Committed to Agriculture while Respecting the Earth
I love walking around the yard after the snow melts, looking for signs of spring. Yesterday, I went out and looked at my rhubarb, and was excited to see some leaves poking through the mulch. This morning, I took my camera along with me on my walk. I not only found the rhubarb had grown a lot in yesterday’s warm sunshine, but the grass is starting to turn green!
Jonathan and I both love the changing seasons. Spring brings with it hope, freshness, renewal. We are looking forward to the start of our cropping season in a week or so – weather permitting. Until we can finally get out in the fields, I will rejoice in the green blades of grass, the growing rhubarb leaves, and the birds singing me awake every morning.
Happy Spring!
Our scripture texts for this week’s mid-week Lenten service have been on my mind all day. The first reading was from Micah 6, with verse 8 really standing out. “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” That sounds so simple, doesn’t it?
The second reading was from Romans 12:9-13. The photo above contains the portion of the text that has stayed with me today. Again, the words sound so simple. “Don’t just pretend that you love others: really love them.” Another version says, “Let your love be genuine.”
When was the last time you showed real love for others? Too often we say one thing, but are thinking another. We say things to please or appease our audience, thinking they will like us if we say what we think they want to hear. Is popularity the driving force behind posts, or is it an outpouring of what is truly in your heart?
Everyone sees things thorough their own filter. My reality is different than your reality. In my opinion, that is the way it should be. I think where things go wrong, is when we feel our way is the only way. When we insist that we are the only “right” ones, we are not really loving others. We cannot honor each other if we are too busy judging them based on our own set of rules as to what is right.
My mind tends to connect scripture lessons and snippets of Pastor’s sermons to things happening in agriculture. Lately, I haven’t been feeling much love on social media when it comes to agriculture. So many articles, memes, blog posts, tweets, statuses, whatever, have been divisive. If you don’t agree with this person, you are a shill. If you don’t agree with that person, you are anti-science. If you choose to eat this food, you are an elitist. If you choose to eat that food you are poisoning your family. Read my 10 truths about this farming system that I have no experience in, but am writing about anyway. Sometimes I just want to bang my head on the wall! One thought from Pastor’s sermon seemed to fit into these feelings. We want a set of rules to follow, yet we don’t all agree on the rules. The rules were made to make order out of chaos, yet now we have chaos because we don’t like the rules. It helps to explain church denominations…yet the same can be said for agriculture. There is no one hard and fast rule about how to grow things…or even what things to grow. Yet, we want to separate people into categories, and we judge them based on which category we put them into. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?
This is the part where I’m really thankful for grace and forgiveness. As much as I try to live like these scripture passages say, I know that I will fail. That doesn’t mean that it’s okay to give up on trying! Some days, being kind is awfully difficult. That is when I need to hate the wrong…the wrong being my attitude. Some people like to make loving them more of a challenge, but when you are loving the good, you can usually find something to love. 🙂
My challenge to you, is to work on really loving others, and focus on the positives when you write. Think about how your post might be perceived by those who do not live in your box. Was the post written with good intentions, or was it written because others have posted on this topic and received a good response?
The power to change the attitude of the multitude begins with one…you. Love the good!
National Ag Day looks different to all of us. Some are celebrating the birth of Norman Borlaug with ceremonies in Washington, DC and Iowa, some are celebrating by volunteering at various agriculture events, while others are celebrating as they work on their farms and ranches. I want to take this opportunity to say “Thank You!” to all the farmers and ranchers for the hard work they put in so we are able to eat whatever we want, whenever we want. I also want to give a shout out to all of those whose jobs in agriculture are forgotten about – seed salesmen and seed warehouse workers, plant breeders, agronomists, soil scientists, animal nutritionists…the list could go on for a while! Thank you for your important role in farming & ranching!
Happy Ag Day, everyone!
Last night I had the chance to connect with Bret, from Bret’s Table; Taylor, from Greens & Chocolate; Anna, from Garnish with Lemon; and Dr Laura Dalquist from the Swine Vet Center. Our roundtable discussion was moderated by Leah Beyer, who I was excited to finally meet in real life. The conversation was so good, that I had no problems with my 2 1/2 hour drive home from Bloomington. I arrived home just before the stroke of midnight, yet couldn’t fall asleep for a couple more hours. As I was going through different parts of our conversation (which you’ll hear more about later), this quote kept running through my mind…
