No Till Notes: 'Thank you'

I want to start off by thanking everyone for their kind prayers and thoughtfulness in helping me and my family as I recover from my surgery. The well wishes and acts of kindness friends and neighbors exhibit during difficult times always impressed me in our rural way of life. These acts of kindness make living in rural Nebraska a very special place to be.

I had my right knee replaced and the surgery and recovery couldn’t have gone any better. I’m still working hard in physical therapy to regain the strength and motion of the knee and leg and the recovery is going better than I had imagined it would.

Looking back, I really wish I hadn’t wasted so much of my time worrying about the outcome of the surgery. I guess it is human nature to worry about everything that can go wrong. I fretted over having my leg in two pieces as the surgery took place. I worried about what would happen if blood clots formed, or infection set in, or just about anything else you can worry about prior to surgery.

While these may be legitimate concerns I wondered why I spent so much time and effort worrying about all the things that could go wrong, rather than focusing on how positive an outcome I could have following the surgery and therapy. I have no doubt that once the healing process is over, I’m going to have a much better quality of life as I walk again without pain in the knee and hip of my repaired leg.

I’m actually looking forward to getting my left knee replaced soon, probably in July or August. I can’t wait to walk again pain free! It’s going to be a new lease on life for me.

I have also been thinking about how to incorporate a more positive attitude in other aspects of my life. Everyone who has been around people who make their living in agriculture knows we tend to worry and fret quite a bit. Those of us in production agriculture are never quite satisfied with the way things are going. We always wish the weather was a little better. It’s always a little too wet or dry, hot or cold, and the wind is always blowing.

We worry quite a bit about getting our work done in a timely fashion. Wish we would have gotten the crops planted a little sooner, fields sprayed more timely, crops harvested in smoother fashion. The work always gets done but never as efficiently as we felt it should have.

The markets for our crops are never as good as we would like. We always feel our products are worth more than what we receive. We just tend to fret and worry about almost everything involved in our way of life, sometimes on a daily basis.

I think I’m going to try and focus more on the positive outcome we generally see at the end of the year. Most years we do get the crops planted on time, the weather cooperates enough for a bountiful harvest, and the crops are priced at a reasonable level. I think if I take a positive approach to all aspects of my life I’ll be more able to enjoy the daily routines we go through as we produce forage and feed for the rest of the world to enjoy.

I’m going to focus on the positive outcomes we can expect rather than dwell on all the variances that could go wrong during the growing season. I think this approach, along with a couple of new knees, will really improve the quality of my life as I move forward.