The Heart of a Farmer

As of late I have had a lot going on.  From the ladies in my head who won't stop interrupting me, to the ridiculous amount of heifers who have decided to calve atthesametime...there hasn't been much down time. 
WAIT!  I have to break to tell you about this thing that happened yesterday...then we will continue.

So, Tim and I were bringing a fresh heifer up to the dairy barn yesterday morning.  Now 99.999% of the time, which is like more than half, I back up to the barn, swing the gate open and they run into the barn at lightening speed.  (Then they hit the concrete and try to find the brakes).  Yesterday, we backed up to the barn, swung the gate open and she headed off the trailer...made a HARD right, bumped her head into the office door, which swung OPEN...and there she was...deciding whether or not she was going to run into the brains of the operation.  The home of the surveillance system.  The place where the computer, medicine, paperwork and everythingelse reside.  She stood there for 5 hours seconds, as silence fell on the world, my heart slowed, color drained from my face and I felt like I was going to throw up.  If you could imagine watching a train wreck, as it was happening, in slow motion...that would be quite the same I imagine.  Then, she changed her mind and ran back on the trailer.  I had to sit down.  Good grief.

Moving on...

During this past month I have done a lot of soul-searching, had an enormous amount of conversations with God, and overall tried not to worry about the future.  No easy task for anyone, right?  Throughout the talks I had had with Chuck, my sisters, my mom and Dr. Kirksy, one thing has become very clear to me...farmers think differently.
Like waaaay different from non-farmer folk.  It really is the strangest thing.  Maybe people who didn't grow up on a farm don't see it much, but it's there.  We have this thing...this overwhelming sense of Hope that we are born with.  It's that "I can do anything if I try" mentality.  It's the inner entrepreneur coming out.  Like a silver lining around...everything. 
Sometimes I feel like Pollyanna (yeah, that's old-school) in that I am always trying to find the good.  My initial reaction to bad news is, "OK, now how can we make the best of this?".  Farmers don't give up.  We are born without the "quitter" bone.  I'm proud of that. 
We dream and we try, and if it doesn't work out at least we won't regret never giving it a shot.  That's what being a farmer is.  It's believing in something bigger, something greater, that even if we temporarily fail, in the end we have won.  We are self-made, and nine times out of ten our answer is "maybe" not "no". 
I didn't realize any of this until now.  Until my numerous conversations with people from all different backgrounds.  I have honestly never listened to someones idea and told them they couldn't do it.  Never.  Hey, it might not work.  They might crash and burn, but they tried. 
How many acres of corn have been planted that have gone to dust from lack of rain?  How many times has mother nature thrown a curve ball?  That hasn't kept us from planting or planning ahead. When the road seems to end, we start clearing trees.  We just don't give up.
There's a whole world of possibilities, and you don't have to be a farmer to realize it.  All it takes is having the heart of a farmer.

Love,
ProudToFarmCowLady