Vindication. That’s what I felt standing at the gate in Charlotte, North Carolina, in mid-January. I was on my way to attend PDPW’s Managers Academy. (Click here and here for the highlights from this event.)

With December 25 and New Year’s out of the way, the shimmer of Christmas is replaced with the crimson flash of Valentine’s Day. Cupids and hearts dance in every store window, prepping for the buying and selling of another holiday. I don’t think I have ever asked myself, “Why do we do this Valentine thing?”

My grandfather, Dieter Kramer, had always told me: “Ryan, don’t be drinking the water beer.” Water beer was his term for any domestic lager. It was as fine a metaphor as any other for life.

We are well into winter here in upstate New York, albeit not as cold as last year. The trees have shed their leaves, which form a deep mat of organic matter on the woodlot floor. The pastures are green in spots, covered with snow in others, and the surface waters are cold and flowing toward New York City reservoirs.

“Well Em, today is the first day in 48 years that I haven’t owned a dairy cow,” Dad said to me as we wrapped up our annual New Year’s Day dinner with the family.

I’m sure you may have heard a farmer say, “Someday this farm will be his,” or “Someday we will get to the lawyer’s office, but we have work to do.” My sister, Barbara Edie, wrote the headline, “Someday is not a day on my calendar,” when she relayed the memories of an active 1988 spent with my other sister, Grace, who died tragically that year. Barb’s resolve was to never put things off and not let “someday” creep into her thinking.

So often, I just let life happen; I go from one task to another, one phone call to the next, one meal at a time from the fridge to the table. No thought. No planning. Just living one minute to the next .... I heard a saying once that haunts my mind every time I reach the whirlwind finish of another year.

One of the biggest news stories last year was undoubtedly missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. The Boeing 777 left Kuala Lampur International Airport on March 8 heading towards Beijing and in mid-flight disappeared from all radar systems.

Lesson learned. If you think you can skip just one farm-related meeting, you are wrong. Whether it is a co-op, local FFA, fundraiser or church business meeting – you have to be there. I missed one last month, and much to my dismay I was voted director of events for the Farm and Quilt Fest.