Different Goals
Across a recently frozen wetland pond, a solitary barn rests quietly with no promise of activity for the next months as nature provides punishment for those of us living in Minnesota.
Snow will inevitably pile up on the roof and will remain there until strong winds move it or the warming temperatures of spring signal its demise. No animals inside will ever again create warmth as they once did.
The beginning of a new year often propels people to set goals for the upcoming months. The goals change throughout our lives. When we are younger our eyes are set on a future that seems unlimited and we have days stretched out before us in which we either achieve lofty goals or come close to reaching them even when we fail.
Young farmers normally start out with little more than a strong back, a supportive spouse and dreams of enlarging their tent stakes as they develop a farm from eking out a living into a more prosperous quality of life.
But as their family grows and then shrinks as the kids mature and move away, a farmer’s goals change and unless one of the children joins him in running the farm, things begin to lessen in intensity as the farmer begins the inevitable slow stride toward retirement.
As we age many of us reach a point where our goals become very simple and mirror that of this barn, simply making it through another year with a supportive spouse who has chosen to walk this planet with us the majority of our lives.
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)
Different Goals
Across a recently frozen wetland pond, a solitary barn rests quietly with no promise of activity for the next months as nature provides punishment for those of us living in Minnesota.
Snow will inevitably pile up on the roof and will remain there until strong winds move it or the warming temperatures of spring signal its demise. No animals inside will ever again create warmth as they once did.
The beginning of a new year often propels people to set goals for the upcoming months. The goals change throughout our lives. When we are younger our eyes are set on a future that seems unlimited and we have days stretched out before us in which we either achieve lofty goals or come close to reaching them even when we fail.
Young farmers normally start out with little more than a strong back, a supportive spouse and dreams of enlarging their tent stakes as they develop a farm from eking out a living into a more prosperous quality of life.
But as their family grows and then shrinks as the kids mature and move away, a farmer’s goals change and unless one of the children joins him in running the farm, things begin to lessen in intensity as the farmer begins the inevitable slow stride toward retirement.
As we age many of us reach a point where our goals become very simple and mirror that of this barn, simply making it through another year with a supportive spouse who has chosen to walk this planet with us the majority of our lives.
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)