Sitting here 5 am enjoying a quiet coffee before departing Breckenridge, Colorado with a million thoughts racing through my mind. Yes I have seen the posts of combines rolling into pea fields back home, yes I feel the anxiety of harvest approaching just days away and I am thousands of miles away. However sometimes what we all need is a little distance and perspective to stay healthy for the farm and our families.
Now would I choose a bucket list “A event” in August every year of course not, in fact my wife reminded me last night this is the first holiday involving a flight we have EVER taken in the summer. However this trip has been worth it in more than just accomplishing a solid result in an international stage race it has offered the perspective I often loose on the farm at harvest time. Life and living is more than just a collection of seasonal battles at seeding and harvest, life is also where you choose to focus your energy off the farm. Our mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing relies on a daily balancing act and often at the highest stress times of the year we loose perspective of the big picture. I knew signing up for a stage race at the first of August was tight planning for harvest however I never thought combines would be rolling when I returned. However I don’t regret for one second checking off the Breck Epic from my bucket list of experiences and spending a week with my like minded cycling friends, just living regardless what this harvest sends my way.
As I enjoy my Starbucks coffee (in one of the coolest Starbucks I have ever been to) I know that I am the fittest, happiest, and most focused I have ever been. All I control is my daily perspective coming into the always stressful harvest season so despite the fact I may not have all my equipment, bins, or chemical organized I would still say I am more than prepared for harvest 2018.
