People often ask me why I live the way I do, on a mountain top, surrounded by soil, sheep, and endless work. I want to invite these people to spend a year with me, and experience the many blessings. In our daily lives, we have the choice to see our toil as futile and harsh, or to see the hidden blessings behind it.
My spade turns the soil, back aching, arms tired. Insects invade, eat, and destroy what we have planted.
But yet, we have an abundance of food to eat.
Death knocks at the door stealing faithful farm dog, young lambs, and llama standing guard in the field.
But, I have a flock to tend of strong ewes, and a daughter, arm wrapped around me, reminding me that this is farm life with its cycle of life and death.
Rain pours for weeks on end, as tractors sit, waiting to cut hay. I wonder how I will find enough hay at season’s end to feed my sheep.
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| Six weeks of rain last summer soaked the earth. |
But the farmer down the road always comes through, and pulls his wagon to our barn, with hay piled high.
The snow falls, wind blows, making every step to the barn difficult. Water buckets freeze, fingers numb, snow blankets the earth.
But I am surrounded by God’s beauty.
So my life goes, fighting against the elements, growing our own food, raising sheep, living life on a farm. Death comes, blight happens, insects appear, weeds out number hands to pull them, things freeze, break, and fall apart, mud captures boot and tire, winds howl bringing snow and rain, animals die. But yet, I would not trade my life for any other. I feel blessed to experience the fullness of each day, with its goodness and hardship.
Each day, when I rise with the sun, I can choose my focus: giving thanks for the work of my hands and the blessings given to me, or filling my heart with bitterness for the toil, frustration, and grief.
Today….I choose Thanksgiving…..
I Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
