Our neighbours were out for a walk the other day when they stopped to talk with Anne.
They commented that it seemed like we were busy every day.
Anne laughed and told them they were probably right.
We had been making hay in one field, then switched over to harvest the wheat. After that came the straw, and as soon as it was finished, we were right back into another field of hay.
Anne told me about the conversation later, and we got talking about how busy we always seem to be.
There is not much separation between work and life on a farm. There is no quitting bell at five o’clock, and weekends tend to look suspiciously like the rest of the week.
Even our conversations often revolve around what needs done next.
At the time, we were mostly laughing about our terrible woes. Our work and our lives all mixed together into one long, continuous stream of consciousness.
But thinking about it now, I believe we missed the nicest part of the story.
Anne was in the middle of her workday when our neighbours walked by.
She was able to stop, lean on the proverbial fence post for a few minutes, and have a friendly conversation.
And really, there are little moments like that tucked into most workdays. A conversation, a laugh, a kind word, or just a brief pause with someone else.
They may only last a minute, but they are still part of our lives.
These days, people spend a lot of time talking about separating work from life.
I understand the idea. Work should not take over everything.
But I am not sure life and work can ever be divided as neatly as we sometimes pretend.
Life does not pause when the workday starts and begin again when it ends.
It is still happening in every conversation, every laugh, every person we meet, and every small moment we almost overlook because we think we are too busy.
Maybe most people’s work and life do run together more than they should sometimes.
But perhaps the answer is not always to separate them.
Sometimes it is simply to notice that life was there with us all along—and appreciate it.
Farmer Rod