Lemons and Life
Something hit me the other day as I was driving down the road that made me really think. Someone on the radio was talking about what else you could make with the lemons life gives you, like desserts or cookies. I realized that my first thought about those lemons wasn’t to bake with them, it was to throw them right back at life. This startled me a little because I’m not typically an aggressive guy (and my aim sucks), but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I agreed with myself. Here’s why:
Lemons represent the “bad” things that happen to you. Sometimes life gives you nice, ripe lemons like a flat tire or turning your cows out before school. And sometimes life gives you old, sour lemons like striking your favorite show heifer with lightning or giving your farrowing barn PED. I like to believe that life gives you these lemons to teach lessons and help you grow as an individual, but the initial sting of the situation doesn’t get any less intense.
When these events happen to me, it lights a fire in me to pick up those lemons and fight back. Last fall, Anaplasmosis hit our farm and I lost two pregnancies out of some of the best cows on the farm. My first reaction wasn’t to give up or cry, it was to make a new game plan for my operation. We did what we could to treat our herd (as best you can with Anaplas) and I ordered semen to breed those cows back.
Life is fickle about the lessons it chooses to teach. Sometimes they are as simple as collecting the trash after your dog gets into it and sometimes they are as hard as losing highly anticipated pregnancies. What are you going to do with your lemons? Are you going to accept them willingly and bake them into cakes and cookies? Or are you going to pick them up and throw them back at life.
-Greg Kirlin
Greg Kirlin resides on his family farming operation in west-central Illinois and is a Feed Sales
Representative and Marketing Specialist for a local feed & grain company, Dearwester Grain
Services. He uses his passion for livestock production to help local producers reach their
goals in both commercial and show stock settings. His brother and he both have a passion
for raising and exhibiting purebred Simmental cattle.
Greg lives by a quote from Grant Cardone which states “Your greatness is limited only by the investments you
make in yourself.” Keeping this quote close, Greg lives each day reaching for success and working towards
goals set daily. He hopes to challenge readers to create their own success through passion, determination, and
hard work.