It’s nearly impossible for me to believe, but I’ve been living, working and publishing in the Grand Valley for nearly a quarter of a century. For some, I’m sure it feels like I’ve been doing those things wrong for much longer. Well, them’s the breaks.

If you ever take one thing to heart in all the ink I’ve put to paper over 23 years, make it this: You can’t survive owning a business for this long without getting a few breaks along the way. Heck, you can’t remain alive for more 60 years without a few as well. And I’ve been the beneficiary of plenty in both my professional and personal lives.

Perhaps it’s best to change up the wording on them breaks. Given the time of year, let’s declare that furthermore them breaks shall mean or be called blessings, of which I’m on the receiving end of many.

Most important are my two beautiful, talented, caring and loving daughters. The privilege of being their daddy is truly God’s greatest gift to me outside of His Son and my redemption into His Kingdom. I could go on and on for the next 24 editions of the Business Times about my girls. But they’ve already had enough of hearing, “Oh, you’re Craig Hall’s daughter?” Take the time to say it in a couple of different ways, and you’ll get the picture. Them’s the breaks of being the kids of someone who writes what he thinks.

I’ve also been blessed in taking over a great product from my brother in the Business Times and keeping it great, inheriting the best storyteller in the valley in Phil Castle. Along with a natural knack for writing, he has the gift of talking with and relating to people. That leaves me to do what I do best: sales. Selling isn’t about closing. It’s about relationships. Just like Phil and his stories you read in every edition, I genuinely have an interest in what you do, why you do it and in your stories and success. The real blessing is when clients express the same desire for the Business Times. Them’s the breaks.

But until the events of the past few years, I didn’t fully appreciate the blessings God has brought into my life over my six-plus decades on this orb. Sure, it’s easy to say children are blessings. But how much harder is it to internalize and appreciate the joy when their hobbies cost too much and take up so much time and the result is three minutes onstage, in the arena or in life when all your nerves can say is, “Please don’t mess up.” Or when they decide to make up their own minds and think for themselves. It’s so much easier to focus on the errors of parenting instead of the successes. That’s human nature in a nutshell. No other role in life shows us our own flaws more than parenting. But I firmly suggest we all try it at least once. Maybe have a couple and dive in to all the fun. Them’s the breaks of having kids. Them’s also the blessings of having great parents who taught me so much in my second childhood with them.

Related to this publication and without pointing a finger of blame and in no order in particular, the Business Times never should have survived the passing of my brother Karl (and his identical twin, Kurt a month later —t hey will never be mentioned apart as long as I breathe), 9/11, the 2008 mortgage crisis, COVID pandemic or my learning-the-ropes-of -publishing business decisions. That was pretty much in order, along with the common thread of my business decisions. Yet, with all those events and the fear and damage they brought, came blessing after blessing for this paper and my life. Because blessings at the paper gave me the ability to live a life I never imagined. And honestly, let me state for the record my decisions, both business and personal, put the paper in more peril than any outside event ever could. But them’s the breaks.

I’ve had a couple of them breaks the past two years that changed my life dramatically. The first is I quit drinking in January of 2022 — due to a situation in which I got an incredible break. But, more importantly, to an understanding I couldn’t control the demon of alcohol. I’ve written extensively the past few months on the second with my open heart surgery and the disease that took my mom and brothers.

I used to think the ultimate was a client telling me, “Just send me a bill,” or “Do the same as last year,” over the phone or in an email year after year. Or in surviving another dance routine or mortgage payment or another day, week or year. Or in doing life alone. Or a heart attack. After all, them’s the breaks. Or so I thought.

But once I saw them breaks are opportunities for relationships and much more, they become perseverance. Perseverance becomes joy. Joy brings blessings. Today, I wouldn’t trade a break, good or bad, for anything.

May you have a merry Christmas and blessed New Year. With a few of them breaks along the way.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.