06/10/2009

Season of Change

Harvest has always been special to me.

As a little girl, I would play on the floor of the combine with a little dump-truck full of grain while my mom and I rounded the fields, and my dad drove the (real) truck. As the years past, so did life. Soon I was rounding the fields by myself. The long hours on the slow-moving combine were often spent contemplating the up-coming year. Harvest has always aligned with big changes.

I remember worrying for hours on end about starting grade 9, then grade 10, 11, and then 12. My graduating year! I still distinctly remember the harvest season right before I went off to university in Brandon... That was the first year I couldn't help to completion. The next years' combining hours were spent contemplating Winnipeg and the big bad University of Manitoba. Then I got got a summer job in the city, and no longer came home for the summer. Thankfully I had a boss that would grant time off when the weather was good and the harvest was ready.

Then, the harvest after I graduated from university, I rounded the fields in the combine for the last time as a Baker. Yet again harvest was upon us and big changes were on the horizon. I drove those hours dreaming of the up-coming wedding, and how life would be like in Montreal with Tom.

I also wondered if it would be my last time helping at harvest.

The following year we were unable to make it back.



But this year, we were here!
Back and better (two for one special).

But how ironic that changes are on the horizon... Thank goodness for those long hours on the combine to contemplate!

3 comments:

Q&L said...

Interesting thoughts...the only relating I do with harvest is thankfulness. Probably b/c the churches always use corn/oat/wheat stocks as church decoration and it was/is always up at Thanksgiving. Which is good, it is beautiful and each year I am thankful!

Tiffany said...

I love this post!

I lived on the farm for a while, but it was cattle, not grain.

Maybe in a few years it'll be your little Scatliff playing with toy grain trucks on the floor while you loop around the fields!

Sonya said...

While I didn't grow up on a traditional grain farm, my hubby did. And he spent countless hours in his red combine. Perhaps it was coincidence that we got engaged at the end of September? Lol.
Funny story though - he was in Neepawa, combining and spent the night there. So when he was done combining for the day he headed to the jewellery store to pick out an engagement ring. The store clerks were shocked that he planned to bring this ring home in his combine.
I had no clue.