Love What You Do

There is a book called Do What you Love and the Money Will Follow...never read it...don't know what it says. I remember, though, a number of years ago being a guest speaker at a Growing Places class and Mary Peabody asked, at the end of my talk, what best advice I could give to the aspiring young farmers. My response was to do what you love, love what you do, because, in the end, loving your work is what will get you up on a cold, dark morning. Love is what will keep you singing and dancing in the face of disaster or too many hours in the greenhouse or too few customers or endless rain or a late frost that zapped all the you name it. Love lies there, within you, even when you are crying in frustration, disappointment or at your own plain stupidity. Without love you will throw in the towel, if not at the first road-block then, most likely, at the next one. Farming is hard. Sometimes it seems as if it is a thankless job. Your body hurts. You are tired, usually dirty. You don't know anyone else who works as many hours...in the dark...in the cold...in the rain...in the heat...on their feet. If you offer your products in a retail setting your customers can be cranky and ungrateful. Love will get you through.