The "Biggest Ever Times Infinity."

Life on the Farm

Record-tying 51 pound pumpkin picked this weekend. Yes, it's bigger than the girl!

The "Biggest Ever Times Infinity." In America, we just keep trying to make it bigger. 24-hr this and that, the biggest, the best, the Super Bowl of Whatever, the one-stop-shop, a local diner even says "World's Greatest Coffee", but I'd wager the owners haven't yet left town to check. Every weekend some car dealer has the biggest sales event yet. Whatever happened to simple celebrations?

Simple celebrations. It's this time of year that I get to enjoy people having simple celebrations. Just a family, together picking pumpkins and everybody cheers for the big pumpkin Dad brought back.

The youth group comes out of the maze and high-fives each other, quickly defending their collective honor against another team that exited earlier. Mom cheers for her preschooler who just learned how to pick an apple with Farmer Hugh.

These are the victories that really matter. They are simple celebrations, but life isn't a collection of "Super Bowl"-sized events. Life, real life, is made up of individual moments and memories.

Waiting for the big one. How do you live your life? are you waiting for the big one? It is a real feat to live for the little moments, the simple celebrations. Often I find myself using language such as, "If I could just...., Once I get to there, I'll really.... I just need X, then I'll be Y." When I think like that, I'm waiting for a "Super Bowl" to drop into my life.

Can you see how that kind of language easily permeates your life with a feeling that here and now is somehow not good enough? Simple moments aren't of value compared to the 'big one.'

It's a dream we chase, when it is already ours. You don't need a million dollars to pick a pumpkin with the kids; to work with a youth group; to relax for a day with your friends.

Cut the chase. Do you really need "The Biggest Ever Times Infinity"? Cut the chase. Chances are you already have the dream in your life. Keep your ambition, but don't be ruled by it.

I took 15 minutes out of a "parts run" on a busy Saturday to swing in and see my daughter's first soccer game. Maybe it was being a soccer player as a youth, but I almost burst with pride seeing her compete for the first time. They lost and it didn't matter. 15 minutes and I'll never forget it.

You can't live at the Super Bowl. We all know people who live in the Super Bowl. There was one shining moment in their lives to which they cling. The tell and retell the story of it with great passion, and you just want to ask, "But what did you do today?"

Today. Now. The present. That's what matters. Relive the Super Bowl moments of your life, but use them to empower your present life with the same sense of victory and possibility you felt back then.

There's only one Super Bowl. Simple celebrations are what life's really about. What's really neat is that once you start to see and appreciate those simple celebrations, you notice that there are a lot more of them. The Super Bowl is only on once a year and most people watch it for the commercials.

Talk to you next week,
Farmer Hugh

PS Pumpkin picking in the Pumpkin Patch every weekend. See the GIANT Pumpkin Express wagon here.