Being a skip generation farmer, I find the roller coaster of emotion that comes with it to be exhilarating, exhausting and frustrating. I guess for those who grow up on a farm, there is an ingrained ability to take it in stride without stumbling too much.
It never fails that if something catastrophic happens, I am away at the fire station and Katie is the one who must deal with the situation. I get to come home and try to make sense of what transpired while I was gone. Being gone for 24 hours sometimes puts me 2 or 3 days behind.
To keep from loosing all hope and giving up when we lose a cow, a dog runs away, there’s too much rain, there’s drought, the garden fails, rabbits die, and hawks attack; we have to look for the small miracles that our society has lost sight of. We get to experience the mystery of witnessing grass and hay convert into milk, seeing new kits in a nesting box, watching a calf come into the world, digging a potato from the earth, gathering eggs, plucking black berries from the brambles, and watching our children grow in an environment that allows them to grow in and explore the fullness of creation. To revel in wonder at what so many are oblivious to and take for granted. Most of all, we have come to understand true thankfulness and gratitude to our Maker for how we are blessed.
