Sometimes when you know where you are going you are still wrong

Sometimes when you know where you are going you are still wrong.

When we lived on Beaver Creek in the Osage my dad would always make sure I was doing something worth doing.  Somehow when he told me something to do I knew I had better get it done.   Anyway, once he told me to get the tractor and the rake and bring it to him so when he was done cutting hay he could start raking.  Now just in case you did not know a rake is an implement used to take cut hay and put in rows like in the picture.  Now this picture shows a swather which belongs to the McConaghy’s in Grainola.  Basically a swather took a hay cutter (mower or sickle bar mower) and a rake and combined them to make it more efficient.  So anyhow, I hooked up the rake to the tractor and took off to where I thought dad was working.  Notice I said thought!  Well I crossed the creek and drove through the woods to get to the far west side of our property.  Now that was not a simple matter since there was not a road wide enough through the trees for the rake.  It took me more than an hour to get over there to only find I was in the wrong place and had to come back the same way I came.  When I got back, right in front of the house is where dad was working cutting a 20 acre field of Bermuda grass.  Luckily he was in a good mood and just laughed and asked what I was doing and where was I going.

So what is the point?  What do you  learn in the Osage?

• ·      I was determined to get “where I thought I was going” only to find I was going to the wrong place.  Stop, ask questions, get clarity before you take off and go somewhere.
• ·      This also begs the question, “how do you change directions in your life if you don’t know where you are going?”  Do a little planning and thinking.
• ·      It don’t make sense to shoot, aim and pull the trigger.  Think about it.

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com