An Honesty Refresh. Thanks To You
An interesting thing happened when Beck and I asked this ABG community for your feedback, in advance of our presentation at Wine2Wine this coming Monday.
The interesting thing, to me, was that you told us what you really think.
Like, really.
I’m not surprised that you were honest with us. But I am interested — in what you said, of course, and also how you said it and why.
It was interesting, I realized eventually, because of how refreshing it felt. To hear what people — what you — honestly think.
It was interesting that honesty struck me as so refreshing. It was recall, actually, of the article Beck wrote that kickstarted A Balanced Glass in the first place: getting honest about our industry and its challenges, particularly when it comes to alcohol.
It was interesting, too, as Beck and I reviewed your survey responses how authoritative the people of this community sound as you spoke honestly. Returning to work after COVID, for example, was a particularly challenging pain point, especially given the need for honest conversations with iffy employers around family and childcare demands.
Honesty, it turns out, conveys the authority of the person who speaks it. And that’s how Beck and I are empowered to speak on your behalf: honestly, with authority, and authentically as well.
This week I wanted to thank you for that, of course.
I also wanted to take a moment to underscore the honesty-as-refreshing piece of this work.
It is refreshing to know what you really think.
It is refreshing to know that we aren’t walking into Monday’s presentation tone-deaf to what matters to you.
It is refreshing to have been given that gift of your honesty, so much so that I’ve been looking around this past week for opportunities to share the gift of honesty.
That has been refreshing too. To strip down a situation or a response or an emotion to what it honestly is. Even if I don’t express it out loud, it’s a valuable experience to observe “what’s honest” from moment to moment.
Let me encourage you to try it out for yourself this week, mindfully observing “what’s honest” in various moments of your life.
I hope you’ll find it as much of a gift as we have.
Namaste,
Cathy
What We're Reading:
Here's what has piqued our interest this week in the world of wine and mindfulness.
How to Communicate When Everyone Is Wearing a Mask – Greater Good.com
People are paying a communications penalty for covering their faces against COVID-19. But the science suggests we can still get a lot across.
Israel winery: 1,500-year-old Byzantine wine complex found – BBC News.com
The 1,500-year-old complex unearthed near Tel Aviv was the world's largest winery at the time.
A 3-Step Return-to-Work Strategy for Companies Coming Out of the Pandemic – Inc.com
There's no playbook, but there are some universal truths.
Aussies Are Eager To Master Health-Conscious Lifestyles – Nielsen.com
To maximise campaign resonance, marketers need to understand the key drivers around the increased focus and willingness to master health-conscious lifestyles, which includes: healthier food choices, drinking less alcohol and increasing their physical activity.
Your best travel tip just came from TikTok – NationalGeographic.com
Unfiltered advice and clever sustainable hacks are what draw travelers to this viral social media app.
Meet the Community!
Here we meet some of the people that make our community so dynamic.
Angelo Peretti, Wine Writer and Wine Strategist (Lake Garda, Verona, Italy)
Years in the Industry:
My first published (short) text about wine dates back to 1986, just a couple of months before a big scandal in the Italian wine sector, that caused 23 deaths among consumers. At that time, I used to write for local newspapers, but writing was not my job: I worked in a bank. My real turning point happened in the mid-1990s, when I founded the Lake Garda Convivium of the Slow Food movement. I became more and more involved in the wine Industry, as a writer, critic and strategist. In 2003 I founded an online wine magazine, InternetGourmet.it. In 2019 I left the bank activity. Nowadays, as a strategist I deal with four Italian appellations (Chiaretto, Bardolino, Asolo Prosecco, Montello).
My Three Top Challenges to Wellness:
Finding time to run or walk. Running or walking more could help me clear my mind and burn calories. (Yes, I love food and wine not only from a cultural point of view. I am Italian! I can’t think of wine without also thinking of food.)
Finding time for “non-professional” writing. That is, short stories. I love writing according to the “sound” of words: Italian is a very rich language, it allows expression of a concept in many different ways, by “playing” a variety of linguistic sounds. I must find more time for this, in the future.
Ignoring slanders. I should always remember that envy is a typical Italian sentiment and if someone says lies about me, this is a problem of him/her, not mine.
How I Keep It Together to Stay Well:
Observing simple moments of beauty. Observing without a specific reason, letting me be surprised by the beauty that I can find in simple things. Observing a new leaf on a tree in my garden, an ant transporting a seed that’s bigger and heavier than she is. Observing a stone shining while I’m walking, the changing gray of the asphalt on the road where I run. These simple beauties help me to restore and restart, because they reassure me that beauty is everywhere, if I want to see it.
Sipping a glass of wine while I am cooking pasta for lunch, when my only thought is how to invent a new way to season and flavor the pasta by using what I have in my fridge and in my garden. That’s the way to set aside my work (and the opportunity to turn off my phone: no calls during lunch and dinner).
Having dinner on my terrace, looking at the continuous changes of the blue, green and white colors of the lake and of the sky (and the red and orange ones in autumn). It’s very relaxing. Yes, I am a lucky person, because I live in a wonderful place.
What Inspires Me:
Reading. When reading a book or an article, I can find inspiration in a sentence, in a single word. (Words are powerful.) Often, after a couple of lines I stop and read them again and again, because of their inspiring power. This is the greatness of good literature and good writing.
Searching for alternatives. I'm strongly convinced that every problem has two solutions, at least, because you can look at the problem under a lot of different points of view. Not necessarily mine.
Thinking through the “worst case." If you have a solution for the worst case, then everything’s easy in all the other cases. I find it an inspiring exercise, because it helps in cultivating doubts.
Quotes I Love:
Carpe diem. It’s a Latin motto, taken from the poet Horace’s Odes. To me, it means that we should live every single moment of our life as it was our whole life. Living completely my present time is my philosophical goal, my way of paying a tribute to the Epicurean philosophy. Yes, I wish I was a modern Epicurean.
Panta rei. Everything flows. It’s an ancient Greek motto, possibly credited to the philosopher Heraclitus. I think these two words perfectly explain life. Life flows, moment by moment, and we flow with life. Life is a continuous change and we don’t have to fear change. Change happens.
You can connect with Angelo at info@angeloperetti.it , www.internetgourmet.it, Facebook, Instagram @internetgourmet, Linkedin: Angelo Peretti and Twitter @internetgourmet
This Week's Meditation
Short meditations to inspire you to tune in and tune up.
10 Minute Mindfulness Meditation – Calm.com
Tamara Levitt guides this 10 minute Daily Calm mindfulness meditation to powerfully restore and re-connect with the present.
