Lessons learned living on a farm!

There are a lot of life’s lessons to be learned on a farm.  Here are some of mine!

Wait for the dragonflies! 

 
 

My first spring on our farm I was introduced to the biting fly!  We have a long driveway with pine trees on either side and that’s where they wait to dine!  When the dragon flies appear the bad flies disappear.  Nothing cooler that a dragonfly.  I love the way they fly and most important the way they eat!   So remember when life sends you biting flies, just wait and the dragonflies will be here soon!

Love of an animal

When I come home I am first greeted by my dog Marlin, a black lab with the best grin on his face you have ever seen!   Hard to have a bad day when you own a good dog! 

And then there are the horses…1000 pounds of I understand you!  It is never good to share your bad day with a horse.  Like the rest of us, leave your attitude someplace else, horses or people don’t want your company if you are having a bad day.  Hard not to love a horse however there are a few I like better than others!

Barn cats greet me every morning looking for a free meal.  I have grown to love our cats, truly great hunters and always proud to show you their recent kills. 

Critters that I don’t feed

As I write this I can hear an owl outside my window.  On many occasions herds of deer greet me as they venture north at our water’s edge.  Possums compete for the cat food at night and rarely a day goes by in the summer where a snake doesn’t say hello.  I always like to see them before they see me and ya gotta love an obnoxious crawdad!

Patience and balance are life’s great lessons learned on a farm.  Everything has greater meaning and impact from rain to wind.  For every mended fence and replaced roof there are new porticos and out buildings.  There is always something to fix and the opportunity to fix you!

If someone told me years ago I would be living on a farm I most likely would have simply laughed!  I I am now grateful to have had the experience and a better person because of it. 

NobleOne

Opportunity?

What exactly is opportunity?  A very provocative question, and I love a provocative question.  Why, because its a question not answered easily.  It provokes the need to be mindful.

I talk to people often about pursuing opportunities; it’s a great topic that can lead to great things.

Recently I watched a speech made by Ashton Kucher at the Teen Choice Awards.  He spoke of three things, Opportunity, Being Sexy, and Living Your Life. 

“Opportunity looks a lot like hard work” I love this quote simply because it states a fact.  I am often envious of other people's successes until I get to know more about how they got there!  The people that fascinate me have dedicated years and their life to a passion that others may simply see as “opportunity”.  “They must of have been at the right place at the right time”

If you want to uncover wonderful opportunities then pursue wonderful things!  Be cautious of your motives and agenda.  It is not a short path; it is more like the Appalachian Trail.  Your original opportunity will most likely evolve to something much more wonderful. 

Understand you will often get what you desire, be it good or bad.  You will attract what you think about the most.  Persistent and consistent patterns tend to yield the best results over time. 

Kucher also mentioned being “sexy” was much more about being smart, kind and thoughtful.  Smart people are the sexiest people in the world!

Lastly he talked about “Living” and how most people tend to live in other people’s worlds and those worlds were created by people no smarter than us.  He encouraged the audience to create their own world and let others live in it!  Not bad advice!

What opportunities are YOU pursuing?

NobleOne

“Heroes” Here are some of mine!

People admire and worship people for many different reasons.  Some people’s heroes are fictional and others real life.  Some from the past and some present day. 

Most of my heroes are local.  It makes it easy to respect them and help them do what they do in life.  One definition from Wikipedia that applies for my definition of a hero is as follows…

A hero is often simply an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who, despite the odds being stacked against him or her, typically prevails in the end.  And I may add, perhaps not!

I admire tenacity and focus as well as persistence and clarity.  An example would be Melodie Walenius, a mother that The Noblemen helped many years ago on one of our Trolley Rides.  To this day she continues her efforts to fight the fight for her daughter Zoe and others fighting OMS, a debilitating disease that affects the immune system.  She never gives up and inspires me daily!

I had the privilege of meeting a retired Army Colonel that offers his body to science in order to learn more about the chemical agents that devastated him in while he was defending our country.

What did he want from me?  Simply to help him help our local favorite surfer, Pete Smith, another one of my heroes that continues to be “stoked” on surfing to this day!

Mike Worrell spent hours with me prior to his death working on bringing back the Worrell 1000, probably the coolest contest for small catamarans in the world.  Mike shared with me his life of building cool local hang out spots from the Tiki to Worrell Brothers in Virginia Beach.  He had real passion for a lot of things and I will miss him being a part of our community.

Bill and Kathy Magee that founded Operation Smile are two more of my favorites.   Imagine possessing the ability to lift a bag off of the head of a small child and give them a life not encumbered with a severe facial deformity.  All for a donation of a little over $200, amazing!

Who are your heroes?  What do you think qualifies? 

I like it much better when I can simply go visit my heroes and let them know what a great job they are doing while they inspire others to do the same!

NobleOne