Last week the weather was in the 80’s.  We got the windbreak done, the chicken chores accomplished and all sorts of other things in anticipation of getting the raised beds tilled and drip tape installed this week, along with the arrival of our broiler chicks next week.  Not so said mother nature!  We had hail and rain yesterday and into the night.  We are expecting more rain today, and this coming Monday we are expecting SNOW and an evening low of 26!!  Farmers are at the mercy of the weather.

I can’t till because of the mud.  I can’t install the drip tapes because I can’t first till.  The plants need to go outside to harden off before planting and that can’t happen because it is too cold!  Planting is going to be late in starting this year.  Oh well, given the adventures our family is going through right now, perhaps that is a good thing.  It will certainly all get done, but we folks who like to think we are in control, often find out that, in fact, we are not.

I recently read a trilogy of books by an author calling himself, Jed McKenna.  It has been an affirmation the likes of which I can’t even begin to describe.  If you want to read an account of what it means to “wake up” and not be a sheep, these books are for you…. only if you are open and ready.   To reverse an often overused quote that says, “when the student is ready the teacher appears”….. I think more accurately should be quoted as:  “When the teacher arrives, the student is ready.”  I was ready.

Letting go of the tiller on the boat is the epitome of farming I am finding out.  Certainly planting season is a busy time, especially when your primary occupation takes full precedence over your homestead; but thinking that you are in control of anything is such a myth and a fallacy.  Let go of the tiller, let the current take you.  When you feel yourself grabbing on tight and wanting to control things, it is at that instance that you need to know its time to let go.  Everything works out for the best.  Indeed, it is impossible for anything to be wrong… even when your ego is screaming at you that it is.

As we work through the final pre-planting tasks and then wait for the weather to allow the crops to go in and it all being delayed according to our schedule, the question isn’t “why?”  Its, “what does this mean and where is it leading?”  I suspect that this time it means that we all need to slow down.  We all need to simply live.  We need to quit thinking we are in some race to some undefined place.  That place, ultimately, is us becoming compost.  To not live currently, trying to build equity for a future that may never come, is ego playing its game.  It is Maya keeping us in prison.  Indeed, it is to rob us of our very lives.  After all, the end result for all of us is death.  Let go of the tiller.  Flow effortlessly down stream.  There is nothing to accomlish, nothing to achieve.  None of it matters.  Let go of the idea that we are “going” somewhere.  Nature will let us plant, our children will find their way, our lives will pass whether we are present with them or simply spending them in exchange for some elusive goal we always call…. the future.

Live now.