The Patience of Patients, Think Like a Farmer!

When patience come to my office looking for help, it is often frustrating for them to hear that what will help them isn’t totally up to me, but it’s up to them.  Unless it’s an acute problem like a broken bone, an ingrown toenail, a wart or infection of some kind,  the problems such as plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, even bunions and hammertoes are the result of more chronic, underlying problems that have taken years to develop.  If that’s the case, then how can I “quick fix” anything?  There are certainly many things I can do to help such as injections, inserts, surgery, etc, but if the underlying problem is something else/somewhere else, then more may be necessary.  More should be done, and that is why we should think like a farmer!

Farmers plant their crops, yet only after they have prepared the earth first.  They water and fertilize the soil with patience and care until they start to grow.  As the seeds become life, farmers have to carefully tend the fields eliminating weeds, pests and other potential harms from their precious crop.  After a season of hard work and labor, their patience is often – but not always in that years harvest pending other extenuating circumstances such as weather – rewarding by being able to harvest the fruits of that labor.  Only at the end of the process are farmers able to reap what the sow.  There are no short cuts or “quick fixes!” 

If we can understand this, then perhaps it will be easier to have patience in the process, and in doing what is necessary to achieve the fruits of our labor. Think about the task of learning how to walk.  It took many months and many developmental steps to get our bodies to the point where we could safely and appropriately walk.  We weren’t yet strong enough or intelligent enough to cheat the process, and therefore (if our parent’s didn’t cheat the process for us with shoes, exersaucers, etc) we learned to walk when we were ready.  And the LAST thing we did in the process of learning how to walk was actually walking!  It was the fruit of that labor…