The Book of Lasts

 

 

The Book of Lasts

 

By John w. Vander Velden    

 

It seems that first times get all the credit.  A good example is the book kept by new parents.  First words, first foods, first tooth, first steps, important milestones of their child’s development.  And it doesn’t stop there.  No, we always remember the firsts in our life.  The first day of school, our first bicycle, the first time we drove, and on and on. They are important. Firsts are about beginnings, and beginnings are positive.  Its endings we have trouble with.

For me this year has many things I would place in my book of lasts.  A mental record of when changes occur in my life.  As I approach the end of my farming career, I understand that things will change…and I hope that those changes will be for the better.  All spring it has been on my mind that this, my 45^th, will be my last crop.  When I began this part of my journey I would never have imagined reaching this milestone.  Not that I doubted I would live long enough, but rather could not imagine my life with out the tasks that has filled my days all these years.  But now as I stand on the threshold and go through the preparations of closing that door, I take a moment to consider the lasts, the last tillage, the last planting, the last…all of it.  Hmmmm….

         I will not say that I’ll miss fighting with cantankerous anhydrous applicators or wondering when it will or will not rain, but I do not regret the years when things like that made up so much of my life.  No, there was a time for those tasks and I must acknowledge that time is ending.  Even today farming is very physical and I accept my fading strength.  But life is about changes, and constants are not really…constant…are they?  Moving forward means…moving. 

But the book of lasts is not the only record I keep.  For all through my life I have kept note of firsts.  With the closing of this chapter I anticipate adding to that list.  Before me is a very busy schedule, so many things I hope to achieve. As long as I have breath, there will be firsts before me. I plan to set out in new directions for lasts and first go hand in hand.

So next year when I look over another man’s crops growing on my farm, I will understand that it is not a symbol of my labor, my worries, my limited talents.  Those plants will remind me of all my years, of all my experiences, all my successes and disappointments.  I will remember that first year I farmed and all those firsts long past, and consider the first that lie before and not dwell on my book of lasts.   

 

(467 Words)         8-15-2016