I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. I guess, in all honesty, it’s my attempt to begin to get a grasp on so many of the complexities life has to offer. While I wish I could say that I have made a vow to reduce time on social media, often this reading occurs at the end of a long day when I find myself on my phone searching for … something.

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Laura Flory

From dairy markets to motherhood with a bit of everything in between, I have been collecting thoughts on life from others’ points of view. Interestingly, one theme stood out to me over and over: the concept of enough.

I started to really chew on the idea at a recent farm management meeting – one of those meetings I’m sure we’ve all had recently where the mountain you’re trying to climb grows bigger by the second. Through toddler ramblings and phone call interruptions and one big wheel wreck, somehow I managed to blurt out one of those “I read somewhere” thoughts. The idea was about how to accomplish something big by breaking it into very small pieces. For example, say you want to write a book, write one sentence a day. Maybe you want to read five books a year; read one page a day. While this by no means is a limit, it is a way to make very steady progress if you are struggling with that mountain being too big to climb. 

In another article, I read advice to never phrase things with the term “ever.” Such as, when will I “ever” make more money? Or maybe, when will I “ever” have all the things I want? The author pointed out that “ever” is a very long time to have to worry about. Maybe the better idea is to worry about just today. In other words: “How will I find enough of what I need for today?” Again the task seems much more manageable when it is a tiny piece rather than the whole pie.

Coming up on the time of year when “thankful” themes inundate newsfeeds and newspapers alike, I have also been doing some reflecting on how one can truly celebrate being thankful. In the same token as mentioned before, can I only be thankful once I have all the things I want or need? Can’t true thankfulness be accomplished when I have enough? Maybe it’s enough hope to keep going even though I haven’t figured it all out. Or enough patience for just one more spill cleanup when the best 2-year-old helper dropped the scoop of dogfood again. Perhaps it’s enough love to tell someone they’re forgiven another time. And just maybe, when the market is down and harvest was long, it’s bowing your head around the dinner table saying, “Thank you, Lord” for just enough.  end mark

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Laura Flory