I go through this before every big Farm To Folk Weekend…

How the heck am I going to pull this off?

There is so much to organize and pick up and deliver and pay for and this weekend is over double anything we have ever done. Big breath.

It always works out and with each time we keep getting better and better. Something major clicked last time as so many of us came together and did our part. It left us wanting to do more as we realized we are so powerful in numbers. I think it inspired customers too as we received so many emails and hugs and praises about how good the pick up was. On we go…

I have begun simplifying and separating and finding people to fill in the areas where my lack and faults lie. There are so many things I am not good at and for a while I pretended and pushed through it. We really can’t do it all. It makes me wonder why I even tried when there are people perfectly suited and happy for the job. There is such a joy and efficiency in giving over control to other people and allowing them to use their fresh energies and passion. There’s a place for us all. Isn’t that a freeing concept?

With this business, I have had more personal growth happen than with anything, even parenting! It has pushed me to extremes and breaking points that I never thought possible.  It has given me the opportunity to explore the fears that could paralyze me. What if I disappoint people or something goes wrong or we aren’t able to make a profit?

All of those things have happened and we’ve moved through them. The bigger the orders, the easier it is getting to trust and move forward and keep working at it.

I would like to explore one of the big fears that I see coming up for a lot of people. I went through this a lot in the beginning and still do: fear of COMPETITION.

With a lot of people offering the same products, it leads some of us to fear that there may not be enough customers and enough recognition for everyone.  I will admit that this fear comes up as a reaction but I have dealt with it enough now to recognize it and I have found a somewhat easy way to conquer it. Do the opposite of what the fear tells me. The fear tells me to keep people and things for myself. So, instead I share and open myself and understand that there will be enough. I can always adapt too if the people no longer need a certain product. I can bring in something else or find new ways to use a product combined with educating people about Eating The Abundance. Which means that we enjoy the season of what is available to its fullest rather than expecting to have everything all the time like a grocery store. It is highly rewarding to  eat something until we become sick of it and then we have a season bring in new freshness and flavours for us.

But I am getting off topic, I wanted to talk about competition. Over the last few months, I have heard some rumours and truth that I was pissing off farmers. They feared that I was cutting into their business. Some told me that to my face and it cut so deep because farmers are the main reason I started this. It would be ironic if my efforts were actually hurting farmers. So, I began to think about what I needed to do to get my message across to them that I am here to help. I, along with a whole host of other people, are building a market for local farm foods as well as educating people on why it is important and how to use the foods. And everyone will get to share in this abundance in one way or another, I promise. I also may have an advantage on farmers and that is that I am not on a farm. I am not tied to haying and hauling and heaving. Well, I do a lot of heaving but that is the boxes of their wonderful products. I also am in an unbiased position where I am standing on the outside and I can see the big picture of both farmers and consumers. I can consider both sides and look for ways to meet both of their needs. I am here. I am available to do this and I am just overflowing with ideas and inspirations as are the people that I work along side with.

Nature is naturally competitive but in ways I don’t think I fully understand yet. I observe it a lot to try. I can see that the competition creates diversity by forcing one to gain one up on the other. Diversity is where strength comes from in nature, and we are nature too. Think flu strains and our immune systems. Constantly evolving. Competition along with sharing, like the birds in my yard. What we do affects everyone. If we build good things, it will benefit us all. Especially if we allow people to explore and use what we have built. It is exactly what I am doing. I am taking what the farmers have built and I find a place for me. There are a lot of spaces yet to fill as we move into realizing that we have lost touch with our main life source and along that way we lost our connection to nature and maybe to each other. There’s going to be a lot of outlets to rediscover this. It makes me wonder if we needed to lose our way so we could remember how important we are to each other.

Thank you for listening. I wanted to share this to let people know that success isn’t all that we see on facebook. It isn’t just likes and shares and comments. Behind it is people workin through fear and moving on from failures like someone may have not not fully hooked up a trailer before they drove away…ooops. Or forgetting produce outside in freezing temperatures… oops. Or forgetting to bring someone’s order… twice. three times. I felt in my body that these things could have paralyzed me from going further. At first I didn’t want to face them. It looked easier to just stay home and live a normal, modest life. What fun would that be though? I’m going to keep on keepin’ on. I can face this. We can do this. And along the way, I get to enjoy amazing foods and connect with you. Thank you for being here.