Appreciate Those You Love

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and while I know many farmers and ranchers may not share their thoughts of love through candy and flowers …. which is fine — simple appreciate can go a long way with those you love. Often we forget to tell those closest to us how very much we love and appreciate them.
Family business consultant, author and farmer Jolene Brown shares a story of a funeral she attend that reminded her the importance of the kind gestures and words for those we love.
Brown: “I traveled to Denver to attend the celebration of life for my officer manager’s mother. When we arrived at the sanctuary there in the front was an 8 by 10 color picture and one single rose. We are use to seeing baskets and plants and flowers— but one single rose. The pastor started by saying, “You my have noticed there is one rose up here and that’s all and that is because Marie always said, ‘sure I’d like a dozen roses but I like them one at a time.’ So what I know is you and I are so good at weeds, seeds, breeds, feeds, money, machinery and marketing but it’s the people who do all that production. What can we do — not just one time a year on Valentine’s Day — but what can we do every day to say, ‘Thank you. You are important to me and I will not forget you.’ Because what I know in the deep dark of the night it’s not how much of machinery you have, how many acres you own or how many critters you fed — it will be did I love? Did I live? And did I make a difference?”