Volunteer Rescue Squad

This past weekend a friend stopped by the stand looking amazing. The posterchild of farming, she was tan, in shape and all smiles. After filling me in on the latest plant and animal drama she added, ‘I cried all morning. Sometimes I get so damned overwhelmed I can’t help but cry.’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘There’s no escaping the overwhelmed.’ In a flash all the love and joy I have for growing and my animals can be beaten down by chores never finished, progress that can only be measured by the season and a farm house that is one car-on-blocks away from pure white trash.

The overwhelmed grows as the summer heats up and more of the list is left undone each day. If overwhelmed is allowed to fester it’ll make a quick path from self-doubt to self-pity and land square in resentment. Just last week I was teetering in the land of self-doubt when Bob, a farm volunteer, came by with his weathered copy of “The New Organic Grower” by Elliott Coleman.

Thumbing through the book, nodding my head with each page, it felt like an old friend came to remind me where I’d come from and how I got to where I am. I kept the book overnight and reread chapters long since forgotten. Overwhelmed took a back seat to hope and optimism and new ideas to try.

I am grateful beyond words for the time and energy the volunteers share with me. But at moments like these I am most grateful that they bring me back to my true love and passion and allow me to see, with fresh perspective, what this farm is all about. My deepest thanks and eternal gratitude to Ellen, Bob, Jim, Chris and Henry.

As always, thanks for stopping by, Carolyn

#Volunteers