden’s ‘The List’ which annually showcases the best interior design and product design companies, and it was really nice to see the names of a few people from my set at KLC who are doing so well, and then I began to wonder how many of them have found that the work has dried up completely. We all worked so hard, that course is intense and then you invest so much into starting your own practice.

It’s extremely appropriate that they’ve announced the lockdown on Halloween; if you want to see what evil looks like, this is it. Never mind the pantomime demons and painted zombies, for all who don’t believe in a devil or evil, you are looking at him face to face. But, people forget what comes straight after Halloween – All Hallows Day a.k.a All Saints Day, November the 1st. So my message as ever is, don’t be afraid. Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. It is quite apparent that help is not coming – the church, parliament, the judiciary, the healthcare professions, the police, the army, the celebs, the royal family etc etc – everyone is keeping their head down and pretending that this makes sense. Thank God for Christ – when people ask me why I’m a Christian, it’s because of times like this. That faith is tried and tested believe me, and I know in whom I’ve believed. God has never let me down and I’ve never had to put my trust in princes. These are dangerous, uncertain times but the whole Covid thing is a busted flush; I keep repeating it. Come the 31st of December, it will all be over bar the shouting. I will be setting up the pop-up store if JL are still willing to go ahead and I will not be scared into seeing other human beings as walking parcels of viruses. Everyone on this planet is kith and kin. As for our cherished leaders, to paraphrase King David, a man who knew something about sabre-rattling warmongers and spiritual warfare, ‘Who are these uncircumcised philisitines, to defy the armies of the living God?‘ ‘So let them dance in the light of their fires, they will lie down with sorrow’ That’s another handy verse from Isaiah. I guess when we get to the part where they start losing firstborn sons Exodus-style, they’ll cease and desist.

A big thank you to John Lewis and GBE, even if the pop-up is cancelled. If it goes ahead, I’ll be donating 10% of all the takings there, as well as 10% of online sales till December, split among 3 charities: Shelter, Crisis, and The Trussell Trust. I am fortunate enough to be able to do so; if you are in that position, please pick a charity and give. Believe me, the need is there. God bless us and keep us and cause His face to shine upon us all in the coming weeks.