Three Years - What Have We Learned?

It was just over three years ago that our world changed.  It changed for the two of us professionally, as we scaled down the Genuine Faux Farm and I took a job with Pesticide Action Network.  It changed for everyone as the Covid-19 virus took direct human contact in the broader community away while it also took some members of that community away permanently.  Some are still fighting health chronic health issues from that time, a daily reminder of how a virus can change lives.

We all made adjustments.  Some good people made good things happen.  Other people did things that were selfish and harmful.  I like to think that Tammy and I did our best to be helpful and supportive, carrying our weight as best we could while lending a hand when it was possible.  Yet we are completely aware that we are not perfect, so I am sure we also failed more often than we want to admit.

Our farm blog that had been running since 2009 suddenly became an instrument to reach out.  In prior years, we averaged about 100 posts.  But when the pandemic hit, posts appeared three times more frequently than they had in the past.  Topics expanded beyond the farm and I found myself asking, what could we learn and how could we be better in the face of a difficult time?

It is three years later and I am wondering if we (both the Tammy and I "we" and the worldwide "we") have learned anything?  In a very real way, I felt like the pandemic and all of the struggle that went with it was a call for us all to be better and do better.  But now that most people can go to restaurants for dinner, enter crowded ballparks and concert venues, and basically stop thinking about the spread of a dangerous disease.  I wonder if we're more interested in moving on than incorporating lessons learned into our lives.

So, I thought I would take a moment and reveal some of the things that have changed in the lives of the Genuine Faux Farm stewards.  

Tammy started baking bread nearly every week since that point about three years ago and we have been eating our own honey for the past three years.  Of course, Tammy's skill has increased significantly with the repetitions (it's been at least 150 bread baking sessions!).  And, I can honestly say that one of my favorite snacks has become bread with honey.  Does that mean that we do not succumb to some of our less healthy snacking habits?  Sure, we're not perfect.  But I find that it has become easier to say "no" to some of those things that we habitually found ourselves eating prior to the pandemic.

We've been dedicated to local food for some time - but I think we have re-dedicated ourselves to making sure we provide for ourselves.  When you grow food to sell, you can get tempted to feed yourself less well in the interest of getting more product to your customers.  So, in recent years, we've done a better job canning and freezing so that we have had a more diverse food during the colder months.

Our appreciation for the natural world has increased significantly over the past three years.  That doesn't mean we didn't explore and enjoy these things before - because we did - quite a lot.  The difference is that we slowed ourselves down a bit more to observe and try to understand what we were seeing, smelling, feeling and hearing.  Then we took time trying to learn a bit more about what we had observed.

This is one of the changes that I actually take for granted now.  It wasn't until I made myself think hard about it that I realized this wasn't how we've always been.   Well, ok.  We've always been this way to some extent, but we often suppressed it for any number of reasons - among those reasons is our willingness to let busy lives overwhelm all else.

And yes, as we get busy again, we sometimes fall back on pre-pandemic habits.  The difference is that we recognize it is happening and we work to reverse the trend.

I told myself that I would identify three things we have learned and continue to follow since the pandemic started.  I could not decide on the third one to highlight, so I added some pictures to the blog that we took in April of 2020.  Then it came to me.  And this one is personal to me - I won't presume to speak for Tammy or anyone else on this one.

It was about that time, three years ago, that I fully rejected the idea that the loud, provocative, divisive, negative, and destructive voices made speaking out pointless.  I decided that there is room for thoughtful words.  There is room for realistic observations and suggestions that we can do better and learn more.  There is room for all sorts of people to be and share who they are - and that includes you and me.

It is tempting to give up, become discouraged and disengage because it feels like it is all hopeless and my efforts have no impact.  But, as I said in the prior paragraph, I reject that notion.  There is hope and there is space to say things like...

We did learn some lessons during a difficult time.  We are continuing to do our best to be better and do better.  And I encourage you to do the same.

Because it does matter.

Have a great day everyone and thank you for considering my words.