Remembering the past to look towards the future....

An old snowy and sunny sleigh ride

I spent New Year’s Eve day reflecting on the past, but more than just the previous year was in my thoughts, as I went through old photo albums. 

The picture above is from our old farmhouse, as my Mom and I were heading back to the barn from a sleigh ride. You can barely see my hat covered head peeking over the seat, on my Mom’s right. As I looked at the other pictures that surrounded this one, I couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 years old, smiling so wide as I sat in the sleigh bundled to the brim, on what I can assume was a freezing cold Berkshires day. I didn’t care how cold it was; I was with my Mom, the sun was shining, and we were with one of our trusted Morgans, pulling us all the way. This picture and so many others like it, brought forth poignant memories, into both my mind and heart.

Farm life is part of my being and I always forget how much of my soul it truly is a part of until I go back home.I feel at ease surrounded by my family, horses, dogs, and all the other random critters that may be there at any time. I miss being around and involved with the horses. I miss the way a farm smells, working hard with my hands, and seeing the results of that effort. And while we all can be a bit more than crazy at times, I miss being close to my family.

I would be lying if I said I loved it all of the time. It is hard and it can hurt, both physically and emotionally. And I wasn’t always in love with living on a farm growing up and didn’t always want to do the work associated with it, for the same reasons. But you learn so much about yourself on a farm. 

You learn about life and death. You learn how hard you can push yourself to get the job done.You learn what happens if you don’t do something. You learn that there will not always be hard days, but that they are hardly ever easy. You learn about pain and pure joy. You learn more from nature then any book can sometimes teach you. You learn about true love and fierce heartache. You learn about the real world and how you play a role in it, both positively and negatively. But you learn the most from others on the farm. You learn from farm hand help, you learn from the animals, you learn from Mother Nature, and you learn from your family, and how we all function in a symbiotic ecosystem. You learn that everything is interwoven with everything else and that you are a part of that woven masterpiece. 

As I look to the past, I know that there have been some positive pieces and some bumps in the road, some more recent then others. There always will be. Who knows what the future year will hold for myself, or any of us, really. Every second is a kaleidoscope of changes. I can only hope that I look at the lessons from the past, in order to grow for the future. It is all about forward progress, no matter how hard or how easy it may be.