Success is making an effort
The Way I See It
by DON WEST
One could say that I am submitting this column on the fly. I am not sitting in the comfort of my home office hoping that the creative juices flow, but writing this from a hospital room in Lafayette. It seems that Bobbye, having gone for a semi-annual eye exam, had an experience and symptoms that needed further investigation and she ended up here having carotid artery surgery on the right side of her neck where she had 95 percent blockage. The operation was on Wednesday morning and by afternoon her vitals are all good.She is eating everything in sight and we are due to go home on Thursday. She had one small incident whereby it seemed that one eye developed a shadow over it several months ago. It only lasted a minute and there had been no further symptoms of any kind. It should teach all of us to pay attention to what our bodies are telling us.
I, in the recent future, have been enjoying myself working on the rice harvest. I haven’t done anything like that since my teen years and am enjoying it immensely. After being self employed for many years, buried in paperwork, regulations, financially mired, personnel problems, and all that goes along with owning a small business, I am enjoying the freedom of going to work and coming home without all the burdens.
I’ve re-learned a great appreciation for farmers, whether large or small. It is long hours, hard work, and a constant worry about weather, employees, equipment reliability, buying and selling markets and all the other financial worries of trying to make a profit. Many years ago when I helped with the harvest for a few dollars a day, I was too young to appreciate all that farmers faced each year, each growing season and the perils of being at the mercy of Mother Nature. Like any other business, one is never more than 90 days away from total financial collapse, and farmers are no different.
When one looks over a field of ripening rice or budding soybeans, there is much more in the field than the eye can see and I’ve also enjoyed learning some of the inside of crop production. I don’t really want to know too much, but I think I am giving an honest days work for my pay although my boss and I both think I am not worth what I am making. Anyway, I’m having great fun but the harvest is nearly complete and maybe I will get a chance to look at some other aspects of what transpires before and after the cash crop is brought to the barn. Obviously the technical changes in farming are astounding and machinery has come a long way from the old one lunger tractors.
Bobbye’s recent journey and wake-up call for both of us, along with my prospects of learning new and wonderful discoveries, and our prospects of planning some traveling, has us contemplating some needed changes in our lifestyles and seeking a little more healthy way of living. It will be one small step at a time, and neither of us take forcing very well, but maybe our maturity should also include re-thinking and shelving some bad habits. We do enjoy life, and we’d like to spend many healthy years together, so if some altering of diet, exercise, and lifestyle will assist in prolonging the fun, we will consider it.
Success may not turn out to be complete change, but success may just be that we made the effort.
Short URL: http://www.jenningsdailynews.net/?p=13240
Posted by Graphic Designer 2
on Aug 17 2012. Filed under Editorial Columns.
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