Sometimes the silliest little things are real eye-openers. Stuff we'd normally take for granted that - for whatever reason - spurs a thought or a memory or offers a totally unexpected little nugget of new information. Or, in this case, reminded us of how lucky we really are.
We had quite a few of those "ah ha!" moments recently after being nominated to take a 10-day farming/ranching family challenge on Facebook. It was straightforward and simple: "Every day I select an image from a day in the life of a farming/ranching family and post it without a single explanation and nominate somebody to take the challenge. That's 10 days, 10 farming/ranching photos, 10 nominations and 0 explanations."
OK, sort of simple. Do you know how many photos we have? Gazillions. And we love 'em all, because each and every one says something to us - they remind us of what we were feeling and thinking when we framed each shot, and why we wanted to commit that moment to something other than just our memories.
And you know what? Our friends and our friends' friends have plenty of photos, too. And not the carefully framed, just-take-one-and-one-more-just-in-case kind we used to take back in the day, when film and processing cost plenty. We whip out our smartphones for EVERYthing, and take tons of shots of the good, the bad, the cute, the funny, the embarrassing and the "oh-my-goodness-what-even-happened-there?" moments.
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And the best part? No explanations.
Why was that the best part? Because what we see and what everyone else sees isn't always the same. There were photos of kids and calves and combines, trees and crops and pastures, hunting, horse riding - you name it, there was probably a photo of it. And every last one brought back memories of our own moments in time.
And those moments weren't just the "take one for the family album" perfect photos. We loved that, mixed in with the smiling faces and fun stuff were plenty of photos of work and other things that don't come easy. Things like calves in the bathtub, tractors stuck in the mud, and snow drifts that covered corral fences.
Rural families work hard. We do it because we love what we do no matter what scale it's on, and this challenge honored everyone - from large family operations to folks who work in town to support their rural lifestyles. While city folks are clearing snow from sidewalks, we're making sure animals can get to water troughs and that those troughs are open. (That's a memory right there, keeping ice cleared in the days before submersible heaters.) And "feeding the critters" means more than putting kibble in a bowl - we suit up for the cold, wet, wind, mud or whatever Mother Nature brings us, and head out to get 'er done.
Sure, we gripe about the weather. And the hours. And lack of sleep. But then we turn right around and boast about our kid's 4-H or FFA project, smile at how well this year's calf crop is shaping up, and bask in that feeling we get at the end of a good day's work.
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We see our kids growing up knowing how to work together, even when they squabble as they do it. We see them gain a strong work ethic and learn how to regroup when things don't go the way they should. We see them learn to improvise, just as we learned when we were their ages.
And we know the old saying is true - nothing worthwhile comes easy. And we wouldn't have it any other way.
