Farming Together, Smoked Meat, Chosen Suffering
More beef back from the processor. We didn’t get a chance to fill shares yet, so Amy hasn’t updated the inventory on the website. We’ll get to that next week. Amy and Carter delivered meat to Chilhowie and Abingdon Monday afternoon. We put pork butts and beef briskets on the smoker Tuesday night after wrestling practice. Amy pulled the pork on Wednesday after homeschool with the kids while I fed cows. After feeding I helped them package and vacuum seal the smoked meats. It was a good rainy afternoon to be in the on-farm kitchen.
Early in our marriage, Amy spent a lot of time farming with me. Since then our family has grown and the admin side of our farm business has too. Time spent farming with me especially this time of year has been largely replaced by raising kids, homeschooling, cleaning cabins, and handling the “office” side of getting meat to people. But yesterday, with the kids at my parents, I told her I needed help fixing a water trough. “It will only take about a half an hour,” I assured her. So she hopped on the 4-wheeler and took off through the fields just like the old days. A couple hours later, the water trough was still not fixed. Turns out the farmer picked up the wrong piece from the hardware store. Oops.
Around the dinner table at the end of the day, we often take turns sharing the best part of our day along with the most frustrating part of our day. For me, fixing the water trough (or failing to fix it) was both the most frustrating part of my day and the best part of my day. I like farming with Amy. She’s good at finding reasons to laugh about the things that go wrong. It was good time together. I tried to convince her that it should count as one of our ten dates for the year, but she didn’t agree. Ha.
We had our last youth wrestling practice this week. Since the first part of November I’ve been coaching 2-3 nights a week. I think the kids are ready to move on to something else. I am too. Especially with the daylight hours stretching longer into the evening. I’m not the best coach, and I wouldn’t say that I absolutely love coaching. But l love sports, wrestling in particular. And I am forever grateful to all the youth coaches I had growing up, especially my youth and high school wrestling coach, Coach Vencill. Wrestling changed my life. But it wouldn’t have without a coach. I’m no Coach Vencill, but I hope some of these kids will fall in love with wrestling like I did. Wrestling is a struggle. I hope they fall in love with the struggle. I hope their love for the struggle will continue long after their wrestling days are done. Life is a struggle. Wrestling taught me to roll with it.
This week, with wrestling on my mind, I listened to “Chosen Suffering” by Ohio State Head Wrestling Coach Tom Ryan. Coach Ryan explains how he fell in love with wrestling and how that love grew into a relentless passion to be the best.
“This was a sport where any sized person could flourish if they learned to fight.”
He explains the importance suffering and the sacrifice required to reach greatness. But the chosen suffering he embraced on the mat was nothing compared to the unchosen suffering that would come later in his life with the unexpected loss of his five-year-old son. Losing his son, Teague, led Coach Ryan to questioning everything. His questions led him on a quest for truth, ultimately leading him to Jesus. Here’s a few quotes from his book:
“My parents gave me the single greatest gift you can give anyone: belief.”
“These camps tested our mind, body, and spirit. It was pure anguish. I needed it, and it elevated my understanding of what tough was.”
“The more storms we face and seek, the better we can deal with the challenges these storms bring. I know it sounds better talking about it than actually going through them, but the most beneficial learning occurs when we’re personally afflicted.”
“If you want to know how much success you’ll have in any endeavor, ask yourself: How much are you willing to suffer to achieve it?… Chosen suffering is synonymous with love and sacrifice. The best in any area willingly pay a price others won’t.”
“Some believed and were committed. There’s a big difference. The large gap that separates the two is called action. Committed means your life reflects your beliefs.”
“Failure is a gift. Harness it. Hold on to it. When pursuing your best, failure is your friend. Change happens with action.”
“Struggle is at the center of all growth. Ache is my favorite word when it comes to learning anything.”
“I searched for facts. There were two options. One was that God doesn’t exist. The other was that he does. That was the journey that suffering carried me along. In the end there was simply too much evidence that pointed toward God.”
“There is proof that God is real and readily available to anyone approaching this with an open mind. It was only under the deepest heartache that I was able to quiet the world enough to search. Learning about how God thinks reinforces the virtuous light that leads to our best life. This is a non-negotiable truth. The world wants to trick us. It tells us to stay comfortable and avoid discomfort and pain. It tells us to take, keep busy, avoid going deep and protect, but we can’t do that if we want to live our best lives. Pains will come, and we’re able to deal with it.”
Have a good week.
Will