Steve Miller Band taught us so many years ago that “Time keeps on ticking, ticking, into the future…”
Our perception of time is what changes. Our perception of time is what changes. Time is constant, but every aging person you know will swear that it goes faster the older you get.
Kids rocket through the final years of high school. Parents seem to race through old age. We can find ourselves mid-career or 15 lbs heavier seemingly overnight.
But it didn’t happen that way. Time is constant.
It struck me as I watched the time-lapse videos of the barn build that began in July, and only now has it finished inspections and opened for business. What felt like an eternity during the process was a process that ran (nearly) right on time.
It is staggering for me to think of exactly how much was accomplished in what can feel from bare ground to a finished barn.
It is also very encouraging to see that nothing magical happened along the way, but instead, it was the concerted efforts of many people completing each small task, a grade, and level, each bend of metal, built upon the last action towards completion.
The quote, often attributed to Bill Gates, is that “A person overestimates what they can accomplish in a year, but underestimates what they can accomplish in a decade.”
That thought sets resets my perspective in an age where everyone seems to want everything immediately – me included. Young people expect to magically become millionaires overnight without effort.
It is that effort, not a flash in the pan, but the effort, concerted over years, decades, as Bill would say, that makes a big impact, big change, and produces big rewards.
I like the word “Concerted.” Over time, a concerted effort is brought to bear in concert with other people: your wife, your family, your work team, and your kids.
I want to be ever more concerted in my efforts.
And finally, how hopeful. When we looked at the blank space for the new barn, it was daunting and overwhelming to think of the final product. There was NO WAY it was going to materialize out of thin air. It would not be miraculous; it would be continuous.
The continuous effort of so many diligent actions taken to fulfill the vision of what could be.
Why is that hopeful? You don’t; I don’t have to have all the answers before we start. We must have the vision of what we want to gain, to lose, to be, to build, to overcome.
We need the vision of the goal and the willingness to take one small action at a time to get there.
Come see it. The new barn is open at Maize Quest. The apples are ripe on the trees. The pumpkins are bursting from the vines.
There is never a better time to slow down your perception of time with friends and family than during the Fall Harvest season at the farm.
Winter is coming, and the barn doors will slide shut for the season in what will seem like a single fleeting moment not far in the future.
Will you let your time-lapse, or will you watch back the time-lapse of your time together?
See you soon, down on the farm,
Farmer Hugh
PS Can you count to 100,000?! That’s how many pumpkins are hidden in our patch under the leafy green vines. Come find your favorite!
