Jun 10, 20213 min read

Deep Roots make Bending Easy {Week 5 CSA}

It's not the strongest who survive, but those who are most able to adapt, said none other than Charles Darwin.

I learned that quote in college and it's anchored itself deep into my psyche. When trials come, usually all clustered together, I often think of that special ability we humans have to pivot and change perspective. It's a gift many of us overlook or forget to practice, but I believe it's one of our greatest powers.

On the farm, it gets exercised regularly. The manic swings of springtime weather keep us on our toes every year. The forecast said last night would reach 41 degrees when we checked it at 1pm and then by 5pm it said it would actually be 32 degrees. That's no small change, especially for a farmer with thousands of baby plants outside. Alas, we sway with the curves and surrender to being at the whim of mountainous weather patterns (farm blankets always in hand). We also check the forecast hourly. The pandemic caused many of us to explore just how flexible and adaptive we can be. For some, they felt it broke them, pushing too hard and too fast on delicate or rigid areas of their lives. For many, though, it was freeing. Despite the hardships it brought by closing down networks of support and comfort so many rely on to manage life, there was a welcome simplicity to the new terrain. Nowhere to go, no one to see, and a slower speed to each day. Many pulled back enough to reorient their life's trajectory, turning their passions into professions. As the farmers market manager, the number of new home-based businesses reaching out to vend is like nothing we've seen before. For some, last year was a pandemic of possibility.

What's possible, it seems, is at the crux of our adaptability. We are creative creatures enlivened by our curiosities. Some are lucky to have been endowed with a natural optimism, always unphased by hurdles in the path, with eyes somewhat lifted towards the horizon. Many of us, however, have to retrain the grooves in our minds to travel upstream like that. Our adaptability is conditioned by how quickly we can remember that what's possible is only limited by our imagination. Our engagement of that perspective gets rewarded by an energized clarity, quickly lifting us out of defeat's heavy and tangled vines.

I hadn't intended on making this a post about looking on the bright side, but it's not surprising given the challenges of late. Farmers would make good life coaches if they didn't prefer plants to people so much. We're simply practiced in letting go and keeping on. Zach is especially well suited to the job as he has an undefeated mentality that is difficult to shake. Each new problem that others would surely call a failure he views as a challenge to figure out. In this turbulent terrain, that mentality only grows stronger.

As I allow this post to simply be what it wanted to become this week, perhaps there is someone reading it who could use a little encouragement. A reminder to step back and loosen the hold on the reigns. Indeed, we see it again and again that life gets easier and more beautiful when we simply let the wind carry us through the storms.