The initial excitement of starting a corn maze and pumpkin patch was all roses.
At last, I had a platform to create a Hallmark movie experience right in our own community. Fully equipped with high hopes and lofty expectations, I welcomed hard work and knew that with the right plan this venture would reap many rewards.
Because I did not grow up around agriculture, I failed to account for all the uncontrollable aspects of the work. Our first season, a hailstorm destroyed our entire crop of pumpkins. More unscheduled rain pushed back Opening Day for two out of the three seasons. Repeating the same task multiple times? Par for the course on a farm. Oh, and people actually had to come for this thing to work.
There is a temptation to focus solely on the challenges and not the opportunities presented by farm life. I must admit, the transition to farm life has brought moments of resistance, uncertainty, and discontentment, but a concept that I have settled into is this: the grass is greener where you water it. I guess I have always known this to be true; I just did not expect that to be the literal grass on a farm.
Have you had those moments when you start to notice that your current situation is not what you planned? You had a rough framework of what your days would hold, which profession you would pursue, or where you would live, yet reality looks very differently. Somewhere along the way you realize that you are walking through an unfamiliar field. But, somewhere along the way you also realize that you might like this field (even more than your first plan), if you could just grow a little grass and maybe a few pumpkins.
The grass is greener where you water it.
When investing in good things, discouragement may come when what you have watered is not the only thing that grows. Weeds also grow right alongside the crops. If we are not careful, the weeds can distract us from the good greens growing all around us. Unfortunately, weeds are just part of it, but how we view them is what matters. We can choose the perspective that while weeds may be growing, the crop is growing too.
Life is a lot like farming. Sometimes you are in a bare and unfamiliar field that needs a little water. Sometimes you have a field of green grass. Other times the field is riddled with weeds. Still other times you have an unexpected pumpkin plant smack dab in the middle of it all, and you remember that something that was once dead can come to life again in the most unexpected place. You remember that life is full of good and bad. You remember that a field of green is often a mixture of grass, weeds, and maybe a few random pumpkins. When you step back and survey it all, it is all just the same green.
Pouring into what is important is required for growth of good crops, but equally important is our perspective on these different growths. Life really is a mixture of greens. Sometimes we need to step back, gain perspective, and appreciate how these plants, these shades of green, are woven together to make the beautiful harvest that we call life.
Article written by Allyson Joy and originally published in Focus on Artesia 2022 Fall edition.
