All the rain

After meeting with farmer Ray last week, everytime it rains I think of him. He shared with me that he can't harvest the soybean crops until it dries out, and this rain just keeps coming! His house is mortgaged for it, and he could lose it all if they can't get those soybeans.

It's been his most challenging year, and it has really brought the issues of the farmers to the forefront of my life. He's 88 years old, outdoors working on that farm daily, shouldn't life be easier for him?

Yet even as I express Ray's challenging year, he still smiled and chatted and said "it will all work out"... he still has faith that no matter what happens, that everything will be okay. Did I mention he's the sweetest?

And as a constantly learning photographer, he says to me the greatest compliment I have heard to date.  "Your pictures of my farm have made me see my farm in a way I had never noticed"

And so when I think of my word for the year challenged, I had only seen challenges and how they affected me, and have learned there are many challenges out there, we are all going through, each of us going through them with a different attitude, and that's what makes the difference.  

I need to remember farmer Ray's attitude the next time I am faced with a challenge!