What Really Matters

What Really Matters

By John W. Vander Velden

 

In a world driven by what we might have, how easy it is to overlook the good things that surround us.  Being mere mortals we view so much with the lens of “see, hold, and touch”.  Harder to focus upon are the intangibles, and so we give them less value.  Surely a shiny Mercedes must be more pleasing than a puppy’s love.  After all a dog is just a dog…and a Mercedes…well.  But we have been duped.  For one day the auto will be just rusted metal, but the dog will always love you even if you drive a pile of cold hard rust.  So when Thanksgiving arrives, it is good to be grateful for the things that make our lives better, but more, much more, we should be thankful for all the things of life we take for granted.  The spouse that stands beside you no matter what.  The child, perhaps full grown, that gives us the respect we may not feel we deserve.  Each new day with its hopes and possibilities.  Let us appreciate sunrises, its brilliant golds, oranges, and scarlet.  Take time to notice the silvery moon that sails across the night sky filled with bright diamond like stars.  Feel the frosty winter air as we draw into our lungs, and laugh at the puffs of mists that we send off with each exhale.  Life is so much more than the somethings we can touch with our fingers.  It is all the things that reach within us and change our hearts.  As for me all these things show a God at work, prying me open, pouring something new inside, and for that I am grateful most of all.

So this Thanksgiving, take a bit of time to consider all the wonders, all the love, all the good that fill your world.  Share what you can to those who have so little.  It really won’t hurt you and can do so much good.  And give the priceless things, a smile, a kind word, take a moment to hold the door for another.  In other words share love, for in the end love is what really matters.

(360 Words)  11-23-2016

A Bump in the Road

A Bump in the Road

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

 

I am a farmer.  That seems simple enough, even if it is not a complete description of the man I have become.  But it is the way I have earned my living for more than a few years.  How I have farmed has changed with time, but some things do not.  I find myself near the middle of this year’s harvest and am reminded.  Plans are good…but things never go as planned.

If I needed to be reminded of fickleness of my profession, the weeks just past should have done that.   For I am tied to the weather.  There are few other professions more bound to the weather than farming.  And it’s more than getting wet when it rains.  Summer droughts cause their own fears but over wet fields are no fun either.  The storms of late August and September washed out not only the road…repeatedly…but crops as well.  I was fortunate that the number of acres lost was minimal.  But the intensity of the downpours sent the soybeans ta leanin’ in several directions.  Beans tilted steeply to the south must be harvested from the south…against the grain you understand…if you hope to gather most of the crop.  Running the combine would seem, to the untrained, as random wandering, a cut here…a cut there…drive all over the place. That is not to mention dealing with all the wet spots to avoid getting the machine stuck…hmmmmm.  From outer space the fields with its wandering trails and track, uncountable ruts, and random, oddly shaped unharvested blocks of crops, might look like those high Andean plain drawings of Peru…but not.  Maybe the guys at Google Earth would get a laugh at the sight of it.  But I harvest where I can in the direction I must, it slows things down…a bunch. I have worked on beans for a month, and what little remains will have to wait until the ground freezes.  Time to get back to corn and wonder if those fields will carry the combine’s weight.  I guess I’ll cross those rows when I get there.  

The point of this post is not to talk about the weather, or wet fields, or farming…well maybe farming…but to say that things do not go exactly as we plan.  However just because they don’t, doesn’t mean we can’t accomplish something.  Obstacles are part of the journey.  Just as falling down is a part of learning.  Every day we face things unexpected that seem to stand in our way.  We would like to brush those things aside and just go on, but they are rooted too deeply and stubbornly block the direction we have chosen.  Some we may be able to leap over, some we need to find away around, but some we must backtrack a bit to take a totally new route.  Yes, they’re frustrating.  Yes, we loose our patience.  But, yes, they’re a part of life, so we have to deal with it, one way or the other.  Just like I never asked for the two inches of rain on the already saturated soil in late October, none of us ask for any of the obstacles that pop up without warning. So when an obstacle interferes with our plans, it’s best not to think of it as imposing barricade but rather see it as nothing more than a bump in the road.  

 

(566 Words)  11-18-2016

The Seed Within

The Seed Within

By John W. Vander Velden

 

We find ourselves surrounded by people with capabilities we envy.  Talented we are told.  Sometimes it is implied that the only thing that made them special was hard work.  I will not argue about the need for hours of effort, time spent training, learning, growing.  Time spent honing abilities to a greater, sharper, edge of performance.  But I will debate the word “only”.

As a farmer I could spend hours innumerable tilling and preparing soil, but if I do not place the seed in that soil, the work would be for naught.   So it is with every endeavor, it takes a seed to grow into something grand.  I would add that a gift required, a small seed of ability, perhaps special ability that with many hours of sacrifice and effort can be made into something amazing. 

 So you might never be a pro ball player, but that does not mean you have not been given a gift of another type.  For each of us has been endowed with a seed, a special seed.  Each of us needs to look within ourselves and find that seed…that unique gift…that has been given.  The seed that needs to be nurtured to grow into a special talent.  The seed that will demand the hours and effort to sprout and bloom.  To me that seed is more than just a talent, it is a gift I have been entrusted.  A gift given without my asking or consent.  It would be wrong to ignore such a wonderful endowment, to remain mediocre in all things when something special can be achieved. For each of us should do our very best to cultivate the seed within.

(278 Words)  3-3-2016 

November Wind

November Wind

By John W. Vander Velden

 

The November wind sweeps over the countryside.  It passes through the cropland setting the corn’s leaves to chattering.  It moves through the trees, a whoosh in the tall pines and tugs at the leaves overhead.  It whispers to the leaves.  “Come fly with me.  Let me move you across the sky, carry you to far places.  You have been held prisoner by the branch too long.” 

The November wind sweeps away the golden and scarlet leaves of the Maple.  It lifts the yellow and brown leaves of the Tulip.  Beech and Cottonwood, Sycamore and Birch, the leaves fly and fall, scurried about by the wind.  But the Oak leaves answer the winds sultry whispers, “Our task is not finished.  There is time enough to float and fly.  We will remain here high above the tumbled and tossed.”

But the November wind is not satisfied, every leaf must submit to its power.  No leaf, not Oak or Apple, escapes its desire…its conquest.  “Do not be foolish noble leaves of the Oak.  Your purpose is completed.  Join the joy of all the other leaves.  Sail the bright blue heavens.  Now dear friends…now is your time.  Why concern yourselves over a few days…a few weeks?  What has your mother tree done for you?”

“We hear your voice, oh wind, but we do not answer you today.  Duty calls and we answer gladly.  Cling we will until our final obligation supplied.  We are Oak leaves and have no haste to join the discarded you tempt and cast aside.”

The wind blows through the trees.  It tugs and tears at any leaf that remain high above.  Yet the Oak defiant, holds its children.  Their time has not come…yet.

****

I feel a different wind slide across my cheeks, whispering in my ears.  My November wind’s soft hushed tones speak to me.  “You have labored long my friend.  Set yourself free.  Surely you have earned the right, paid your dues. Sail away, leave care and obligation behind.”

I close my eyes and for a moment fantasize of life painted by those thoughts.  But I answer.  “I am bound willingly to love and duty, to place and purpose.  Yes, my tasks continually change but not my responsibilities. 

“Do you not see the wrinkles and gray hairs in the mirror?  Have you forgotten the pain of worn joints or the ache of overworked muscles?” The seductive voice calls.  “Harvest comes for all.  You have worked long and hard, now is your time.  Leave all demands behind and escape before it is too late.”

“Surely everyone days are numbered,” I answer, “But I yet have some courage and strength, and others rely upon me.”

“Tasks unfinished, there will always be.” Comes the wind’s words.  “Even when you are dust there will be work undone.  Time has come for a narrower view. You grow weary.  Think of yourself.”

“Life is more than self,” I answer, “And love gives strength unsought and it never fails. When can love of self be greater than love of others?”

“And who, friend, would do as much for your?”

I grit my teeth and face the wind. “There is no balance sheet…this for that.  I do not labor for wages…or honor….  It is simply there is work before me and I am…still…able to do it.  I fear not the task nor will I shirk the load.  Too easy to turn away, place my burdens at the feet of others.  Too easy to turn inward and seek my own pleasures.  No, time sufficient for empty hours of little consequence.  But for now I cling, for many need me and I will not abandon.”

Yes, I hear the voice on the November wind, but I will not surrender…yet.

(626 Words)  10-31-2016