I love to read books to my kids. It seems that a very common theme in children’s books is farming. It’s often a story about the farmer and his trusty tractor, or about how the blue truck and the farm animals save the day. Sometimes it’s counting veggies and learning shapes in the perfect garden, or one that I remember reading as a kid, the kitten who got lost and has an adventure on its way back to the farm.
I really like the old ones that were illustrated by someone who actually understood what farm life was like and drew in all the perfect little details that only a farmer would notice.
But whatever the story, it appears that life on a farm is simple, slow, and the best of life. After all, it’s just putting seeds in the ground, letting animals eat, and enjoying the sunset from the porch swing, right?
Now, while we can really pull off a mean porch swing session, usually, I barely have the time to pause and admire the waning colors of the sleepy sun.
Try telling a typical farmer to take a day off from all the chaos and he’ll probably look at you like an inquisitive squirrel before he takes off to chase the next nut. I saw a meme that was describing a farmer’s day that said something like, “The cows are fed, milked, beddened, and doctored, and the farmer is sitting on the barn floor with a granola bar and a drink from the hose that counts for breakfast and lunch while thinking she’s having a nice easy day.” I was once told that my farm life theme song should be, “Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free!” I kind of just stared and didn’t really know what to say.
So, here’s what I decided. Maybe all the complaining farmers just need to change their narrative. I looked up what should be included in a spa and I realized that we need to relabel our life to be the Spa World of Farming! It’s all in the marketing, right? How about this:
I read that a spa should include napping, so when those windrows get swervy from falling asleep at the tractor wheel, how about a little shut eye on the ground under the tractor and we can call it “Earthly Essence Spa.” Living in the lap of luxury!
I know spas offer massage, so let’s relabel my solo walk to get the cows as I bounce my shovel handle on my shoulder knots as the “Mellow Massage Manor.”
Endless hours alone in the tractor becomes the “Majestic Me-time Mansion.”
“Harmony Heights Healing” probably happens with my many trips to the top of the silo.
I’ll have “Raindrop Relaxation” the next time I’m caught in the rain and my hay is getting wet.
That tractor without A/C will now be called “Sauna Simplicity” and when I get splattered with manure, we’ll just call that “Skin Sympathy Spa.” If I’m lucky, I’ll get the fresh-face retreat package.
We can relabel things all day long, but the question still stands: What am I doing in this life? The famous quote, “Only one life will soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
I was recently talking to someone who asked, “How do I know if the ladder I’m climbing in this life will get to the destination that I want for my family?”
In this busy life, it’s easy to sacrifice the important for the “urgent.” We rebrand chaos as “productivity.” We relabel overworking as “accomplishment.” We repackage ignoring our families as “working hard.” We label “isolation” as “me time” and sometimes we just pay attention to whatever is yelling the loudest.
What if we stopped making excuses for unintentional living? What if we pre-decided what’s important and then we actually did it.
There are far too many days that we just let pass by. If we do not choose how to spend our fleeting time, we might as well just say that our lives were spent in the Misty Spa of Missed Opportunities. “Only one life will soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Meet your farmer – Jonathan Gerdes. He and his wife run a farm-to-table raw milk dairy and farm airbnb in Caledonia, Minn. If he isn’t in the barn, you can find him dating his wife, playing with his kids, leading youth group, or flying in the sky. Visit gerdesfreshfarm.com for more info.
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