Take Care
Taking a break from my normal ranting to get serious with you all. If you or anyone you know is having mental health worries, touch base, reach out, know that you have people and know that you’re someone’s people. Both of us have had our ups and down in life, and lately we have been down as many of you close to us have been aware. It has been a rough season for a myriad of reasons, most of which unrelated to the everyday aspects of farming. We want you to know if you’re struggling, you are not alone. And if you are struggling, you need to let your people know. And if you are in a good position, and feeling good, the best thing you can do is check in on your people. Use your positive position and strength to lift up others. One of my favorite things is to be there for my people, and all of you are my people. So if any of you have some struggles, we are here for you in strength and weakness. We can relate and are more than willing to lend you an ear and we can all lift each other up.
As the world continues to speed up, and the demands and responsibilities grow, it is important that we keep our human. We are all in this together, with our feelings and opinions and environmental influences. No one can know what another is going through, and it’s best to be understanding and give people the benefit of the doubt. Most people are good and hard working, and sometimes they have some stuff going on that throws them off their game.
It has been difficult for us to make the decision to miss market when we have, and it is something we never want to do. After a long week of working in the field and only seeing the unending chores, the weeds, the mowing, the things unfinished, seeing our tables of vegetables reminds us we are actually doing somethings. But frankly, seeing you all and hearing your words of gratitude and encouragement help us get through another week and not having that is worse than not making money. Even harder than both of those is feeling like we have let you all down who have shown up by not being there. But believe me, we want nothing more than to be soaking in your love and sharing our bounty with you, that is all we want to do.
This season we had enough physical and mental stressors to finally decide if we are in farming for the long haul we need to take care of ourselves first or we won’t be able to take care of the farm. We hope that you can find that putting yourself first can help you to better take care of those around you, maybe before you burn yourself out like we tend to do.
Fear not. For your farmers have been through many trails and tribulations. And we are blessed to have each other and our marriage. Blessed to have our aging dog for little longer. Blessed to have you guys. And we are only going to get stronger and better prepared to deal with the difficulties of life.
You aren’t alone. Check in with your people. Most importantly, take care of yourself.