Love what you do, do what you love
Wake up before sunrise. Get home after the sunsets. Work outside in the heat and the cold. Drive heavy machinery. Get covered in oil and grease fixing broken equipment. Fix broken pipe and fall in the mud. Be lucky to have a lunch break between all the chaos. Although it may seem like a hell of a day to many, to some this is just a normal day on the farm. Farming is certainty not for everyone, but for some it is everything. What makes it all bearable? Love. Dreams. Passion.
YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, DO WHAT YOU LOVE.
When you grow up on a family farm you don't know any better. Having your father drop you off at school with a tardy note that reads "Had to help a ewe and pull a baby lamb out this morning" may be strange to city kids. But to a farm kid, it is probably just another Tuesday. My husband and I are lucky to have grown up in families with a deep passion and love for farming.
I was raised in the middle of an almond orchard, with orchards across the street and surrounding us on all sides. Orchard life was all I knew. I had my first real neighbor when I went off to college. I still remember my first grocery shopping experience, I had to call my mom and ask what kind of ground beef to buy. We always had home grown meat or meat we bought from other 4H kids. I didn't know what % lean was normal. Growing up on a farm you kinda just take certain things for granted. Not just home grown meat, but a certain kind of love of the land, love of what you do.
Farming isn't just a job or a hobby. Farming is a love and a way of life. To be a true farmer you really do
LOVE WHAT YOU DO AND DO WHAT YOU LOVE. And when a true farmer suddenly stops loving what he does, its time for some readjustment. Sometimes life can get overwhelming and farming is no exception. When farming is not just a job is it your family business and your livelihood, you CAN and DO get burnt out. After weeks and months of no time off, no vacation, no end in sight and nothing but long hours and busy seasons ahead, it may cause you to start thinking if you have the love after all.
But don't give up. The land needs you. The trees needs you. The animals needs you.
Love needs you. You are what holds the whole thing together. If there is one thing I have learned from growing up on a family farm, it is that nothing comes easy. You have to work for what you want. And WHEN you fail or fall down, you get up and try again. When you stop having fun or enjoying what your doing, give yourself a break and come back to try again. Sometimes we just need a little recharge, a mini vacation, a night out, or even just an afternoon off. Family will help bring that love back. So next time you feel yourself loosing a little bit of that love. STOP, think about how you got that love, where you first felt it, how it made you feel. You have love
inside you. Sometimes you just need a little push or LOVE tap to remind you.
Until Next Time,
Almond Girl Jenny