Positive Living: A Woman, A Tractor and A Life Lesson
Comments(5) I live in the country on a small hobby farm, (160 acres). We have 3 tractors… one really big one with tires as tall as I am for working in the fields etc, one medium sized one and a small garden tractor… I absolutely adore them all…
Puttering around in a tractor is one of my favorite ways to connect with our land… I happily mow 
lawns, maintain my horse pastures and haul stuff around the farm…
yup.. that’s me and my tractor… what a babe, eh? heehee..
I learned a life lesson yesterday when I was on the big tractor, pulling harrows (big flat rakes) around my riding arena to loosen the footing…
I was so focused on the ground behind me, that I almost wiped a big stretch of fencing… (let me tell you… that wouldn’t have looked good on my tractor driving record… talk about lucky…)
It occurred to me, that many messes in life happen because we have our focus on what is in our past that we aren’t paying due attention to the ‘now’ moment with a soft focus ahead…
So what if I don’t like the ground behind me… there is nothing I could do to change it…it’s done, it’s over… the important dirt is right under me and my tractor, in the moment…. and I need to have a vision of where I am going in the future in order to navigate with grace and flow…
How successful would you be driving your car by focusing on the rear view mirror?
Once I took my focus away from the past (in this case the raked ground behind me) I was free… I could see softly ahead to where I wanted to go and make great decisions about the ‘now’… The past flowed smoothly as a result…
Many women try to create their life by focusing on the past… That is a big mistake… all the power is in the now… in the moment…
What do you think? Where is your focus?
Thank you. That just hit me right between the eyes. I’ve been thinking that I need to sort out the past to make progress, but I think intuitively I know that’s not always (maybe even ever) true. I don’t want to look backwards….there’s stuff I really don’t like back there and it makes me feel rotten. I want to look here and now and softly to where I want to go, because looking back is driving ME straight into a fence. THANK YOU Joyce!
What a great analogy! Having driven a tractor or two in my time! It’s not so bad to glance behind every now and again to make sure the track you’re on has been effective. Ever driven along for awhile only to look back and find that you hadn’t put the harrows down? Sometimes in life, having a glance back and making sure there isn’t something important you’ve missed so you can tweak your progress into the future! Thanks for this food for thought! Have a great day!! And to all the women who are moving ahead and leaving the past behind!!!!!
Joyce, loved the story and the message. This year has been the most productive and self improving year of my life, I’m 60. With the women on FaceBook, you, Alyson B Stanfield and Sandy Askey-Adams, I can’t WAIT to see what comes of this!!!!
Joyce, you promote your new book all you can, you are there for us and it is “US” that is getting stronger & stronger.
Love that! It’s so true about looking back. I think I’ve got my focus right lately with lots of time (in my past) looking AT my past.
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Just that is necessary.