Farming takes time. This ritual of raising things moves at its own pace. Each morning at sunrise the rooster crows reminding me I must feed chickens today. Gather eggs today. Toss hay to the horses. Walk the garden. All this working and waiting on land and animals. The work comes naturally. The waiting not so much. It’s time that gets me.
The tomato plants seem tiny as I buy them in town when winter backs down. Tucking them in the ground, the wait begins. Months before tomatoes arrive on the vine. Watering daily. Weeding weekly. Staking spindly plants up as they mature. Homegrown tomatoes take time.
Out in the pasture my mare races the wind. I don’t even ride her these days. I’ve waited too long to return to the saddle. She is green and I am tired. Hands full with other cares. It will take weeks to train the mare again. I need time with her. Time I don’t have right now.
The other day the kids were complaining about the time it takes to get to the ocean. Three hours. I tell them our car is fast. Try getting to the sea in a covered wagon. Most families just didn’t go to the beach in those days.
You waited to see the ocean for years, if ever. You waited to go to town. Waited to buy what you couldn’t afford. Waited for news from a horse and rider instead of your cell phone. A hundred years ago people knew how to wait. Sometimes I wish I’d lived a hundred years ago. I think time and I would have had a better relationship.
I’m reading a book right now titled: Sacred Waiting. Yesterday’s chapter talked about Noah building the ark. How it probably took 120 years to complete the vessel. Over a century of waiting and working, and then a flood and more waiting. On a boat of animals with all Noah’s children. A marvel to me. And God hasn’t changed. I know He expects me to make peace with time.
This morning in my devotions I read this: “Some things cannot be accomplished in a day. Even God does not make a glorious sunset in a moment. For several days He gathers the mist with which to build His beautiful palaces in the western sky.” from Streams in the Desert.