Caring for Calves and Kids

Recently I’ve been reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.

And he spoke about triggers for our habits. This one woman always smoked when she rode horses. She quite both for over 20 years but as soon as she got back on a horse she wanted a cigarette again. They are ingrained triggers. 

So tonight as I’m feeding 3 new baby calves it’s just quiet. Kind of boring honestly and I just stand their calm. Just taking it all in and I realize if I was in the same situation at the grocery store or at home I would have reached for my phone minutes ago. But here I am not even wanting it. Why?

I ponder that thought for a minute and I realize this is how I’ve always done chores – no phone. Sometimes it is because I don’t have pockets so I can’t carry these big phones around. But there was a secondary reason that hit me – we didn’t have phones growing up when I did chores. We didn’t have video games or anything like that. Those things were just getting started. So, it’s again how I have always done chores – in the quiet and soaking in the sights and sounds of the farm.

And it’s how I want my kids to remember doing chores and being at the farm. I want them to use their imaginations, listen to the bird chirping, a tractor coming from a ways away, an airplane in the sky and so much more. I want them to understand that it’s okay to be still, be silent, to just think. We don’t need to always have a phone in our hands or to be entertained. We can enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature and what surrounds us. This need for entertainment from devices and others and a need to be attached to our phones and a need to be busy is a habit we need to kick. Being okay to just sit and enjoy our surroundings is what we are missing in today’s society.